Fire in the Hole: GI Resistance Radio

[unhappycamper]

Tune in Live on Saturday from 1-2pm EST at WBAI.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
APRIL 10, 2008


WBAI BROADCASTS ONE HOUR
SPECIAL FOR VETERANS:

"Fire in the Hole: GI Resistance Radio"



WHAT & WHEN: WBAI, 99.5 FM in New York City, part of the noncommercial listener-supported Pacifica Radio Network, is broadcasting a one-hour special for military members and veterans. "Fire in the Hole: GI Resistance Radio" will be broadcast this Saturday, April 12, from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m on 99.5 FM in the NYC metro area and streaming live at WBAI.org. We invite veterans and non-veterans alike to tune in and get a new picture of the war at home and abroad.

WHY NOW? There is a glaring need on the public airwaves for a show by and for veterans and active service members. This broadcast will be a first step in trying to fill that need. The hosts for the show are Iraq Veterans Against the War members Margaret Stevens and Jen Hogg. The broadcast will include in-depth interviews with three veterans as well as shorter comments from a variety of vets who left messages on a call-in line. Major themes of the show will involve the three stages of the military experience: recruitment, active military service, and "coming home," along with the three "isms": militarism, racism, and sexism.

BREAKING THE SILENCE: "We're veterans, and it's time to break the silence," Stevens and Hogg say. "On Fire in the Hole, Iraq-era veterans and service members will speak out. Too often our voices are marginalized and even left out of conversations about the military. This is OUR program -- through it we can intervene in American radio while service members face conflict overseas. Here we'll discuss questions of war and peace without placing race, class and gender on the sidelines. Above all our mission is to provide a platform for veterans and soldiers to express themselves. We want listeners to join our conversation."

"Fundamentally, our goal is to draw correlations between the oft-referenced 'war at home and abroad,' between the militarism the United States exports overseas and the poverty draft that provides the military with bodies to carry out that agenda. At the same time, the program's primary mission is to provide an open-minded, unrestricted platform for vets and soldiers to express themselves, not for a small minority to act as gatekeepers of the myriad views of this massive but silenced multitude. Please join us."