 |
|
|
A-Infos Radio Project needs funds 8-21-01 ( 9-5-01 follow-up report at bottom ) |
Dear allies and activists in the movement to free Pacifica Radio, I'm afraid that this is a fundraising appeal, on behalf of the A-Infos Radio project (also known as www.radio4all.net) that has been hosting WBAI and Pacifica related audio, as well as most recently, the Democracy Now in Exile broadcasts. There is an interesting irony here. The A-Infos Radio project was in part conceived specifically to give the movement's community radio allies, the "affiliates," a means to bypass Pacifica control. At the time the project was founded in 1996, Pacifca was pushing the KU system, attempting to lock the affiliate stations in, and to extend control to both their air and their fundraising mechanisms. Poorer stations were forced to give up public radio satellite receivers in order to afford the KU band, which was to be the only place that Pacifica News and Democracy Now! were going to be available. When some affiliates became active in the struggle, and began running on air disclaimers about Pacifica's hiring of union-busting consultants, Pacifica even came out with a contract that had a clause prohibiting the disparagement of Pacifica on the airwaves of affiliate stations, thereby attempting to place a gag order on those independent stations as well having already gagged the five Pacifica stations. We hoped to enable affiliates to resist this radio imperialism from a position of strength by having a freely available mechanism for distribution and program sharing, the A-Infos Radio Project. However, in those early years the Project was not used too much in that context. Free Radio, which was starting from ground zero with more up-to-date technology in terms of computers and the Net, were the folks who came to rely on us the most. The A-Infos Radio project also served as the inspiration for the folks who designed the softaware that was to provide the framework for the IMC. We were the first to distribute Making Contact on-line, before they got their own server. Many grassroots radio efforts, such as Earth First Radio, The Weekly Freak Show, and Food Not Bombs Radio that could have never afforded satellite fees have been able to distribute their programs nationally and internationally because of the Radio Project. Students striking at the Autonomous University in Mexico City were able to get news reports out to the world, and Free Radio stations in Germany serving as communications links for mass actions against nuclear waste transshipments have also used the Project to distribute news reports and calls to action. Five years later, the A-Infos Radio Project is now playing a significant role in the Pacifica struggle at last. I say that not to minimize the importance of the other roles it has played, but because of my personal committment to freeing Pacifica. And the irony is that now that we have a mass movement in response to mass mayhem at Pacifica, the demands being placed on the Project's bandwidth are overwhelming us and making this difficult to achieve. Here's a message from a user: > > > >I've been downloading from radio4all.net alot lately, even on DSL, > >and the server is way slow, compared to, say, the server that > >carries FSRN. I don't want some of allied stations to get too > >frustrated. > > Could someone pass this along to whoever might want to deal with it. --lgh We very much want to deal with it. We don't want stations to be frustrated. We are already feeling frustrated ourselves because what stands between us and dealing with it is $3000. The A-Infos Radio project is an all-volunteer project which was conceived of as a producers cooperative. It's purpose was to serve as a distribution system of broadcast quality audio for radio producers and stations to share material, enabling a poor station to have free access to news reports and programming from all over the world. We had never intended it to be a venue for on-line listening, i.e. "webcasting". In addition to the increase in stations using the Project, we now have more and more individuals using it to download files for personal listening, and so we have become a webcasting service by popular demand. Our server is attached to a 360kbps ADSL line. To more properly meet the present need we need to upgrade to 1.1 Mbps, roughly the same size pipe as the standard (and way too expensive for us T-1 line) from Transbay that is serving FSRN. The project has been supported through various donations of labor and resources, as well as out of the pockets of the Projects three- person web/tech support team. We avoided general fundraising for many years, because we were managing with what we had, but our traffic has tripled in the past year. We need to triple our bandwidth and to do this we must be able to guaranterr that we have the funds for the upgrade, as well enough money to sustain the next 2 years of monthly charges. Once you promise people a service, you can't just turn it off because you can't pay the bill. Many of our users depend on us to distribute their programs, and to get regularly scheduled programs which their listeners are counting on. Actually, we were told that Transbay would be willing to give us a discounted rate to co-locate our server there, and though we have been repeatedly trying to contact the person we were told to speak to for more than a month, they never call us back. We've kinda figured that they aren't interested and we have been researching other options. Upgrading our DSL is the only affordable option, as we can do this with our present provider for an extra 200 dollars a month, plus a 300 dollars set up fee. They will want to bill the increased service directly to one of our credit cards, and we are understandably concerned to be left individually responsible for the debt. One reason we were hesitant to do mass fundraising in the past is that we are not a 501-c3, nor do we wish to be, and we didn't even have a bank account. We have recently taken steps to create a more "legitimate" environment to receive donations. Media Alliance in the San Francisco Bay Area has agreed to become our fiscal sponsor, thereby allowing us to offer tax- deductions and to enable people to write checks to the Project instead of to individuals associated with the Project. Around a thousand people download audio from the site daily. If each person gave $5 dollars per year, we'd have our kitty plus enough for a new hard drive. The one we bought several months ago is nearly full. We now have more than 2300 programs archived on the site. Lew Hill figured that if the service provided was important, that the community who benefits by it would make sure to keep it viable through their donations. We at the A-Infos Radio Project have always subscribed to that philosophy. We don't ask people for money either to upload or download, but if no one is willing to help, the present traffic jam on our bandwidth will make the site unusable for everyone. Many of you have already helped us out financially and we very much appreciate it. One generous person has offered to cover one year of bandwidth. We need to match his contribution to know that we can sustain the additional monthly expense without forcing one of the webkeepers to go personally into debt to do so. I hope you can all find a few bucks to send our way. We don't have premium gifts or tapes. But you can hear Noam Chomsky any hour of the day or night. Here's our present archive of speeches and interviews with Chomsky Noam Chomsky: Case Studies In Hypocrisy (US Human Rights Policy) Noam Chomsky: Case Studies In Hypocrisy (US Iraq Policy) Noam Chomsky: Night Waves interview Chomsky-Current Crisis in the Middle East Rogue States - An interview with Noam Chomsky Noam Chomsky: US Colombia Policy Obscure Noam Chomsky stuff Rage Against The Machine Interview With Noam Chomsky Noam Chomsky: The US Agenda for the Americas Noam Chomsky: Government In The Future Global Kitchen: Chomsky on Kosovo, Vietnam & Media Manipulation Noam Chomsky: New World Order, A Changing Vision Noam Chomsky: The Clinton Vision Justice for East Timor Noam Chomsky: Class War Noam Chomsky: Prospects for Democracy Noam Chomsky: Capital Rules Noam Chomsky: Free Market Fantasies Is Capitalism Just? Noam Chomsky on East Timor Here's some of our present list of commentaries by Mumia Abu Jamal, his commentaries read by others, and speeches and interviews about his case: WBIX special on Mumia Abu-Jamal AK Press Audio: Mumia Abu-Jamal Democracy Now!: 08/17/01 Special - Mumia Abu-Jamal Freak Radio Santa Cruz: Jeff Mackler On Mumia Mumia Abu Jamal Fair Use For Mumia: PSA for August 17 protest in Philly Rockin' the Boat: Update On The Case Of Mumia Abu-Jamal The Weekly Freak Show: Headlines & Highlights for the week ending 5/10 Eliot Grossman , Attorney for Mumia Abu-Jamal TUC Radio: Women of the Sixties: Kathleen Cleaver on Mumia Abu Jamal WBAI/Pacifica: Mumia Commentary on Democracy Now! Under Lock and Key: News and Commentary on Prisons Bruderhof Radio: Mumia Abu-Jamal on Police Brutality and State Repression Mumia Abu-Jamal: The Million Family March Mumia Abu-Jamal: Sport & Survival Mumia Abu-Jamal: When Wen Ho Lee Went Free Bruderhof Radio: Cuba: Resisting The Empire Mumia Abu-Jamal: New Commentaries Mumia Abu Jamal: Antioch Commencement Speech Mumia Abu Jamal essay: Killing Time Mumia Abu Jamal Essay: Outlawing Prison Legal Books Mumia Abu Jamal: The True Nature of the State Mumia Abu Jamal essay: Teaching Oppression Mumia Abu Jamal essay: The Snitch Factor Mumia Abu Jamal Essay: The folly of calling the FBI (send this one to Ken Ford!!) Mumia Abu-Jamal: An Ending, A Beginning Mumia Abu-Jamal Commentary:: Texas: The Death State Michael Parenti - real History Series: The Founding Fathers, World War II and Mumia Abu Jamal Civil Disobedience for Mumia Abu-Jamal Mumia Abu-Jamal - Censorship In Action Bruderhof Radio: Hurricane Season New Mumia Abu-Jamal Commentaries Clinton's Poverty Tour A Violent World Selling out Assata RAIL: Review of Mumia's All Things Censored CD A Taste of Philly Justice An Impartial Killing? A Nation's Gratitude? American Gulag Mumia Abu Jamal Solikomitee Berlin / Onda: Für das Leben und die Freiheit von Mumia Bruderhof Radio: Live (and Kicking) From Death Row: Mumia Abu- Jamal Full Logic Reverse: "Millions For Mumia!" Ramona Africa: Free All Political Prisoners! San Francisco Liberation Radio: San Franciscans Rally for Mumia Abu Jamal San Francisco Liberation Radio: Justice for Mumia RAtM: Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! Free Betty Tyson! Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Report from the People's Tribunal for Mumia Abu Jamal San Francisco Liberation Radio: Free Mumia Abu Jamal Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Interview with Ramona Africa Full Logic Reverse: An Interview with Mumia Abu-Jamal San Francisco Liberation Radio: An Evening for Mumia Abu Jamal San Francisco Liberation Radio: Geronimo ji Jaga Speaks or if you want to bone up on the IMF before going out to protest next month, here's some programs that might interest you... CKLN: word of mouth news: Patrick Bond on anti-globalization struggle in South Africa Unwelcome Guests: #56 - Guns and Briefcases - the unholy alliance UC Radio: Dennis Brutus: Cry for the Beloved Country Steppin' Out of Babylon: Walden Bello-Asian Development Bank & Globalization Steppin' Out of Babylon: The IMF, Oil, & War in Columbia & Ecuador TUC Radio: Vandana Shiva: Peasant of India VS Biopirates Global south Panel on IMF/WB TUC Radio: Blueprint For a New UN/David Korten & Miloon Kothari Bruderhof Radio: Fundamental Injustice Steppin' Out of Babylon: Ann Pettifor, Co-founder of Jubilee 2000 Coalition Saturday Morning Live: CKLN 88.1 FM: Yugoslavian elections / Columbia / Chile / Peru TUC Radio: WTO Series: Susan George on WTO, IMF, World Bank North Seattle Grassroots Radio: Perspectives on the IMF/WB Demonstrations IFG Teach-in 4/14/2000: A16 - IFG Teach-In Panel 4 Unwelcome Guests: Report Back from A:16 Radio Freedom: Radio Freedom IFG Teach-in 4/14/2000: A16 - IFG Teach-In Panel 2 News and Views: Media Coverage of IMF/WB Protests IFG Teach-in 4/14/2000: A16 - IFG Teach-In Panel 1 A16 Final Issues Forum A16 - Interview with Black Bloc member Flint Jones A16 - Building the Movement Unwelcome Guests: Show #5 You Can't make a Silk Purse out Of a Sow's Ear Unwelcome Guests: Show #3 - The Costs of Empire and the IMF Radio Cognito: Michel Chossudovsky - The Globalization of Poverty Just like Pacifica, this is available to you for free. Unlike Pacifica, we take no CPB funding |
top of page | home |