Issue #10 June 9th - June 22nd, 2006

Making Waves
By: Adrian Fallwell

A group of seven people, after meeting each other at local Conspirathon and Anti-War Fair events, decided to start a low-fi FM radio station, modeled after Radio Free Austin, on 107.1 to get their message out. This is an interview with the group, minus one member.

Adrian: How did you become involved with the idea of a radio station?

Jenny: I knew that they were doing it in Austin. When I went down there, it just blew me away. I could not believe that you could listen to this kind of radio there in your car. Then I heard some testimonials, just through Steve’s circle of friends, and that turned them on to all this stuff. That helped them to start putting the puzzle pecies together, just listening to the radio. I was inspired by the idea and thought this would help us promote our own events.

Steve: What it did in Austin was it created a glue for everybody. It was something we all had in common with each other. With something like this, you start to see all spectrums of the political belief systems, conservatives and liberals hanging out with each other, going after something real and not just false issues fed by the mainstream media. The way we know each other is by the 90.1 bumper stickers, and it just became this whole community thing. So, when they said they were bringing it to Oklahoma, I just had to be a part of that, because I saw what it did in Austin, and Oklahoma City needs something like it bad.

Holland: The fact is, we have a radio station on FM in Oklahoma City talking about how the government destroyed the buildings on 9/11. That’s the first time in history that has happened.

Steve: Basically, when all you hear is Rush Limbaugh or Air America, you’re only getting one or two sides of the story, and usually that’s not even an actual side of reality. So they started putting out programming like Alex Jones and Jack Blood, that does reporting and stories on news you’re not going to get anywhere else.

Sarah: And opening the airwaves to people who call in and voice their opinions on these subjects as well.

Steve: It’s an outlet to get news without a whole lot of spin on it. The hosts just let the story out and you make up your own decision on what you want to believe. That’s the cool thing about it, you don’t feel like you’re being told what to believe.

Sarah: Right now there is programming from Austin that may not necessarily represent our opinions or views, that, progressively, with time, we will replace it with our own programming.

Trinity: I would like it made clear that there is programming on there that is not what this group is about.

Sarah: The essential idea is that people are allowed to say what they want to say from whatever platform they stand.

Steve: There’s a great respect there for true freedom. These guys give everyone the chance to say what it is they need to say, and that’s the beauty of it, and I think we’ve forgotten that in our society today.

Chris: It will be good for us to air about 90 percent of what’s on there. It is good, quality stuff. The technical aspects are being worked out now. By June 15th, we should be able to cue in some local stuff.

Adrian: So, what kind of local issues do you have planned?

Holland: Oklahoma City bombing, biggest one.

Chris: Of course, the connections between Norman and 9/11.

Trinity: All the stuff that didn’t come out about the stadium bombing. They shut that story down so fast, right after it happened.

Steve: As far as local issues, you’ve got the microchipping of animals and human beings. You’ve got cameras going up all over the place. We are becoming a police state in this county, but nobody is talking about that. Everyone is worried about whether the war in Iraq is the wrong thing, but no one is concentrating on the war on freedom here. You need something like this in this state. If anything, the politicians know that someone is watching and listening.

Chris: Hopefully, with our radio station, we’ll be able to slow down the process, to have people look and say, “Hey, this is what’s coming up in your neighborhood. Get your shit together and figure out what’s going on here.

Jenny: That’s what they do in Austin. They’ll put out a call over Radio Free Austin for everybody to show up at a city council meeting over a certain issue. 300 people will show up. They usually elect a spokesperson, which ends up being Alex Jones most of the time, because he is the most knowledgeable about the issues, and they will all defer their time to him. He gets up for 15 minutes to say his piece. They’ve done some good stuff down there.

Sarah: My main focus is to bring awareness to local artists and musicians, younger people especially, because as artists, they do think differently, and project that through their mediums. If they had something to base their energy on, we could produce a larger spectrum of people and action.

Tune in to 107.1 to listen to Radio Free OKC, and visit their web site at radiofreeokc.org.

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