Açık Radyo : Alternative voice of Turkey

When Açık Radyo was established in 1995 many people were already voicing their demands for an 'unofficial' history of the country as well as unofficial channels through which their dissent could find unfettered expression. Initially Açık Radyo had ninety two individual partners. Each were given lithographs of the legendary Turkish artist Abidin Dino for proof of their partnership. These partners aimed to create a pluralistic medium that could be instrumental in opening a crack on the official discourse of the country. With a small crew of twenty seven professionals the radio managed to achieve that in less than two decades.

    When we were students many of our friends wanted to be a part of the station. Musicians imagined programmes where they could share their favourite drum solos while politically informed ones dreamt of talking about Deleuze and Foucault to an increasingly intellectual audience. We visited their studios in Taksim and were informed that if we came up with a good idea and a determination to realise it in the next season, we could easily have a spot in the Açık Radyo schedule. But alas, we were meant to appreciate rather than talk. But even if we did give up our dreams of being radio hosts we never gave up our habit of listening.

This is a station where you can listen to half an hour excerpts from Tolstoy's War and Peace every morning, narrated by the wonderful actress Tilbe Saran. There are programmes focused on African music and others on the ECM type, north European jazz. On a lazy Sunday afternoon one can philosophise with the ideas of an esteemed professor of aesthetics who muses about the concept of the modern while in their weekly shows two film critics discuss latest movies. But perhaps the most colourful programmes are aired on early evenings: The Open Magazine (Açık Gazete) programme is indeed prepared like a print 'magazine', filled with various bits of interesting information and there you can listen to some traditional food recipe before enjoying the segment devoted to Jimi Hendrix.

Just like BBC's prestigious Radio Four, Açık Radyo gained an influential reputation throughout its sixteen years of programming. All of the DJs and programmers work there as volunteers (if they find sponsors for their shows it is allowed to be paid on the sponsor's account) and the enterprise takes pride in being strictly environmentalist: they broadcasted from Greenpeace's Anna ship back in 2005, using solar energy for transmission. Besides their environmentalism, Açık Radyo is uncompromising in its anti-war stance, as was evident in their airings of the culminating session of the War Tribunal on Iraq which was held in Istanbul, headed by Arundhati Roy.