Homelessness Radio Broadcast Highlights Voices and Stories of Homeless People

The Homelessness Marathon is a live, national radio broadcast on Sunday, October 21 originates from different cities throughout the U.S. KKFI starts the broadcast with an hour-long show highlighting plight of homeless people in the Kansas City area.

Note: Regular KKFI programming will be pre-empted to present the nine-hour program highlighting poverty and homelessness in the United States. Programs pre-empted include: Psychic Talk, Coffeehouse Radio Show, Foolkiller Folk, World Sound Radio,
Saba: The Wind of Love, and Sayeh.

This year the Homelessness Marathon will partner with several radio stations around the United States. The broadcast includes reports from Illinois, Maine, Indiana, New Mexico, Vermont, New Hampshire, Oregon and New York. This year we’ll broadcast during daytime hours on the weekend. The program will be live on Sunday, October 21 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm CST. These changes mean the voices and stories of homeless people from all around the United States will be heard right before the Presidential election. The Homelessness Marathon features live call-ins via a national toll-free number. The Homelessness Marathon is available for free to all non-commercial radio stations.

Homelessness Marathon Schedule (All Times Central Standard Time)

8:00-9:00 am – Homeless in Kansas City Radio Hour, recorded in Kansas City, Missouri. This first hour of the radio broadcast will only be heard by KKFI listeners; it is not part of the national broadcast schedule.

9:00-10:00 am – – Dropping the “F” Bombs: Food and Foreclosure, originating from WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign, Illinois

10:00-11:00 am – The Changing Face of Homelessness, originating from WMPG, Portland, ME

11:00 am-12:00 pm – Shelters, Stipulations and Freezing to Death, originating from WFHB, Bloomington, Indiana

12:00-1:00 pm – Poverty and Public Health, originating from KUNM, Albuquerque, New Mexico

1:00-2:00 pm – When You Are Forced To Leave Home, originating from WGDR, Plainfield, Vermont

2:00-3:00 pm – The Myth of the Cardboard Box, originating from WSCA, Portsmouth, New Hampshire

3:00-4:00 pm – Homeless Families in a Homeless Camp Aren’t Exactly Camping, originating from KBOO, Portland, Oregon

4:00-5:00 pm – Vice-Presidential Forum* on Homelessness, originating from the Homelessness Marathon Studio in New York City, New York.

*Major vice-presidential candidates have been invited to come on the air, separately, to outline how they will act to end poverty and homelessness and to answer questions from homeless people on the line.  So far  Cheri Honkala, Green Party vice-presidential candidate and Judge Jim Gray, Libertarian Party vice-presidential candidate have agreed to participate.

Homeless in Kansas City Radio Hour — 8:00-9:00 am

Your show hosts, Tom Edmondson and Susan Sanders, go behind the KKFI 90.1 FM studio microphones to share interviews with people in the homeless community of Kansas City telling their amazing stories of how they became homeless and how they survive day to day and how we can help them.

Tom and Susan hit the streets of Kansas City and met with three organizations who help the poor and homeless in the Greater Kansas City area — Operation Breakthrough, Synergy Services, and Care of Poor People.  You will hear interviews with representatives of each organization on what they do for the homeless and poor and the various programs they provide and what we can do to support their efforts in our community.

Stay tuned after this hour for the national “Homelessness Marathon” that will continue from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Sunday, October 21. For more information about this go to
http://news.homelessnessmarathon.org/2008/08/broadcast-schedule.html

For more information  about the Kansas City Homeless Programs visit:

• Operation Breakthrough – http://www.operationbreakthrough.org/
• Care of Poor People Inc. – http://www.coppinc.com/
• Synergy Services – http://www.synergyservices.org/