Johanna Halbeisen: Local airwaves owe a lot to Ed Russell

Thanks to the Gazette for the article about Ed Russell’s passing. So far, what readers know is that Ed was instrumental in getting Democracy Now to be broadcast in the Valley, but Ed did so much more.

He was involved in the founding of Valley Free Radio, Northampton’s low-power FM volunteer-run community station, which went on the air in August of 2005.

He was active in the running of the station and in November of 2009 he started his own show, “Active Ingredients.” He scoured the region, recording every speaker in the Valley who, as he put it, “annoyed the Dominant Paradigm.”

“Active Ingredients” continued through October of 2012, at which point his multiple sclerosis prevented Ed from continuing. He was a regular listener to Valley Free Radio and called me every so often with comments and questions about what he was hearing.

Johanna Halbeisen

Northampton

The author is a member of the VFR Programming Committee.