Community Radio Stations in towns like San Pedro are accesible, welcoming and receptive to ideas and outside input - but formaidable barriers remain to creating something more potent and impressive than isolated stations and programs.

My first experience of community radio in Guatemala was quite unexpected. One minute I was buying bread from a neighbour, and exchanging a few words about the imminent closure of a local school – the next I had been invited onto her show. “You’re a radio maker too!” I exclaimed, rather surprised at the coincidence. I had only been in the small town of San Pedro for a few days, and hadn’t even heard that there was a station. My first appearance at the station had an air of spontaneity too. Virginia, a committed local activist (and the baker of bread) wanted me to speak about all sorts of burning local issues; the attempts to close the local school, which was being occupied by indignant parents; the pollution of Lake Atitlan, whose beautiful shores are ringed by washed up plastic, and whose blue waters take sewage from a dozen towns; local corruption in Government and businesses alike. Having only spent a couple of weeks in the country, and aware of my dubious Spanish language skills, I was fairly reluctant to give my opinions. “Don’t you have local people on to talk about these subjects?” I asked rather weakly. “Oh, I invite people on all the time!” she said brightly, “but I’ve only been doing the show for a month.” I was to be the star guest then – indeed the only guest for the whole two hours. The tiny station was in the heart of the town, overlooking the main square. The only really substantial buildings in towns like San Pedro seem to be hotels or churches – everything else, from public libraries to post-offices, seem to be squeezed into pokey buildings down side streets where you can’t find them. The same applied to the radio station, whose studio was no bigger than a balcony. We waited nervously, whilst the previous DJ was banging out ranchero music, oblivious to the hammer of nails next door. Suddenly, it was our turn, and we squeezed into the hallowed space. Only one problem – Virginia, used to hard talk about local issues, had forgotten to bring any music – and there was no-one to drive the audio desk! Suddenly I went from being a guest to something like co-host and sound engineer, finding music on the system, and trying to get a reasonably clean sound. Virginia had her hands full too, talking earnestly to me in Spanish, and then explaining out conversations in Tzuthil to her predominantly Mayan audience, or as she called her listeners, “mi pueblo.” We had to pass the one battered microphone between us by hand. It was raw and improvised and chaotic, and a lot of fun. We talked about community radio around the world, from Washington DC to Scotland, and about issues that affect people everywhere; young people experimenting with drugs and alcohol, overcrowded prisons, and environmental issues. As for me, trying to converse on serious subjects in a foreign language was a form of mental gymnastics, especially for the last hour of the program, when the music died and we had to talk non-stop. Arriving from a country where the vast majority of people share a common language, and where there are hundreds of choices between high quality radio programs, on the air and online, it’s hard to believe that anyone would listen to something as simple and crude. But imagine if that was the only way you had of hearing news, discussion and debate in a language you could understand fully, or that you related to. As Virginia and I walked back down San Pedro’s precipitous streets to the shore of the lake, enjoying the after-broadcast buzz, we chatted about ideas for next weeks show; getting a second microphone, headphones, and doing some recording out in the street. Suddenly I realized you could do it; a bi- or tri-lingual radio program in a tiny town in Guatemala. With a little training and a little equipment, I told Virginia, we could make pre-recorded programs that we could share with other stations, or even upload onto the internet to be listened to around the world. There are progressive organizations and radio networks that would even pay for such pieces. Since then, I have realized that some formidable obstacles lie in the way of these ideas. There may be dozens of internet cafes in San Pedro, but mostly they cater for the visiting tourists. (Only six percent of Guatemalans have access to the web.) Using the internet for research or to post material online is a luxury for the station that they can’t envisage. A simple recording kit can be bought for perhaps $150, but again, how can I explain that they could make that back from selling a single story? I could provide the contacts, and even help with some of the production – but the confidence required was something that would take much longer to build. Other challenges exist to greater co-operation between community radio stations. The diverse languages that they broadcast sometimes represent historical or cultural divisions between communities that otherwise live close to each other, and share common challenges. The Txuthil speaking towns of San Pedro, San Pablo and San Juan are only 15 minutes boat ride away from Kaqchiquel speaking Santa Cruz and Panajachel – yet apparently hatred still exists between these communities from the time when the Kaqchiquel tribes allied themselves to the Spanish Conquistadores in order to defeat their Txuthil rivals. Yet these communities need to communicate in order to solve the problems that affect the whole of the lake – education, illiteracy, and of course pollution. These are all challenges, and of course, challenges can be overcome. We’ve already begun making a program about a local women’s weaving co-operative -Virginia conducted the interview, and I operated the recording kit. Stay tuned for the final product. Tom Allan is an independent radio journalist. He has worked for the BBC and Free Speech Radio News, although he often gets distracted by the opportunity to work for free in obscure places around the globe. If you would like to contribute to providing a reporters kit to Radio San Pedro, or get involved in the radio station, please contact him on w_t_allan at yahoo.com