Five Radio Sources of Alternative News

Mandatory vaccination of school children. The Trans-Texas Corridor. Public education modeled on the factory system. The Minutemen. Government "camps" where rounded-up American citizens will be confined during declared states of emergency.

You'll have to dig to find anything about these topics in mainstream news. But you can always track Britney Spears' child custody woes and find out what OJ is up to, and learn six things to put in a personals ad that will increase your chances of success.

It's enough to make you open the window -- as Howard Beale suggested in "Network" -- and shout WAKE UP, PEOPLE!

Fortunately -- thankfully, blessedly -- there are places where stories they don't make evening news can be found.

There are many alternative news web sites, but I write and need something to have on in the background, while I work, that doesn't use up my bandwidth. Radio is thus my media of choice. The populist nature of the material is also a good match for radio; specifically, programs on short wave that can be easily heard on a moderately-priced receiver, whose content isn't influenced by the presence of commercial sponsors.

Short wave radio is still the most practical way to reach large numbers of listeners in remote areas. One station broadcasting on several frequencies, with directional signals, can cover the world. When the power goes off, or when the ISP is down, a battery powered radio with SW is a good thing to have.

Broadcast frequencies on SW change with the seasons and the time of day. Shorter wavelengths / higher frequencies propagate better in the daytime. The listener might have to re-tune in the middle of a program as night approaches. Longer periods of darkness in the winter means whole programs move to different places on the dial.

So, before you try for any of these, check their web sites for the most up-to-date times and frequencies. You could also listen there, to live streams and archived shows, but that would be cheating. This is about radio the way it was meant to be heard, on the radio.

THE POWER HOUR

Knowledge is power . . . that's why we call it The Power Hour!

Dave von Kleist writes songs and plays lead guitar in a band, and also does something I still do: makes up his own words to songs. On The Power Hour's web site, you'll find a variety of popular standards with altered lyrics sung in a voice that resembles that of President George W. Bush, Samples: "Strangers In The Night." "It's My Party." "'Till There Was You" (GWB covers a Beatles song). "Addicted To War." With them is an updated version of maybe the most ominously prophetic pop song of all time, "Every Breath You Take" (a ballad to around the clock surveillance recorded ironically by The Police).

Satire can be an effective weapon. That's why Woody Guthrie lettered, on the back of his guitar, THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS.

The Power Hour site, among those dedicated to exposing the New World Order's plan for global domination, is the only one I've found with a section for homemakers. It has recipes and household hints, compiled by co-host Joyce Riley, that use organic foods, and natural medicines and beauty products, that don't have the potentially toxic additives found in mass-produced stuff. Good things to know even if you're not in survival mode.

The Power Hour is actually on for three hours; from 7-10 AM Central time weekdays, 8-11 Eastern, 1300-1600 UTC. Short wave frequencies vary with the seasons, so check the web site. It's replayed at midnight ET / 0500 UTC on Nashville short wave station WWCR's 3215 kHz transmitter.

www.thepowerhour.com

The Alex Jones Show

From his central Texas command center, deep behind enemy lines, the information war continues . . .

When Alex Jones isn't warning listeners that America is quickly becoming a police state, he's making documentaries. Among his seventeen, sample titles speak for themselves: "Terrorstorm - A History Of Government Sponsored Terrorism." "9-11 - The Road To Tyranny." "America - Destroyed By Design."

On time-brokered shortwave stations like WWCR, that has four transmitters on four frequencies, anyone who can pay for air time can get on. Talk show hosts on short wave have thus acquired a reputation as off-the-page, right-wing loose cannons.

Even those the furthest to the right still want the same things we old hippies want: secure borders, bring the troops home, no more exporting jobs, America for Americans.

The main Infowars website -- www.infowars.com -- overflows with news and information. Visit and explore. Wait until you have some free time. You'll be there a while.

The Alex Jones Show may seem like an infomercial for products sold on the websites. All radio programs, including populist ones with alternative viewpoints, have bills to pay. Thus the commercial load. A small price to pay for content you definitely won't hear anywhere else.

Alex Jones plugs his movies, but he doesn't care if purchasers make copies and distribute them. Anything to get the word out. He also doesn't mind if listeners re-broadcast the live feed on their own micro-powered FM transmitters. That's how I discovered him -- on a legal micro-FM running way more than the allowed power.

He's on WWCR live weekdays from 11AM-2PM Central time, noon to three Eastern, 1700-2000 UTC, on the Genesis Communications Network (GCN). The first two hours are on 9985 kHz. You'll have to retune to 9975 at about one minute before the third hour starts.

There are two WWCR evening replays: 9PM-midnight Central time, 10PM-1AM Eastern, 0300-0600 the next day on 5890 kHz, and midnight-3AM Central, 1-4AM Eastern, 0600-0900 UTC, on 5070 kHz.

RADIO HAVANA

Esta es . . . Radio Habana Cuba . . . transmitiendo desde Cuba, territorio libre en America . . .

The first whole sentence in Spanish I learned, at a time when I was the only kid on the block, and no doubt for some distance in any direction, who got mail from Radio Havana. (I don't want to think about the attention that might attract today.)

"This is Radio Havana Cuba . . . broadcasting from Cuba, free territory in the Americas." Radio Havana still uses it at the top of every hour.

Whether it's free or not is a matter of opinion, but Radio Havana is still a blast of fresh air amid the infobabble. "Occupied Iraq." As if it's an invaded, conquered country. (Well, isn't it?) "The American occupation forces." (Well, aren't they? A lot of the world besides Cuba thinks so, including more and more Americans.)

Radio Havana also pointed out, in its Cuban missile crisis anniversary feature, that the 1962 Soviet military buildup was the response to a plot to assassinate Premier Fidel Castro, hatched by assorted organized crime bosses under the supervision of United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. You won't hear or read about that in mainstream US media. A product of someone's imagination? Credible people who were there don't think so.

Radio Havana's English service to North America can be heard on 6000 kHz in the early and late evenings. At an even 6 mHz, RHC was always an easy station to find on analog radios. It can be tuned on a digital receiver simply by entering 6 and Execute on the keypad.

THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE

John from Staten Island - never backing down in the face of liberalism . . . Frank from Queens - talk radio's one-man SWAT team . . .

Frank gained notoriety as a caller to talk shows on New York City's WOR, where regular listeners learned to pay attention when the host said "okay . . . Frank from Queens, you're on the air . . . "

Frank would then deliver a short version of what has become his trademark on "The Right Perspective" - an opening monologue directed at a variety of rotating targets. "The bearded, cigar-chewing maggot" (Castro). "The flying monkey" (former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who in Frank's opinion resembles the winged creatures from The Wizard Of Oz). "The Ministry Of Lies" (mainstream media). "Left-wing wackos" (anyone from Bono to Norman Mailer whose politics drift left of center).

Talk shows are a product to be sold, no different from cereal or toothbrushes. Like anything on broadcast radio, they're part entertainment. There are more of them than ever before. Competition is fierce, and very few people listen regularly to dull programs. One might say that, like the horoscopes, talk radio should come with a disclaimer: "For entertainment purposes."

So Frank and John can be forgiven if they sound over the top.

"The Right Perspective" is, however, the only show where I've heard discussed the renaming of cities and towns, and landmarks, in the Union of South Africa; from the original Afrikaans to local languages, that has been denounced as re-writing of history and the deliberate destruction of a cultural heritage.

www.therightperspective.com

Friday, 10PM to midnight Eastern time (0300-0500 UTC Saturday); the first hour on WWCR on 3215 kHz, the second hour streamed only, on Live365.

FIRST AMENDMENT RADIO

I stumbled onto these programs while checking to see what came on before WWCR's midnight Power Hour replay. They're not talk shows -- so their appearance is as an honorable mention -- but they are nonetheless interesting, informative, radio.

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Melody Cederstrom and Robert Chapman host "Financial Survival." They analyze the day's just finished Wall Street activity (the broadcast is a replay from the afternoon) in the format of a sports postgame show, while pointing out at every opportunity that, in these economic times, gold and silver coins are the safest investment.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Alfred Adask hosts "The American Independence Hour." He'll read a few news stories and offer comments, but then might deliver a 40 minute monologue on what the framers of the US Constitution may have had in mind, on courtroom procedure, or on legal theory. These two hours become pure political science of the kind discussed only in university classrooms.

Both are on WWCR's 3215 kHz transmitter from 11 PM to midnight ET (0500-0600 UTC) Monday through Friday.