Invitation for my Fellow Radio Enthusiasts

Hello after yet another long stretch away.  Life has been, well, busy in the last year, so I haven’t blogged much, but I do plan to do so in 2022, particularly in the run up to November here in Texas….

One of the other projects I have been working on is Postcard Panorama, which is like a listener mailbag program but focused on themes instead of programs or broadcasters.  We’ll be going out on shortwave and YouTube starting January 1st.

The first theme is “In with the New.”  I’m looking for radio “origin stories” from enthusiasts, how you got started as a listener, hobbyist, content creator, or broadcaster.  I’m also looking for what your radio-related plans are for the new year.  You can interpret the themes pretty loosely, so anything goes.  I’d love to have more stories from progressive radio geeks (we exist!).

So if you’re into any aspect of radio–all bands, all tech, all formats–and you’d like to submit a story for me to read on air and/or post on our website, visit https://www.postcardpanorama.com

I’ll also have news about my other shortwave program, Short Waves / Short Poems early next year, too.

Creativity . . . without the woo

As part of the December 5th Winterfest, I’ll be talking creativity without the woo along with fellow bloggers from The Bolingbrook Babbler and From the Ashes of Faith.  And speaking of the Ashes blog, check out Megan Rahm’s new collection: “My poetry book is now available for pre-order on Amazon“!

The talk will be posted on my shiny new YouTube channel, which is also Freethinking Ahead.  There’s a quick intro post in which I introduce myself, talk briefly about creativity without the woo, flash a bunch of books on the screen (mine and others’), and geek out a bit about poetry, radio, and poetry on the radio.   Also, I really need to figure out the “blue light on the glasses” thing.

If you have any questions about fostering your creativity without relying on the magical thinking so many guides frame it in, please leave a comment here, over at YouTube, or send me an email at info@tdwalker.net.  And stay tuned for the talk on December 5th!

Whose Voice of America?

Though Trump’s recent executive orders speak loudly about his dangerous priorities, he may literally speak to the world through the federally-funded international broadcaster Voice of America (in more than just the usual 140 characters he’s used to communicating in).  From Politico:

President Donald Trump on Monday dispatched two aides to scope out the studios of Voice of America, heightening concerns among some longtime staffers that Trump may quickly put his stamp on the broadcasting arm that has long pushed U.S. democratic ideals across the world.

In an article from last December, NPR reported on recent changes to the governing structure of Voice of America, and the fact that VoA can aim its broadcasts into the US:

For decades, the international U.S. broadcasters were not allowed to present their programs to the United States, but that ban was lifted in 2013, accentuating the concerns of what a Trump administration might bring.

Though the director of VoA told Politco that the broadcaster isn’t “being manipulated by Trump,” Talking Points Memo notes:

Trump’s decision to dispatch aides to the Broadcasting Board of Governors also comes after Voice of America came under fire for tweets about White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s Saturday press conference during which he made false claims about the size of inauguration crowds.

The outlet initially published tweets quoting Spicer’s claims about crowd size without any context, prompting swift backlash. Voice of America then deleted one of the tweets and ran a story fact-checking Spicer’s claims.

And MSNBC reminds us about Bush’s use of VoA and asks: “Now, it’s a brand new Republican administration, led by someone with a keen interest in media. What could possibly go wrong?”