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Introducing a new audio news magazine about getting into the wilderness, in this, the inaugural edition of The Wildebeat.

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News from the Wildebeat, the audio journal about getting into the wilderness.

This is program number one.

I'm Steve Sergeant.

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Hello and welcome to The Wildebeat. In this inaugural program, I want to tell you about my vision for the show, and about my plans for future programs.

I created the Wildebeat to help you explore the Earth's remaining wild places. And to provide useful news and information to people who love wilderness, and love to visit it.

By wilderness, I mean places that have been preserved as truly wild. In 1964 Wilderness Act, congress defined it as, "an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain."

The act goes on to describe wilderness as a place without permanent improvements or evidence of human habitation. It's protected and managed to preserve its natural condition. And perhaps most importantly, it has outstanding opportunities for solitude, or primitive and unconfined types of recreation.

There are a lot of other magazines, web sites, radio and TV shows about outdoor sports. But after searching for a couple of years, I haven't found any of them specifically focused on getting into the wilderness. So I decided that this was something I could do.

How?

The programs will be short — ranging from three to six minutes. I rarely have more time than that to listen to anything uninterrupted. I expect the same is true for you, when you're listening at your computer, or on your MP3 player.

Each program will contain a single story or report. So in addition to news stories about wilderness issues, I plan to report on Outings, Wild Places, Gear, and Skills.

Wilderness news stories will be about anything affecting the wilderness areas we care about.

An outings story will be a report on a wilderness activity. I'll talk with people doing common things, like hiking, and to people who are trying new kinds of outdoor adventure. Sometimes I'll report from the wilds, or from events sponsored by wilderness oriented groups.

A wild places program will be a visit to a wilderness area. I'll describe its unique natural treasures, explain regulations, and suggest ways you can prepare to see it. In the beginning, I'll be talking about areas in the western United States, but with your contributions, we can go anywhere.

I have a partnership with a group to do gear reviews. I'll do stories about mainstream products from large manufacturers, as well as specialized and innovative gear from cottage industries, and the most interesting creations of do-it-yourselfers. Volunteer testers will tell us how they used the gear, and how it worked out.

In wilderness skills stories, I'll share ideas on trip planning, making preparations, and what to pack. I'll talk with experts about how to make wilderness trips safer, and how we can minimize our impact on the wilderness.

My dream is to make this program into the thing that I wish already existed: A way to learn about activities, places, skills, and gear by listening. Something we can do while traveling to a wilderness area, or whenever it's convenient.

Most importantly, I don't plan to do this alone. I hope that you, my listeners, will become the eyes and ears on The Wildebeat. Your experiences on your wilderness trips will be valuable to all of us.

To find out how you can contribute news and reports to The Wildebeat, visit the contribute link on our web site at WILDEBEAT dot NET.

Please join me in future programs, as we walk together on the WildeBeat.

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In the next show -- West coast long distance hikers gather at ALDHA-West in the California Sierra.

The Wildebeat is produced by Steve Sergeant for Effable Communications. Our official website is WWW dot WILDEBEAT (that's W-I-L-D-E-B-E-A-T) dot NET. Future editions of The Wildebeat depend on your contributions, both for funding and for content. Please see our website for details.

This has been The Wildebeat, program number one. Thank you for listening.

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