RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

through what kinds of radio . Thus , the problems need to be adđressed by апу community radio operation. Among these are : Which communities should be given access? Who speaks for which communities? Whose interests аге being served by the station? WHICH COMHUNITIES SHOULD BE GIVEN ACCESS? Ideally, all persons should have access to be heard via the community radio station (hereinafter called H the station") , but some mechanism must be established to decide who gets to be heard. Even in the smaller , homogeneous communities , there exist апу number of clipues which may or may not have similar interests and needs as the others (Rogers and Kincaid, 1981). In the larger , more heterogeneous cities, there can be апу number of communities ; Blacks , Latinos , homosexuals , elderly , handicapped , political parties , social organizations , religious groups , types , and sects , and so forth. As mentioneđ earlier , people are usually members of a number of groups simultaneously , to which they may feel differing levels of allegiance аз needs and situations warrant. The station must give heed to the diversity of communities within the larger community of the whole , and determine who should have access to be heard , and which needs seem to reguire the most attention . Kletter , Hirschhorn ,and Hudson (1977) descnbe the situations at both KPFA and KPOO as beginning with a few dedicated individuals with limited funds and a lot of епегду to survive the efforts needed to get on the air . Only after the station has been operating could collective decision-making be adopted to encourage responsiveness in the community and to broaden the stations- 1 means of support (pp. 74-75). The ways in which the station decides which of these communities has a legitimate nght to be heard are as vaned as the unigueness of each geographic area in which a particular station finds itself . There may be natural alliances between certam groups in a given commumty , but , whenever there are two distinct groups , the possibility for conf lict wi!l always remain . Given the fimte time of 168 hours per week of possible broadcast service, it is elementary that all claims to be heard cannot be granted. Therefore . some mechamsm needs to be established to decde who shoulđ get what amounts of time to be on the air , but the station must also be sensitive to whom this power is to be given . Schulman ( 1985), for example , đescnbes the problems ће

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