This week on Truth to Power, we bring you a national conversation about the power of community radio! Forward Radio was thrilled to participate in the 2023 Grassroots Radio Conference in Charleston, WV from Oct. 20-22. Today we bring you the conversation that kicked it all off, a panel moderated by Louisville’s own Sharon Scott from our sister station, ArtxFM WXOX on “How Community Radio is being leveraged to empower us all!” Speakers included:Maria Martin - a multi-media journalist who currently directs the GraciasVida Center for Media, a nonprofit based in Texas and La Antigua, Guatemala devoted to the practice of independent journalism in the public interest. For the last twenty years, the Center has worked to improve the skills & working situation for rural, provincial, & Indigenous journalists in Guatemala, Bolivia, & Nicaragua, as well as to improve the coverage of Central America on U.S. public radio. An award-winning public radio journalist for over four decades, Martin developed ground-breaking programs for public radio, including NPR’s Latino USA. She’s the recipient of Fulbright and several Knight Fellowships, and has won over two dozen awards for her work covering Latino issues and Latin America.Dr. MarkAlain Déry - an infectious disease physician and public health practitioner in New Orleans. Dr. Dery co-founded WHIV-LP, a radio station dedicated to human rights and social justice. WHIV first went on air on World AIDS Day (December 1st), 2014 with a mission to promote advocacy through innovative messaging. Dr. Déry actively helped to lead the response to COVID-19 in New Orleans and hosted the NoiseFilter show throughout the pandemic. http://NoiseFilterShow.comDr. Rob Quicke - Co-founder of World College Radio Day, which launched in 2011 by Coldplay's Chris Martin. Over 1,000 college radio stations in 53 countries have participated in the last decade. Dr. Quicke is also professor and director of the School of Journalism & Mass Communications at Marshall University, WV. Previously he was General Manager of WPSC from 2007 to 2021, when it won the Marconi Award for Best College Radio Station of the Year. Dr. Quicke is also author of the upcoming book Finding Your Voice in Audio, Radio & Podcast Production (2024, Routledge).LaGanzie Kale - the founder and General Manager of KLEK, the first & only minority operated radio station in Jonesboro, Arkansas. KLEK was made possible by the 2010 Local Community Radio Act, giving low-power stations a place on the FM dial. LaGanzie saw an opportunity and worked to build a station from the ground up. The 100-watt station launched on Jan. 1, 2015. In 2016 Kale was presented with an Arkansas Community Service Award by Gov. Asa Hutchinson.Joseph Orozco - Board member to the Pacifica Association of Affiliates. He was the first editor of the only independent newspaper in Hoopa Valley he named, Common Sense. In 1978 he worked with the Tribal Education Committee on their Radio Project and attended his first NFCB Regional Summit. That is where he experienced Non-Commercial Educational FM and never looked back. In 1980 KIDE-FM Hoopa Tribal Radio signed on-air. Orozco was a Board Member. In 1988 he was hired to be the Station Manager. Currently he works part-time as the KIDE Website Content Coordinator. He helped initiate the Indigenous Communication Association & was recently appointed to the Hoopa Tribal Education Association, Board of Directors. Learn more at https://www.2023grassrootsradioconference.com/On Truth to Power each week, we gather people from around the community to discuss the state of the world, the nation, the state, and the city! It's a community conversation like you won't hear anywhere else!Truth to Power airs Fridays at 9pm, Saturdays at 11am, & Sundays at 4pm on Louisville's Forward Radio 106.5fm WFMP and live streams at http://forwardradio.org