International Media Action is a non-profit organization that provides engineering, activist and policy training for groups who want to start radio stations, community media projects and implement renewable energy.
Just about all radio engineering consultants are small businesses. They do great work and help a lot of stations. We’ve chosen to make our group a non-profit, so that we can offer help with engineering at below market rate for stations with an educational or activist mission. A lot of engineers focus on efficiency, and prefer not to work with volunteers. At IMA, we consider technical education to be a key part of our mission. So we are happy to put just as much time into teaching as we put into making your community media technology work. We integrate your projects volunteers as much as possible in the work, and train the station as much as possible for technical self sufficiency.
Our staff are also experienced in media policy work, having passed the Local Community Radio Act through the US congress, and advocating in the rulemakings that created the low power radio service. We are happy to consult and advise on campaigns for social justice and communications rights.
We’ve worked on community radio projects around the world, from Tanzania to Colombia, Idaho to Tunisia. If you are looking to start a radio station, we can help with planning, construction, procuring equipment and training. Check out our “How to” pages for some basics, and feel free to get in touch (petri <@> imarad.io) if you want to learn more.