Radar Radio: Don't Tune In, Walk Out.
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RADAR RADIO: DON'T TUNE IN, WALK OUT.
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Music / News
Words By: Luc Hinson
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Conducta, Planet mu, P Montana, Slumflower, and many more acts and artists have walked out of the doors of Radar Radio (or announced so via social media), never to broadcast on their wavelengths again. The Station, owned by Ollie Ashley (son of Newcastle FC and Sports direct Mike Ashley) has witnessed a mass exodus of its lifeblood, its artists. Now for years the ownership of Radar Radio hasn’t been overt common knowledge in many circles, but for the many who assumed it was a built by the black working classes who feature on it, who have devoted their careers to it, they find themselves shocked and the realisation dawns as it appears that Radar radio is just yet another cultural gentrifier.
However, accusations of gentrification are the least of Radars current woes. This very same radio station while promoting some of the brightest talents in grime, garage and drill has created and fostered an environment in which sexual harassment and victimization has been allowed flourish. It has gone unchecked and is apparently an institutional issue, an issue that has been swept aside by the same phrases wheeled out by trump-apologists
Former producer Ashtart Al-Hurra, recalls how, when she reported the incidents to her superiors and forced to repeat and relive her experiences she was told that it was just “boys being boys” and that they were “just chirpsing”. This ‘boys being boys’ locker talk machoism is implicit and responsible for the continuation of a climate in which it can be deemed okay to violate another person’s body, another person’s freedom. Freedom to come to work without fear of being groped. The freedom to report an incident without being told to “stay silent on the topic”.
What Ashart recalls in her open letter to radar found here, sadly is just one person’s experience, one person’s account of the system wide pandemic sweeping across all industries. But her letter is not alone, Recently Pxssy Palace posted on Instagram that they had parted ways with Radar. Their reasons portray Radar as opportunistic cultural appropriators, stating “we feel that they have tokenised women, feminism, queer and trans culture and Black and other people of colour, for capitalist purposes. They cite a disappointing string of incidents with Radar. With many other acts stating issues with receiving payment for work and describing the station as toxic. Radar has been outed as a station that has allowed sexual harassment, homophobia and racism to foster for too long. This exodus may be overdue, but it is an important act in combatting the sexual harassment that has been sadly omnipresent and unchallenged for far too long.
The issue of sexual harassment gains traction each week, new stories emerge that seem to reveal the reality and depth of the issue. 2017 saw Harvey Weinstein, Roy Moore, Russell Simmons, Kevin Spacey and George H. W Bush finally held accountable for their behaviour. But as each week passes more names emerge. This isn’t a problem unique to Radar, it isn’t unique to music. Of the names given above these men worked in Cinema, Politics, TV and music. Surely this alone demonstrates how grave and broad the problem is. To truly combat sexual harassment and the domineering patriarchy that dominates these systems, we need to encourage others like Ashart to come forward, and provide the safe spaces for these stories to be told and heard.
Peace.
Ashart’s piece can be found here:
http://mixedspices.co.uk/im-a-woman-of-colour-who-was-mistreated-at-radar-radio-their-reaction-to-pxssy-palaces-leaving-statement-is-absolute-trash-and-heres-why/
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Words By: Luc Hinson, 18th April 2018
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