Valley Free Radio » Committees

The Summer Grab Bag Enviro Show; 7/8/08, 6:30pm

Enviro Show — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:03:27 +0000

Greetings Earthlings. Time to declare our independence from the enemies of the planet. Tom Neilson puts on his roving reporter’s hat and phones in from the heartland to talk about the proposed dumping of coal ash on farm land (what a concept!). We have a peek at local clearcutting facilitated by the Commonwealth (in their infinite wisdom!) and, as always, we give you the Enviro Show Quote of the Week, a visit with Darth Cheney and the boy emperor (both of whom experienced some un-welcomed rebellion on July 4 ), but first it’s time for……Revenge of the Critters! Slug epidemic in the UK!

Since it’s the Grab Bag Enviro Show we thought we’d reference this past national holiday and the Bush regime’s schemes for more war with “Army Nation” by the Boston band, Girl on Top. That’ll take us to The Enviro Show Quote of the Week: A year ago, Barack Obama compared “the tyranny of oil” to that of Fascism saying, “The very resource that has fueled our way of life over the last hundred years now threatens to destroy it if our generation does not act now and act boldly.” We assume such bold action does not include making war on Iran. How about a War on Corporados?

There it is again! Glen, is it over now?? Looks like the boy emperor caught some flak on his July 4 visit to Tomas Jefferson’s house! Meanwhile, here in the birthplace of Independence, Darth Cheney got a similar reception on the Fourth of July. So much for the good news, on to the Bush regimes usual misdeeds, like for instance White House tries to keep EPA from showing how greenhouse gases could be regulated. And this, Former EPA official talks about White House’s unwillingness to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. No!

In the Enviro Show Echo Chamber we take a look at all the clearcuts here in the Commonwealth with a visit to the ClearcutMA blog. Stumps don’t lie, folks. You have to see it to believe it!

Finally, it’s time to scope out the Bus Stop Billboard:

Thursday, July 10; 6:30pm. Friends of Southampton Greenway
speaker series at the Edwards Library. This month’s speaker
is Mark Samsel, President of the Windham Rail Trail.
More info at: http://southamptongreenway.org/speakerseries.html

Thursday, July 10, 17, 24; 4:30 – 5:30 pm
Weekly Green Energy Vigil!! Wells Fountain, Junction of Linden and Main, Brattleboro, VT. We will be here every week until Vermont Yankee is closed. Come join US!!
More info 802-387-4060

Friday – Sunday, July 25-27, Clamshell Alliance Reunion!
World Fellowship Center, Albany, NH. Call 603-447-2280

July 27 – August 3, Northeast Climate Confluence: High Falls, NY
At the convergences there will be dozens of workshops and trainings,
networking opportunities, and strategy sessions aimed at building a
strong grassroots movement for climate justice. The convergences are
spaces not only to fight climate change but to throw off the yoke of
corporate control over our lives, working to build community controlled
alternatives to Wall Street and Washington. The convergences will be
models of the world we wish to live in, utilizing sustainable living
skills and consensus based decision making by all participants.

The convergences are also an opportunity to hone your direct action
skills and put them into, well, action. While creating sustainable
alternatives is important, indeed necessary, we must also continue to
confront those that are creating and profiting from the climate crisis.
Each climate convergence will culminate in an exciting and empowering
direct action taking on a different aspect of the climate crisis in each
region.

To register visit: http://www.climateconfluence.org/blog/

Saturday, August 2; 12pm. STOP WAR ON IRAN !
Mass march in NYC. Go to: http://www.stopwaroniran.org/
Email: stopwaroniran@stopwaroniran.org

August 6-9; Walk for a Nuclear Free Future
From Williamstown, MA to Montpelier, VT
For further info. Heidi 518-885-1806 or Hattie 978-249-6224

August 10 – 25; Solar Rollers back on the trail in Vermont!!
Please contact us if you are interested in joining this ride! or would like to
organize a potluck and discussion group in a town on the route or near!
solarollers@gmail.com or call David 413-863-9296 or Peg 802-387-4845.

OK for this day. Next time it’s wolf reintroduction in the great northeast. Until then remember: listen to your Mother……and throw out the tyrants!

Operations Committee Minutes – 1-30-2008

Bill Weye — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:34:48 +0000

Following is an audio file of the first (new) operations committee meeting that took place on January 20, 2008. Attendance was taken during the meeting. The file can be downloaded below, played below, and will be distributed via the podcast.

This is also a test of sorts: the new podcasting features the web dude is working on, and an alternative way (telephone or Skype conferencing) for VFR committees to conduct meetings.

OPERATIONS COMMITTEE DRAFT NOTES

JAN 30, 2008

Present: Ed Russell[Tech Comm]; Bob Gutowski [Transmitter]; Bill Weye [Website] Tony Shannon [Fundraising, Board, Operations Coor], Bob Gardner [Operations Coord, Finance]; Jose Tolson [Station Managers], Fidel Hildalgo [Board]

No representatives present from: Programming, Training, Studio Committees.

Summary of discussion & decisions:

* We will continue to meet via phone conference. Bill Weye recorded this session using Skype [internet phone technology]
* Since we were expecting the charges for this session to be in the range of $40-60, next time we will try doing a â€œSkypeâ€ option, where Bill will call each participant and link us. To this we will all need to notify him of what number we would like to be connected on.
* A key mandate for OC is to get volunteers plugged into work committees. To do this, we will need: a list of available people from programming, a list from each committee of how many people they need & what skills are required, and somebody(s) to be volunteer coordinators. Bob Gardner has some possible candidates to approach. Fidel has been working on surveying programmers for what they already are doing.; he will continue that work, and send OC a list of people and current tasks.
* We generally discussed the nature and mission of the Operations Committee and how it would operate. My sense from that discussion is that it will continue to be a communication vehicle, with most work being accomplished in member committees. Occasionally, tasks will be performed directly and/or problems addressed and resolutions found in these meetings.

-by B Gardner

Program Proposals

Bill Weye — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 12:06:35 +0000

The official VFR program proposal form is now live.You can find the form and submission directions here:

http://www.valleyfreeradio.org/programming/program-proposals/Â

PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE MEETING 10.25.07

Bill Baue — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:56:52 +0000

tomorrow – Thursday @ 7pm @ the station
please attend and help with the new collective organization process

Fundraising Committee Meeting 10.7.07

Bill Baue — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:58:35 +0000

*The next Fundraising Committee meeting will take place this Sunday 10/7 at Cafe Evolution on Maple st. in Florence at 11:00 am.*

Programming Committee Meeting 5-9-07

Bill Baue — Thu, 17 May 2007 13:39:08 +0000

In Attendence: Michelle LeBlanc, Steve Cutting, Tony Shannon, Lila Wolan, Ed Russell, Nick Curley, Tony Udell (Facilitator) D.O. (from the Enviro Show), Bob Gardner, Ben Frank, Chris Walther.

Meeting Called to Order at 7:10pm

Introductions

1. New Members: concern regarding how new members are introduced to the station and trained.

Tony U. proposed that VFR revive Sunday training sessions.

Unanimous decision to hold a trial Sunday training session on June 3rd from 10AM to 1pm

Bob proposed removing collective responsibility for training to be replaced with training sessions. Programming committee will gradually try to do this. New policy documents will be created regarding training requirements in future Programming Committee meetings.

2. PSAs/Show Promos: Rotations of PSAs, requirements by FCC, enforcement

Tony U. will discuss with Eric in training the “PSA director” position for volunteer coordination

3. Program Proposals

Ben Frank and Chris Walther, members of the Northampton HS Republicans Club proposed a political issues dialogue talk show (title TBA). Are looking for a weekend time slot.

Show approved. Referred to The Youth Collective to begin training.

Steve Cutting proposed a general music show, will present a full proposal on the next meeting on 6/19

Website Policies Draft

Bill Baue — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:15:25 +0000

To be presented to the General Meeting 21 March 2007

The Valley Free Radio (VFR) Board has authority over VFR website content, appearance, coding and practices. As an important public face and portal to VFR, website content shall reflect and be in accordance with the VFR mission and vision statements and consistent with all VFR policies and procedures. The VFR website, design, content and files are property of Valley Free Radio. Audio content copyright resides with to the show producers.

The web committee shall operate the website on a day to day basis. The website Managing Editor shall enforce Board decisions and approve all content and changes to site, directly accountable to the Board. The Developer shall direct coding and maintenance of the site. The Web committee will operate in accordance with VFR committee structure.

Web code shall be consistent with Web design best practices. The VFR website will strive towards coding and design that is inclusive and provides access to all, such as people with visual impairments or computers with functional constraints such as connection speed. The site will be in compliance with ADA accessibility standards. VFR should always strive towards delivering valid and accessible code. Code should be validated against the standards established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act.

In accordance with VFR’s mission, website software will prefer open-source and other non-commercial alternatives, and will not require users to use any propriety or fee-based software for access.

General Policies:

The website shall function as a broadcast medium consistent with and in accordance with all VFR policies, such as those regarding profanity, grievances, etc, and will comply with all applicable state, federal, and international laws. In accordance with VFR’s non-commercial mission, there will be no advertising or commercial activity on the website.

The VFR website shall operate in accordance with all copyright laws, including the Fair Use doctrine, and neither host nor link to prohibited content of any kind. Programmers linking to or hosting files at the VFR website are responsible for acting in accordance with copyright laws. Website content is protected under the Creative Common License — Attribution, Non-Commercial, and Non-Derivative. Use of website content beyond VFR is contingent on notifying the Managing Editor of this use.

Links:

The site shall include links to outside websites that are related to VFR programming, Low Power FMs (LPFMs), media reform, and community radio approved by the Website Editor accountable to the Board.

User Generated Content:

User generated content such as comments and blog posts may be moderated by the Managing Editor consistent with VFR’s policies and accountable to the Board.

Committee Chairs:

Committee chairs are responsible for keeping the website editor informed of committee scheduling and news, and providing minutes and other information vital to member access and transparency.

Webmail:

Anyone who volunteers for VFR for more than 3 months is entitled to a myname@valleyfreeradio.org webmail, either with server storage if there is enough space or as a forwarder. Also, any committee or collective is entitled to start their own email list to be used in their completion of Valley Free Radio business. Email lists will be hosted off-site, such as google or yahoo. Email and list use shall be consistent with VFR policies and practices and is subject to revocation at any time by Board determination.

Program Calendar:

Programmers are responsible for keeping the Programming Committee and/or Website Managing Editor up to date with program information.

Programming Committee Meeting 2.20.07

Bill Baue — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 14:05:15 +0000

Programming Committee Meeting
Tuesday February 20, 2007
MEF, 60 Masonic St. Northampton
7PM

From March onwards this committee will meet monthly, with the next
meeting on Tuesday, March 13th.

Upcoming Meetings: Programming, Board, Scheduling, Bylaws, Membership

Bill Baue — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 02:49:21 +0000

Programming Committee Meeting
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Media Education Foundation
60 Masonic St., Northampton
7:00 PM

Board of Directors
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Media Education Foundation
7:00 PM

Scheduling Subcommitee
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Silk City, Florence
7:00 PM

Bylaws Revision Committee
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Media Education Foundation
5:30- 6:30

General Membership Meeting
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Media Education Foundation
7:00 PM

Community in Radio Mural Unveiling for Valley Free Radio Station

Bill Weye — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 04:28:00 +0000

Over the course of the summer and this school year members of Youth Leadership in the Arts, a media arts and activism program for middle and highschoolers, met to brainstorm a mural for the new community radio station, Valley Free Radio located in Florence, MA. The youth leaders steadily carried out sessions to envision a mural about the importance and symbols of grassroots media democracy. From the ideas generated, the mural was designed, gridded and painted on the walls of the valleyâ€™s emerging community radio station.

On Monday December 5th at 6pm the Peer Leaders who created the mural will dedicate and celebrate with community members their hard work and accomplishments in the completion of the mural this month. The celebration will include storytelling, slide show and more. Please join us in our celebration.

Youth Leadership in the Arts
YLA is a media arts and activism program based at Casa Latina in Northampton, MA. YLA emphasizes how a diverse group of young people can work together to improve their everyday lives and their communities. YLA focuses on educational activities and projects that endorse and strengthen the grassroots leadership skills of young people.

Valley Free Radio
Valley Free Radio is a non-profit, community based and volunteer run radio station for the Greater Northampton area. In accordance with the Media Education Foundationâ€™s mission, we seek to inspire, and entertain through programming that reflects the diversity of the local community.

Monday, December 5th, 6-7:30pm
Valley Free Radio Station at Florence Community Center 140 Pine St. Florence, MA 01032

Contact: Elisabeth (eli) Weaver
Youth Leadership in the Arts
413.320.3243
eli_yla@hotmail.com

Next Programming Committee Meeting

Annalise — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 12:31:28 +0000

Please note that the next Programming Committee Meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 20 at 7:00 p.m. The meeting will take place in the Community Room, which is located at MEF – 60 Masonic Street, Northampton, MA. MEF is located behind Woodstar Cafe in Northampton.

The Committee will hold elections for the SubCommittee on Scheduling and Collective Formation at this meeting. All those interested in running for this committee should notify annalise fonza, Programming Committee facilitator, by Friday, November 17. You can reach annalise at fireinbones@hotmail.com. A current list of those running for this committee is posted online in the Programming Committee minutes for October 3, 2006, but for your convenience, the current nominees are:

Lila Wolan, Chris Tinson, Cathy Santosus, Suzan Seymour, JJ Anderson, Mike Griffin, Marla BB, Carson Cistulli, and Erika Marquez.

In addition, for the most up to date VFR Programming information, please check the online minutes.

see you on the 20th,

annalise

Website Trends: The Increasing Popularity of Valleyfreeradio.org

Bill Weye — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 20:10:05 +0000

The following is a report on the increasing popularity of this Website, based on data gathered over the last two months (July and August). In brief, the site as a place for disseminating information, and its streaming audio, is rapidly increasing its audience.Information about our RSS and podcast feeds is based on a little more than three weeks worth of data; otherwise, I think two months of data gives us a good indication of what is popular on the site and what needs improvement.

I am using three different services to collect data on how people use the VFR site: Google Analytics, Google Sitemaps, and Feedburner. Each service tracks a different aspect of the user experience. Google Analytics is the most comprehensive tool, tracking not only user behavior (what pages are most popular, how long people stay on the site, page views, and unique visitors, for example), but also what tools people use to view the VFR site (operating system, browser, and connection speed, for example). Sitemaps is useful in tracking how VFR appears in search rankings on Google based on unique search terms, and Feedburner tracks the number of subscribers to our feeds, among other feed related statistics.

I began developing the site with Sarah Shaffner in March 2006 and we went live in May to coincide with the fund drive. At that time this site began using Google Sitemaps. Sitemaps does a few interesting things; among others, it helps Google archive our site, which in turn lets us see what search terms people are using when the VFR site appears in their search results, along with the “average position” in those results. Average position means where (first on the page, second, etc.) VFR appears in an average search for a specific term, and the average over the last three weeks. Because the folks at Google pride themselves on being pretty smart, the same search term may result in a different position depending on many different factors: for example, what country you are in, did you search for this same thing before, did you click on that link before, is the site becoming more popular, etc.. Here I am including the search terms that make the VFR site appear highest in an average Google search result.

I have broken down our statistics from Google Analytics into two categories: comparison statistics and user profile statistics; with the comparison statistics I compared the months July and August, while the user profile stats data is aggregated to draw a profile of site visitors.

During July and August the VFR site received visits from users in more than 75 countries, with the United States being the most highly represented. The table at left lists the ten countries that most often visited the VFR site, with one entry being “not set,” meaning that Google could not determine where that visit was originating. Obviously there are many other countries that fall below this table; around 70 different countries had between nine and one visit over the two months. Google can also track the referring source of our traffic, meaning, where people were when they decided to click on a VFR link or type the URL into their browsers. Not surprisingly, Google is our number one referrer. However, take note that sparetherock.com is a top referrer (consistently), and though it didn’t make the top ten, Midweek Politics Radio with its new entry into the VFR podcast, is coming on strong.

One of the things Web designers pay attention to is the technology visitors are using to experience a site. Based on what technology people use, various design choices are made. Also, from what we know about our visitors, we can better understand how our streaming signal is working (or not). This surprised me: only six percent of visitors are using a dial-up connection. After collecting data for a few more months to confirm this trend, I think we can make some decisions about design choices are our streaming signal. Also surprising were the number of people not using some version of Internet Explorer. On Websites with a mostly Web designer audience this is quite common, but on a more general audience site I think this is unusual (though I like it!).

Comparing the months of July and August (in the summer climates, these tend to be lower Internet usage months), we see that the VFR site is increasing in popularity, both in terms of new visitors, unique views (page views to a page, counting each person once), and page views (total views to a page, including multiple views of a page by the same person). In July the site received 1,614 unique visitors, for an average of 52 visits per day; in August the number of visits increased to 2,651, with an average of 86 per day.

As I mentioned above, what we know about our RSS and podcast feeds is based on limited data; also, subscriber numbers I have seen for feeds on other Websites leads me to believe that these numbers fluctuate a great deal. For example, the number of subscribers always decreases during weekends (who knows why). During August VFR averaged 10 subscribers for its podcast (with a low of 5 people and a high of 21). The RSS feed had an average of eight subscribers, a low of three, and a high of 17 subscribers. I am predicting that as we expand our selection of VFR shows to our podcast the subscriber numbers will increase.

There are some brief observations I would like to make about both the data presented above and the more detailed data I have collected. It is clear that programs with their own Websites that appropriately promote their association with VFR are driving a significant amount of traffic to the VFR site; but, the opposite is also true: the VFR site is also driving traffic to these popular sites. The stronger the relationship between these Websites, the more each benefits. Moreover, Google search rankings increase for both sites as they drive traffic towards each other.

Looking at the data, it is clear people are not even looking at the donation page. An effort needs to be made to better leverage the traffic the site is getting. We should at least entice people to look at the page and consider a donation.

Looking at our signal streams, based on limited data, it seems as though most people are using either the highest quality stream (ogg) or the mp3 stream; the highest quality ogg stream gets 56% of the traffic, while the mp3 stream gets 25%. The mid and low quality ogg streams combined receive 19% of the clicks. One thing that I can not track with Google is how long people are listening to our streams. I don’t believe the data is reliable because once they close the browser window (while continuing to listen), Google thinks they are no longer connected.

Finally, I want to close with the note that I am not promising to produce these reports every month, or even with regular frequency. It took a few hours to gather the data, analyze it, create the graphics, and then write this report. In the future I will give much briefer updates about Website trends when something interesting pops-up, but I can’t spend all my time creating reports when a lot of work still needs to be done on the site.

Formatting Your Podcasts and MP3s

Bill Weye — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 12:07:31 +0000

Recently the issue of editing the meta-info–or ID3 tags–of mp3 files came across my desk. Here is a brief tutorial on how to edit these tags, and why you should. The purpose of these tags is to identify your mp3s to search engines, podcast clients, and audio players on the computers of people who download your programs. Without these tags your mp3 files will not get properly identified, nor will people know what they are listening to if they add your mp3 to their library.

Editing the ID3 tags is pretty simple, whether you are using Macintosh, or Windows (I have never done this on Linux, but I am assuming if you’re smart enough to use Linux, you can figure this out too). On both the Mac and Windows platform, with what ever program you are using, you should look for options to edit the “tags” of the file, including the title of the mp3 (not to be confused with editing the actual name of the file).

You can also edit the tags of your mp3 by using the Windows Explorer’s property inspector (right mouse click on the mp3). The property inspector for your file will look similar to the image on the left. Here you can see the size of the file and edit the file name (again, this is different than the title of the mp3). I recommend that you name the file something unique that includes the date of production (no spaces in the file name, thank you). Next, click on the Summary tab of the property inspector.

Here is the meat of what we want to edit, in the summary tab. The fields we want to concentrate on are Artist, Album Title, Year, Genre, and Title.

Artist: Your name or the creator of the program.
Album Title: Name and date of the program (if you like, same as the recommended file name, but in this case you can include spaces)
Year: no problem here
Genre: Podcast (if this is what you’re editing)
Title: More specific title of the program. If your program is a series, then the series name is part of the album title; if this specific show has a title it belongs here

When you’re finished editing the tags close the property inspector. Your file is now ready to upload and share.

If you are part of the iTunes tribe (Macintosh or Windows) your job is similarly easy. At left is an image of the “Get Info” window in iTunes, which you’ll notice contains most of the same fields as the Windows properties image. You can find “get info” by selecting the file in iTunes (after importing the file), and then right-clicking.

Taking the time to complete these tags will make your mp3 files easier to find and categorize.

Podcasting Now Available For VFR Programmers

Bill Weye — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 15:52:51 +0000

Following up on my previous post introducing the VFR podcast, I would like to describe how VFR programmers can join our feed (podcast). The first group of people than can join the VFR feed (which has increased by six subscribers in less than a week), are programmers that are already posting mp3 files of their programs somewhere. If you are subscribed to the podcast feed you will notice that some programs are already being podcast; those folks had podcasts or were posting mp3 files and we just folded them into the VFR podcast. That wasn’t a problem at all. With those folks, they were all set in 15 minutes.

On the other hand, if you are starting from scratch, things get more difficult. There are some technical issues that have to be resolved before we can start accepting files; namely, how are these files going to be posted to the Web in an efficient manner without me doing all the work and going out of my mind? This is a question that great minds are now pondering. I’ll keep you posted.

If you are starting from scratch and want to learn more about making it happen, let me suggest this article. There are going to be some situational differences because you are changing your broadcast program into an mp3, but the article might be useful in getting your feet wet.

There are some legal considerations when podcasting. VFR does not hold a license for you to podcast copyrighted material, only to broadcast and stream the VFR signal. So, unless you are comfortable with doing so, and know the legal issues, then you may not be able to podcast your program. For more information about the copyright considerations of podcasting, Bill Childs directed me to this Web page. With that said, if the only copyrighted material on your program is the intro music, for example, you should be okay with doing a podcast.

In closing, unless someone can pay me a salary, podcasting on the VFR Website is going to be an unsupported feature. I am going to develop the tool as best I can, but I can’t volunteer the amount of time it would take to work with every programmer. That is why I am trying to point you towards some other resources to learn about podcasting. With that said, I know some current VFR podcasters (and myself) are working on developing a podcasting seminar for VFR programmers. When plans are finalized an announcement will be made. Also (one last thing), let me point you to a conference called PodCamp being held in Boston on September 9-10. It looks like an informative conference, with many of the big names in podcasting attending. I plan on attending myself (a no-name in podcasting), and would be interested in getting together with some VFR programmers for the ride. Let me know if this interests you.

Notes of Ed Charla’s Passing

Bill Weye — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 01:52:04 +0000

There were a couple of notices in the local media of Ed Charla’s passing, which we reprint here (there was also a notice written by Tim Scott on our site). First, from the Valley Advocate on August 10, 2006, with a photo by Paul Shoul.

Edward Charla, a popular figure in the Valley known to many as DJ Hit and Run, died late last month due to complications from diabetes. Charla, who was 50, had suffered with the disease since childhood, but he hardly let it stand in his way. Perhaps best known as the visionary behind Extremos, a series of underground parties, Charla remained a politically active person throughout his life. He had dedicated much of his energy recently to the cause of low-watt, “free” radio as a board member and producer at Valley Free Radio, where he produced the show “Bread & Roses.”

“Ed was one of the people who gave Northampton the flavor it has,” said Paul Shoul, who took the accompanying photo in October, 1987. “He was blind and frail, but he had the strongest will of any person I ever knew.”

Shoul’s sentiment was echoed in the Daily Hampshire Gazette obituary of Ed Charla, which ended with this: “He was blind for nearly 20 years but saw better than most of us did.”

And a notice printed in the Daily Hampshire Gazette on August 3, 2006.

NORTHAMPTON – Ed Charla, formerly known as DJ Hit and Run, died here on Sunday, July 30. He was 50. The cause was complications from diabetes.

He was born Edward Anthony Charla Jr., in New Rochelle, N.Y., June 6, 1956. Raised in the Bronx, he moved to Vermont at the age of 17. There he built his own home by hand, and lived in it for the next dozen years.

During that time he was an executive sous chef at a high-end restaurant in New Hampshire. He made food for every visiting U.S. president.

He moved to Northampton in 1979. In Hampshire County, he continued as a chef at a number of establishments, most recently at the Eastside Grill.

He also built his reputation as DJ Hit and Run, the venerable organizer of the underground cabaret parties known as Extremos.

During this time, he also made recordings with DJ Smash in New York City on Eightball Records, a clubhouse and cool jazz recording label in the 1980s.

After 30 years of diabetes, he began to lose his vision. In 1988, he moved to St. Croix to adjust to the change. For the next six months, he learned to use a cane.

In 1989, he moved to Miami Beach, his winter residence, while continuing to summer in Northampton. He continued to DJ on both the South Beach and local scenes.

Due to his escalating childhood diabetes, he underwent a double (pancreas and kidney) transplant in 1992. For the first time in his life, he was diabetes-free. The first thing he did was eat a piece of cheesecake. The transplant worked until 2004, while for 12 years he was free of diabetes.

He returned to Northampton but maintained a residence in South Beach until 2003.

Most recently, he was on the first board of Valley Free Radio, where he produced the program ‘Bread & Roses’. Highly involved in community activism, he served on the board of the Primus Mason Interethnic Alliance in Springfield. He was also active in the Haymarket People’s Fund and ALANA.

Mr. Charla is survived by his brother, Robert Charla, and his two stepbrothers, Jed and Clay.

Funeral services will be held today at Czelusniak Funeral Home, 173 North St. Soon thereafter, he will be interred with his family in New Rochelle. A separate service will be held in New York.

He was blind for nearly 20 years but saw better than most of us did.

Programming Committee Minutes: August 2006

Annalise — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 01:50:33 +0000

Programming Committee Minutes: August 1, 2006

Attending: annalise fonza, Cathy Santosus, Joshua Vrysen, Mary Wheelan, Strong Oak, Bart Estes, Anthony Ratcliff, Naomi Valentin, MarlaBB

Check In/Note-taker: annalise volunteered to take notes and type minutes.

Announcements: The PC discussed funeral arrangements for Ed Charla.

Old Biz/Collective Biz:

War and Peace: changes forthcoming to the Wednesday programming, i.e., new DJs.; War and Peace may have the opportunity to broadcast Code Pink on Thursdays. Code Pink is hosted/produced at WBAI. Bill Estes will forward the info to PC, c/o annalise.
African American Affairs: Discussing the addition of 2 new djs to Soul Lounge programming. Curt-T is no longer with the collective.
Pueblos: Wishes to reduce time on Saturday to one hour (1-2P). Sent to SubCom (see annalise for the folder with SubCom requests).
Hip Hop Collective: Anthony and Chris have requested a scheduled time change. Info has been sent to the Subcommittee on Scheduling.
Butterfly Effect Collective: Arjuna Griest is stepping down as collective liaison. Mary Wheeler is considering a temporary term as collective liaison.
Free Form: anticipates a dj change at the end of the summer.
“Grain of your Voice,” hosted by Gwyneth Merner, is no longer on the air – Sat, 6-7P.

New Proposals:

Bill Childs has proposed time change for “Swimming with Sharks” from Thursday noon to Tuesday noon (to begin Aug. 24). If approved, it will bump syndicated programming (Drug Truth and Wings) running on Tuesday noon. Proposal change referred to the Syndication Committee.
Strong Oak, potential new dj presented a new proposal for Native American Programming. The new program is entitled “Sings in the Night.” This program would feature music and stories by Native American women and indigenous values. Strong Oak will sign up for training and meet with Naomi Valentin. Aqui Estamos is currently taking responsibility for broadcasting programming on Saturday, 7-8PM. This time slot is reserved for Native American programming.
Bob Gardner has proposed the establishment of a new Sports Collective. He would also like to reschedule the current soccer show (Mondays, 9:30a.m. – 10:00a.m.) to Sunday evenings. PC proposed that Education, Opinion and Advice would be the appropriate block. annalise will follow-up with Bob.
Youth Collective: Mike Griffin has joined the Youth Collective – every 2nd and 4th Saturday at 4PM (“Love, Hate and the Space In-Between.”).

Special Programming:

Cathy suggested reviewing web info for Open Source Radio
annalise to follow up with Alex

Subcommittee on Scheduling and Collective Formation:

The SubCom needs 11 members to be fully operational. Only four have responded in the affirmative.
The PC will send email to liaisons to inventory their collectives: providing the most up-to-date info. It was suggested that liaisons indicate any interest in being nominated and/or being elected to the Subcommittee on Scheduling.
annalise suggested that the SubCom meet once a year instead of every six months (will require a program policy change).
Anthony suggested that an annual SubCom could meet ad hoc if necessary.
MarlaBB suggested that liaisons make recommendations for new block liaisons.

Other:

Bart Estes requested a copy of Program Policies and/or other pertinent VFR documents. annalise will follow-up.

Next Meeting: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 @ 7PM – 60 Masonic Street, Media Education Foundation (behind Woodstar Café)

Podcasting the Sounds of VFR

Bill Weye — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 12:11:52 +0000

I am happy to inform you of the latest VFR Website feature: podcasting. What is podcasting? Well, in the future I will write some more complete documentation, but for now you can refer to the podcasting definition on Wikipedia (a side note: you do not need an iPod to hear a podcast).

Essentially podcasting (or media-file-casting, if you like) means that we can distribute multimedia files using RSS feeds (you can see that “blog feed” also on the left side menu). Boiled down: programmers who turn their shows into mp3 files can archive and distribute the files on the Web.

We are beginning with just one audio file (now two!), but it is my intention to develop a system for any VFR programmer (those who won’t have copyright problems with their programs) to distribute their programs via a combined VFR podcast. For those who are already podcasting their programs, if you like, you can also podcast your program on the combined VFR feed.

As I said, I am working on a streamlined system for programmers to give me their mp3 files to podcast. Along with that announcement I will give some more guidance about some of the copyright issues. In the meantime, let me point you to this Web page of information about podcasting and its copyright issues that VFR programmer and Sharkcast host Bill Childs noted.

Committee Heads: Submit Attendance to Board

Bill Weye — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 02:30:20 +0000

A gentle reminder to all committee heads to please submit attendance records to board clerk Candace Clement (candace.jeanne@gmail.com) so that we can track membership qualification in advance of the October board election. This includes collective liaisons submitting lists of attendees and minutes of collective meetings (as per the board decision at our last meeting–please see board minutes when they get posted on Monday for more details on this decision).

Photo Galleries: New Site Feature

Bill Weye — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 13:49:20 +0000

I have added a new feature on the VFR site: photo galleries. The first gallery is the One Year Anniversary Gallery, which VFR celebrates August 7th. The main gallery page is here, located under “Resources”.

Also, if you can or want to, as you look through the photos, if you can write a one sentence description of the photo(s), that would be great. Email any descriptions to me along with the photo ID number (look at the end of the URL of the full size photo you are describing).

New Discussion And Announcement Email Lists

Bill Weye — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 13:38:32 +0000

The Web Committee is happy to announce that VFR has a new email list system that both replaces the Topica list and expands services.

After searching for the least objectionable choice, given the desire for a low maintenance system, the always looming budget considerations, and our feature requirements (most notably the ability to moderate the lists), we have set-up two moderated lists on Google Groups. One list is for announcements (announcements for the VFR community without cross-talk), and the other list is for discussion (cross-talking).

As with the Topica list you can have the emails delivered to you in a variety of ways: no email (read posts on the Web), abridged email (summary of activity), daily digest (all emails), and all individual emails. Plus, if you know how to, you can subscribe to the groups with an RSS reader (which would be particularly useful in the case of the announcement list).

Both lists are moderated by Bill Childs, the establishment of them being agreed upon during the February 2006 Board meeting. Ed Charla outlined the plan for two moderated list-serves during the meeting (the announcement and discussion lists), and the proposal was approved by a 10-2 vote. What moderation means is that you submit either a new topic thread or respond to an existing post (in the case of the discussion list), and Bill receives an email telling him a post is waiting to be moderated. I’m sure that as time goes on Bill will write about what that means: moderation.

We have a page on this site to allow for the easy subscribing to either the announcement or discussion list.

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