Amber Waves of Air

As Congress begins to hack even more from the federal budget, I think it is important to look at how those cuts will impact big swaths of the population. There is no question that cuts to the social safety net and health care could well condemn some individuals to an early death from preventable disease and/or a severely degraded quality of life.

However, many cuts will not involve the issue of life and death. While they may not climb to this level of importance, I think they remain significant, nonetheless. One example of what I'm referring to is featured in the article, An Appalachian Radio Voice Threatened From Afar.

Juxtaposed against other hardships in Appalachia, the beaming of a radio signal might seem a luxury. But WMMT, which reaches across the mountains, coal fields and hollows of eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia and southern West Virginia, creates a connective tissue for its far-flung, geographically isolated listeners. It also offers respite from the daily grind. Like the redbud trees that are starting to burst forth in violet patches along the scrubby hillsides here, the sounds from the radio can be, if not essential, at least life-affirming...

There is more to life than eating, pooping, working and sleeping. There is a need to be part of a community. In sparsely populated rural areas, radio stations -- particularly those that are low watt and/or community radio -- fill that need. They can represent the sole source of timely information as to what is going on or is available in the region. And, for people who are poor and home-bound, radio provides a virtual connection to the outside world.

For those of us who frequently blog, do email and surf the web, we forget that internet usage is not universal in this country. There are many areas in which internet usage is low -- where I live being one of them. Since far too many newspapers in these regions are weekly and, sometimes, little more than ad circulars, radio becomes the one-stop source for important news.

If community and low watt radio bites the dust due to a lack of funding, it won't mean that people necessarily will die because of it. It may mean, however, that many lives will be a lot bleaker. Bleakness is not something to laugh at nor ridicule. In order to lead productive lives, we need connection and radio is one of the key facets of connection in modern life.