Hope everyone enjoyed season 2 of Radio Free Finland!! We’ll be back in the fall with all new episodes. Have a great summer!!

For those who are new to Radio Free Finland, here’s my top 3 episodes from season 2… (or check out the list of all the past shows)

- Swedish journalist Henrik Arnstad discusses Finland’s secret relationship with Nazi Germany
- Steven Stewart discusses Mormonism in Finland
- Markku from Finland tells you everything you need to know about Finland.

And of course, don’t forget to check out YLE/FST’s special on Radio Free Finland..!

Super dooper big thanks to Keksi for recording the show last night, encoding it to an online format, and uploading it!! So here you can watch the segment…

Download the segment in high quality (119MB, 9:21, XViD)
Download the segment in normal quality (25MB, 9:21, XViD)

Or watch it on YouTube… (low quality)

I’ll be FST’s “Neon” programme tonight at 20.20 for an eight minute segment on citizen journalism (you’ll need a digibox to see FST). A film crew visited my house a few weeks ago for an interview, after which they filmed me doing a podcast. The show will be discussing Finland for Thought and Radio Free Finland amongst other things.

You can find out more about the show from their website. (They spelled my last name wrong, there’s no ‘T’ in it. Grrrr….)

If you look below the Radio Free Finland logo on Finland for Thought, it says, “To be announced after summer” - and since it was 20 degrees this weekend, I remain true to my word. But summer is just about done so it’s time to begin the next season of Radio Free Finland…and I need your help!!

Last season we had some fantastic guests: Tarja Kantola from Tarja Halonen’s re-election team discusses the campaign, Singer/songwriter and Finland’s 2005 Eurovision song contest winner Steven Stewart, Teemu Lahtinen of Suomen Sisu, Terrorism expert Toby Archer from the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, and a whole lot more. We’ve discussed all sorts of interesting topics like marijuana legalization, gay and lesbian rights, music piracy, conscription, anti-Americanism, immigration, liberals, the Mohammed cartoons…

If you enjoy this blog and the Radio Free Finland podcast, you can help out by suggesting some guests via comment/e-mail. I’m looking for individuals or organizations who do something Finland-related and may not make the traditional news outlets like Hesari and YLE. And don’t be shy, suggest yourself as a guest if you have something interesting to talk about!! Seriously, the most difficult thing about doing the podcast is booking the guests, so if you could help out with it, that would be fantastic!

There’ll be some small changes to the show, I’ll write about them in a future post. Hopefully we’ll do the first show next week or the following. Stay tuned!

Radio Free Finland has been on summer holiday for the past couple months. We’ll be back with new guests and new episodes in September. See you then!!

Sunday May 7th I’ll be joined on Radio Free Finland by Teemu Lahtinen, head of Suomen Sisu, a nationalist organization in Finland. In February of this year, their organization was ordered to take down the infamous cartoons of Mohammed from their website. Three of their members are now under criminal investigation for violating the freedom of worship, the state prosecutor is expected to decide in May whether to prosecute the men.

Teemu will be on the show to discuss the possible court case, freedom of speech in Finland, and the Suomen Sisu organization. A photo, bio, and more details will come closer to the date of the interview.

Suomen Sisu is a modern nationalistic movement, which aims to strenghten healthy national and cultural self-esteem. We want to protect the Finnish environment and way of life, and to actively work against menaces like unlimited immigration.

We believe that every nation and culture has a right to exist and to govern themselves.

There is no conflict between nationalism and internationality. A steadfast identity is not only a major personal resource, but also the key to respecting and understanding other cultures and nations.

How to create a live online radio show (podcast) using your computer and Skype (skypecasting) that can take live callers from a telephone.

There’s many ways to do this, I’ll explain the way I do it and why. I’ll explain advantages and disadvantages to different setups and equipment. There’s much easier ways to create podcasts if you don’t wish to make it live, or take live callers from telephones – however this document will focus on creating a live podcast with live telephone callers.

Please note: This is a living document, so hopefully I’ll be making changes/additions constantly. Like I said, there are many ways to do this, and I may not be doing it the best way. So your feedback is very much appreciated!!

What you’ll need…
- A computer (I use a PC), it doesn’t have to be the latest and greatest model at all. I’m sure a 800 MHz, 256MB RAM would be okay.
- A fast internet connection such as ADSL. (something with at least a 256kbps upload)
- Skype (www.skype.com)
- Headphones (any cheap headphones will do fine)
- A microphone (any cheap microphone will do, but a more expensive one will give a better sound)
- A server that can stream the sound (this is for the live broadcast, I’ll explain more below)
- Software to mix the sound and upload the stream (I use SAM Audio Broadcaster v3, but there are cheaper alternatives)
- SkypeIn (a service on Skype that allows people to call your computer with their normal telephones.)

What is recommended but optional… (I’ll explain in detail when and where you’ll need this stuff)
- A second sound card
- A second PC
- A mixing board (especially if you’ll have your interviewees come to your studio rather than do the interview over the computer)
- Some stereo cables and other cables if you’re using a mixing board
- MP3 editing software (I use Sony SoundForge 7.0, but there are free alternatives like Audacity)
- Software to create an RSS feed (you can use the TextPad that comes with Windows)
- SkypeOut (a service that allows you to call normal telephones using Skype)
(more…)

Phil practices for the show by interviewing his dog, Oggie. Phil tries to get Oggie to answer some difficult questions, but the dog just won’t budge!