Community Media Spotlight: KPOV & The Point

This month’s episode continues our community media spotlight series by highlighting KPOV & The Point, a daily radio show hosted by a rotating cast of hosts at KPOV 88.9 FM, High Desert Community Radio. This episode is part one of a two-part series! In this first episode, you will hear how The Point and KPOV support and resource community organizing in Central Oregon. In our next episode, we’ll go behind the scenes with one of The Point’s hosts, KPOV Station Manager, and community organizer Bruce Morris! 

Find out when your local radio station is playing Community Media Spotlight: KPOV & The Point at ruralrootsrising.org! 

This episode’s transcript will be available at ruralrootsrising.org.

More on what you heard in this episode:

This episode is part one of a two-part series focused on KPOV & The Point. This month’s episode demonstrates how community radio stations keep our communities safer, informed, and engaged through COVID-19, paramilitary movements, and beyond. 

First, we hear Bruce Morris interview and brainstorm with Janet Sarai Llerandi, Founder and Executive Director of Mecca Bend, in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic was declared and was obviously disproportionately impacting Central Oregon’s communities of color. Mecca Bend is an online directory assistance program that enables the Latinx Community of Central Oregon to find the necessary resources for work support programs, family assistance, education, housing, local events, and much more.

Then we hear an episode from The Point from 2018 where Bruce interviewed Jess Campbell, Rural Organizing Project’s Executive Director, about the growing threats of white nationalist and paramilitary movements. To learn more about paramilitary movements and how rural Oregonians have successfully organized to keep their communities safe in the face of overt paramilitary violence, check out Up in Arms: A Guide to Oregon’s Patriot Movement.

You can listen to full episodes of The Point at kpov.org. To learn more about Bruce’s organizing work in Deschutes County historically, listen to “Building Community Power” from Season 1 of Rural Roots Rising. You can check out more episodes of Rural Roots Rising at ruralrootsrising.org.

If Janet’s stories about the lack of internet access in Central Oregon resonated with you, check out the Roadmap to a Thriving Rural Oregon. Rural community leaders and organizers are working together across Oregon to increase reliable and affordable internet access for rural communities. Learn more at rop.org/roadmap!

If you are interested in connecting with other rural Oregonians who are making media and building stronger communities in your area, head to www.rop.org to learn more about Rural Organizing Project and how you can get involved or reach out to us at [e-mail].

We featured music from Ben von Wildenhaus and The Road Sodas!

Rural Roots Rising is a production of the Rural Organizing Project. Thank you for listening!

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