The Mission of Radio Free Flagstaff
Radio Free Flagstaff is a free-thinking, non-commercial, community-access radio station for the citizens of Flagstaff, Arizona. It’s owned by the listeners who support it, with programming that reflects the diversity of Flagstaff.
At Radio Free Flagstaff, we believe that freedom of speech should not be a commodity that is accessible only to the wealthy few. So we’re making the airwaves available to any Flagstaff resident who wants to use them, and to those who are underserved by commercial radio. We promote social and economic justice, and we facilitate democracy by encouraging the community to use the public airwaves. We believe that community-access radio enriches the community and empowers the listener.
Our goal is to have programming that reflects the independence of Flagstaff—fresh, engaging programming by the critical thinkers of our thriving intellectual community; quirky and innovative programming from our creative community, and shows that matter to the various ethnic cultures of Flagstaff, and to the disenfranchised.
Radio Free Flagstaff is the voice of our youth, and a venue of self-expression for our many poets, musicians, artists, writers, comedians, scientists, philosophers, historians and storytellers. Our goal is to allow the maximum amount of creativity and freedom for our citizens.
Any Flagstaff resident who takes the initiative to create a radio show can be on Radio Free Flagstaff—no radio experience is necessary. The airwaves do not belong to a handful of polished professionals, but to everyone. We encourage our volunteer show hosts to just be themselves.
We do require our volunteer show hosts to provide an alternative to the lowest-common-denominator corporate radio that dominates our airwaves. We also require an alternative to commercial talk radio, which has failed to represent the values of our progressive town–Radio Free Flagstaff hopes to remedy this imbalance by being a public forum for open-minded, compassionate discourse.
We plan to get most, if not all, of our income directly from the community through fundraising, and through underwriting from small local businesses. Local funding will ensure that Radio Free Flagstaff is beholden to no one but the citizens of Flagstaff.
Radio Free Flagstaff is currently a side project of Weavel, Inc., the 501c(3) tax-exempt corporation that publishes the non-profit local newspaper The Noise once a month. We do plan to apply for our own tax-exempt status, but first we want to demonstrate our stability to the citizens of Flagstaff—your community-access radio station is an idea whose time has come, and we plan to stay, grow and evolve, and become a part of life in Flagstaff.
