LIBERATION RADIO
by Sista Shiriki Unganisha It's within your reach. Just do it!
Our Liberation Radio station, KCBLR 91.1 FM, is four years old today (June 1, 2001). This is our history.
During the Gulf War, I was surfing the dial on my headset at work and came across a man explaining that the Gulf War was wrong and immoral. I continued to listen to this man who was educated, caring, honest, and genuinely loved Afrikan people, and I began to call into his program speaking on Political Prisoners held here in the US.
Brotha Sauti invited me to be a co-host with him on his program at this so-called Community Radio Station KKFI (we call it KKKFI), which I did. Brotha Sauti took me under his wings and taught me about radio and our responsibilities as volunteers. His time slots were Sunday -- Thursday nights from 12:00 am - 5:00 am and a Jazz program one morning a week called "Wake Up Kansas City."
Brotha Sauti brought a lot of young people into his fold in an attempt to groom them in radio; however, many of them played a role against us with the Europeans who ran and controlled this so-called Community Radio Station. After I completed my training and Brotha Sauti felt I was ready to fly, he gave me Sunday nights to produce my own program, which I did for one year ("Talk of The People") before we were kicked off the air. Brotha Sauti volunteered for five years and I volunteered for three.
What we did was use Radio to reach and teach our people and others that listened. We could be heard at several prisons in the area and at the city and county jails. We went into our communities and recorded police brutality and played it on the air for everyone to hear. I would call politicians and prison officials about certain issues that prisoners and others informed us about, record these conversations and play them on air for everyone to hear.
This city could not handle us exposing KCPD and two particular kops who were terrorizing our communities. We were teaching people how to fight bogus tickets, played voices of the people being abused by local businesses and discriminated on their jobs.
There were signs that the white power structure at KKKFI was planning to move on us. On August 21, 1994 (anniversary of murder of comrade George Jackson), I went to the station to do my program and we were met by two of their snakes. They gave Brotha Sauti and me a letter stating that our volunteer services were no longer needed, and we could not participate in any of KKKFI activities/functions, host a program, nor be a guest on any program. They never listed any of KKKFI's or the FCC's rules and regulations that we violated.
Brotha Sauti and I have always discussed that we (Afrikans) need our own institutions built and run by us. If we believe that the airwaves are "FREE," then we should act like it, so we did. For the next two years and ten months, we researched, traveled to other micro-stations, and on June 1, 1997, we graced the airwaves in Kansas City.
Everything we do is deliberate. We believe in operating outside of what we are raised to believe is the norm. This is why we have 5 call letters instead of 4, and we're at 91.1 ( 911) and operate out of a RED, BLACK & GREEN house. KCBLR wants to be the example for those of you who may be thinking about starting your own liberation radio. It is within your reach. You have to make up your mind that this is what you want to do and do it.
A word of advice, DO NOT go chasing the mainstream media -- you will be sorry. We have a motto: "BADD BOYZS MOVE IN SILENCE."
-- In Struggle, Brotha Sauti/Sista Shiriki Co-Owners/Operators KCBLR 91.1 FM kcblr911@hotmail.com
Feel Free to call Sista Shiriki at 816-483-4138, or email me at <shiriki@accessus.net>, or write me at P.O. Box 320441, Kansas City, MO 64132.