[grc] Happy anniversary to WINGS!

[Marta Ulvaeus]

Yes, congratulations to Frieda and all who make WINGS possible!
KCSB-FM is proud to air this important program.
Thank you for your important work! Long may you run!

Marta

Marta Ulvaeus
KCSB-FM Radio Advisor
& Assistant Director for Independent Media
UCSB Associated Students
(805) 893-3921
marta.ulvaeus at kcsb.org

On May 15, 2015, at 10:09 AM, Maria Gilardin <tuc at tucradio.org> wrote:

> Dear Frieda - Love and thanks and best wishes for the future!
> When I met you and Katherine way back then I was moved and impressed by your against-all-odds we'll get it done attitude.
> There really was no vision for international production of a weekly radio program by two/three individuals except for you (and AR).
> 
> Hard to imagine now that 29 years ago we had practically no independent production or distribution. Even the thought that any radio station would accept a program like yours (- that did not come from a school or organizations -) into their schedule was new.
> So much of what we now take for granted came from you or was first used by you in a new way.
> My own TUC Radio is inspired by you!
> Love, Maria
> 
> 
> 
> Maria Gilardin/TUC Radio
> PO Box 44/Calpella, CA, 95418
> (707) 463-2654
> http://www.tucradio.org
> 
> On 5/13/2015 12:52 PM, Frieda Werden wrote:
>> Beloved community radio people,
>> 
>> 29 years ago, the very first episode of WINGS was released on the Public
>> Radio Satellite in the US. The pilot was produced at Western Public Radio
>> in San Francisco by Augusta del Zotto, Katherine Davenport, and me, and it
>> included 13 news stories (!).  The pilot was funded by a director's
>> discretionary grant from Sandra Rattley at the NPR Satellite Program
>> Development Fund, Thanks, Sandra!
>> 
>> Sadly, the SPDF was very soon de-funded by CPB.  When WINGS applied to CPB
>> in 1987, we were told "this is an idea whose time has passed."  Apparently
>> not!
>> 
>> Thanks to a small travel grant from NFCB, Katherine and I attended the
>> AMARC meeting in Vancouver in 1986.  That connected us to the international
>> community radio movement, so that we gained more international contributors
>> and also international subscribers. We also started to realize that
>> community radio was the place where we'd find the minds and ears and
>> station programmers that liked us, rather than Public Radio. WINGS won a
>> Golden Reel from NFCB for coverage of women's conferences in our first year.
>> 
>> In the fall of 1987, we signed a contract to distribute weekly (on open
>> reel) via Longhorn Radio Network at the University of Texas.  But most of
>> our station subscribers were not on Longhorn  or on the PRSS, so we bought
>> a bunch of cassette decks and dubbed to them from our Otari MX 5050B open
>> reel editing deck, mailing out the shows two per cassette in padded
>> envelopes with paper show descriptions enclosed.
>> 
>> In 1994 the Otari gave place to a digital audio workstation. Also in the
>> '90s we signed a contract with Pacifica to be on their ku-band satellite.
>> In those days, we had to dub our shows to DAT tapes and mail them to
>> Berkeley for uplink, because cassette sound was not considered good enough.
>> 
>> Over the years, cassettes gave way to CD duplicating and mailing, and
>> finally to distribution via internet - to community radio satellites,
>> community radio program download sites, and direct to some subscribers
>> using email.
>> 
>> Thanks so much to hundreds of contributing producers around the world for
>> making our programming so diverse over the years, and thanks to many
>> stations in various countries that air WINGS.
>> 
>> Extra special thank yous to the sustaining community radio stations that
>> contribute annually so that WINGS can continue to pay honoraria to
>> contributing producers.  In the past year, these have been: KCSB-FM in
>> Santa Barbara, KGNU in Boulder, KMUD in Garberville, KRZA in Alamosa,
>> KKFI-FM in Kansas City; WORT-FM in Madison; WERU and WMPG in Maine - all of
>> them some of the greatest stations around. We're proud to be on your
>> lineup. And welcome to new sustaining subscriber KMUZ in Salem, Oregon,
>> which is starting to carry WINGS on June 1 :)
>> 
>> I recently retired from working as a campus-community radio station exec
>> here in Canada, but I'm in great health and spirits and plan to continue as
>> series producer for WINGS into the foreseeable future.  However, I am on
>> the lookout for future successors. As always,WINGS is recruiting new
>> producers and new stations.
>> 
>> I'm also looking forward to having visits from radio folks at my new home
>> on beautiful Denman Island BC Canada.  My partner Suzette and I are hosting
>> our first-ever Women's Media Camp starting July 29.  Info:
>> www.facebook.com/womensmediacamp
>> 
>> Come up and see us some time!
>> 
>> Yours in community media solidarity,
>> Frieda
>> 
>> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> grc mailing list
> grc at maillist.peak.org
> http://maillist.peak.org/mailman/listinfo/grc
>