The winners for our “Change the World” contest have been decided! We had originally planned to give away 10 Airtime Pro stations, free for a year, but due to the quality of the applicants, we decided to add a couple more winners, bringing the total to 12.
Earlier this year we teamed up with “WBCN and The American Revolution” — the landmark feature documentary that tells the story of WBCN-FM, Boston’s underground, radical radio station and its influence on the culture in the late 60s and early 70s — to offer 10 free online radio stations to contestants who wrote in telling us how they’d use a station to contribute to their community and, thus, change the world.
Helping us select the winners is the film’s director, Bill Lichtenstein, who began working at WBCN at the tender age of 14, in 1970. We are proud to be associated with Bill and his important film, which has already received extensive press and critical acclaim, being called “epic”, “magical” and “possibly the first film to tell the true story of the 1960s”.
We’ve included each winner’s name along with a short description of their world-changing radio station. We’ll aim to check back with them in a year to see how their stations are progressing. So, congratulations to our 12 winners, and many thanks to all those who participated.
And the winners are….
- WGAC, Good American Collective: Programming that is diverse but focuses more on other people, places, and things rather than today’s focus around who’s hosting the show. An internet radio station that works with and builds community through entertainment, events, and promotion.
- ogturnup fm: Premiering new albums and interviews with the artists, focusing on a mostly German-speaking audience in Europe and beyond.
- Pallavi Radio: A south Indian Malayalam community-based radio station in Melbourne, Australia. with talk shows, the latest Indian music and local news and traffic update as well.
- London Live: London was once at the forefront of live music-making, with hundreds of music venues in the metropolitan area. Today, there are ever fewer opportunities for bands and solo artists to get themselves heard in a “live” situation, in front of an audience. We want to re-invigorate the London (and UK) music scene with this station, for the audiences and performers.
- iPandA Radio Worldwide, Inc: A non-profit rock station in Indianapolis supporting suicide prevention with a daily playlist called i*n*d*y*, standing for “I’m not done yet”. This playlist/idea is the core of our mission in giving hope to those going through the roughest of times.
- Alabama Jams: Showcasing the little guys, playing the original new music by artists that are working a couple jobs and playing the small gig at night, keeping their dream of being heard alive. And, I do live shows from a local venue to help bring awareness to the artists. My station won’t have produced audio commercials, so as not to take away from the music.
- Sound Travel Radio: A non-commercial online radio station based in Kharkiv, Ukraine, whose main objective is coverage of Ukrainian and international underground and experimental music in all its stylistic and geographic diversity. Additionally, we’d research and support various independent cultural projects, including building a community of cultural activists from all over the country who could present their ideas on air.
- Música Independiente: Currently 96% of the music being created never gets played on regular FM radio, and most bands go unsigned. Música Independiente Mi Radio was born to discover and bring awareness to local independent musical talent and hopes to expand its online reach to every country in Latin America, providing all of these undiscovered and incredibly talented artists a platform to be heard.
- World’s Random Freedom Network: WRFN is determined to run 24/7, year-round for the purpose of giving the world content that reflects the diversity of hearts, minds, ears and voices of the United States, thus Making America Whole Again. Currently, I am able to broadcast only (I am just one person) my three-hour weekly show, “Make America Groove Again,” which is popular enough to warrant expansion. I plan to add more music, spoken word and interview sessions along with PSAs.
- Diamondback Days: We would like to start an online radio station for our community and our school. Students would learn important technology skills and the art of communication, while providing a much-needed service, news and entertainment to the citizens of our area.
- Radio Sidney: Our station will give voice to those in our community who are not represented in public discourse, especially seniors, youth and First Nations. We have already started our station, but have a long way to go. Over the past nine months (since our broadcasts started) we have engaged the community in a few meaningful ways. For example, in our municipal election last year we provided feature interviews with all of the candidates except for one. We were encouraged by comments from voters such as, “your interviews really helped me make my decision”.
- Radio JUJU: The culmination of the diverse strands that art entity BRUD and artist Aditya Mandayam have attempted to weave together over the last year: the human body as synthesiser; the collective voice; queer synthesis, and psychonautics. Many early electronic musicians were (queer) women. As a curator and musicologist, Mandayam’s work has dealt with identifying, naming, and foregrounding this overlooked phenomenon.
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