SANTA CRUZ — As Jill Cody seats herself at the opposite side of the wooden coffee table, she looks up with a smiling determination. She has a lot to say about the new show she is both producing and hosting.
KSQD Community Radio has offered Cody a springboard to bring her two-time, award-winning book, ‘America Abandoned: The Secret Velvet Coup That Cost Us Our Democracy,’ to life through a new radio show called, ‘Be Bold America!’
The show is tackling the issues causing democracy to disappear as well as presenting solutions to prevent its permanent demise, according to Cody.
“I personally am very tired of hearing all of the shows that just talk about the issues,” Cody said. “What I’m going to include in the radio show is what’s called an organizational development tool. It’s called a…keep, stop, start. I say what people could keep doing, stop doing, and start doing as it relates to that chapter.”
Cody noted in her Community Radio Blog, ‘The Air of Democracy,’ in the 1980s there used to be 50 media companies. Now, there are four major media conglomerates; Comcast Corp., News Corp., The Walt Disney Co., and Time Warner. Cody suggests that the select concentration of the media’s power has the potential to lead to “agenda-driven propaganda.” The blog further explains how community radio shows like, “Be Bold America!” are the most democratic communication forum as they cannot be owned by one man or corporation and require community involvement.
“The problem [for big media groups] is never how best to present the truth to the public,” Cody said, paraphrasing former Vice President Henry A. Wallace. “But how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving…group[s] more money and power.”
According to an article written amidst the 2016 election, ‘Voters Fear Their Ballot Won’t Count, Poll Shows‘ 57 percent of all Americans believe that the elections are controlled by wealth and power and therefore believe that their vote does not matter.
“I feel like [my vote] doesn’t matter really,” Melissa Reis, a student at Cabrillo College said.
Cody disagrees with this notion.
“Why are there so many manipulative and numerous ways to suppress [your vote]?” Cody reasons. “Boy, it counts. If it didn’t, why would they want to steal it?”
Cody is determined to wake up people and let them know about the great power they can hold in a democracy.
“The hope is there are more people on the sidelines. And all they need to do is get inspired, decide what kind of country they want to live in, ” Cody said. “It’s going to take boldness on our part. Daring courage to talk about the hard truths and really understand what we can lose if we don’t have a democracy anymore.”
Reis said the show will be really interesting to hear.
Cody’s book has won the 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Finalist Award as well as the Best Book Finalist Award.
If you listen:
What: “Be Bold America!”
When: 5 p.m. Sunday.
Where: KSQD 90.7 FM
