Antenas comunitarias, la otra frecuencia en Colombia - Parte 3

Esta es la tercera y última entrega de nuestro episodio 'Antenas Comunitarias: La Otra Frecuencia en Colombia'. Hasta ahora, hemos explorado definiciones, normatividad y experiencias en emisoras comunitarias. En este segmento final, contamos con la participación de dos invitadas especiales para hablar sobre 'La Cometa', una emisora comunitaria ubicada en San Gil, Santander

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Conflicts over the land of indigenous communitiesoccur in several regions of the country.
One million hectares of forest have beendeforested in Colombia in the last twenty-
eight years as a result of drugtrafficking, illegal mining and the excessive use
of land for livestock. The secondjudge of restitution of land of an antioque
section threatened to send to the prosecutiona victim for claiming his rights before his

(00:25):
office, how about this is tiredof hearing this for years. You knew
that in Colombia one percent of thepopulation occupies eighty- one percent of the
land, while ninety- nine percentof the land is blamed by the other
nineteen percent of the population. Iknew that only twenty- six percent of

(00:47):
the productive units are headed by women. A Rosario Radio and the Observatory of
Lands present with their feet on Eartha space to expand the dialogue on the
Colombian property and the generating field.Welcome to our program with the Feet on

(01:23):
Earth carried out by the Observatory ofLands, in the alliance, with the
digital waves of the Institutional Issue ofthe University of Rosario a Rosario Radio.
Today the working table is in chargeof the agricultural seedbed of the Pontifical Jabrian
University. Luis Durán is with uswith a Master' s degree in international

(01:45):
studies, in my emphasis, ininternational cooperation projects of the same University and
who Lina María Saez speaks to themin master' s control. Nelson Duarte
is with us at the Directorate GeneralMario Castro and in the production Carolina Cruz
remember that you can listen to uson our website, w a rosary radio

(02:07):
co or on the streaming platform ofyour choice, where you can access and
download our episodes. Don' tforget to follow us on our social networks.
In x before, Twitter does notfind itself as lands rover observes and
on Facebook we are like Facebook combarringingnada. Lands are welcome and welcome with

(02:34):
feet on the ground is produced bythe Earth Observatory. We welcome you to
the last of three episodes of ourcommunity antenna series. The other frequency in
Colombia, where we will talk abouta historic community station. In Colombia it

(03:00):
' s about comenia. This smallseries of Community broadcasts talked about definitions,
regulation, professional experiences, what arethese potential advantages that Community broadcasters have,
but also their networks. In thefirst episode we were with a spectacular guest,

(03:21):
Juan Carlos Quintero, professor of communicationat Javeriana University. Our second episode
invited Percho Peña, who, fromhis experience as a radio announcer and trainer,
told us his opinion about the importanceof community radio stations. And today
we close with brooch or we areaccompanied by two community food managers, Elena

(03:42):
Martínez and Ibn janet Pit. So, please, don' t miss any
episode of this other frequency in Colombiato give start of space. We welcome
Elena, who with more than sevenyears in the project is placed as a
fundamental piece in the comet, notonly as coordinator and pro gras leader,
but as a faithful servant of allthose people who find themselves on the other

(04:03):
side of the radio, tuning indaily the one hundred and seven of stereo
fem. Welcome Elena, please tellme our listeners, who you and what
role the comet plays. My name, Elena Martínez Sánchez, the voice of
the listener, member of the Committeeof the Ombudsman of the Radio Community,

(04:30):
the Comet of San Gil. Also, we welcome a janet Pico flowers co
- founder of the Comet twice,winner of the Departmental Prize for Journalism Luis
Enrique figueroar Rey in the years twothousand fourteen and two thousand twenty- three
and author of the book La Cometafifteen years of Sil Wagert history, published
in the year two thousand twenty-three. Welcome to Ivonne and thank you
for participating in this space. Aswe saw in the first episode of our

(04:55):
series, the community radio stations hada very strong impulse with the Constitution of
nine hundred and ninety- eight,and that is why we wanted to ask
Ibon how it was specifically the birthof the comet. My name is ibn
janet Pico flowers I am Sangileña.I have been linked to the project of

(05:15):
the community radio station Cometa since itsinception. The comet was born in nineteen
hundred and ninety- seven, inDecember of that year and, basically,
is born because the Constitution of the1990s allows the organized communities of the country
to access, therefore, to livethe human right to communication. This is

(05:43):
how they begin to create in differentparts of the country, this region of
southern Santander, because it was notalien to that boom, since social organizations,
associations, foundations, all of themnot for profit so that, after
collecting certain records before the Ministry ofCommunications, since they could be in that

(06:05):
case, to agree to be providersof the radio service, which is what
we could access to a community frequency, because in this case, at least
for the San Gill project, thecomet, I have always wanted to describe

(06:27):
it under this figure, and thatis that it was like a desired son.
An important territorial development project, ledby social pastoral care, the Diocese
of Socorro and San Gil and agroup of organizations that had begun to emerge
from the base and proper, wasalready being carried out here, because of

(06:50):
this organizational process of accompaniment and formation, which the social pastor had been for
several decades now, more or lesssince the 1960s. So, as the
different strategies were walking, the organizationalstrategies of association, let' s say

(07:11):
from solidarity with cooperatives and because inthat group of organizations and organizational impulse of
the social base, because it wasalso necessary, as if the communication strategy
was more organized around these projects,then COMETA was born as an association of
organizations. I think that is whatmakes it very particular in the country as

(07:41):
well. It was then born withan organizational base that was already there,
already promoting many, many, manydevelopment projects in the region, especially educational
ones, because there was already anISN GIL. And so, of course,
there is already a whole set oforganisations that make the association and that

(08:07):
decide, therefore, to encourage themselvesto count or to access a community radio
frequency. However, I would considerthat a project like these must face a
number of important challenges, especially atthe beginning what it believes were these for
the comet, because the main challengeswhen the comet is born, have to

(08:30):
do with many things. First ofall, I insist as when a father
and a mother, parents are first- timers. There are many things that
are intuitive, but there are othersthat come with exercise. So, first
of all, let' s saythere was a house, there was a
physical space, there was a seedcapital, if you want to see it

(08:54):
that way to start working with.But, because there were primiparities like the
equipment that had to be bought,put like all the technical operating ability to
start, because there it was necessaryto go to expert people who were in
Bogotá to buy equipment, to makethe antenna installations. Anyway, like everything

(09:16):
else, this process of starting aproject that has to do with the administrative,
with the technical, with the communicative. Here we arrived, let'
s say a group of students fromthe University of San Gill, Unisan Gill,
from different disciplines and we were accompaniedby a recently graduated professional from the

(09:37):
Autonomous University of the communication program.So, the first thing was how to
start designing the contents, start designingthe programming grid, start putting a face
on that new communication project. Ofcourse there were challenges around sustainability. I

(10:00):
think part of the project could besustained is that good. First of all,
because it was like the novelty ofhaving a radio station on n FM
in San Gill, the habit oflistening, because of that time already twenty
- five years ago, a littlemore, because it was practically in AEM
and it was, like a wholepedagogy also start of how to listen on

(10:26):
FM. True, to begin todo as a pattern design the community stations,
because they are entitled at that time, at least fifteen minutes of commercial
pattern per programming hour, or itis impossible to fill with the commercial dynamics
of a municipality all that time.But let' s say there was an

(10:50):
important effort. I believe that financingwas important to start thinking about, not
just from a purely commercial point ofview. Let' s say sponsorship guidelines
and this that was important was veryimportant in the beginning, but it was
also key to start thinking about howthe station understood itself as an important actor

(11:15):
of local communication. And then,in that sense, the comet began to
have spaces for conversation, to openup or to say, to begin to
integrate communication spaces, for example inscenarios such as the network of good treatment
Where is the ICBF, where arethe authorities that thought about the issue of
children and youth in San Gil,with social organizations, but also with institutionality.

(11:41):
Let' s say that this multi- actor dialogue was very important for
thinking about the financing of the process, not just in the short, but
in the medium and long term.I also believe that a key element of
its beginnings, because it had ateam of people also professionals in the administrative
area. The station has always countedon a manager, its first manager,

(12:03):
a graduate of business management from thejaveriana, with a secretary, with an
accountant, with a fiscal reviewer,that is to say, there was a
device that was important for the administrativeissue, and let us also say that
it did as balance with the creativeteam, with the team that was thinking

(12:26):
about programming, how we can seethese challenges and obstacles that the comet has
had also involve certain actors. Sowe asked our guests to tell us about
which actors have been key to thesustainability and development of the project. And
we must remember that it is notany project that is a project that takes

(12:46):
twenty- six years to go.But, on the other hand, we
also understand ourselves as an important andstrategic actor for the development of the territory,
that is, an actor that promotes, that encourages spaces of conversation,
that also invites to be part ofthese scenarios to the different voices that are

(13:07):
also leading or intervening in actions ofsocial change. Let us say this social
dialogue is important and I believe ithas been an element that has been built
over time and perfected in the truemodel, because it is not that it
was so thought from the beginning.Everything has gone, let' s say,
the process, the project has beenfine- tuned. I believe that

(13:31):
another fundamental element to understand also itssustainability over time, because it is the
work of volunteerism, that is,by comet. In twenty- five years
more than 1, 500 young people, boys and young girls have passed.
Some of them found in communication away, a way of life and have

(13:52):
professionalized, say, their job profilesin that sense. Others don' t,
But that doesn' t mean thatbecause of their step, they have
not only found there a laboratory,a school to learn, to communicate,
to dialogue, but also, leavingpart of their talent at the service of

(14:16):
this cause. So, I thinkthat has been a fundamental element. Communication
is between many people. We didn' t say all the voices, no,
all the voices, no, becausethere are also the voices of violence,
there are also the voices that promoteother lifestyles. And in reality this

(14:37):
has also that is a project.I think thinking as a project, that
means that it is not finished,that it will always be susceptible to improvements,
to suddenly stop exercises or practices torethink. So that seems to me
to be a fundamental element. Tothink as a process to think like a

(15:03):
project, but to know that itis a project and a process that needs
to be built with many hands,with many hearts, with many minds,
with many voices, voices that,therefore, can be identified in what the
project is betting and with what theproject wants for the territory. It is
true that it is the change fromcommunication or being an actor of change of

(15:26):
communication, as BOLD tells us,there have been multiple actors from the Community
in its different dimensions, the educationsector even the third factor as NGOs.
Thus it can be recognized that thereare a multiplicity of people who have made
important contributions to this project. Butin turn, the project has remained and
permeated the social fabric, the stationis involved social, cultural, educational actors,

(15:54):
authorities in general the Community that receivesthe sound waves of the community radio
comet. Each of these actors assumesa specific role, depending on their condition.

(16:15):
For example, social actors have todo with matters relating to the Community
in general. Cultural actors have todo with specific issues of culture, heritage,
literature, music, popular knowledge ororality of the people and issues related

(16:41):
to the culture of the Sanguileña community. Educational actors are playing a role in
reporting on matters related to education atthe primary and upper secondary levels. Here

(17:03):
at the comet come teachers of anyof the educational levels in the municipality and
do their communicative affairs from here forall the population that has direct relation to
what has to do with education.The authorities, of course, municipal authorities,

(17:26):
civil and religious authorities, use communityradio and comet to bring direct messages
to the Community, over which theyhave an influence. What kind of contribution
you consider, what this station isdoing to the Community in particular. The

(17:51):
comet is emblematic and St Gil isthe community radio. On Community Radio.
There' s a very clear matterthat we have, and it' s
the one related to the music thatsounds on the station. We take care
that, from different points of view, it contributes to the formation of a

(18:15):
dignified citizen culture. Likewise, theevents that are advertised here should be related
to community promotion. The programmes coverthe target population on a case- by
- case basis and each subject underconsideration. This allows us to feel that

(18:37):
the comet contributes to the Community andresponds to its vision of community radio,
taking advantage of the fact that youare a programme leader and advisor, you
could tell us a little more aboutthe issues that the radio- humanises today.
It could also give us a briefaccount of this. Different themes have
been presented according to each situation,but by listing some, I will mention

(19:03):
them thematic, mental health, economics, personal growth, recreation, spirituality,
orality, literacy heritage, sports,entrepreneurship, women, association, gatherings,

(19:26):
life stories. But I already mentionedit are multiple thematics according to the needs
of those who shake the comet tolook for the microphones and the signals open
strategic issues such as solidarity, thesolidarity economy, the popular economies, issues

(19:48):
related to the whole line of association, then the communal action boards, all
the issue that has to do withthe educational, with the care of the
common house, the common goods,the environment. Then there is also a
line, or say, a strain, a space that a few bands,

(20:10):
that is also constructed according to that, to the theme of care, of
the common house, of the commongoods, of the environment, of the
agro- ecological practices that allow tohave a greater sensitivity with the care of
the water and others, I believethat it has also been important in terms

(20:33):
of themes, since being able tobe linked to what is happening true to
the social and community activism that alsohas the municipality, which does not necessarily
have to be led from the radio, but with which the radio is also
identified and accompanied. So the stationis always there for gender issues, for
women' s issues, for educationalissues, for research, to make extension

(20:57):
spaces also for universities according to theirresearch projects with the productive sectors, to
also accompany, for example, coffeegrowers, tobacco growers in their time.
So I think the comet has beenable to say at this time, in

(21:22):
these decades, because it has keptits signal open, because it has been
able, in the first place,to always try to do maybe not always
in the best way, but alwayswith a good intention. And it is
undeniable that in the last decades ofthe media and its dynamics have been evolving
in a very accelerated way, changingfrom programmatic content to forms of consumption.

(21:47):
Same. In this sense, changeshe believes have had to involve the comet
within five or ten years. Andthat' s real. Let' s
say, that' s an elementthat' s happening and that' s
changing. Then the station has alsohad to mutate towards it. He has
had to start thinking more from theaudiovisual, from the content in networks,

(22:12):
how to be able to make ofthat which is the instant, the media,
which is a little, like thewaves that come and go true,
like the stories that have twenty-four hours. How to combine this with
these gazes of more rested territory andmore in the medium and in the long
term, it is not easy.I think that' s one of the

(22:33):
challenges. How to get involved andsustain the participation and presence of children and
young people in their spaces of contentproduction. It' s not easy either.
Let' s always say that elementssuch as projects must be used,
such as strategies that allow the youngerpopulation to be linked to their communication project

(23:00):
or to find, let' ssay, a way of articulating the communication
to be done at school, forexample, that has been an important element
with schools. There is always agreat receptivity with a care network that is
made up of all psycho- orientedpedagogues from the public schools of San Gil.

(23:22):
It has been important, for example, to advance in class radio projects
with feet on the ground. Itis produced by the Earth Observatory, as
we saw in this series of communityantenna programs. The other frequency, in

(23:44):
Colombia, community radio stations have playedan integral role in communities, for example,
training programs for children and adolescents,listening spaces for people who may not
have favia in larger or commercial media, individual review tools and here it has
also been spaces for the reception ofyoung professionals who want to pay back to
their community or win, why notexperience in this type of spaces and gestures.

(24:11):
They also face significant logistical and financialchallenges. It is worth thinking not
only of ways in which the statecan strengthen these spaces, but also of
institutions such as universities betting on projectsinvolving community broadcasters or even private companies running
their social responsibility actions. It isa line that the entire company should have

(24:33):
to undertake and fund training programmes foradolescents and young people in vulnerable contexts.
In this way, we would liketo extend an invitation to our audience to
be encouraged to consume local produce inthe broad sense of the word, that
is, to support these initiatives thatsomehow or other, rescue the voices of
our neighborhoods, our paths, theco- ordinations and the broad features of

(24:56):
the communities that are still far fromthe middle. At this point, we
thank Juan Carlos Quintero, Fernando Peña, Elena Martínez un Pico for accepting the
invitations and making possible this series ofprograms that talk about that other frequency in
colón. We also thank Diana Ortua, Andrés Zárate, María Paula Mellizo and
Luis Durán, who are part ofthe agricultural seedbed of the Pontifical Javeriana University,

(25:21):
for accompanying us and building this smallbreed. We extend our thanks to
Nelson from Master Control and a radiostation for making this space possible. We
also thank those who tune in toour signal remember to visit our website w
Observatorio de Tierras dot org Bar tiltedPodcast to listen to more of our episodes

(25:45):
and be attentive to all our publications. They forget to follow us on our
social networks. On x before,Twitter finds us as Earths watches and on
Facebook, as Facebook with tilted barEarths watches. Until next time, conflicts

(26:10):
over the land of indigenous communities occurin several regions of the country. One
million hectares of forest have been deforestedin Colombia in the last twenty- eight
years as a result of drug trafficking, illegal mining and the excessive use of
land for livestock. The second judgeof the restitution of land withdrew, threatening
to send a victim to the prosecutionfor claiming his rights before his office.

(26:34):
He' s tired of hearing thisfor years. You knew that in Colombia
one percent of the population occupies eighty- one percent of the land, while
ninety- nine percent of the landis blamed by the other nineteen percent of
the population. I knew that onlytwenty- six percent of the productive units

(26:57):
are headed by women. A radiorosary and the Earth Observatory presented with their
feet on Earth a space to expandthe dialogue on Colombian property and countryside