kim kaos

With all the tragedy currently occupying the media and our thoughts, it’s easy to forget that the intervention into indigenous communities in the NT instigated by the Howard government goes on unimpeded.

This intervention has been continued by the Rudd government,  the NT Racial Discrimination Act remains disabled, indigenous people have lost the right to their own land, they continue to be refused access to welfare survival money and they are suffering as a result.  On Feb 9th Marion Scrgymour, Australia’s highest-ranked Indigenous politician, resigned for health reasons, she famously called the intervention “Black Tampa”.

Please read and use this statement sent to me by a friend visiting the NT who wrote:

“Yingiya is a Yolngu man from North East Arnhem Land. His family is based in Millinginbi and Gapuwiyak. Please use this statement for everything and anything. I am going to post a youtube video i am making with Yingiya soon, so I’ll let you all know when it happens. Also, I will post some more statements from other people soon too.”

Statement

My name is Yingiya Guyula from Liya-dhalinymirr clan of the Djambarrpuy’u People. I am a Yolngu Studies lecturer at University in Darwin.

The intervention has only created problems in East Arnhemland communities as well remote homeland centres. The Intervention has made our people more frustrated and confused, the white man’s way of thinking is forced on us, and forcing us to abandon our culture.

Government Ministers have flown into Arnhemland communities just for few hours on the ground to gather a little bit of information, then they fly back into cities thinking they know how to fix the problems in the communities, thinking they know what’s best for us.

Governments only looked at the fringe camps and towns and wet areas where people drink alcohol in places such as Nhulunbuy, Katharine, Tenant creek, Jabiru Alice Spring and Darwin.

White people see Aboriginal people in these places and think that these people that don’t care about life, who don’t care about living. But who are they to judge them. They class all Aborigines the same, but they are wrong.

These white people and those bureaucrats do not go out to the East Arnhemland communities, where my people live, where there has never been alcohol, and these is no child abuse. There are Aboriginal people living on remote communities of Arnhemland, in homeland centres, away from towns, away from the binge drinking areas, poker machine and gambling venues.

These are people that are able to manage their funds and work, or want work, educate, discipline, and practice ceremonies.

Quarantining of centrelink payments should be optional and not compulsory. Quarantining might be ok for people living in town camps and cities, where alcohol and gambling is a problem, but it doesn’t work for my people living on remote Arnhemland homelands where there is no gambling, no alcohol and no child abuse.

We are asking simply for understanding that in life, their needs to be an understanding between two cultures. There needs to be respect between cultures.

Mapuru homeland has a Coop store which won a National award for selling healthy food. Centrelink won’t approve it to accept quarantined money.

This means an aircraft charter fight from the mainland homeland at Mapuru to the closest shop on Elcho Island costs 560 dollars return. This means it’s costing $560 return flight just to buy 150 dollars worth of food, where’s the sense in that?

Arnhemland is like the European Union, made up of many different nations, each clan-nation with their own language, each with it own national estate. Bringing everybody in from the homeland centres into the major settlements is not the right thing to do because people do not feel secure or happy living in another mans land. Children are forced to go to school, but really they do not feel safe and unsecure on other peoples’ land.

There are about 40 children who willingly run to school every day at Mapuru homeland because it’s their home and they feel secure. Yet the N.T. Government wants to close down the homeland schools and bring everyone in to the major communities.

They think it’s not worth spending money on homeland schools who have 40 or more children freely, and with their own will attending school, but is providing internet services, facilities and technology to white schools with attendances as low as 5. The Education department provides computers and internet and distance learning for hundreds of cattle station and small schools, across the Northern Territory, but homeland schools are neglected.

Further more I would like say that these homelands are our homes. There is no violence in the remote homeland communities, no child abuse happens, no alcohol, no pornography, because out there in the bush is where the cultural ceremonial grounds are, and from it is where strong discipline comes through spirits of our fathers talking through the land.

Both the Commonwealth and the Northern Territory Governments hasn’t given equal opportunity to us the First Australians to be able to exercise our rights.

Through the intervention white man police stations have been put in the major communities for dealing mostly with cultural conflict issues (problems that can only be solved through traditional cultural justice), but instead the white policeman force white man law onto us, disrespecting our black fella law. They think they’ve done the right think. But often they’re only making it much worst by locking up senior leaders, the very ones who are wise and keeping our Indigenous Law strong.

This time we are taking the case further where it can be heard loud and clear by people whose ears, brains, feelings have a heart for Indigenous Australians. It is now being taken further where there is an ear that will listen.

We are taking it further, to the United Nations and will talk about the intervention, about how income management in the Northern Territory has had a devastating and debilitating impact on remote communities in Arnhemland.

Finally, we need you to support us. We need you to tell governments that we want the same opportunities as white people, to live and enjoy our own cultural life, but they must stop trying to make us like whiteman, we have our own cultural identity. Let us be who we are, and together we will have hope for the future.

Thank you

For mass media stories on the failure of the intervention:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/18/2008524.htm
http://news.yahoo.com.au/a/-/latest/5294644/field-indigenous-intervention-complaints/
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/intervention-protest-disrupts-question-time/
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/09/2486524.htm%3Fsection%3Djustin&cid=1302524208&usg=AFQjCNEr2cxQDHnbnxmB1IkaDnWpuvsFyQ

Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organsiation:

http://www.unpo.org/content/view/9201/77/

As an atheist anarchist greenie with kids, major public holiday events often cause me ethical grief.

Despite the religious bias of many of the milestones that make a kids life exciting, as a lifetime athiest, they haven’t given me much disquiet. Except where I have to defuse some blatantly wrong story perpetrated by the school system that involves miracles and other such scientific impossibilities. Public holidays, to their credit, give the workers a break from the daily drudgery and parents an opportunity to spend more time with their kids. There should be more of them. Every week.

However, the thematic consumerism that most holidays encourage is what disturbs me. At Easter the vegan in me rebels against the gross cruelty of industrialised milk production and the greenie at the sheer amount of plastic acetate and foil that goes into the average Easter. I envision mountains being removed to furnish the pretty aluminium wrappers. Valentines Day irks me for its disingenuous romanticism, bonded so tightly to the notion of buying to prove ones love. In my opinion expressions of love should be everyday occurrences and not dependent on the dictates of the greeting card and fluffy toy industry. Mothers Day and Fathers Day too. How poor is the familial relationship that only expresses it’s affection once a year? Not to mention the Sunday traffic jams it engenders.

But when it comes to rampant consumerism and waste of the most unnecessary kind, Christmas takes the (fruit) cake. In 2005 the Australian Conservation Foundation, grinches that they are, released a report “The Hidden Cost of Christmas”. In that report they found that:

However, as much as the environment suffers because of our silly institutions like Christmas, the psychological effects of the consumerist agenda shouldn’t be ‘undersold’. Christmas encourages greed. Full Stop.

In 2001 UK magazine The Psychologist reported the effect that the excessive pre-Christmas advertising blitz had on the perceived wants of children. Between 40-67% children wanted toys they had seen advertised during their favourite shows and wanted more than those not exposed to child-directed advertising. Disturbingly, even the very young were developing ‘brand-name loyalty’ (eg. asking for ‘barbie’ as opposed to ‘doll’).

Some of the other psychological pressures Christmas brings include: idea that one must buy a good present or risk being labelled skinflint by loved ones; the thoughtlessness of the pre-packaged love being coveted, while the lovingly handmade goes unappreciated;   competition amongst siblings to outbuy each other/get better pressies;  encouraging the materialism of kids; and the cost on already financially constrained families

Realistically, most of us can’t afford to splurge on expensive Christmas gifts. A 2008 report (published by the Labor Party) Families in Australia found that the richest 20% of families own 60 times more wealth than the poorest 20% despite household income increasing by more than one-third over the past decade. Even with the bonuses being handed out by the Rudd government to families this year,  economists say most of it will be used to pay bills.

In many ways Christmas is more a celebration of ostentatious waste and wealth.  The amount of food and drink behooves the most gluttonous, and over-consumption is practically the goal of it.

Mercifully for the pigs of this world, ham has become so expensive it will not be on most people’s Christmas menu. Due to the globalisation of the food industry allowing cheap imports, there are now 40% less pig farmers in Australia than there were a year ago and the price of pigmeat has doubled. I needn’t go into the ethics of industrialised pig farming here, needless to say that an industry that fills animals fll of antibiotics, cuts of bits oft them to make them manageable and puts them in pens so small they can’t turn around, is not likely to make it onto my shopping list.
 
Before I go on to sound too much the killjoy (although my relatives may argue that case), I’ll let you in on some of the things I do, have done, or may do in the future.   Make it yourself: every year I make cakes. Personally I hate eating cake, but everyone else loves them. So I make vegan fruit cakes for friends and family. Some years I make soap, others I do art. This year with the help of artistic teenagers, everyone gets a mandala themed to suit their personality (amazingly easy to create, even for the non-artist). If people don’t appreciate handmade gifts, then I guess I don’t appreciate them. Do someone a favour, promise them babysitting, laundry, a trip to the cinema etc. Get the kids creative: the oldies always love kids paintings. Set conditions: like no plastic or no batteries please.  Opt out of xmas: go camping some where isolated. And for the extremist in you, figuratively blow up santa: encourage fear of  fat men in red suits….

Here’s what others recommend:

ACF’s tips for treading lightly at Christmas time

• Don’t over indulge - eat, drink and give gifts in moderation.
• Give gifts with a low eco-impact:
• Vouchers for services: massages, facials, gardening, housecleaning;
• Tickets: movies, concerts, sports events, theatre;
• Memberships: gyms, charities, sports clubs, zoos, museums, galleries;
• Personal favour vouchers: 3 hours of childcare, 2 breakfasts in bed, a month of lawn mowing, 4 car washes;
• Gifts that give: charity donations, overseas aid project sponsorships and donations, memberships and subscriptions to environmental organisations;
• Organic food hampers.
• Organise a Kris Kringle with family or friends.
• Wrap gifts in newspaper or re-used paper.
• Save money and the environment by spending the hours you usually spend shopping in the company of people you don’t see enough.

 * Choose not to give a gift:For friends ‘who have everything’ give a donation to your favorite charity and send a greeting card to your friend explaining that a donation has been made on their behalf that will make a big difference to the life of a family in a developing country. Some charities eg CARE, Caritas and TEAR have gift catalogues for this purpose with gift options such as a chicken ($10) or a year of primary health care services ($40).

* Buying a gift with long term benefits:Gift vouchers for courses eg permaculture, organic gardening, cooking, bicycle maintenance, dressmaking, curtain making É A year’s subscriptions for a magazine on gardening, owner-building, crafts, cycling É Membership of YHA or a National Parks Pass.
(http://www.urbanecology.org.au/articles/christmasnotcosttheearth.html A Christmas that Doesn’t Cost the Earth. Margaret Rohde. November 2004)

This week I was finally made aware of the coming and going of the Australian Defence Force’s Public Environment Report for the Talisman-Saber 09 war games.

In July 2009 about 30,000 US and Australian troops will participate in war games that will take place primarily in the Shoalwater Bay region in Queensland and at Delamere and Bradshaw bases in the NT. It’s arguably the biggest military activity in Australia and most of it conducted in sensitive environmental areas including the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

So how come no environment groups had anything to say?

There are over 50 environment, peace and church groups opposed to the war games under the Peace Convergence banner. We achieved national attention in 2007 and 2005 when we thwarted the war games by blockading roads and entering the SWB base. So was it deception or mere incompetence that allowed the submission process to go ahead without even one of these groups or the hundreds of unaffiliated individuals knowing? Why weren’t the local indigenous people of the Shoalwater region consulted? Why wasn’t Friends of the Earth, long time critics of military pollution and injustice, made aware?

What exactly is the role of Sinclair Knight Merz, employed by the ADF to write the PER? In what sense is this a public consultation if key stakeholders don’t know about it?

Well I finally got the read the said Public Environment Report and it’s [here] if you’re interested. Unsurprisingly, almost all the issues that I brought up in previous years, as environment spokesperson for the Peace Convergence, were not addressed. Indeed, Friends of Earth questions the viability and effectiveness of the Australian Defence Force’s process. This is NOT an Environmental Impact Assessment in the legal sense required by Federal environmental laws. It has no legally enforceable outcomes and indeed the TS09 games are exempt from the usual assessment process under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (1999).  In that case is it anything more than greenwashing?

Of primary concern environmentally speaking is the risk the flora, fauna and habitat posed by these war games. Military games present too many and varied risks to both habitat and the animals that depend on it. The numerous risks include: the potential for accidents involving toxic chemicals used in munitions or flares, the purposeful release of such materials during live firing and in blanks, and the risk of unexploded ordnance; the physical presence of troops, massive vehicles on land and sea; nuclear vessels probably carrying nuclear weapons; the use of active sonar known to kill, maim and beach cetaceans and whales. Not to mention the abysmal track record of the US Department of Defence, who single-handedly create more pollution that any other industrial activity.

Why on earth are we letting these things go ahead in our protected areas? We have a lot to lose environmentally: unique Ramsar listed wetlands, migratory birds protected by two international treaties, dugong, whales, green sea turtles, seagrass meadows, coral reefs, pristine habitats stretching for 300km of coastline in Shoalwater Bay. During these war games tanks will flatten dunes and vegetation, nuclear subs will pollute the oceans with sound and turbulence, toxic munitions will be spread, possibly stirring up the many unexploded ordnance from bygone days that already litter our countryside with their toxic loads.

Why are we allowing the USDoD to do on Australian territory what their own citizens have prohibited at home? Are we mad?

The region falls within the traditional lands of the Darumbal people. Despite being the recognized as the traditional owners and Native Title Claimants, the Darumbal have not been given Native Title to their land nor do they have equity in the decision-making process about military activity. They are allowed only occasional and temporary access to Shoalwater Bay, and not fairly represented or consulted on its use. We believe that access to traditional land and enabling of practicing of traditional culture is a human right being denied the Darumbal people. Their land should be returned to them to be protected and honoured for the future.

Looking at the  big political picture,  the TS09 games are more ’saber rattling’ that can only disquiet our Asian neighbours, and Rudd should abandon such war games with the US as relics of the Howard government’s imperialist agenda, ensconced as it was in a regime of ‘preemptive’ strike.

www.peaceconvergence.com

Well I’ve been thinking about what to say about this, and phrases like “travesty of justice” and “racist, redneck state” spring to mind. This week indigenous man Lex Wotton will be sentenced for his alleged part in the 2004 riot and subsequent arson of the Palm Island police station and court house after the death of Mulrindji Doomagee at police hands. Wotton faces up to 25 years for an incident in which no one was injured.

So where is Senior Sargeant Chris Hurley, the policeman charged with splitting Mulrinji’s liver in two before he died?  Hurley was in 2007 acquitted by a jury of his peers. No jury of his peers for Wotton, his jury was white as snow.

Was Hurley punished, demoted or otherwise suffer for the murder of Mulrinji? Today Hurley has a cushy job, a promotion compared to his Palm island posting.  In 2007 he received $100,000 compensation.

On Monday he and 21 other officers involved in the riot received bravery awards. Mayor of Palm Island, Alf Lacey, says this sets back indigenous-police relations a decade. He says the timing of the awards is offensive.

“It seems quite clear that they’re trying to send a message to Palm Island and to Aboriginal people in general in Queensland that we’re it and we’re the winners and things like that,” he told the ABC.

Queensland State Parliament Speaker Mike Reynolds, the Member for Townsville, called for the awards to be postponed, saying Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson was being purposely provocative. Reynolds was one of the few political supporters of the rioters. On October 25 Reynolds accused the QLD police union of a vendetta against him.

During the trial, Wotton was hospitalised for shock. Police were accussed of lying under oath. Wotton’s lawyer Clive Steirn said that evidence would show several police witnesses have lied under oath about his client’s alleged part in the riot, in particular Detective Sergeant Darryn Robinson. Robinson had previously admitted to lying during the Hurley investigation.  Steirn says Robinson wanted Wotton to pay for what happened to his friend Hurley.

In March demands were made for the trial judge, Milton Griffin, to disqualify himself over comments he made about Wotton during the trial of four other men charged with rioting on Palm Is.

On Saturday, November 1, hundreds of people turned out in a solidarity march for Wotton in Brisbane. More protests continue this week with a mass rally called for Friday, the day of Wotton’s sentencing, outside Brisbane Police Headquarters.

Read also:

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2005/11/99890.php
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/01/137879.php
http://andrewbartlett.com/?p=7143

Today I’m training new volunteers at 4ZzZfm102.1fm in Brisbane.  What follows is my advice to anyone interested in getting involved in Radical Radio at Zed.

1. Intro to the Rad Radio concept

The Rad Radio collective formed in 2002. Originally conisting of interchangable hosts of the Anarchy Show, EcoRadio and Radio Democracy, in 2006 Locked In & Megaherz joined us and in 2008 the DIY show ‘Scissors, Paper, Glue’.  Many of the Rad Radio shows have a long history at Zed, running for over two decades.

The RR shows share content and have similar world views. We also provide our interviews and other recorded matter for the Zed Newsroom to use, meaning a potential six shows a week may use our research and we may reach as many as 60,000 listeners as a result.

RANT:

Democratic media is the backbone of a democratic society. In our current society, media is controlled by individual capitalists and corporations who make up our societies elite. This is directly due to their control and power over societies’ resources or capital.

In relation to the media, control over the resources required to create media is increasingly being monopolised in the hands of a few corporations. They then have the power to control what type of media content is produced. Essentially this means that they have control over what ideas the rest of the community is exposed to. Control over ideas is the most effective method of social control. It means that the majority of people don’t realise what their interests are, seeing they are rarely voiced, and are incapacitated to take action on them.

All corporate media is oriented towards one overriding goal: the business interests of the owner. All other considerations are secondary, including their responsibility and role of honestly informing the public, to facilitate open, public discourse. This role is critical for a dynamic and healthy democratic society, but is necessarily considered after the need for profits.

The corporate media have a product: you the audience, whom they sell to corporations who want to expose you to advertising. The corporate media’s real customers are other corporations, who are sold the opportunity to expose the audience to their propaganda, otherwise known as advertising.

Regardless of the content, this corporate propaganda always promotes a consumerist culture above all other democratic and egalitarian values and processes. No one is immune. Successful indoctrination requires you to be unaware of it.

Here lies the importance of media activism. The process allows people within a community the opportunity to create alternative forms of media to reclaim democratic impulses and expressions. It is the ability to prevent our lives, our ideas, our communities being co-opted by corporate domination.

The forms of media activism are diverse. It is putting up a poster on a wall, creating a zine, or flyer, it is community radio, community TV, Indymedia and culture jamming. It can be painting on your car, t-shirt, or on an empty wall. It is making and sharing your own music, art, literature, video; or a simple as using your own mouth whenever you can. It is as much about creating and maintaining the resources to produce and distribute media, as it is about creating the content that tells a different story.

Regardless of the form of the media, the processes of media activism should be about self-empowerment that informs, entertains or connects others in the community. It should not be driven by the ‘profit motive’ or recreate hierarchies of power and domination. Anyone can do it. There are no rules, just values. The way we organise and live, is just as important as the message we spread. A Brave New World is here. Just turn on the TV news to see it. There is no way to buy ourselves out of this.

Radical Radio exists to further Zed’s motto: “Agitate, Educate, Organise!”

2. Attention all Community Radio Broadcasters: Codes of Practice

A community radio broadcasts are governed by the communtiy Broadcasting Codes of Practice 1-8. they can be found here: http://www.cbaa.org.au/content.php/20.html

Guiding Principles of the CB COP:

There are a number of general principles that unite all community broadcasters across Australia. In pursuing these principles stations endeavour to:

1. Promote harmony and diversity in contributing to a cohesive, inclusive and culturally diverse Australian community;

2. Pursue the principles of democracy, access and equity, especially to people and issues under-represented in other media;

3. Enhance the diversity of programming choices available to the public and present programs which expand the variety of viewpoints broadcast in Australia;

4. Demonstrate independence in their programming as well as in their editorial and management decisions;

5. Support and develop local and Australian arts, music and culture in the station’s programming, to reflect a sense of Australian identity, character and cultural diversity;

6. Widen the community’s involvement in broadcasting.

Other points of note include:

1. Requirement to include a ‘language warning’ before any recordings that contain swearing

2. Do not incite violence, or present it for entertainment value

3. Present as desirable the misuse of drugs including alcohol, narcotics and tobacco

4. Stereotype, incite, vilify, or perpetuate hatred against, or attempt to demean any person or group on the basis of ethnicity, nationality, race, chosen language, gender, sexual preference, religion, age, physical or mental ability, occupation, cultural belief or political affiliation

5. Seek to involve and take advice from Indigenous Australians, and where possible Indigenous media organisations and/or Indigenous broadcasters, in the production of programs focusing on Indigenous people and issues

6. Avoid censorship wherever possible

It also provides for music content rules that include a quota of not less than 25% Australian music. At Zed we also have a requirement for female and local music content at 15% as noted on our Play Sheets in the studio.

3. Producing a RR show

Producing a show requires a few hours research and a little forward planning regarding events, potential guests or interviews available to you.

a. research

Appendix i lists a lot of local potential community groups and news resources you can use. You can often pick up newsletters and flyers at rallies that will provide good sources for stories (and keen interview subjects!)

You can also browse through the Press Releases tray on the Newsroom desk, or simply join the PR mailing lists of the various community groups you want to use as sources if you have good internet access. I subscribe to the PR list of The Wilderness Society, the Australian Council of Social Services, Brisbane Feminism Online, Queensland Environmental Activist Network and Animal Activism Queensland to name a few. A diverse range amongst RR producers will allow us to keep in touch with what is happening in the community sector.

Corporate newspapers we view with a critical eye and prefer to source our news from grass roots sources. That said, local newpapers from the quest group are often a good source of local community issues and events.

Some independent newspapers available in Queensland that can be useful include:

The National Indigenous Times

The Koori Mail (both available at newsagents in the Valley)

The Independent (QUT media students’ publication)

A list of useful websites is also included in Appendix i.

Mailing lists of various community groups - like the Friends of the Earth Events list, Brisbane Stop the War Collective, New Farm Neighbourhood Centre etc…..

News list-servers are also useful, Planet Ark World Environment News is one I subscribe to. Bear in mind the corporate biases of these newservers.

You can also subscribe to the Zed news lists ‘gnus’ and ‘news’ for sharing info and receiving PR

If you don’t want to subscirbe to the news lists you can view the archives here:

http://lists.4zzzfm.org.au/pipermail/news/

b. stories

As a general guideline stories you read out on air should be no longer than one page, an optimum size is four paragraphs (half a page). Longer stories can comprise a whole show if you combine a number of short related news items on a topic, interviews or a guest, or alternatively (if you have a lot of time) you can put together a pre-recorded ‘package’ if you have the necessary recording gear and editing software.

For a guide to the kinds of stories we do, look at the programme guide for each of our shows on the Zed website at www.4zzzfm.org.au

c. interviews & events

Guests and prerecorded interviews make your job easier. Community groups are often keen to get their issues on air and will be happy to come into the studio for a show, or do a pre-recorded interview. Guidelines for phone interviewing using the Zed recording booth at the station are included in ‘Technical Notes’.

When setting up in-studio guests, always have a contingency plan in case of a no-show.

d. community notices

We try to encourage listeners to go further than reacting negatively to the often bad news we report. This we perceive is one of the problems with mainstream media - there is never any easy way for people effected by issues reported to take action on them, especially as we live in a society that does not empower us to get politically active. Democracy requires a more politically active citizenry than a once-every-three-years-vote. So we try to include community notices to provide an avenue for action on the topics of interest to people around Brisbane and nationally. These events often include protest actions, rallies or fundraising events for community groups.

You can find them on the Zed website at: http://www.4zzzfm.org.au/services/index.cfm?action=dsp_community

If you come across any community events you think should be included, please forward them to us at <radradio@4zzzfm.org.au>

4. Technical Notes

a. using the on-air desk

All on-air announcers at Zed need to get trained on using the on-air desk!

The process at Zed require a two hour training session and a six months graveyard shift. This is to weed out people who want to have their own shows but may lack the commitment when it comes to the crunch. It makes sense because Zed has to be on-air 24 hours of every day so it needs reliable and committed volunteers. I can’t stress enough the importance of commitment to the continued functioning of the station.

In 2008 all new announcers have to go through the new announcer training process. If you eventually want to apply for your own show, you need to do the official Zed announcer training.

In reality, many of us have had much less training, notably Danni who took over the Anarchy Show with a 5 minute training session! Yay Danni! We can train each other during our shows, but a formal training session is still necessary.

To arrange a session of training and practice contact the Announcing Coordinator. Zed contacts are listed in Appendix iii.

It’s not as scary as it looks and an experienced announcer will supervise you.

All announcers are required to subscribe themselves the ‘announcers’ list-serv

On air process:

For every show you need to:

- prepare stories in advance;

- bring everything you need all ready to go – it is advisable to bring your own headphones and adapter

- select music (at least 10 cds for a one hour info show), takes about 15 mins-1/2 hour. we try to choose music relevant to the topic. there is a ratty red covered book in the CD library near the new releases that lists song topics.

- fill out in-studio forms: Play sheet & log book;

- play required sponsorship advertisements (in studio folder);

- mention the time, play or say station id. ie: “you’re listening to community radio 4 triple zed one-oh-two point one FM”

- read out community notices in last ten minutes of show;

- put away music & clean up your mess.

NB. the most important on-air advice I can give you is to always wear the headphones when you’re doing the desk: that way you can hear what is going out to air and quickly notice if you’ve failed to turn off the microphones or if your CD stuffs up.

b. phone & recorded interviews

Set up a time and date to interview your subject. You need to book the interview booth if possible by filing out the time sheet on the front of it. It is located back of the groundfloor and looks like a closet.

Often you may not be able to contact the authors of press releases. You need to bring your own disk and headphones are recommended. Prepare your questions beforehand.

Inside the recording booth you will find: headphones, microphone, telephone and three electronic gadgets. The biggest is the mini-disc recorder and the small one on the right hand side is the telephone transfer device.

How To Do it:

1. Turn on the fan.

2. put in your disk and press record+pause

3. choose a phone line and phone your victim

4. tell them you’re switching over to the recording device and then put on the headphones

5. press the ‘line in’ button on the phone transfer device and speak into the mike, asking your interviewee if they can hear you.

6. hang up the phone handset

7. tell them you are about to start recording when you are ready and press the pause button to start recording the interview - it’s a good idea to ask them to introoduce themselves and state their position/organisation. You can edit this bit off later.

7. double check that the counter is ticking over while you’re talking

8. say goodbye and switch of the phone transfer device. press stop on the MD recorder

You can easily cut off false starts and goodbyes in the booth mini disc recorder so you can use your audio on-air without further editing. Or you can take it home, record it onto your computer and edit further.

You need to write a ‘News Running sheet’ or other description so that others can use you audio on their shows. Include: title, date recorded, interviewer & interviewee, length. News running sheets can befound in the upright files in the newsroom.

c. editing audio

The Zed production studio uses Sony’s ‘Sound Forge’ software and Cool Edit Pro to edit audio. You need to book to use the Zed production studio, but it’s simpler to set up you home computer to do editing.

We recommend open source software, like ‘Audacity’. It can be easily downloaded from the net. We can provide you with a training sesh. Or tutorial guides to audio editing exist on the internet.

d. uploading interviews to the internet

We have been uploading a lot of our interviews to Radio4all.net or Radio.indymedia.org in recent years. This enables us to provide on-line content for other radio stations and for listeners visiting the Zed website. This way we have had our content used by a number of overseas stations and a few local ones too!

You need to edit your audio into segements of about 15 mins max and convert them to mp3s for uploading purposes. Instructions for uploading exist on the relevant sites.

e. recording your on-air show

If you want to record your on-air show you can use one of the on-air desk’s MD recorder. Alternatively, you can ask the Newsroom coordinator to allow you to access Zed’s logging files and you can download it to your computer as an mp3.

Appendix i - News Sources

These lists are by no means exhaustive, please feel free to send us links to add to this list <radradio@4zzzfm.org.au>

RADIO

www.radio4all.org

www.radio.indymedia.org

www.thewire.org.au The Wire

www.rtrfm.com.au/shows/indymedia Indymedia radio, RTR fm, Perth

www.3cr.org.au/program_list 3CRfm, Melbourne (Radioactive Show, Squatters Show, Alternative News, Anarchist World This Week, Earth Matters & more!)

www.2ser.com/podcasts 2SERfm, Sydney

www.araaustralia.org Alternative Radio Australia

www.alternativeradio.org US Alt Radio Show

www.radioproject.org US National radio project

www.democracynow.org US alt radio show

www.prx.org US Public Radio Exchange

www.cbaa.org.au Community Broadcasting Association of Australia

www.cbf.com.au Community Broadcasting Foundation (grants)

ALT MEDIA

www.sourcewatch.org - possibly the most important fact checking site you will need

www.indymedia.org Indymedia global site

www.indymedia.org.au/index.php Oceania Indy

www.infoshop.org Anarchist news

www.ainfos.ca Anarchist Info Service

www.newint.org.au new internationalist magazine

www.schnews.org.uk schnews

www.gregpalast.com independent journo

www.truthout.org

www.commondreams.org

www.zmag.org

www.corpwatch.org

www.grist.org

www.rabble.ca

www.adbusters.org

www.motherjones.com

BRISBANE & QLD NGOS

www.rac-qld.org Refugee Action Collective

www.barc.org.au Barc: Brisbane Actionweb for Refugee Collaboration

www.northeystreetcityfarm.org.au Northey St City Farm

www.bq.org.au bicycle queensland

www.dvrc.org.au Bris Domestic Violence Advocacy Service

www.brissc.com.au Bris Rape and Incest Survivors Support centre (BRISSC)

www.animalactivism.org

www.animalliberationqld.org.au

www.brisbane.foe.org.au Friends of the Earth Brisbane

www.environmentaladvocacy.org

www.foodirradiationinfo.or

www.spiral.org.au Spiral Community Hub

www.childrenbychoice.org.au Children By Choice

www.qccqld.org.au Qld Conservation Council – umbrella group of over 50 ENGOs

www.caa.org.au Oxfam Community Aid Abroad - contact Anne Matson

www.newfarmneighbourhood.org New Farm Neighbourhood Centre - contact Camille

www.glwa.org.au Gay and Lesbian Welfare Association

www.eccq.com.au Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland

AUSTRALIAN NGOS

www.asia-pacific-action.org

www.activistsrights.org.au activist rights

www.foe.org.au Friends of the Earth

www.amnesty.org.au Amnesty International

www.greenpeace.org.au

MASS MEDIA

No matter what you might have heard, the ABC is not unbiased!

www.abc.net.au

www.smh.com.au

www.couriermail.com.au

www.theaustralian.news.com.au

www.planetark.com/dailynewshome.cfm - planet ark World Environment News

www.ens-newwire.com

www.reuters.com