Chapter Two The initial organizing meetings whose intention was to create a not-for-profit community radio station took place in the middle of the 1970´s, especially after the war in Vietnam ended, and when more possibilities for community projects opened up, more time for such organizing. The radio project had as a central concern a clear recognition of the failure of the dominant media to be accessible to the counter-culture and the protest movements. This same impulse led to the creation of a progressive newspaper called the Lincoln Gazette, as well as efforts to affirm a public access channel on Lincoln´s cable tv system. The spirit of reform of the media was at the heart of these initial organizing impulses. (Even the beginnings of the food co-op, now Open Harvest, had at least a counter-cultural attitude, and promoted left-wing attitudes, at least reform attitudes.) To be clear with KZUM, to be honest, not presumptuous, if one person was responsible for the radio project it was me. I can remember organizing the earliest community radio meetings held at St. Marks, with no one in attendance by myself.. Then I would organize yet another meeting with hope that the project would eventually come to fruition. I hasten to add here that ultimately, it took many capable, many creative people to begin the broadcasting of a ten watt non-commercial, educational radio station on Valentine´s Day in 1978 at 89.5 Mhz on the FM dial. I can remember Mason Youngman, Dave Luebbert, and others doing the intial broadcast from the unheated shed of the Yellow Cab tower in north Lincoln. Âs that first feeble broadcast began some us were prancing around in the snow drifts of downtown Lincoln on Valentine´s Day taping up posters on the doors of various businesses. A Valentine´s present, the romance of a new creative radio station in the air, on air. Miles Davis´ My Funny Valentine on the airwaves. Such promise we happily felt!
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 21:41:45 +0000