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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 18pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">Homeless
take the airwaves<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><I><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">Marathon
radio program airs Feb. 20-21 nationwide<o:p></o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The 10th Annual Homelessness
Marathon will be broadcast live starting Tuesday night, Feb. 20 until Wednesday
morning, Feb. 21.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The Homelessness Marathon is the
world’s leading radio broadcast focusing on homelessness and poverty, airing on
over 100 radio stations in the United States. </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">This unique program will air in
the Boston area on WMBR 88.1FM (and streaming live at wmbr.org), MIT’s student-
and community-run radio station. The broadcast will begin at 10 p.m. and run
through the night until 9 a.m.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The program is formatted in
one-hour segments, with each hour focusing on a specific topic related to being
homeless in America. There are panels of experts, and call-ins from listeners,
with a priority given to those who are actually homeless. The host, “Nobody,”
and his guests are in an outdoor broadcast booth all night long, with a
microphone set up for people who are out on the street that night.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The Homelessness Marathon airs
from a different city each year. In 2001 it originated in Harvard Square,
Cambridge. This year it will be in Fresno, California, hosted by local community
radio station KFCF and an ad hoc committee of activists on poverty and housing
issues.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">“We picked Fresno,” explains the
Homelessness Marathon’s director, Jeremy Weir Alderson, “partly because of the
extraordinary cruelty with which homeless people are being treated there.”
Allegedly, in the course of making sweeps, the City of Fresno has thrown away
people’s money, ID’s, sleeping bags and tents as well as a list of items
Alderson calls “particularly shocking,” including someone’s false teeth, a cane,
a wheelchair, the ashes of someone’s dead grandchild and a tent thought to have
kittens inside (the kittens were never seen again).</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Additional information about the
Homelessness Marathon can be found at </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><A
href="http://www.homelessnessmarathon.org">http://www.homelessnessmarathon.org</A></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><BR>Linda Pinkow<BR>news
director <A href="mailto:news@wmbr.org">news@wmbr.org</A><BR>WMBR 88.1
fm <A href="http://wmbr.org">http://wmbr.org</A><BR>community radio
at MIT<BR></P>
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