Volunteer Radio

Is anyone else fortunate enough to have a volunteer radio station in your town?  I don't mean a NPR affiliate that carries highly charged leftist views, but a station that is listener supported and focuses on music programming.  My favorite drive time radio station has become WEVL, a totally volunteer station.  Everyone who works there has day jobs or is retired and either have shows as DJ's, produces programs, maintains the transmitter or helps out in other ways.  It's available on the internet at the station WEVL.org. 

I've helped out on various occasions, and really think that this kind of radio is a great alternative to obnoxious FM DJ's and talk radio, that quite frankly gets on my nerves after awhile. 

Living in Memphis, we are blessed with some great local musicians and they often appear on shows on WEVL.  Personally I've never seen another station like this.  It is not associated with NPR, or a university, and only runs 2 short pledge drives a year and always gets enough money to keep the station running....sometimes just barely, but this is non-profit, and people who host shows or other tasks do it for love of the job.  They get no government funding, no union donations and no K Street lobby money.

If you get a chance, check it out.

Success from a land of fail: Part 2

Last time I wrote about this subject, my young friend Ron had just moved from his hometown in the Philippines to take a job in Singapore.  Although it was an improvement in living conditions and pay, he is way underpaid compared to his Singaporean counterparts.  He got involved in a bad contract that had small print, and I mean really small, that is both blurred and unreadable, and in the US would not be enforceable.  The contract basically made him an indentured servant so long as his employer wanted his employment, even though the large print read that it was a one year contract.

There is some good news as of late.  Ron found a way to buy his way out of the contract and can leave in June.  He will have a job waiting for him that pays much more, and has good benefits.  Although he misses his family very much, he has adjusted to Singapore and does not live poorly.  His long term goal is to get a job in Australia, Canada or the US, and it looks like it will be doable in a few years, with a resume that has a few overseas jobs under his belt.

I was elated when we talked tonight and heard the good news.  This is a very positive development for a young man who had very little going for him as a young teenager.  I do admire Ron's fortitude and determination to succeed when the odds were always against him. 

We who are blessed to live in developed world really need to count our blessings despite how bad our economy is right now, and cheer those people who have worked hard to liberate themselves from poverty and become successful themselves.

There is a lot to learn from young people like Ron to the food stamp generation and those who feel entitled and government dependent in our own rich country.