COMMUNITY RADIO

Ryakuga's interest in community radio is principally in a participatory, volunteer-controlled informal process focusing on interactive-dialogue/cultural celebration and implemented by microtechnology.

Ryakuga has been a member of AMARC, the global community radio association, since 1992.

In 1995 Ryakuga teamed up with the Caribbean Federation of Youth and the National Youth Council of St. Vincent and the Grenadines to produce the first grassroots, participatory youth radio broadcast in the Caribbean. The experiment was repeated in 1997.

A collaborative project sponsored by the Office of Learning Technologies resulted in the evolution of the simulcast as a community communications tool during the Sharing Our Future project - 1999 to 2002.

We began with a webcast of a community meeting on oil development in the Port au Port community of Cap St-Georges. Participatory community radio events in sou'west Newfoundland were combined with webcasts in a series of simulcasts.

In 2003 Ryakuga, the Community Education Network and the Long Range Regional Economic Development Board collaborated in Enlarging the Circle - a rural leadership project which featured nine simulcasts (sponsored by the Canadian Rural Partnership). The Conservation Corps of Newfoundland and Labrador and Ryakuga (supported by Environment Canada) facilitated Tuning in to Climate Change - community simulcasts designed to inform and gather information from Newfoundlanders about climate change.

In 2004 and 2005 Ryakuga worked with the Canada Rural Revitalization Foundation and the New Rural Economy group on simulcasts at fall conferences in Tweed, Ontario and Twillingate, Newfoundland and Labrador. The Canada World Youth Russia/Canada Netcorps and Ryakuga teamed up on a webcast in 2002 and a simulcast from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in 2005.

In 2006 and 2007 the Equity and Technology project used the Ryakuga simulcast in the Nova Scotia communities of Musquodoboit Harbour and Wolfville. The purpose was dissemination of research findings.

Ryakuga has been working with the Town of Burnt Islands, Newfoundland and Labrador on a Sharing Our Future youth project since 2002. The community now has its own radio station - CHBI. Ryakuga assists with strategy, technical questions and training.

fred@ryakuga.org