ABSTRACT
Elizabeth Robinson and I are the co-hosts of a two-hour weekly public affairs/cultural arts radio program airing on KCSB 91.9 FM Santa Barbara, the only community radio station in Santa Barbara, just this month celebrating its fortieth anniversary. “No Alibis” is a spin-off of an earlier show Elizabeth did for a long time called “Viewpoints,” which I joined later. On “No Alibis” we focus on a range of current events in an international perspective. We use a semi-structured format, spending the first half-hour providing analysis of the week’s news, mixing commentary on the mainstream coverage and reportage of lesser known issues and events. After a music break, we provide in-depth analysis of two social/political issues. For example, in one show, we might have two thirty- to forty-minute reports on armed conflict in Africa, one from Nigeria and one from Ethiopia, each quite different in approach and perspective, yet having a unified theme. Or we could interview a local lawyer/activist on elder abuse, following a big local story, and then interview Neil Watkins from the World Bank Bond Boycott. Usually we arrange interviews with national (by phone) or local (in-studio) guests, although sometimes we cover issues ourselves. We have a few reporters for “No Alibis” who routinely report on specific issues we cover regularly. Ruth Wilson Gilmore, who is here at the conference, is a correspondent for us on prisons and prison activists. We also air op-ed commentaries (we aired one of Amitava Kumar’s, our panel organizer), play music, and read public service announcements. We do special programming, such as the December “Book Tastings,” and theme-focused shows for Women’s and Black History Month. We participate in global media projects, such as “Voices without Frontiers.” Occasionally, we air prerecorded programs, such as one we broadcast recently by the Radio Freedom Archives on the history of the Attica uprising on the occasion of its thirtieth anniversary. In general, we mix our focus between timely current issues, whether local, national, or international, and important topics with a longer shelf-life. As a community radio station, we do all the research, show preparation, production, and engineering ourselves.
