How Some Independent Radio Stations Avoid Sounding Like Corporate Drones – OpEd

 May 10, 2025 

By Damon Orion

Local radio stations and digital networks of independents are keeping “human-driven, anti-algorithm expression” alive.

Before 1996, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) restricted U.S. corporations from owning more than 40 radio stations. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 eliminated these curbs, enabling single corporate entities to own unlimited stations.

At that point, listeners “said goodbye to regionality and creativity and hello to bland, homogenized programming,” filmmaker Brendan Toller noted in his 2008 documentary I Need That Record!

Corporate networks continue to dominate the airwaves. BIA Advisory Services reports that iHeartMedia owned 870 stations in 2023, making it the nation’s top radio owner, followed by Audacy, Cumulus Media, Hubbard Radio, and Beasley Media Group.

“It’s monopoly after monopoly,” notes Toller, now the director of operations and new initiatives at the volunteer-run WPKN, one of about 100independent radio stations in the U.S., according to Wikipedia. “I think the call to independence and a free-form format is important as things become more homogenized, influenced by AI, and automated.”

Founded in 1963, WPKN is a 10,000-watt station in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Its terrestrial signal reaches a potential 1.5 million listeners in most of Connecticut and parts of Long Island, New York State, and southwestern Massachusetts. Millions of listeners worldwide have access to its broadcasts at WPKN.org.

Toller says WPKN hosts about 170 programs. The content of these broadcasts includes music, news, public affairs, arts and culture, environment and science, and lifestyle.

Besides talented local DJs, the station looks for “organizers and activists who want to highlight people making their communities better in the public affairs realm,” Toller states.

WPKN’s DJs, programmers, and hosts have full autonomy. “Our schedule is the ‘you never know what you’re going to get’ chocolate box of radio,” Toller says. “We don’t have the playlist requirements that an obnoxious corporate station has. We are where freedom and human-driven, anti-algorithm expression lives. That, to me, is more exciting than a curated playlist because you get the personality [of the DJ] drifting and guiding you toward all this music or information if it’s a public affairs program or podcast.”

He adds that independent stations like WPKN enable local musicians, artists, nonprofits, and organizers “to reach a wider audience [and] to get contextualized properly within their region, the times, and history.”

In April 2025, NPR stated that the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting “would have a devastating impact on American communities across the nation that rely on public radio for trusted local and national news, culture, lifesaving emergency alerts, and public safety information.”

While Toller notes that such cuts will be “major and grave,” they do not pose a threat to WPKN, which does not receive any federal funding. “The station has remained largely listener-supported [since 1989], with a hint of underwriting from local nonprofits, organizations, and businesses,” Toller explains.

Unlike WPKN, which is unaffiliated, some local stations disburse their content through independent networks like the Pacifica Foundation, which owns and operates non-commercial stations KPFA, KPFK, KPFT, WBAI, and WPFW. It also oversees the Pacifica Network, which provides content to more than 200 stations, according to the network’s website. Britannica states that Pacifica “funds and promotes news and public affairs programs, most notably ‘Democracy Now!‘ and ‘Free Speech Radio News.'”

Meanwhile, the nonprofit, volunteer-run indie radio network A-Infos Radio Project presents “an alternative to the corporate and government media, which do not serve struggles for liberty, justice and peace, nor enable the free expression of creativity,” according to its website.

The freedom of expression that terrestrial radio offers may help explain this medium’s enduring popularity despite competition from online outlets.

“Sparked by the advent of social media in the early 2000s, the landscape of communication underwent a monumental transformation,” the International News Media Association observed in 2024. “This was further accelerated by the global lockdowns of 2020, where the demand for instant, online news reached unprecedented heights, highlighting the growing preference for short-form content among audiences.”

Sound of Life, a platform designed “to foster a community of curious connoisseurs and share stories through the lens of sound,” states that indie radio stations have grown in popularity despite challenges like overhead costs and rising rents. “During the pandemic, the… [number] of radio and podcast listeners boomed, and habits stick. In the U.S., 92 percent of the population listen to [the] radio every week,” stated a 2024 article on its website.

This boom may have helped several independent radio stations in the U.S. survive challenges that wiped out many British stations, including soaring living expenses and energy bills.

Indie stations like WBHF, Aggie Radio, WFMU, KUCR, KEXP, the SoCal Sound, and Rinse FM have adapted to industry shifts by offering multiple streaming options. WPKN has also embraced the digital format. Besides posting content to its website, it maintains a podcast channel on all major platforms, an archiving system, and a video sessions format.

Toller says he has witnessed a surprising amount of interest in traditional radio among young people. “What’s amazing to me is that the youth are being raised with these digital devices that are so attention-commanding all the time, and I see people coming in here from other stations who are much younger than me and are interested in this as a tried-and-true platform that has existed far longer than social media. If youth is still interested, that tells me this is going to be around for another 60 years.”

He adds that a highlight of his work is hearing “a great demo tape that has something we don’t have on the air yet [such as] underground electronic music or a food justice podcast. These are all being submitted by my peers and people younger than me. That, to me, is inspiring and a salve to independent media. I’m still excited.”

• About the author: Damon Orion is a writer, journalist, musician, artist, and teacher in Santa Cruz, California. His work has appeared in Revolver, Guitar World, Spirituality + Health, Classic Rock, and other publications. Read more of his work at DamonOrion.com.
• Source: This article was produced by Local Peace Economy.

 

Americans’ Use Of Illicit Opioids Is Higher Than Previously Reported

Fake pills containing fentanyl. Photo Credit: DEA

 May 10, 2025 

By Eurasia Review

More Americans use illicit opioids such as fentanyl than previously estimated, highlighting the need for better methods to understand the depths of the opioid crisis, according to a new study.

A survey of American adults found that 11% reported illicit opioid use within the past 12 months and 7.5% reported use of illicitly produced fentanyl during the same period, rates that are more than 20 times higher than estimates from a large federal study that annually asks Americans about their use of illicit drugs.

Researchers say the findings add to the evidence that government counts may significantly underestimate illicit drug use and suggest that new methods are necessary to better track a key metric in addressing the nation’s opioid crisis. The findings are published in the journal JAMA Health Forum.

“Estimates of illicit opioid use are rare and typically are available only years after the information is collected, limiting our ability to monitor trends on a near-term basis,” said David Powell, the study’s lead author and a senior economist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. “Our study offers a method to quickly and repeatedly monitor illicit opioid prevalence at low-cost.”

Initially driven by prescription opioids, the opioid crisis in the U.S. transitioned to heroin in the early 2010s and then to illicitly-manufactured fentanyl a few years later.

As the opioid crisis continues to evolve and polysubstance deaths become increasingly common, illegally manufactured fentanyl remains involved in most overdose deaths. Despite the importance of illicit opioids in the current substance-use landscape, relatively little is known about the prevalence of illicit opioid use.

The largest ongoing study that tracks illicit drug use is the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. That study began asking about use of illicitly manufactured fentanyl only in 2022, reporting that 0.3% of adults used the drug that year.

A number of previous studies also have reported higher rates of illicit opioid use, challenging the accuracy of the federal estimate. While researchers say the reasons for the differences are unclear, they suggest it may relate to the way the federal survey asks participants about illicit opioid use. 

This includes the fact that about half of the surveys in the federal count are done in person, which may inhibit participants from reporting illicit drug use. Researchers say more work is needed to understand the reason for the differences.

Researchers from RAND and the University of Southern California surveyed 1,515 American adults during June 2024 using a large, representative online panel of Americans. Participants were asked about use of non-prescription opioids within the past 12 months, with heroin and illicitly-manufactured fentanyl given as examples. 

A unique aspect of the survey was asking participants about whether they intentionally used illicit opioids, and whether they intentionally or unintentionally used illicitly manufactured fentanyl. 

Among those surveyed, 7.7% reported intentional nonprescription opioid use, with another 3.2% reporting unintentional nonprescription opioid use. 

Most people who used nonprescription opioids reported illicit fentanyl use. The rate of intentional use of illicitly manufactured fentanyl was 4.9% while the rate of unintentional use of fentanyl was 2.6%.  

Among respondents reporting nonprescription opioid use within the past 12 months, 39% reported their first use of opioids involved medication prescribed to them, while 36% reported their first use involved prescription opioids not prescribed to them. The remaining 25% answered that their first exposure to opioids involved illicitly manufactured opioids.

“Ultimately, the data presented here should be treated as a substantive data point for understanding and curtailing the ongoing opioid crisis,” said Mireille Jacobson, the study’s co-author and an economist at the University of Southern California. “More near real-time information is needed to evaluate not only where we are in the epidemic, but, more importantly, whether we are making progress in reining it in.”

One limitation of the survey was the use of an online platform.  While similar to national rates in terms of demographics, the surveyed population could be different in unobserved ways.  The authors intend to re-examine their findings soon, using a survey platform more robust to these concerns.    

Eurasia Review

Eurasia Review is an independent Journal that provides a venue for analysts and experts to disseminate content on a wide-range of subjects that are often overlooked or under-represented by Western dominated media.