Organization: Air Occupy
Website Address: www.AirOccupy.com
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Brief description of Organization:
An independent, hour-long radio program, Air Occupy features in-depth interviews from an Occupy perspective with experts and activists, covering broad-ranging topics: i.e., income inequality, debt, foreclosures, environmental actions, labor, and privacy. We broadcast/netcast live on Tuesdays, 11 am EST on WELE 1380AM (online: www.GoliathRadio.com). Our shows are re-broadcast on OccupyNewsRadio, podcast on iTunes, and available on our website. We are a Florida not-for-profit corporation, currently filing 501(c)3 papers.
What are some recent accomplishments or projects your Organization is working on?
Air Occupy is the premier Occupy-related radio show in the U.S. We have built a nationwide audience by delivering critical information on the often complex issues that impact people’s lives.
For our most recent show, we highlighted the voices from the #ForwardOnClimate rally protesting the KeystoneXL pipeline in Washington, D.C. on February 17. To our knowledge, we were the only news organization there to interview the everyday people impacted by extractive industries and climate change.
In other powerful shows, we covered 1st Amendment rights, student debt, privatization, NDAA indefinite detention, Citizens United, GMOs, Occupy the SEC, labor rights, police militarization. Past guests include Noam Chomsky, Professor Emeritus at MIT; Chris Hedges, Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist with Truthdig.org; Jay Feldman, Beyond Pesticides; David Cobb, Move to Amend; Professor William Black, white-collar criminologist; Sue Wilson, Emmy-award-winning director of “Broadcast Blues,” and many more over nearly a year of continuous programming.
Tell us how both your Organization and convention attendees would benefit from your Hall booth?
As a special part of our presence at the 2013 Netroots Nation Conference, we propose to continue our current “People’s Mic Project,” which we initiated at the #ForwardOnClimate rally in Washington, D.C. Our booth will include an opportunity for people to tape a brief message to President Obama on an issue of central to the Convention, such as internet freedom. We will compile all of the responses we receive on a CD, which we intend to present to the President after the Convention. Please see our website for more information on our current People’s Mic Project on the Keystone XL pipeline.
In addition, we plan to promote at our booth the wide-ranging iterations of the Occupy movement across the country, including Occupy Media, Occupy Sandy Relief, Occupy the SEC, Occupy the Courts, Occupy National Gathering organizational committee, Occupy Our Homes, Occupy Monsanto, Occupy the Hood, and Occupy the Pipeline.
Though Occupy was repeatedly declared dead (Occupy Is Dead! Long Live Occupy!), the movement dramatically changed the national narrative with record speed. The movement successfully challenged the conservative, fear-based, debt-and-deficit-reduction narrative that had gripped the country and instead turned the discussion to a more thoughtful consideration of income inequality, debt, and corrupt corporate and political institutions. Our booth at the Convention would serve as an information portal to update progressives with what is going on with Occupy.
Despite the fact that Occupy is the largest and most active people-powered movement since the Civil Rights movement, it has been ignored and misrepresented by corporate-owned media outlets. Local and federal law enforcement surveillance of – and violence against – peacefully protesting citizens received relatively little coverage.
Occupy media has aided in magnifying the voices of the people and providing the public with information necessary to make informed judgments about issues of pressing concern – issues that receive little mainstream media attention. No longer should Progressives allow the corporate-controlled media to dictate the parameters of news coverage and the provision of basic information to the public. Air Occupy, as an independent, progressive radio show and as one of the partners working to create Occupy Media Network, is stimulating and supporting the energy necessary to promote progressive change. The continued development of an Occupy-centric and inspired independent media is critical to pushing forward a progressive agenda.
Air Occupy would gain from having a booth at the Netroots Nation Convention by permitting us to promote our broadcast and netcast to a wider audience of progressive activists, and to continue to network and coalition build. We currently reach our audience through technology such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, our website, and InterOccupy conference calls, but attendance at the Convention would allow us to learn about new technologies to employ.
