Radio Hacktive (Fr-Es-En)

In January 2011, the highly acclaimed and independent STAR radio in Liberia closed its doors. Efforts to generate operating revenues locally through advertising, and to strengthen the station’s management and governance through the creation of a local Board of Directors, were too little, too late. Considerable investment over the years in journalism training and editorial support meant that STAR was breaking important stories, and was viewed by the Liberian population as a credible, independent source of information. But a fledgling commercial department was left understaffed and unable to tap into the steadily growing advertising market and translate this into revenue for the radio.

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Hirondelle USA is a non-profit organization that supports the peaceful transformation of societies coming out of conflict or undergoing democratic change.

Syrian refugees take to the Jordanian airwaves to share advice and information.

The occasion of UNESCO's second World Radio Day (February 13, 2013) encourages us to reflect on radio as a medium which is celebrated for reaching the widest audience worldwide and is often a primary source of information, even for the most marginalised communities. I'm sure the Airtime community does not need convincing about the power of radio as a low-cost, accessible medium which brings groups together who are united by song tastes, interest in certain issues or simply by virtue of their location. Whatever reason people have for tuning in, the radio community are recognising that radio is changing in nature and the medium no longer serves as just a one way broadcast. Instead, radio is an interactive platform for communities to share ideas.

Working with both the Airtime and FrontlineSMS communities in the radio space, I've seen the number of channels through which that interaction happens. Both of these tools are widening the spectrum of options available to presenters to make radio the truly interactive, multi-platform conversation that it can be. In this post, I explore how digital communications – not just social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter but particularly the use of mobile phones, including SMS and voice - are changing how interactive radio can be, allowing audiences to increasingly control and influence radio content.

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Ce mercredi 13 février, c'est la Journée mondiale de la Radio. Un média qui accompagne chacun dans sa vie de tous les jours, mais qui touche également les plus isolés. Bref, un vrai lien avec le monde.

A 24 hour radio station to celebrate the work of the Children’s Radio Foundation will pop-up on World Radio Day, February 13th 2013.

A host of musicians, radio presenters and artists will come together at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London to appear on the station.

Working with youth in Africa, the Children’s Radio Foundation produces radio programmes, and in the process gives young people a platform to say things that are important in their lives.

WRD Radio will be available online via tunein.com and Pure Connect, showcasing material produced by young people on the African continent.

WRD Radio broadcasts will come live from the ICA between 18:00 and 21:30 GMT. Presenters include Robin Lustig from the BBC World Service, and Hardeep Singh Kohli, Ed Stourton and Charlie Lee-Potter from BBC Radio 4. Music performances will come from Caribou, Fourtet and BBC Sound of 2013 artist, Laura Mvula.

The Knight News Challenge winner will experiment with using cheap tools and existing networks to produce radio programming through mobile devices.

Radio World EBU’s RadioHack sets stage for progressive research and development

RadioHack is probably the least formal EBU event, confirms Mathias Coinchon, EBU senior project manager. It is oriented toward hardware and software developers from different organizations, including non-EBU members. “The idea for this event is to bring together inventors to share projects and ideas, fostering the creation of a community of radio developers.”

This is a project for Arduino and Raspberry Pi to make an Internet Radio, aimed at intermediate skill level. Some familiarity with Linux usage will be beneficial (or access to someone who can help out if required).

Raspberry Pi runs mpd music player daemon to receive and decode the internet radio stream.
ALSA running on the Raspberry Pi provides the sound through either the Jack Socket or the HDMI output.

Arduino runs a nanpy interface code to interface with Python, providing Text output of the Radio Station playing and Button inputs to control Playback.

Objectives:
* Learn how to use the mpd/mpc on the Raspberry Pi
* Learn how to use the nanpy library for Python to interface the Pi to the Arduino
* Make a Cool Internet Radio