Media and the Movement: Activist Community Radio in the American South
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https://www.flowjournal.org/2015/05/media-and-the-movement/Permanent Link
http://hdl.handle.net/11603/7378Collections
Metadata
Show full item recordAuthor/Creator
Date
2015-05Type of Work
9 pagesText
journal articles
Citation of Original Publication
Davis, J. C. (2015). Media and the Movement: Activist Community Radio in the American South. Flow Journal, 1-9.Subjects
black radio stationsactivist community radio
american south
black politics
black political movement
Abstract
When WAFR-FM, a three-thousand watt radio station, went on the air on the morning of September 15, 1971, few residents of Durham, North Carolina expected much from the upstart broadcaster, if they were even aware of its existence. The founders of the station, according to a local newspaper, hoped to “involve community leaders, professional people, ministers, and housewives in discussion of issues of interest to blacks.”1 As Ralph Williams, a community activist and station cofounder explained, “we don’t feel that advertising should be the major work of a radio station.” Otherwise the station’s founders gave few hints as to their broadcasting intentions.