Listen Up! Northwest program 29 features stories about work and labor issues.

*Being a woman in the workplace can be difficult under the best of circumstances. Try entering a male-dominated field like the construction trades. Hear one woman's story about the experience that took her from a boring desk job to life as an electrician. (Joaquin Uy, Seattle WA)

*A strike at fourteen Oak Harbor Freight Terminals throughout the Northwest has continued for over fifteen weeks (at the time this program was produced). Hear from an Oak Harbor dockworker who talks about life on strike, 3 months on. (Al Bradbury, Portland OR)

*Mainstream media has not been known to cover labor issues consistently. See how labor activists are breaking through the information monopoly by taking advantage of radio, television and the Web to get their stories told. (Wes Brain, Eugene OR)

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Listen Up! NW is produced by Yuko Kodama at KBCS for Reclaim the Media, and distributed by the Northwest Community Radio Network.

Listen Up! Northwest program 28 features a single story on the Fur Seals in the Pribilof Islands of Northern Alaska.

* St Paul Island in the Pribilofs is where two thirds of the world's fur seals come to give birth and breed. We listen to the sounds of a fur seal colony and an interview with a British Columbia marine mammal researcher about some reasons why the fur seal populations may be in decline again. (Lisa Busch, Sitka AK)

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Listen Up! NW is produced by Yuko Kodama at KBCS for Reclaim the Media, and distributed by the Northwest Community Radio Network.

Listen Up! Northwest program 27 features a single story about the impact that global warming has on one small coastal town in Alaska.

* Townspeople in Kivalina, Alaska explain and describe how they are some of the people first and most dramatically impacted by global climate change. Their town is now literally being washed away by coastal erosian as the sea rises - and with it what's left of their way of life. (Lisa Busch, Sitka AK)

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Listen Up! NW is produced by Yuko Kodama at KBCS for Reclaim the Media, and distributed by the Northwest Community Radio Network.

Listen Up! Northwest program 26 features stories about the need for the media to be accountable for the information they provide. Segments include:

* Many journalists were arrested at the Republican National Convention and Democratic National Convention this year. A Bellingham civil rights attorney who represented some of the arrested independent journalists shares his observations of the events. (Yuko Kodama, Seattle, WA)

* Seattle's WTO protests are said to have influenced how cities around the world handle civilian's rights to freedom of speech during large events. An ACLU Washington representative speaks about how these changes have come about over the last 10 years. (Yuko Kodama, Seattle, WA)

* The Institute for Public Accuracy provides news releases that offer analysis of how current events are covered. Sam Husseini of this organization speaks about how anyone in our region can help make media more accountable for giving the public accurate information. (Gavin Dahl, Boise ID)

* A representative of the media watchgroup FAIR, or Fairness and Accuracy talks about how FOX News covered the last two weeks of the recent election and how FOX responded to criticism of their work. (Jenka Soderberg, Portland OR)

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Listen Up! NW is produced by Yuko Kodama at KBCS for Reclaim the Media, and distributed by the Northwest Community Radio Network.

Congratulations to the folks at Radio Free Palmer who will be the newest addition to Alaska's low-power radio landscape. This from the Anchorage Daily News:

If fundraising goes well, the station could be up and running by 2009 although group organizers say 2010 is a more conservative estimate. Radio Free Palmer takes its name from the World War II-era broadcasts of Radio Free Europe, which broadcast CIA-approved news stories behind the Iron Curtain. But this group has a smaller focus -- to broadcast community news and locally picked music.

Over-the-air TV viewers across the country should now be getting ready for the Feb. 17 switch to Digital TV. By now most of us are aware of the steps we need to take: Order a coupon for $40 off a DTV converter box; (2) use the coupon to buy a box, and (3) hook it up.

Some of us may need a new UHF/VHF antenna to pick up the digital TV signals. When you buy your DTV box, retailers will try to sell you an expensive antenna as well (the government coupons don't cover antennas). Here's a cheaper option: the folks at Make Magazine provide instructions on how to build your own antenna out of coat hangers and scrap wood.

Listen Up! Northwest program 25 features stories about the need for more diversity in our media.

Segments include:
* Youth are looking critically at the media and many are not happy with how they are portrayed in the media. Listen to voices of Washington youth speak about what they would like to see and how they would like to change media representation. (Sami Muilenburg, Seattle, WA)
* An interview with Joe Torres, lobbyist for Freepress who speaks about the need for a critical mass of minority voices in our media landscape. (Gavin Dahl, Boise ID)
* KPCN is the only union owned radio station in the Northwest. We listen to the president of Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United speak about how they planned to use their airwaves. (Sue Supriano, Eugene, OR)

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Listen Up! NW is produced by Yuko Kodama at KBCS for Reclaim the Media, and distributed by the Northwest Community Radio Network.

Listen Up! Northwest program 24 features a single story on multi-ethnic identity and experiences.

* What to call yourself when what you are doesn't have a name? That's what Dmae Roberts has grappled with most of her adult life. In a country that likes to think it celebrates cultural diversity, race and identity continue to be complex topics. (Dmae Roberts, Portland OR)

Listen Up! Northwest is produced by Yuko Kodama at KBCS for Reclaim the Media, and distributed by the Northwest Community Radio Network.

NOTE: For copyright reasons, program 24 is not longer available for download. Radio programmers wishing to obtain Program 24 for broadcast after that date should contact RTM.

Listen Up! Northwest program 23 features stories about educational institutions and approaches to learning.

Segments include:
* Trends show that universities are entering into more research contracts with private corporations for funding. Find out how this impacts many decisions we make and affect the quality of education for undergraduate students (Sue Supriano, Eugene OR)
* Unschooling is a movement in response to the structured style of mainstream schooling in North America. We listen to how one young woman decided to “unschool” herself at the age of fifteen. (Julie Sabatier, Portland, OR)
* Most schools focus on math and language arts, but some people have other interests and approaches to learning. The Seattle Vocational Institute offers a program that teaches trade skills and a second chance to those who may have not finished high school. (Katie Arrants, Seattle, WA)

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Listen Up! NW is produced by Yuko Kodama at KBCS for Reclaim the Media, and distributed by the Northwest Community Radio Network.

Listen Up! Northwest program 22 features stories about people's relationship with our environment.

Segments include:
* Native American or First Nations had managed and maintained the forests of the Northwest long before the white settlers arrived. One man strives to restore these practices in SW Oregon forests (Maria Gilardin, The Tme of Useable Consciousness Radio)
* Forest Canopies are an important ecosystem which is often overlooked. We learn about how people began to studies these ecosystems more closely (Nag Champa and KAOS, Olympia, WA)
* The tar sands project in Alberta Canada is one of the largest capital projects in the world. The project extracts 1 million barrels of oil a year from its fragile environment for export to the US and Asia. (Mordecai Briemberg, CFRO Vancouver BC)
* What more fitting way to end this show than with a look at how we affect the environment after death. One Portland company specializes in assisting with "green burials" (Julie Sabatier, Destination DIY Portland)

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Listen Up! NW is produced by Yuko Kodama at KBCS for Reclaim the Media, and distributed by the Northwest Community Radio Network.