radiOrakel
 | |
| Radio station | |
| Industry | Broadcasting |
| Founded | 1982 |
| Headquarters | Oslo, Norway |
| Products | Radio, online services |
Number of employees | Ca. 100 volunteers |
| Website | www.radiorakel.no |
radiOrakel (lit. Radio Oracle) is a feminist radio station in Oslo, Norway, broadcasting on 99,3 MHz in the Oslo area and through Internet streaming. It is widely believed to be the world's first feminist radio station.[1] It was started in 1982, when Norwegian authorities decided to allow local radio stations to operate. Money was then collected at a women’s cultural festival to start up the world’s first women’s radio station. On October 16, 1982, radiOrakel was founded. From the beginning, it was a part-time station, sharing a frequency. Gradually the station has been able to gain more time from the regulator. It now broadcasts 10 or 11 hours a day.[2] Rita Westvik was the first editor in chief. The radio station is mostly run by volunteers. It has a shared leadership consisting of an editor-in-chief and an executive director, and usually an assistant editor and other people in various management roles. The management is usually changed yearly. In the early days the station’s headquarters were at Korsgata 5 but moved together with AKKS (Aksjon Kvinne Kultur Senter- Women’s Cultural Action Centre) to the loft at the Blitz house, where it today's occupied the third floor and the loft.
radiOrakel is one of the oldest local radio stations in Norway[3] and uses the title of the world’s oldest women’s radio station. The aim of the radio station is to educate women within the field of radio journalism and sound engineering, and at any time having a membership made up of at least 2/3 women. What this also means in practice is that radiOrakel actively prioritizes and promotes women as both interviewer and interview subject, as well as having a music profile that has at least 50% of all music by women musicians and artists. radiOrakel has between 50,000 and 70,000 documented listeners (1998). People of both sexes listens to radiOrakel. Research suggests that listening audiences are between the age of 15 and 45 years of age and in general educated to graduate level.
During the 25 years radiOrakel has existed it has educated around 1500 people in the various disciplines within radio broadcasting, with many of these going on to become well known personalities within Norwegian broadcast media.
The station is constantly renewed by being passed on to younger women.[4] It can be heard in Oslo on 99.3 FM.
References
- ↑ See, for example, http://underskog.no/sted/496
- ↑ See "Program" at
- ↑ The "experimental period" of local radio in Norway was officially designated as 1983-1986. See Per Jauert, "Local Radio in Western Europe: Conflicts Between the Cultures of Center and Periphery", p. 103 (posted on the internet at
- ↑ "WINGS #09-06 RadiOrakel: feminist radio in Norway," Interview with Ingrid Wergeland and Liv Gulbrandsen by Frieda Werden, description and audio link on website http://www.cas.usf.edu/womens_studies/wings.html