Mark Read, radio

About the Show

The #Occupy movement, born less than three months ago, has spread like wildfire around the country and the globe, taking root in towns and cities everywhere, connecting local struggles to the wider struggle for social and economic justice.  Something powerful is surging and stirring in the people of the world, a hunger for true democracy and a demand for transformative change.

The affiliates network of Pacifica Radio, with more than 300 stations dispersed all over the country, is in a unique position to tap into the energy of this historic grassroots movement, reflecting and amplifying its power by collecting and broadcasting the stories of movement participants from all over.    The affiliates network represents a pool of talent and a range of perspective that has yet to be fully utilized.  Occupied Radio will harness the skills and passion of our affiliate producers to generate an energetic, intelligent, entertaining program that will in turn further strengthen the affiliate network.

Occupied Radio will utilize new technology to enable production and ensure distribution.  We have created an area on audioport that will allow local producers from around the country, and the world, to easily upload content (segments) and become contributors to the program.  These segments will themselves become a library of content available to programmers from around the country to use if they wish to do so.

Occupied Radio is being produced by Mark Read, a radio producer from new affiliate WGXC in Hudson NY, and the former Outreach Director for Democracy Now!  Mark has been deeply involved in #Occupy Wall Street and is an active member of both the Labor Outreach Working Group of #OWS, and the Movement Building Working Group.  He views this as an extraordinary opportunity for both Pacifica, and the #Occupy movement.

The Pacifica Radio affiliate task force has taken the lead and has marshaled its limited resources in order to produce 3-4 pilot programs in the hope that more resources will be found quickly in order to continue this important work.

The #Occupy movement has created a rare and vital moment, opening up a space within which people can come together to work for the kind of transformative change that the current crises (economic, political, environmental) demand.  Let us seize this moment together and create the kind of media that such a moment deserves.