I contribute, from time to time, to Freethought Rhode Island, an atheist radio show. Tonight, I drove to Providence, got a workout at my old karate school, called in a pizza that I ate in the car on the way to the station, and then settled in behind the microphone. Tonight, we had Dan (the founder of the show), a frequent contributor named TJ, and me. This is campus radio, sponsored by Brown university. If you show up on time, clean up after yourself, and don’t cuss on the air – you can get a good slot. Ours is an hour at 9pm EST on Wednesdays. We basically talk about whatever we feel like. Sometimes, we play rock and roll to fill the gaps.
I get a big kick out of being on the radio. It’s “free speech” in a very pure form, and it’s addictive. You just talk. It can be hard to keep going – and there are lots of personal dynamics that make any particular evening work or not. Dan has a big folder of set pieces – and when we begin to flail – he’ll open the folder and hold forth from a seemingly infinite stack of monologues, diatribes, and rants that he has prepared. From time to time people call in. That’s the real hook: People can *hear* you from far away – and they call. The show has been going for a couple of years now, and we seem to have a regular listener-ship. We’re syndicated to Michigan. We simul-cast on the inter-web.
Tonight, we got jammed.
As soon as we went live, the phone started to ring. Lots of people wanting to assure us that Jesus loved us. One guy who thought that gay people should be imprisoned. Another one who “even though he was an atheist, looked forward to standing before God on the judgement day.” One female impersonator with a high falsetto and a deliciously discordant view of reality. Show policy is to provide enough rope to these people to let them tie themselves up. We were busily asking these folks some perfectly straightforward questions about how an omniscient, all-powerful god could countenance suffering in the world, when the instant messages from friends and family started to come in. We were stone cold off the air, replaced by static with a tint of – perhaps if you listened hard – gospel music? Our internet listeners were fine, as were the syndicated ones. However, it seems like Providence was denied our voice for an hour. As soon as we ended the show – the station was live again.
Tomorrow, we start the follow up with the FCC. It’s nice to be 100%, stone cold in the right. There is lots and lots of court history indicating that I have every right to go on the air and blaspheme. The fact that someone would go to the trouble is frankly, flattering.
For tonight, I bask in the knowledge: Somebody cares.
