Community Media Spotlight: Rural Race Talks

Rural Roots Rising is both a podcast and a radio show airing on 19 community radio stations, and it’s also an ongoing experiment in building up our media skills across rural Oregon. In Season 2 we are amplifying rural radio shows and digging into how they do what they do in the hopes of building up our collective rural media making abilities and supporting the work of the incredible community radio stations we partner with. In this month’s episode, we tune in to Rural Race Talks from Coast Community Radio for our first ever Community Media Spotlight. 

We’re excited to feature Rural Race Talks over 2 episodes! This month’s episode includes sections of LaNicia’s show, particularly her episode from November 4th, 2020, where she models what it looks like to make space on the airwaves for meeting people where they’re at. Next month, we’ll go behind the scenes to learn more about LaNicia’s organizing and the history of her show.

Find out when your local radio station is playing Community Media Spotlight: Rural Race Talks  at ruralrootsrising.org! 

Download this episode’s transcript at ruralrootsrising.org.

More on what you heard in this episode:

Rural Race Talks is a live call-in radio show hosted by LaNicia Duke that is carving out space for rural Oregonians to grapple with our unique legacy of systemic racism and what that means for our present in ways that are honest and sometimes messy. The show comes at these conversations from multiple angles--everything from how we can begin to heal from our collective, social, and generational traumas to what 2020 has taught us about race. LaNicia is a self-identified “brown-skinned girl” and community organizer in Tillamook County, a county that is nearly 94% white. She considers the radio show an extension of her organizing and the real-life conversations she is having off the air with her friends and neighbors up and down the coast. You can listen to full episodes of Rural Race Talks at coastradio.org. You can also check out more episodes of Rural Roots Rising at ruralrootsrising.org. 

To learn more about LaNicia’s organizing work in Tillamook County, go to ruralracetalks.com and love-coalition.org

If you are interested in connecting with other rural Oregonians who are making media or building power 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]

Did you like the music in this episode? We featured The Library Anns, Junior 85 and Aretha Franklin.

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

Support the show