MIM Notes #227       February 1, 2001

Under Lock and Key Radio Growth Campaign issues report

by the MIM Radio project director
January 7, 2001


One third of the way into our 6th month campaign to increase the 
number of stations airing Under Lock and Key, we have many 
infrastructure and political victories to report, although it is 
too early to report significant advances in getting the program on 
the radio.

Under Lock and Key: News and Commentary on Prisons is a weekly 15 
minute radio program produced by MIM and RAIL since 1998. Over the 
years, we've gained experience in producing the program in a 
professional and timely manner, but our efforts at marketing the 
program have been liberal, leading to stagnation and decline in 
our listernship. In November, we announced a six month campaign to 
increase listenership to 10,000.(1) This is a difficult task 
because we don't control the airwaves, however there are 
revolutionary, radical and progressive DJs out there that would be 
interested in playing the program.

In the past two months, we've released 2 CDs of 8 programs in 
total, and have another CD with 5 more programs awaiting mailing. 
Many stations and DJs are being approached on an individual local 
basis. We've contacted stations that used to play the program to 
find out if they are still interested in playing the program, and 
with the help of supporters, we've been compiling lists of 
stations that might play the program. With these lists, we've been 
mailing promotional flyers to the stations, and soon we'll be 
sending sample CDs to those that respond to the flyers as well as 
to specific DJs that we can identify on the Internet as likely to 
play the program. 

Since the initiation of this campaign, we've learned that some 
stations that played the program in the past no longer do. In some 
cases the station itself has closed, and in others, our mail goes 
unanswered where it was previously acknowledged so we have to 
assume that the DJ moved on or changed their political mind about 
the program. So that's a setback of sorts, but it's the direct, 
predictable result our previous practice of relying on existing 
stations and not attempting to recruit new ones. We expect our 
efforts to market the program will bear fruit, but it's still to 
early to expect much, especially as we many DJs are only receiving 
their first CD this week.

We continue to distribute our program on the internet on our 
website and at the Anarchist Radio4all site, (www.radio4all.net). 
From there, the radio program was picked up by a new internet 
broadcast called Radio Uprising on live365.com. To listen on 
Tuesdays or Thursdays between 3-4 (MST), point your browser to: 
http://www.live365.com/cgi-
bin/directory.cgi?autostart=newleftradio

On an infrastructural level, we have some victories to report. 
First, the campaign has excited many in party circles to 
contribution labor and money. Our goal of raising $500 to pay for 
this marketing effort was met in the first month of the campaign. 
Individuals have stepped forward to help with research and 
packaging. And as far as packaging, the increased volume of our CD 
production has inspired the creation of a new, less labor-
intensive packaging to be released with the first CDs of 2001.

The Radio Program is also proud to report that it has received an 
endorsement from Ohio-7 prisoner Jaan Laaman (see related 
article). We've been including his letter with the materials we 
send out on the internet and to radio stations. The Radio Project 
Director was surprised to hear that Jaan was listening to the 
program out of Kansas City, as CDs were not mailed directly to 
that station, nor was this station ever listed as officially 
playing the program. The director eventually did figure out how 
the station was getting the program, but that's not possible for 
us to do when stations get the program from us on the internet, as 
is becoming more common. A year and a half ago, we learned of one 
small pirate radio station playing the program only when they 
emailed us to complain we were late in posting the new 
installments! This was a wonderful surprise. So in order to track 
growth of the program, we need DJs to let us know they are playing 
the program, or alternatively, if you hear the program on the air, 
first contact the DJ to thank them and encourage them to play it 
again, and then to let us know.


Notes:

1. MIM Notes 223, December 1, 2000, 
http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mn/mn223/radio.
txt

ITAL The MIM & RAIL Radio Project can be found online at 
http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/ma/radio.html. You can email the 
MIM & RAIL radio project at radio@mim.org. END