Check out this 15 minute highlight of DJ Rose and friend McKenzie interviewing America's youngest rock band, The Thrashers. The interview was held on Monday 7/5/2010. To view the entire program, follow this link: Complete Thrashers Interview

Ras ko, a.k.a. Buffalo DJ and drummer Rich White performed at the One Love Reggae Festival held on 5/8/10 in Oroville's Martin Luther King Park. Buffalo DJ played his original music along with a few songs from other artists.

15th Annual Grassroots Coalition Conference (GRC) Tremendous Success

important people at GRC Left to right: Erv Knorzer, Michael Couzens (our attorney), Jeremy Lansman (an icon in low-power TV/FM media and author of many books on radio), and Pete Tridish (our mentor and responsible for KRBS being on the air).

By Erv Knorzer (KRBS founder)

The Grassroots Coalition’s (GRC) Annual Conference came to the West Coast this year.  Host was Garberville’s community radio station, KMUD, located in the adjoining town of Redway.  Over 150  broadcast enthusiasts  signed up for the four-day conference. Originally, the GRC was established as reaction against increasing commercialization of public radio and lack of support for volunteer-based stations.  The Conference has been held annually since 1996 at different locations throughout the United States and Canada.  Representing KRBS this year was myself, Erv Knorzer, founder and a present Board Member of Bird Street Media Project. 

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 signed into law by President Bill Clinton was the spark for these conferences due to allowances for consolidation of ownership in all media bringing about the loss of diversity and localism in the media. Workshop participants were asked to determine what are the information needs of their community; how is commercial media serving your community; what is the state of nonprofit, community and public media in your community; and what is the local impact of internet and mobile services.  Answers to these questions would be used to tell the FCC in future Public Meetings (one held at Stanford just a few days after the GRC ended).

The Conference’s keynote speaker was Laura Flanders from Grit-TV, noted journalist who wrote for The Nation and Ms. Magazine. She hosted a show on Air America which became the weekly one-hour Radio Nation in 2007.  Publisher of four books of which Blue Grit made the top-selling list and she has appeared on TV talk shows with the majority of mainstream hosts. Laura ripped into what she called the "all-about-the-money-media" and encouraged the audience to work harder at storytelling. She stressed there is a failure in the media to report on important news from the perspective of the public and insisted those stories can be told better at the grassroots level. Laura received standing applause in the old rundown movie theatre in downtown Garberville.

There was no way any participant at GRC-15 could possibly attend everything that was going on in the 36 workshops throughout the three days, but most were recorded and KRBS has access to future copies which our programmers can listen to and we will play pertinent copies over the air.  Topics included community journalism, legal compliance, technical wizardry, social justice, people in conflict, management vs. dissent, and most importantly, the "Future of Radio."  With technology exploding throughout the wavelength spectrum, listeners and viewers will soon be programming their own shows in a planning directory and listening and watching what they chose rather than being the recipient of someone else’s choice of programming. Especially, with the abundance of program material available on podcasts, blogspots, U-Tube, U-Stream, U-Broadcast, My Space, and Facebook, radio will never be the same.

GRC participants, including myself, received a lot of insight into how the airwaves are being reshaped in response to new technologies and we spent a lot of time strategizing about ensuring grassroots radio has a place on tomorrow’s spectrum. And, of course, it was great to spend some time with friends and acquaintances who either helped us get on the air or came to our barn raising in 2002.


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