Listen Up! Northwest Program 7 presents stories of small scale farming in our region -- the benefits and the challenges. Segments include:

* What should one think about when going into small scale farming? Some thoughts from one of our region's farmers. (Jonathan Steinman, Kootenay Coop Radio)
* A discussion about the challenges faced by local farms who want to convert from conventional to organic farming (Tom Allen, KBCS-Seattle)
* Small scale farms are asking for policy changes to cope with the increased flooding in Washington (Martha Baskin, Green Acre Radio)
* Customers at a Nelson, BC cooperative wrote letters of support to their local farmer. Find out how this started (Jonathan Steinman, Kootenay Coop Radio)

* download program 7
* program 7 promo

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 6 presents stories from around the world brought home by northwest radialistas. Segments include:

* South Ethiopian women who travel miles to fetch water each day (Jessica Partnow, Common Language Project-Washington)
* The orphan crisis in Uganda (Tom Herriman, KBCS-Seattle)
* The impacts of the US military efforts on women and children in Afghanistan (Martha Baskin, KBCS-Seattle)
* A Cambodian artist whose music literally saved his life in under the Pol Pot regime (Dmae Roberts, Crossing East-Portland)

* download program 6
* program 6 promo

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 5 takes a look at food: growing it, eating it and thinking about its role in our region's past and future. Segments include:

* The western diet as a form of European colonization (Jonathan Steinman, Kootenay Coop Radio-Nelson, British Columbia)
* Seattle Mien community takes over public land for farming (Martha Baskin, KBCS-Seattle)
* The seed saving movement (Tom Allen, KBCS-Seattle)
* Backyard Chickening (Bucky Buckaw, Radio Boise)

• download program 5
• program 5 promo

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 is a collaboratively produced radio magazine featuring stories of communities in action throughout the Northwest. Each broadcast highlights the work of skilled community radio producers and artists from our region, including Alaska, British Columbia, Washingon, Idaho, Montana and Oregon.

Listen Up! Northwest Program 4 features NW people making changes to some of our most basic governing and social service systems. Segments include:

• Communities proposing changes to Spokane's city charter (Brad Reed, KYRS-Spokane)
• Alternative healthcare for homeless and low-income communities (Lisa Farino, KBCS-Seattle)
• An exonerated former prisoner talks about the Innocence Project (Joaquin Uy, KBCS-Seattle)
• Encouraging sustainable DIY home-building practices by addressing Portland land use policies (Magnus Fleming, KBOO-Portland)

• download program 4
• program 4 promo

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 is a collaboratively produced radio magazine featuring stories of communities in action throughout the Northwest. Each broadcast highlights the work of skilled community radio producers and artists from our region, including Alaska, British Columbia, Washingon, Idaho, Montana and Oregon.

Listen Up! Northwest Program 3 features issues of motherhood and birthing. Segments include:

• Why some people choose home birth (Julie Sabatier, Destination DIY-Portland)
• Canadian government sterilization practices of First Nations people (Kevin Annett, Vancouver Coop Radio)
• When is the right time to have a child? (Julia Donk & Sasha Summer Cousineau, KBCS-Seattle)
• Your mom: she's a real person too. (Sandi Billings, KRFP-Moscow)

• download program 3
• program 3 promo

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 is a collaboratively produced radio magazine featuring stories of communities in action throughout the Northwest. Each broadcast highlights the work of skilled community radio producers and artists from our region, including Alaska, British Columbia, Washingon, Idaho, Montana and Oregon.

Program 2 features the following stories:

• African-American authors share experiences in Seattle (Julia Donk, KBCS-Seattle)
• Portland's Sexual Minority Youth Resource Center turns 10 (Carla Remey, KBOO-Portland)
• Canadian residential schools (Kevin Annett, Vancouver Coop Radio)
• Bridging the cultures of Mexico and the US (Bing Bingham, KWSO-Warm Springs)
• Dear Tyra Banks: spoken-word poetry from Hollis Wong-Wear

• download program 2 (14MB)
• general promo spot (Mp3)

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 is a collaboratively produced radio magazine featuring stories of communities in action throughout the Northwest. Each broadcast highlights the work of skilled community radio producers and artists from our region, including Alaska, British Columbia, Washingon, Idaho, Montana and Oregon.

Program 1 features the following stories:
• an environmental initiative of the Samish Nation (Robin Carneen/KSVR)
• homelessness in Seattle (Adam Vaughn/KBCS)
• arts and empowerment in women's prisons (Julie Sabatier/Destination DIY), and
• remembering Japanese internment (Marianne Gutteridge/KSER)

• download program 1 (14MB)
• general promo spot (Mp3)

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

The Grassroots Radio Conference is coming to Portland this July - and organizers have issued a call for workshop and discussion proposals. This is the first time the GRC has taken place in the Northwest, and it will be a great opportunity for regional community radio makers to get together and scheme with colleagues from around the country. Visit KBOO's conference page for details, or read on for the call for proposals (due June 15).

A coalition of nonprofit groups in Portland has been granted a license for a new non-commercial FM station providing coverage to east Portland. Here's the announcement:

MetroEast Community Media, in collaboration with a coalition of community groups, received word this week that its application for a non-commercial educational (NCE) radio station has been approved by the Federal Communications Commission. With its transmitter located on Mt. Hood, the signal of the new station - 91.1 on the FM dial - will reach most of the East Metro area as well as much of Portland east of the Willamette.

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

...Although dwarfed by such noncommercial/public-radio stations in this market as KUOW-FM and KPLU-FM, KBCS-FM still manages to draw enough listeners to show up in the quarterly ratings tables (behind the two NPR stations, KEXP-FM and KNHC-FM in fall quarter, according to the Radio Research Consortium).

KBCS hopes to build on that by rolling out new technology. This year it started an audio archive featuring programs from the previous two weeks that can be streamed an hour at a time, as well as a real-time playlist.

Next up is its digital transmitter, which the station hopes to have operating by the end of this summer. That will enable KBCS to use HD technology's capabilities to provide three channels of programming -- two for KBCS itself, the third a student-run channel tied to a curriculum program to be developed with BCC.

But lots of stations boast the same technology. What will set KBCS apart, Ramsey says, is its community focus, with a rich mixture of specialty music programs (featuring everything from vintage jazz to bluegrass, zydeco and Hawaiian) and public-affairs programming (nationally syndicated as well as local).

The local content is produced by about 200 volunteers who come through the station each month. KBCS has built that army of volunteers with training courses through BCC's continuing education program to turn almost anyone into a radio producer...