Ten years ago, producer Sylvia Ryerson left Cambridge, Massachusetts, and wound her way to Whitesburg, Kentucky, for a summer internship at WMMT-FM 88.7, a community radio station in the heart of Central Appalachia.
WMMT-FM is a part of the media arts and education center Appalshop. She was drawn there in part because of its groundbreaking work as a rural organization challenging the prison industrial complex then making inroads in the area.
In a new feature for Transom, Sylvia describes her efforts over the intervening years to help prisoners and their families stay in touch, through radio. She offers audio samples, photographs, and more, along with ideas for how this kind of endeavor can be replicated elsewhere.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
