CELEBRATING
"THIS WAY OUT's" 20TH!

Springtime Greetings!

"This Way Out" marks 20 years on the air this month! Our first program was distributed on April 1, 1988 (no foolin').

New grants from the Gay Chemists Support Fund of the Horizons Foundation and the Kicking Assets Fund of the Tides Foundation have given us additional reasons to celebrate – especially the Kicking Assets Fund, which has supported "This Way Out" with increasing 4-figure annual grants since 1995! We'd also like to thank the following station affiliates who've made recent program acquisition payments, even though we don't charge for their online downloads of the show: WRIR-FM/Richmond, Virginia; KUMD-FM/Duluth, Minnesota; WPKN-FM/Bridgeport, Connecticut; KUR-AM&FM/Kutztown, Pennsylvania; KPFT-FM/Houston, Texas; KMUD-FM and KMUE-FM/Garberville-Eureka, California; and KALW-FM/San Francisco, California. Heartfelt thanks also to "This Way Out" programming contributor Susan Gage in Tallahassee, Florida, who asked guests at her recent birthday party to make donations to "This Way Out" in lieu of gifts. We love you, Susan!

The foundation funding and continuing donations are especially critical because Outinamerica.com, the Web site that owns the exclusive LGBT online carriage rights to our program, is still several thousand dollars past due on their monthly licensing fee payments. While they've sent a couple of "on/account" checks since July, we don't know when or if they'll be able to get current or eventually pay down their debt. They’ve also formally terminated their carriage agreement with us, effective at the end of the current contract year, June 30, 2008. We'll continue to honor our end of the agreement by providing the audio and text descriptions of our weekly program to them – and we encourage you to take advantage of this service by clicking on the "Listen Here" link above. However, "This Way Out" will have no online outlet when the Outinamerica.com contract expires, so if you know of any sites that would be financially able and interested in hosting the audio of our programs please let us know. Those licensing fee payments – Outinamerica.com is supposed to be paying $750/month – represent our only steady source of income, and are a significant chunk of our annual budget, which is under $50,000.

An impressive number of new broadcast stations, especially on college campuses and among the increasing field of "low power" outlets, continue to add our program to their schedules, so there's no doubt that, even after 20 years, "This Way Out" remains a vital audio source of LGBT news and culture that's available nowhere else on radio or online. Our globally distributed program, with its incredibly diverse content, is also heard by non-gays who would not otherwise be exposed to the issues and concerns of our communities... and for too many closeted people - young and older - "This Way Out" is the only supportive voice they hear. But we're sure you know that by now!

Even though those recent foundation grants have given us a little "breathing room," we still need your help to keep "This Way Out" on the air. We hope you’ll consider making a donation in honor of our twenty years of service. Please use the PayPal link here to help keep "This Way Out" going, or postal mail your contribution - big or small – to P.O. Box 38327, Los Angeles, CA 90038 USA. We genuinely appreciate every donation.

A minimum donation of $25.00(US) entitles you to select from several special programming "thank you gift" CDs, described below, including the most recent versions of the annual "Audiofile Year in Review" and "Pride On Screen." Specify your preference in the PayPal "message" section or in a note accompanying your postal-mailed check or money order. U.S. donors enjoy the additional satisfaction of being able to deduct contributions to our 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit from their annual tax obligations – money that would otherwise help fund the horrifically homophobic administration of George W. Bush, and a federal government that refuses to recognize our civil rights, or even our humanity.

A portion of the income from CD or cassette subscriptions also helps underwrite our general operating costs, and you'll never miss a "This Way Out" program that way. Click the "Subscriptions" tab above for easy "how to" information.

On behalf of our hundreds of thousands of listeners around the world, the many volunteers who provide the programming you hear, and the entire "This Way Out" family, thank you for your support. We literally can't go on without you!

Greg Gordon, Coordinating Producer
Lucia Chappelle, Associate Producer
"This Way Out"
P.O. Box 38327
Los Angeles, CA 90038
USA

AUDIOFILE 2007 YEAR IN REVIEW

Chris Wilson and JD Doyle, orchestrated by production guru Christopher David Trentham, again managed to narrow a year's worth of outstanding LGBT music down to seven favorites for their annual "Audiofile Year in Review."  Sample selections from 2007 CDs by Levi Kreis ("The Gospel According to Levi"), The Cliks ("Snakehouse"), Bluehouse ("One More Kiss"), Joshua Klipp ("Won't Stop Now"), Jennifer Leitham  ("The Real Me"), Brian Glenn ("Original Intent"), and Ari Gold ("Transport Systems").  Enjoy this keepsake gender-and-genre-bending half-hour "soundtrack" to the ups and downs of queer life in 2007!

PRIDE ON SCREEN 2007

Another tumultuous year in the global struggle for LGBT equality was also reflected in the movies and on television in 2007.  Our award-winning entertainment reporter STEVE PRIDE has consummate clips, and comments by their creators, as he recalls some of the queer moving images that moved him most in "PRIDE ON SCREEN 2007."  Part 1 covers television, and includes clips from "Desperate Housewives," "Ugly Betty," "Dirty Sexy Money," "Greek," "As The World Turns," and "Torchwood," with comments by "Torchwood" creator Russell T. Davies; the much longer Part 2 reveals Steve's picks for the Top 10 films of 2007: "East Side Story," with a clip and comments by writer/director Carlos Portugal; a clip from "Camp Out"; a clip from "Amnesia – The James Brighton Enigma," and comments by director Denis Langlois; "Fat Girls," with a clip and comments by writer/director/producer/actor Ash Christian; "Puccini for Beginners," with a clip and comments by writer/director Maria Maggenti; "Colma: The Musical," with an excerpt from one of its songs, "Maybe This Time" and comments by writer/star H.P. Mendoza and director Richard Wong; "The Bubble," with an excerpt from the film's "The Man I Love" and comments by writer/director Eytan Fox; "Boy Culture," with a clip and comments by writer/director Q. Allan Brocka; director Daniel Karslake's "For the Bible Tells Me So," with a clip and comments by co-writer/co-producer Helen Mendoza; and 1986's reissued "Parting Glances," with clips and comments by the landmark film's openly gay star Richard Ganoung.

Also still available:

PRIDE ON SCREEN 2005

From "Walk On Water," "Gay Sex in the 70s," and "Capote" to "Mysterious Skin," "Transamerica," and "Brokeback Mountain," Steve Pride offers clips and comments by many of the filmmakers themselves in his review of the most memorable moments on big and small screens in 2005, unquestionably a high-water mark for queer cinema.

STRANGER THAN STRAIGHT

The legendary American DJ known as "Dr. Demento" raised audio kitsch to an artform. As "Nurse Pimento", the late Southern California gay activist and radio producer David Fradkin added his own kind of spice to pursuing the peculiarities of popular culture in this early 1980s half-hour production, which features some offbeat queer words and music from Carroll "Archie Bunker" O'Connor, Groucho Marx, Perry Como, Laurel and Hardy, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks, Tommy Smothers, Martin Mull, Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Noel Coward, the poignant self-aware words of Holocaust teen diarist Anne Frank, Bessie Smith singing, and her niece Ruby telling interviewer Chris Albertson about, their especially entertaining visit to a "Buffet Flat" -- and more!

And our special coverage of some of the historic events in the queer community is still available:

THE BIGGEST QUEER NEWS OF 2003

A keepsake collection of more than an hour of "This Way Out" reports, with the voices of many of the activists involved, covering the advent of legal same gender marriage in Canada, the historic U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning state sodomy laws, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision opening legal marriage to queer couples, and a P-FLAG mom's "on scene" account of and sound from the consecration of openly gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson.

DIMINISHED CAPACITY

Alive with the sounds from the streets, this documentary, produced by "This Way Out" Coordinating Producer Greg Gordon, captures the enormous impact on the queer community of the November 1978 assassinations of openly gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and gay-friendly Mayor George Moscone. The "diminished capacity" defense (since eliminated legislatively) made it possible for former Supervisor Dan White to receive a very lenient sentence for the dual murders, a decision that sent shockwaves through the Castro District and led to what became known as the "White Night Riot." This fast-paced hour tracks the entire story through and including White's eventual suicide, with comments by many leading lesbian and gay activists and journalists of the time, and riveting thematic music by the Tom Robinson Band.

THE NATIONAL MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOR LESBIAN & GAY RIGHTS RADIO DOCUMENTARY

This "audio scrapbook" of the October 14, 1979 march and rally in the U.S. capital, produced by "This Way Out" Associate Producer Lucia Chappelle and Coordinating Producer Greg Gordon, illuminates the problems and the passion of the first demonstration of its kind. As rich with the music and culture of the period as it is with the politics, the hour traces the event from the initial planning conference and some activists' heartfelt and sometimes humorous cross-country trip to D.C. on a "Freedom Train" to the big day itself, and its coverage (or lack thereof) in the conventional media.

$25

Please select *one* of the following 4 choices:
AUDIOFILE 2007 YEAR IN REVIEW or
PRIDE ON SCREEN 2007 or
PRIDE ON SCREEN 2005 or
STRANGER THAN STRAIGHT

$50

Please select *two* of the following 4 choices:
AUDIOFILE 2007 YEAR IN REVIEW
PRIDE ON SCREEN 2007
PRIDE ON SCREEN 2005
STRANGER THAN STRAIGHT

or select *one* of the following:
THE BIGGEST QUEER NEWS STORIES OF    2003 or
DIMINISHED CAPACITY or
THE 1979 MARCH ON WASHINGTON    DOCUMENTARY

$100

All 4 "Queer Culture" CDs:
AUDIOFILE 2007 YEAR IN REVIEW and
PRIDE ON SCREEN 2007 and
PRIDE ON SCREEN 2005 and
STRANGER THAN STRAIGHT

$150 OR MORE

All *three* "Queer History" CDs:
THE BIGGEST QUEER NEWS STORIES OF    2003 and
DIMINISHED CAPACITY and
THE 1979 MARCH ON WASHINGTON    DOCUMENTARY

$200 OR MORE

All *seven* of these Outstanding Queer Culture & History CDs:
AUDIOFILE 2007 YEAR IN REVIEW
PRIDE ON SCREEN 2007
PRIDE ON SCREEN 2005
STRANGER THAN STRAIGHT
THE BIGGEST QUEER NEWS STORIES OF    2003
DIMINISHED CAPACITY
THE 1979 MARCH ON WASHINGTON    DOCUMENTARY

(All donor levels are in U.S. dollars.)

Facing The Voices

"This Way Out" Coordinating Producer Greg Gordon:



"This Way Out" Associate Producer Lucia Chappelle:



"Audiofile" Co-Producers JD Doyle & Chris Wilson:



"Audiofile" Co-Producer Christopher David Trentham:



"Pride On Screen" Reporter Steve Pride:



"NewsWrap" Co-anchor & Features Producer Jon Beaupré:



"NewsWrap" Co-Anchor Christopher Gaal:



"NewsWrap" Co-Anchor Tanya Kane-Parry:



"NewsWrap" Co-Anchor Sheri Lunn:



"NewsWrap" Co-Anchor Rick Watts:



"NewsWrap" Co-Anchor Erica Springer:



"NewsWrap" Co-Anchor DonnaAnn Ward:



"NewsWrap" Co-Anchor Leigh Moore:



"This Way Out" Correspondent & Host of "QueerFM" on CiTR/Vancouver Heather Kitching:



Queer Lit Commentator Janet Mason:



News & Arts Correspondent Bryan Goebel:

What is "This Way Out"?

"This Way Out" is the award-winning internationally distributed weekly GLBT radio program, currently airing on over 150 local commmunity radio stations around the world. The half-hour "magazine"-style program is produced in Los Angeles and distributed via the Public Radio Satellite System and Pacifica Radio's KU satellite to stations in North America, and via satellite in Australia on the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia's ComRadSat. "This Way Out" is also heard via direct satellite to home and cable outlets across Europe, South America, and in the Middle East/Africa and Asia/Pacific regions on the World Radio Network, and is heard globally on short wave station Radio For Peace International and online at Out in America. The program is also postal-mailed to non-satellite stations and to individual subscribers.

Despite the limitations of a "tattered shoestring budget", "This Way Out" programming has been honored with multiple awards from the U.S. National Federation Of Community Broadcasters and the Radio and Television News Association, by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), Parents, Families and Friends Of Lesbians and Gays (P-FLAG), the Los Angeles chapter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA), and internationally by Tupilak (the organization of lesbian and gay cultural workers in the Nordic area).

We've been on the air since APRIL 1988! Summaries of recent programs are available here on the Net, and if you like what you see, you can order cassette copies of any past show, or subscribe so you get all our future shows as they're produced!

"This Way Out" leads off each week with NewsWrap, a summary of some of the major news events in or affecting the lesbian/gay community, compiled from a variety of publications and broadcasts around the world. If you have a local news story you'd like us to report, please let us know!

In addition to NewsWrap, each edition of the program consists of several other segments, which can include:

Interviews With Authors & Performers

News Feature Stories

Music By Openly-Lesbigay Recording Artists

Humor

Poetry

Readings From Gay/Lesbian Literature

And More!

Plus, every segment of "This Way Out" is punctuated with a wide variety of music, especially self-produced recordings by openly lesbian/gay performers (which rarely receive commercial radio airplay). If you are a musician and have a tape or CD you'd like to submit to "This Way Out" for potential airplay, write to us at the address below!

Financial Realities

As an all-volunteer operation, "This Way Out" needs your support! Only with your help can we continue to provide quality programming of interest to the gay/lesbian community.

Write To Us!

We'd love to hear from you. Please make sure to let us know which station you hear us on, what day and time they play the show, and any other comments or questions you may have. We'd also love to hear about any articles written about the show in your local queer (or mainstream!) newspaper.

"This Way Out"
P.O. Box 38327
Los Angeles, CA 90038-0327
U.S.A.
Telephone: +1 818 986 4106
E-mail: TWOradio@aol.com

Last updated: July 2, 2008

Webmaster: Parker

All text copyright © 1996. Graphics are the property of their respective creator(s).