Our First Barnraising - WRYR-LP in Deale, Maryland
SACRED Find Brilliant Success with Their Low Power FM Radio Station!
"South Arundel Citizens for Responsible Development (SACRED), a group of concerned citizens living on the beautiful Chesapeake Bay, had successfully organized to keep a major strip mall from destroying sixteen acres of irreplaceable forested wetlands. SACRED engaged in an intensive educational, legal, public opinion, legislative and action campaign designed to reduce the size and environmental impact of this strip mall. Widespread support from other environmental organizations, particularly the Sierra Club and the Chesapeake Environmental Protection Association, and State legislators stalled the project. The company ultimately announced it was abandoning plans for the mall."
SACRED seemed like an ideal choice for the first Radio Barnraising, and our relationship with them helped to shape future partnerships with other Low Power FM radio organizers. We appreciated their volunteer-driven mission, and their understanding that success only came from continually engaging their neighbors and bringing their desires and needs to people in power.
From February 16th - 18th, we struggled day and night to build this station and get it on the air in time for a Sunday-night ribbon cutting. We were able to do it only because of the herculean efforts and great dedication of the local volunteers and international friends who came to bring this new community radio station to the people of Maryland.
We held this first Radio Barnraising at a camp retreat that could easily house the hundreds of volunteers who arrived to build the station. Potential broadcasters and volunteer workshop leaders travelled to Maryland from as far away as England and Japan to write and perform radio plays, solder the console, and troubleshoot a tricky studio-transmitter link. Read the materials in the table to the right to learn more about this great station, and the beautiful Barnraising we shared with them.
