Panel > MAO > Hall
in English language

Pit Schultz
(reboot.fm, Klubradio, DE)
Wolfgang Hagen
(Deutschlandradio, author, DE)
Raitis Smits
(e-lab, rixc, radio ozone, Riga, LT)
Balasz Weyer
(Radio Tilos, Budapest, HU)
Jason Forrest
(Donnasummer, WMFU, US)
Henk Bakker
(RadioWORM, NL)
Sabine Breitsameter
Moderation (Audiohyperspace, curator, author, DE)

Radio has never been so boring - commercial radio is completely out of touch with local (sub)- cultures. Independent initiatives - when left in peace to get on with it - demonstrate how radio can be a forum for local artistic and political interaction. In Berlin the fight's been on for years for a free frequency. The radio project reboot.fm, calls now for a complete fresh departure. Decentralised and collaborative productions - forms developed in net-culture and in the free-software movement - will be strategically combined with traditional radio's scale of broadcasting to draw in local producers and promote the exchange of experience and programme content between radio initiatives worldwide. Particularly in former East Block countries, independent radio played a significant role throughout the 90s, supporting the democratisation of politics, cultural life and the media. Which strategies were tried out there? What are the respective cultural backgrounds, which pushes towards the development of alternative radio formats - here and elsewhere? Since its earliest days, radio was conceived as a utopian open space for experiment and creativity, which regarded the listener as an active participant instead of merely as a consumer. The same challenge remains today.