by Bruce Dixon, Black Agenda Report
When, for the first time in decades, the FCC opened up a licensing window for new full-power FM community radio stations, mostly in rural areas around the country, the Pacifica Foundation, Prometheus Radio and several other outfits made a specific attempt to raise the number of African American owned and run community radio stations in the South. Out of their efforts, more than a hundred grassroots organizations, quite a few of them black, applied for new station licenses, especially in the South. This is not your daddy's black radio, or your momma's, or Radio One's discredited, conscienceless and commercial radio. This is the dawn of a new paradigm in black radio --- the other black radio.
The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement Radio Barn Raising in Greenville, South Carolinahttp://www.reclaimthemedia.org/media_justice/the_other_black_radio_north_ca%3D5886Shannon Young gives the background of black radio in North Carolina: "To learn more about the historical context for black radio in Monroe County, North Carolina, I *highly* recommend the book "Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams & the Roots of Black Power" by Timothy B. Tyson, published by the University of North Carolina Press. It's an excellent read; one of those books that's hard to put down once you crack it open.
If you've never heard of Robert F. Williams (his remarkable life story is pretty much absent from history books), you can read an overview here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Williams
"The "Radio Free Dixie" book references several Pacifica Radio interviews in its footnotes. I couldn't find anything by searching for "Robert F. Williams" online at pacificaradioarchives.org but a search for "Radio Free Dixie" produced a match for a 60 min reel recorded by Chris Koch in 1963. I'm not sure if the reel has been digitized.
"The Freedom Archives compiled an audio documentary on Robert F. Williams in collaboration with Mabel Williams, his widow and partner-in-struggle. The documentary is available for order here:
http://www.freedomarchives.org/RFW.html"
Follow the links!
-Shannon
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