New Lincoln Radio Station to offer Freethought and Left-wing Programming

LSH members Andrew Losh, Jackson Meredith and Brian Ellis along with a few other members of the community have been working for several years on starting a low-power AM and webcast community radio station of a left-wing political nature in the city of Lincoln. On May 1st their work will have come to fruition.  May 1st is the debut broadcast of their station, LUNk radio (the acronym stands for Lincoln’s Underground Network). The group involved in getting LUNk radio off the ground describes the meaning behind the station name as an expression of the way they feel as a minority political view in a conservative state and in a nation dominated by two capitalist political parties. “We feel our political views make us part of a little known minority, an underground network of people dedicated to radically changing the nature of society. The politicians in power do not represent us or our views nor do the major political parties and we also feel that our views are neglected and misrepresented by the mainstream media outlets”, stated Ellis.

Jackson, Andrew and Brian are of the same political persuasion which they describe as libertarian communism and broadly as radical anti-authoritarian leftism. According to their website, in creating LUNk their goal was to create a form of alternative media which was free from the bias that they believe is inherent in mainstream media due to the fact that these media outlets are owned by the rich and powerful. They believe these media outlets distort the news and offer views which serve those in power. “It is easy to recognize that certain media outlets back the Democratic Party or have a Democratic Party bias whereas other stations have a conservative or Republican Party bias”, stated Ellis. Losh added, “We wanted to create an outlet for the radicals in this community. The need to critically examine current events and our culture is as great as it ever was. Also, people need to participate in their diverse community, and we hope to provide new opportunities to connect." They stated that May 1st was chosen as the date of their inaugural broadcast because it is the date of the International Labor Day which commemorates the fight for the eight hour day and the Haymarket affair of 1886. Incidentally the U.S. government changed the date of Labor Day in America in 1958 for fear of it sparking socialist sympathies, May 1st was then remade into “Loyalty Day” and Labor Day was moved to the first Monday of September.

Because of the open-minded atmosphere within the humanist community one of the few places the three have felt comfortable discussing their political views is at LSH meetings and also on LSH’s online public forum but even within a group of progressives like LSH their views tend to be hotly debated. “Our views are often criticized by several other members of LSH mainly because they equate us with the Soviet Union-style authoritarian communists or what I would call state capitalists or because they can’t understand how society could exist outside of capitalism. But humanists encourage this kind of debate and it is not viewed as insulting to us, we believe our views can stand up to criticism. Humanists have no dogmas or sacred cows and we certainly do not encourage conformity within LSH, in fact we encourage the challenging of others beliefs”, stated Ellis.

LSH as an organization is non-partisan and has no exact political leaning, but as a group concerned with promoting the ethical philosophy of humanism LSH promotes progressive views when it comes to the moral issues of our day, such as supporting: equal rights for homosexuals, reproductive freedom, stem cell research, the abolition of the use of torture, etc. LSH decides democratically whether or not to take a stance on an issue and what stance to take, all decisions follow the humanist method - weighing the scientific evidence concerning the issue and formulating a decision that is compassionate and ethical.  Though humanists tend to agree on many issues the political opinions of individual LSH members are far-ranging, from communists and anarchists on the left to Libertarian Party supporters and anarcho-capitalists on the right, with Democrats, economic conservatives and independents in between. About the only views not currently represented within LSH are those of the socially conservative because these views tend to be at odds with the progressive philosophy of humanism which eschews belief in the merit of unexamined tradition or religious inspired morality.

Of particular interest to the freethought community of Lincoln is LUNk radio’s Sunday line-up which will feature several shows that present the humanist perspective and challenge religious belief, they have unofficially dubbed the line-up “Sunday Sacrilege”. Some of the shows which will be aired are: Equal Time for Freethought, Humanist Network News Podcast, Point of Inquiry, The Infidel Guy Radio Show, and more. The LUNk collective is looking for group members and program producers (music, talk, etc.) and they are taking donations of monetary, technical nature, and physical labor. Their greater aspirations include: a lending library, educational gatherings, documentaries, info shop, community meetings, etc. For more information on the LUNk radio project go to www.lunkradio.org, you can also e mail the collective at contact@lunkradio.org. The webcast can be streamed on their website starting May 1st and the on air broadcast can be heard in the downtown/campus area of Lincoln on 1580 AM, sometime this summer.