We encountered the process and idea of RADIO COMMUNITIES through the on-air and on-line correspondences with Garth Rennie at Cjam91.5fm.
Radio communities, we imagine to be, audio correspondences between people and communities across possibly far distances of time and space by means of sound – that is, composed missives (or transmissions) of sounds, rhythms, music and words. We say, “imagine…”, because, in fact, we don’t know what ‘radio communities’ are, or could become; but with every clip, recording, edit, sound piece, audio composition, we actively draw and send out another proposition of what “radio communities” could be, for us, here and now… then we hold back and listen. What might return to us?
NO-GO-ZONES ON CANADIAN AIR
The canadian radio station CJAM91.5fm (www.cjam.ca) featured live on air mixes from the NO-GO-ZONES on-line archive and a telephone conversation about the project on July 4th (noon local time). Garth Rennie from the weekly show ’sound scape rhythms’ leads through the programme, mixes and talks to the organisers. One day later, clips of the cjam show were also presented in the weekly NO-GO-ZONES broadcast on Resonancefm on July 5th. This is the first in a series of NO-GO-ZONES radio correspondences and exchanges between London and Windsor/Detroit. Below are three links to clips (1-2) of mixes and conversations from the broadcast and to a mp3 file (3) of the entire show.
1. http://www.archive.org/details/No-go-zonesLiveOnCanadianAir
2. http://www.archive.org/details/No-go-zonesLiveOnCanadianAirii
3. http://www.archive.org/details/No-go-zonesLiveOnCjam
BOBBY ORR N RAILTON ROAD
Since this first broad-casting exchange, Garth has continued featuring clips and samples from the No-Go-Zones on line archive in his weekly shows. On 14th November, for example, he staged a remarkable on air encounter of Canadian star Bobby Orr talking ice hockey & life (on a 1971 vinyl), Yaa Asentewaa carnival sounds and ‘Railton Road Sound Systems’ – the latter two being audio clips from the No-Go-Zones on-line archive. Recommended listening!
the entire programme plus two 6 mins clips are stored at:
http://www.archive.org/details/No-go-zonesLiveOnCjam_823
SOUNDS OF RADIO COMMUNITIES
On 12th December 2007, Garth Rennie presented live on-air/on-line mixes from the No-Go-Zones on-line archive and recent contributions to the archive by people from and across the border Windsor/ Detroit. Sounds produced by the Detroit artist collective Dark River Media and from the compilation STREET WRITINGS released by weedworks are also part of the mix.
http://www.archive.org/details/No-go-zonesLiveOnCjam_943
SOUND AS A MEANS TO ENGAGE…
On April 2nd, Garth Rennie broadcast some new clips from the no-go-zones audio archive in his weekly show “Soundscape Rhythms”. The clips had only very recently gone up on-line. They contain excerpts of a telephone conversation with Molefi Ndlovu in Durban S.A. about a public radio project, RASA fm, in Soweto in 2005. You can listen to the recordings via the link below and find more on the page ‘radio communities (RASA fm)’ here on the blog.
http://www.archive.org/details/no-go-zones_623
http://nogozones.wordpress.com/radio-communities-rasa-fm/
Garth’s one hour show carries a stream of stories, readings and travel accounts, images of Pyrenean mountains, Canadian flatlands, rock walls and enclosure, ideas of telling history, figures like Cervantes, a book by Fernand Braudel read on a journey by bicycle, and, as always, locally produced recordings and compositions of resonant places, the arrival of spring, and Molefi Ndlovu in Durban talking about the RASA fm radio project in Soweto.
Here in London/ England, we received his show like a celebration of “radio communities”, and an eloquent articulation of an invitation that we had send out with Molefi’s audio:
sound as a means to engage…
http://www.archive.org/details/No-go-zonesLiveOnCjam_995
01 Molefi Ndlovu on cjam about RASAfm (9:55)
02 sound as a means to engage… (7:21)
03 sound scape rhythms cjam 2april08 (56:30)
individual contributions of audio reports from the border Windsor/ Detroit
1. NGZ by finalstage
from and with: Brandon Wright & Alex Costaris
http://www.archive.org/details/NoGoTomato
http://www.finalstage.ca/ngz.mp3
conversational drift around no-go-zones on the border Windsor/ Detroit
website: www.finalstage.ca CANADIAN HEAVY METAL
2. No Go Zones: Where do you Stand: Proud vs. Ambulant
by Shawn Holman & Sabrina Oddi
http://www.archive.org/details/No-go-zonesSubmission
“We interviewed multiple people asking them questions about how they feel about immigration
and the state of multiculturalism in Canada.”
Interviewees: Erikka Johnson, Doug, Rob Wade, Ron Rounding
Music: “Million Stars”, courtesy of Credible Witness, a local Windsor band.
3. “Get Naked (I Got a Plan)”
save the children from corporate domination
by Chantal Pare
http://www.archive.org/details/No-go-zones_submission
4. “These Other Kids”
by Andrew Kennedy, Lucas Sughrue & Emily Pavli
http://www.archive.org/details/TheseOtherKids
5. “Keishas Vase”.
She is drawing a vase.
by Layla Mushahwar
http://www.archive.org/details/KeishasVase
6. “Bordercity”
by Lindsey Sol
This is a clip discussing life living in the border city of Windor, Ontario and the positives
and negatives that living so close to a U.S. city brings.
http://www.archive.org/details/WindsorBorderCity
7. “Windsor Pride”
by Jaqueline Jacobs
http://www.archive.org/details/WindsorPride
