broadcast outcast

Not that I’m in danger of winning a Pulitzer Prize or anything, but my final writing sample is what pushed me toward being a journalist.  Sure, I’d blogged for a few months about my experience living in Spain, but that was more for my friends and family.  This piece was the first time I had to interview people and synthesize interviews, research, and details.  My goal is to do a lot more stuff like this in my future; cultural issues and events rev my engine when I get to produce material like this.  That said, here comes our last piece of the puzzle:

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Right near the end of the dial, there’s something important going on in Vallecas. Transmitting at 107.5 MHz, Radio Vallekas probably doesn’t reach the vast majority of madrileños, but that doesn’t deter the station from putting its content on the airwaves. If anything, being non-mainstream is exactly what the radio station wants. 

Tucked inside the bottom of an average apartment complex in Vallecas, Madrid’s working-class barrio, Radio Vallekas underwhelms at first sight. The only indication there’s a radio station around is an inconspicuous sign out front and a big antenna spurting up from one side of the roof—a big, corporate-owned media outlet this is not. This radio station calls Vallecas home, the barrio once infamous for the gritty reality its inhabitants were still facing during the post-Franco era, known as La Movida: the drugs, poverty, sex, and challenges of survival captured in early films of Almodóvar and the songs of Aviador Dro and Alaska.

Though the neighbourhood is more family-friendly these days, Radio Vallekas remains in touch with its roots. Founded in the heart of Spanish counterculture in 1985, the station continues to offer alternative programming and music to the general public. The revolutionary spirit of rock and roll lives on in Radio Vallekas; to this day, the station operates without a formal licence, making its broadcast nonlegal (technically outside the law rather than against it). More importantly, Radio Vallekas functions as a non-profit group, meaning there’s no bottom line or corporate agenda chomping into the programmes the station hosts. “We don’t have advertising,” says weekend director Juan Carlos, “and that makes us different from other radio stations. We can put on the programmes that interest us.” 

Only the number of people with new ideas limits what sort of programmes the station transmits. “If someone comes in with an idea for a programme and it’s a little different, then we try to make it happen”, says Juan Carlos. Radio Vallekas also maintains a school for broadcasting, so people looking to get their feet wet in broadcasting get that opportunity. “We have programmes that you won’t find on commercial radio,” Juan Carlos explains, “it’s only other stations like us, the radio vanguard, that can do the things we do.” This vanguard attitude makes Radio Vallekas special; its mosaic of programmes breaks from the standard talk radio and music schedules. While Juan Carlos admits this structure proves chaotic at times, Radio Vallekas offers non-traditional programmes at nearly every hour of the day. 

Since its inception, Radio Vallekas has offered programmes for, about, and from the voices of Vallecas. It serves as the mouthpiece for movements and news from topics ranging from immigration to poverty to women’s rights. People like Juan Carlos make Radio Vallekas the social institution it is. “I’ve been here for fourteen years: since I was sixteen, and I started just doing a programme with some friends,” the weekend director says. Now, he does a little bit of everything to make the station run. With only a few workers actually on the payroll, the greater part of people working at the station do so on a voluntary basis. About forty percent of the station’s operating costs are covered by monthly fees for programmes, which run around 40€ per month. In fact, the station receives almost no help from the government, and, with this in mind, it’s free to pursue whatever kind of programme it wants without a distinct political agenda overhead. Radio Vallekas remains unchanged by shifts in political power and forges on in the ever-changing climate of Spanish media.

More than anything, Radio Vallekas is an outlet for people’s passions and philosophies. Chris Wright, the DJ and host for the Sunday morning show ‘Black Tracks’, provides one such example. His is a programme unlikely to be found on commercial radio in Madrid; every Sunday morning from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., Chris spins tunes ranging from reggae to funk to soul to blues, all in a rotation focusing on music atypical to the Spanish sound. Luckily, for those who happen to party hard on Saturday well into the wee hours of Sunday, “Black Tracks” can be downloaded in its entirety in podcast form athttp://blacktracks.mypodcast.com. When European Vibe caught up with Chris and got to sit in on his session, he played early Bob Marley tracks, James Brown’s ‘The Payback’, and even a reggae Radiohead cover by a contemporary band. It seems an unlikely pairing, an unassuming Brit and music with as much soul as this, but it makes sense given the radio station he broadcasts from. Chris has the freedom to play songs sung in protest, songs about love, and songs that just have a good bassline to them. Anyone familiar with the howling James Brown in ‘The Payback’ can understand why Chris does what he does. For any fans of the show, in early April, Chris will be DJing at a local club in Madrid, and more information about his gig can be found at the MySpace page www.myspace.com/blacktracksespana. 

Now, through the station’s website, www.radiovallekas.org, and MySpace, hordes of shows are available in podcast form and as streams from the internet. Having such a rich history integrated with the community, Radio Vallekas looks forward to a bright future. When asked about his most significant memory at Radio Vallekas, weekend director Juan Carlos said, “probably our twentieth anniversary celebration”. Though the day only consisted of a few commemorative recognitions and some friends and workers going out for drinks, it sticks with Juan Carlos because then he “knew the station had made it that far, for twenty years”, and everyone was happy to celebrate that. As for the future, Radio Vallekas isn’t looking to take over the broadcasting world, but instead, “just trying to maintain what we have”.

Though Radio Vallekas has evolved with time, just like the community it calls home, both still feel the elements their ancestors founded them on every day, and maintaining that ideal only makes sense. So far, that’s exactly what they’ve done.

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So that’s that.  As stated in my previous posts, this article is more or less devoid of my glib asides and sarcasm.  I’m capable of taking the word “I” out of my work, and in fact, think there’s value in that.  At the end of the day, it doesn’t make a difference how a story is told, so long as the right points are hit, you get your facts straight, and you’re objective where you’re supposed to be objective.  No one can ask anything more than that.  I just happen to use humor as one of my main tools.

This is the last of my writing samples I will post.  If you’ve read this far into my blog, then you’ll have a good idea what kind of an applicant I am–writing samples, test scores, GPA, essays…all that stuff.  On top of it, you’ll then be able to point to my strengths and weakness relative to the places I was accepted/rejected.  I hate to belabor the point, but it’s why I’ve created this site.  Hopefully, someone learns something from this.  And if not–well, at least you should get a laugh out of something posted here.

That’s all for now.  I’m gonna go eat some chocolate bunnies and ham.  Not in that order, mind you.