Fed-X
12-12-2001, 09:46 PM
PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE
Written by T. W., inmate at Wallens Ridge State Prison in Wise, VA.
Appalshop, a media arts center in Whitesburg, KY, will host a radio call in show for prisoners incarcerated in rural central Appalachia. Appalshop is a thirty-year-old non-profit organization dedicated to using media arts to voice the concerns of those living in the central Appalachian coalfields.
On December 18 from 7-10pm, the incarcerated community in Central Appalachia can get their issues aired and hear holiday greetings from their children and family members via the airwaves of 88.7-fm WMMT-FM, a community-run radio station. Families can call toll-free 888-396-1208 to air their holiday messages.
The producers of WMMT have seen that the incarcerated in the coalfields of central Appalachia are a part of the community and need to have their issues aired without having to use negative methods of expression. Staff and volunteers at the station saw that people in area prisons, where visits are sometimes impossible and calls home exorbitant, wanted more communication during the Christmas season with their children, family and friends.
WMMT is in Whitesburg, Kentucky and has a broad range, reaching into northeast Tennessee, southeast Kentucky, southwest West Virginia, and southwest Virginia, one of the most prison-packed four-state areas of the country. Thousands are in the area's jails, road camps, adjustment centers, correctional centers, prisons, super-max prisons, and federal correctional centers. WMMT affords them the chance to call the station to "shout out" holiday greetings, or to have their loved ones call WMMT to express their holiday greetings and to comment on issues concerning them. In addition, WMMT also broadcasts worldwide on the Internet, so that even listeners out of their normal broadcast range, including the families of these prisoners, can listen in real time.
Last year, "Chic-N-Man," a WMMT rock programmer and self-proclaimed hillbilly, and "EightBall," a WMMT hip-hop programmer, along with other WMMT staff and volunteers, accepted toll-free phone calls to and from male and female prisoners and broadcast their greetings and comments, and even sang Christmas carols. Calls came from children, moms and dads, sisters and brothers from as far away as Washington, D.C., Connecticut, New Mexico and Puerto Rico.
This year, children in Wyoming, the Virgin Islands, New Mexico, and Washington DC have fathers in rent-a-cells at two southwest Virginia super-max prisons. For those children, holiday visits to their parents are often impossible, and a phone call can mean a lot.
WMMT DJs Chic-N-Man, Forever Nyt, DJ Amelia, the Reverend Boz, the Potted Meat Girls, and Electric Bill will host this year’s program. On Tuesday, December 18, families and friends can call 888-396-1208 from 7-10pm EST to share their season’s greetings. Prisons in the WMMT broadcast area include Wallens Ridge, Red Onion and Keen Mountain State Prisons in Virginia, and Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex, Manchester Federal Prison, and Otter Creek Correction Center in Kentucky.
This is project is sponsored by From the Holler to the Hood, a project of Appalshop, which is a media arts and organizing project dedicated to creating connections among struggling urban and rural communities working for justice and equality.
For more information contact:
Nick Szuberla or Amelia Kirby
91 Madison Street
Whitesburg, KY 41858
606-633-0108
www.appalshop.org
e-mail: h2h@appalshop.org ####
Written by T. W., inmate at Wallens Ridge State Prison in Wise, VA.
Appalshop, a media arts center in Whitesburg, KY, will host a radio call in show for prisoners incarcerated in rural central Appalachia. Appalshop is a thirty-year-old non-profit organization dedicated to using media arts to voice the concerns of those living in the central Appalachian coalfields.
On December 18 from 7-10pm, the incarcerated community in Central Appalachia can get their issues aired and hear holiday greetings from their children and family members via the airwaves of 88.7-fm WMMT-FM, a community-run radio station. Families can call toll-free 888-396-1208 to air their holiday messages.
The producers of WMMT have seen that the incarcerated in the coalfields of central Appalachia are a part of the community and need to have their issues aired without having to use negative methods of expression. Staff and volunteers at the station saw that people in area prisons, where visits are sometimes impossible and calls home exorbitant, wanted more communication during the Christmas season with their children, family and friends.
WMMT is in Whitesburg, Kentucky and has a broad range, reaching into northeast Tennessee, southeast Kentucky, southwest West Virginia, and southwest Virginia, one of the most prison-packed four-state areas of the country. Thousands are in the area's jails, road camps, adjustment centers, correctional centers, prisons, super-max prisons, and federal correctional centers. WMMT affords them the chance to call the station to "shout out" holiday greetings, or to have their loved ones call WMMT to express their holiday greetings and to comment on issues concerning them. In addition, WMMT also broadcasts worldwide on the Internet, so that even listeners out of their normal broadcast range, including the families of these prisoners, can listen in real time.
Last year, "Chic-N-Man," a WMMT rock programmer and self-proclaimed hillbilly, and "EightBall," a WMMT hip-hop programmer, along with other WMMT staff and volunteers, accepted toll-free phone calls to and from male and female prisoners and broadcast their greetings and comments, and even sang Christmas carols. Calls came from children, moms and dads, sisters and brothers from as far away as Washington, D.C., Connecticut, New Mexico and Puerto Rico.
This year, children in Wyoming, the Virgin Islands, New Mexico, and Washington DC have fathers in rent-a-cells at two southwest Virginia super-max prisons. For those children, holiday visits to their parents are often impossible, and a phone call can mean a lot.
WMMT DJs Chic-N-Man, Forever Nyt, DJ Amelia, the Reverend Boz, the Potted Meat Girls, and Electric Bill will host this year’s program. On Tuesday, December 18, families and friends can call 888-396-1208 from 7-10pm EST to share their season’s greetings. Prisons in the WMMT broadcast area include Wallens Ridge, Red Onion and Keen Mountain State Prisons in Virginia, and Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex, Manchester Federal Prison, and Otter Creek Correction Center in Kentucky.
This is project is sponsored by From the Holler to the Hood, a project of Appalshop, which is a media arts and organizing project dedicated to creating connections among struggling urban and rural communities working for justice and equality.
For more information contact:
Nick Szuberla or Amelia Kirby
91 Madison Street
Whitesburg, KY 41858
606-633-0108
www.appalshop.org
e-mail: h2h@appalshop.org ####