Monterey Bay Chapter’s Radio Project

January’s newsletter conveyed to our members the board’s goal of developing a media outreach project on population. Our commitment has been to develop an action piece with financial support from past donations made to the chapter by the Jean B. May Trust Fund. After much brainstorming and decision-making, we have a project!

Thanks to Amelia Koenig, board member extraordinaire, and family friend Kelly McGuire from KPRC (100.7 FM), La Preciosa radio station presented us with an overview of what we could do on radio.

La Preciosa is part of Clear Channel Radio, with radio stations in Monterey, Salinas, and Santa Cruz County. La Preciosa is the largest Spanish radio signal from King City to Morgan Hill, claiming 250,000 listeners per week. The station focuses on nostalgic oldies from Mexico with emphasis on family values. It is a local popular Spanish station that farm workers listen to a lot. KDON is another radio station, part of Clear Channel, which is in English — focus is bilingual, 60% Hispanic, playing top-40 contemporary hip-hop/rap music, age range 18 to 49 years for most listeners, and reaches 150,000 listeners per week. After Kelly’s presentation, the board decided to go with 30-second radio scripts — PSAs (public service announcements). We have budgeted $5,000 and will start with PSAs on the Spanish radio station La Preciosa as well as KDON 102.5 FM.

We got to work on developing radio scripts. A big thanks to board member Keresha Durham, with her creativity and artistic style. She got us started. All our PSAs have a focus on a frame of time in a life, thoughts on quality of life, tradeoffs, and the message of overpopulation. Population Services International in Watsonville joined in by giving us permission to modify and use a hip-hop song they had developed for outreach to the teenage community through their radio station. The PSAs and song spots are below for your enjoyment.

In the future our plan is to continue with our radio project in a novella format with an ongoing story line. (Stay tuned for the next episode!) Our intentions are basic — to make people think about having small families, two or less, and if so, how this will mean a better quality of life for them.

Listen to the Radio Dialogues — All in Spanish

English translation below each player

After each dialogue, the narrator says: “For a quality life— smaller families live better.”

 Radio Dialogue #1

Mauricio: How’s it going, Jesus?
Jesus: Well, the big news is that my wife is pregnant again.
Mauricio: Great.
Jesus: Not really. The truth is we were planning to stop at two children. We can’t afford to have another.
Mauricio: Don’t worry about it, man. We come from big families. There were sixteen in my family, and somehow we survived. You’ll make it somehow.
Jesus: No, that’s not good enough for my children. I want them to have a better life than we do, and I know smaller families live better.

 Radio Dialogue #2

Jose: Lalo, what’s up, man?
Lalo: (Without enthusiasm). Oh, Jose, I just found out I’m going to be a father again.
Jose: Hey, Congratulations! You have three sons already, no? You lucky dog!
Lalo: Lucky? I don’t feel so lucky. Even with my wife working I’m ashamed that we don’t have the money to fix my car. How are we going to afford another child?
Jose: Yes, it’s true. Small families live better.
Lalo: That’s right, Jose. You have two children, and you live the good life with everything your family deserves.

 Radio Dialogue #3

Juana: I feel hopeless. With two children I am only able to work part time at minimum wage. We are struggling so much.
Concha: Oh, Juana. Why don’t you go to the clinic or to see a doctor right away. They can help you and tell you how not to get pregnant again. And then you can go to school, advance yourself and your children. Then your dreams of an easier life will come true.

More Exciting Radio News

In January, Bruce Bridgeman wrote a letter to the editor of the local Santa Cruz Sentinel. His letter was admired by folks from KUSP radio, and he was asked to record a spot for the KUSP “First Person Singular” feature. It was aired on April 4 and produced by Margie Kern-Marshal, Guy Lasnier, and Marsea Marcus.

It was a 60-second feature which expanded on Bruce’s letter to the editor. Better yet, Margie was so impressed, she invited Bruce to make as many similar segments as he wants. We now have more possibilities to get our population message out to the public! If you have suggestions, let us know. 831 462-4041.

Bruce’s Radio Spot

In a recent Sunday Sentinel, Cagey Wells identified the tsunami as “nature’s own birth control method.” Yet despite horror and tragedy on a scale impossible to grasp, the earth’s population grew on December 26. Growth of over 200,000 people every day replaced the tsunami victims in about 20 hours. A disaster on the scale of the tsunami every day still would not halt world population growth.

We need to make an effort to bring births and deaths into balance. We know this is possible — dozens of countries have already done it. They include rich countries like Germany, and poor countries like Cuba. How do they do it? The most important factor is education, especially for women. Another is jobs for women. A third is universal health care, including reproductive health. The fourth factor is reliable pensions, so that parents need not have large families to support themselves in old age. Finally, countries with stable populations have low immigration, though in a world perspective, immigration just moves people around.

As long as population grows, environmental problems will continue to get worse. What can we do to halt population growth? At present our federal government is pulling as hard as it can — in the other direction. It refuses to provide inexpensive birth control information, let alone services, to people who need these things desperately. As a result, millions of unwanted children are born every year — preventable tragedies for their mothers, their communities, and the world.

Read the previous newsletter!