RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

Outside the United States , no other country has the heavity commercial system that we have . In many countries , the government runs the system , in part, ог even as a monopoly . Responding to that tight governmental control, some of the people interested in radio stations that will be more responsive to community neeđs - particularly in Western Europe and in Japan - have starteđ their own stations , which they call "free radio". In the I 9 70s, the stations in Europe , led by groups in first ltaly and then France , went on the air ШедаПу . The authorities would shut down these stations , arresting the participants and seizing the equipment. But there were hundreds of free radio stations by the mi-d to lateseventies , anđ they had strong community support in some cases . Eventually , iaws were changed in France and ltaly so that some of the new stations were legalized . In ltaly, many local, commercial stations started up after the new leglslation . Some of the f ormeriy-illegal stations remained on the air , and new ones started as non-commercial stations . So now when we refer to the "free radio movement" in France and ltaly (or West Оегтапу , too) , we mean the groups who are trying to make radio part of small geographic regions , in opposition to the national, government-run monopoly stations . "Free radio" has to do with a concept and attituđe toward what radio should be . This is true in Japan as well. But an interesting difference is that in Japan the legal situation is different , and these f гее radio stations , called "Mini FM" , broadcast only a few blocks, rather than a few miles as in Europe . In ТоКуо, as in New Vork , a few blocks can mean 20,000 inhabitants . These stations often try to be community centers , and sometimes people listening to them get excited by the điscussion on the air and rush over to the stuđio, which is of ten a coffeehouse or store, to join in the talk . In other countries there are other models which influenced WHCR . In the Scanđinavian countries , particularly in Sweden and Denmark , small, local, community-oriented stations exist throughout the country; they are called Narradio , or neighborhood radio. In Vugoslavia , the municipal assemblies and other organizations control local broađcasting, and the workers manage the stations themselves . The United States and Canada mfluenced us, too. Not so much the commercial stations, but the community radio stations . There are several đozen in both the U.S. and Canada which open their studios to commumty members , givmg them access to the air . And m many of these community stations , a commumty board sets the station pohcies . We have been m touch with another neighborhood radio station In Philadelphia

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