Reclaim liberty with ACRN talk show

By Megan Helgeson, writer

May 29, 2008 | noon

Few news sources at Ohio University discuss controversial government issues. The talk show, “Liberty Now! Live,” however, has no problem criticizing the government and politics.

“Liberty Now! Live” is on OU's All Campus Radio Network (ACRN) and is co-hosted by sophomore Emily Mullin and senior Geoffrey Shough.

“The show is a mix of news and commentary, without the left or right-wing bias,” the ACRN Web site said. “It’s a show about reclaiming liberty for this country,” Mullin said when explaining the name. “Mainly we focus on the government abusing its power.”

A flyer for the program jokingly plays off the tendency for Mullin and Shough to “call the government out” when it states, “Warning! Content not approved by the U.S. government. Listeners assume all risks such as questioning of reality and context with possible subsequent disagreement with authority.”

“The warning really refers to how controversial we get,” Mullin said.

The hosts’ ability to freely voice his or her opinions is “one of the reasons the radio appeals to me,” Shough said. Considering their focus on the government and politics, it is not surprising that the two hosts got involved with radio while working together on the presidential campaign for Congressman Ron Paul in the fall.

“We realized we had a lot of the same political views and that was when we started throwing around the idea of creating a publication for the Athens area,” Mullin said. “But then Courtney Walker, the news, sports and entertainment director at ACRN was looking for people who would want to do talk shows.” “Liberty Now! Live” is what resulted.

The show begins with a few news stories from around the world that the hosts find from obscure sources. The second half of the show is dedicated to a broad topic. Sometimes the show has a guest come on, and other times it gets callers.

The hosts do not expect many listeners, though.

“ACRN is different from other radio stations because it is fully online,” Mullin said. “We don’t even worry how many listeners we get.”

Mullin focuses more on how “engaged” her listeners are. She hopes the audience is “actually listening and not just hearing.”

Anyone can engage in the discussions with “Liberty Now! Live” by going to ACRN.com and clicking “Listen Now.” The program airs Tuesdays at 7 p.m.

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