Internet Radio and Podcasts from Ecuador

All links lead to Spanish-language websites unless otherwise noted

Campus Party Quito was held after the Free Culture Congress in October 2011 in Quito, Ecuador [en] (see reports here). In a previous post [en] we shared some video interviews with people present at that event. We are presenting a few more of these people because they showcase internet radio and podcasts from Ecuador.

We start with the team at Radialistas, an entrepreneurial company that now has had more than 10 years of production and distribution of radio content by traditional mediums and the internet. In addition, they organized the Free Culture Congress. Unfortunately due to scheduling complications we were not able to speak directly but from their own words on their website we learn about their mission:

Nuestra misión es contribuir a la democratización de las comunicaciones, especialmente de la radio, desde las perspectivas de género y ciudadanía. Somos un centro de producción al servicio de radialistas de todos los continentes, priorizando América Latina y el Caribe.

Our mission is to contribute to the democratization of communication, especially radio communication, from citizen and gender perspectives. We are a production service center for broadcasters and content producers around the world, with special focus on Latin America and the Caribbean.

In their website we can find a lot of material, from videos to radio productions organized by subject: Culture, Harmony, Ecology, Training, Human Rights, Women, Gender, Sexuality and Specials. But they also have a very interesting section on books and guides: Must-read Guide for Content Producers, Sexual and Reproductive Rights Guide, Citizen Radio, Guide for Technically Illiterate Content Producers and more.

As an example of their radio productions we are sharing this audio clip (link includes audio transcript in Spanish) titled “The Secret of the Herbs. Tsáchilas or painted indians, the best folk healers of Ecuador” from their series “Living Roots“. You can also find Radialistas on Facebook and Twitter.


THE SECRET OF THE HERBS
Radialistas.net

Another initiative that has to be mentioned with internet radio in Ecuador is Radio Turismo Ecuador. As their name indicates, they publish content on tourism in Ecuador and have been doing so for a little over a year. Here they share their mission:

Difundimos y promocionamos la imagen de Ecuador, un país de gente amable y emprendedora; de riqueza étnica, natural y cultural, e impulsamos a través del Centro de Negocios y Servicios Turísticos de la Radio, actividades directa e indirectamente vinculadas con la industria del turismo.

We spread and promote the positive image of Ecuador, a country of a friendly and industrious people and a richness of ethnicities, culture, and nature. Through our Business Center and Radio Tourist Services we seek to boost activities directly and indirectly linked to the tourism industry.

Radio Turismo Ecuador was present at Campus Party and broadcast a special 5 hour program from there. There is a summary of highlights on their website. Because of their participation in Campus Party we were able to meet with them, including their manager Mayra Clavijo:

Even though their productions are made for online streaming, there are some programs available as downloadable podcasts. You can follow Radio Turismo Ecuador on Facebook and Twitter. An excellent example of their work is the program “Interview with Carlos Nuñez,” where Nuñez skeaps about his findings on the migrations from Ecuador to Central America and Mexico.

And finally we want to highlight more traditional podcasts that have a style similar to blogging. Adrian Paliz, Dennis Pazmiño and Diego Cevallos have created a group of podcasts, now numbering 20, which they call Ctrl Alt Freak:

…es un podcast quincenal, que de forma divertida y un tanto freak, habla de temas de actualidad acerca de tecnología, internet en general, software, series, cine, video juegos y demás temas a fines. Los temas que este podcast trata, son el compendio de lo mas relevante y comentando en la semana, así como también de temas que por su importante “recuerdo”, no lo pasamos por alto.

..it is a biweekly podcast that tries to be fun and freaky. We speak on current news related to technology, internet, software, TV series, movies, video games, and other interesting subjects. The topics we address in this podcast are a summary of the most relevant things and what people are commenting on during the week, as well as some subjects that are worth remembering.

During Campus Party, we were able to speak with Dennis about how Ctrl Alt Freak came about, what they do to keep it going and more.

In their last podcast they covered some interesting subjects. During their “Music” section they speak about open database Musicbrainz, which is collaboratively maintained by users. In their “Our Listeners” section they read comments made on their blog, social networks and podcast broadcasting services. Their third section spoke about developments on the internet front, discussing SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), which was being pushed forward in the U.S. Congress:


Ctrl Alt Freak has a presence on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

If you know of more great podcasts from Ecuador, leave us a comment with the details.

Post originally published on the personal blog [es] of Juan Arellano.
Special thanks to Amara and Global Voices contributors Sole Biestro, Verónica SabaleteHelenIngridHG, MomoFloyd11, Juliana Rincón, and Vipin_11 for transcribing and subtitling the videos in this post.

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