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This article is from the on-line version of the NGO FORUM DAILY
at the World Conference on Women, Sept. 7, 1995.



From: apcwomen@wcw.apc.org
Subject: Re: NGO FORUM DAILY 07/09
Date: 07 Sep 95 19:30 EDT

From: apcwomen <apcwomen@wcw.apc.org>

First women's radio still growing strong at 4

By Maria Elena Hurtado


Radio Tierra, the world's first commercial radio station owned,
directed and run by women, celebrated its fourth anniversary in
Huairou last week.

	Located in Santiago, Chile, and transmitting 17 hours a
day, it is a novelty in a country where 85% of the media is in
the hands of two large business corporations.

	Though run by a feminist cooperative, 40% of its audience
are men attracted by its mix of news, commentaries, music and
debates, health education, and female reproduction.

	Radio Tierra's microphones are always open to social and
cultural organizations critical of the prevailing system. Even
mainstream journalists who feel they cannot express themselves
freely in their own media speak up through Radio Tierra.

	"Civil society is not represented in the mainstream media.
So we are giving listeners, real people, a voice", says Virginia
Quevedo of the Asociacion Mundial de Radios Comunitarias (AMARC),
the world association of community radios.

	Last year, the radio invited listeners to go to
transmission posts placed in strategic locations in Santiago to
air their views on the need for a divorce law. Some 3,000
signatures were collected and delivered to Parliament.

	Radio Tierra has been filing 15-minute stories from
Huairou, which are being picked up by a leading daily.

	The radio is upgrading its technical equipment so it can
reach more of its estimated 50,000 listeners. Next year, a second
radio also run by a feminist collective is being set up in Lima,
Peru.

Forwarded by:
______________________________________________________________
   Association mondiale des radiodiffuseurs communautaires
      World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters
          Asociacion mundial de radios comunitarias
3575 Blvd. St. Laurent, Suite 704     Email: amarc@web.apc.org
Montreal, Quebec                         Tel: (1-514) 982-0351
CANADA  H2X 2T7                          Fax: (1-514) 849-7129
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