Radio Activist Living with Terminal Cancer

Listen (28 min)

Donna Dibianco, a community media activist and consultant, came to Iowa to help organize the Grassroots Community Conference this August.  Donna With the KHOI team, she organized a four-day participatory event for 150 people.  She helped provide the food, shelter, entertainment and technical support for two intensive sessions and nearly 50 workshops.  She did it for less than 20 dollars per person per day.  And, she did it while living with metastasized Stage Three B cervical cancer.

Adrienne Lauby asks Donna Dibianco how she manages to have such an active life and take care of herself as well. 

The Prairie Chicken, logo of the 2014 Grassroots Radio Conference

The Prairie Chicken, logo of the 2014 Grassroots Radio Conference

Dibianco, who is also known as the radio goddess, says people with disabilities are regular participants at community radio stations and talks about how to tackle some typical issues that arise.

According to the KHOI website, community radio is fundamentally not a technical enterprise, but a venture into building humanity. [Community radio] returns media to treasured and traditional person-to-person connections – especially as new technologies increase isolation. It reminds us that radio remains relevant  even in the digital age.

Community radio is when local people produce and broadcast their own programs and participate in operating the station. It is community space for people to meet and collaborate. It is extraordinarily fun and often life-changing. It typically leads to individual creativity and self-empowerment. Participants find it extraordinarily satisfying, not just to make radio in this unique fashion, but to also help transform community life.  (More)

 Adrienne Lauby produced and hosted this program with major editing work by Sheela Gunn-Cushman.

Share SHARE
This entry was posted in Activism, Adrienne Lauby, Community, Sheela Gunn Cushman and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.