While updating the 2004 podcast entries for my old radio show “mediageek” I was reminded that I used to post the episodes in both a 64kbps mono “broadcast quality” MP3 and a 16kbps. The reason why I posted such a low bitrate file, containing relatively low fidelity, was to make the show accessible to listeners […]
Perhaps you are like me and you have wished that you could go back in time and spin a radio dial and just listen to and browse the full radio spectrum from another time and place. Our guest on the show, Radio Anthropologist Thomas Witherspoon, is building a website for just such a thing. It’s […]
As I continue to mine the deeply embedded treasures of YouTube, I’ve dug up another diamond in the rough, a 27 year-old documentary on unlicensed shortwave broadcasting radio. Titled “Inside Pirate Radio,” this hour-long video visits the studio of Radio Wolf International during one broadcast, interspersed with an interview with Andrew Yoder, one of the […]
In the days since the disastrous earthquake in Nepal amateur radio operators have been lending critical communications assistance, especially in places where power, telephone, wireless and internet service has been interrupted. Nepal has only 99 licensed amateur radio operators, which is why hams from other countries have traveled to the country to help. The country’s […]
Every so often I like to do a round-up of events in unlicensed broadcasting. In this update we have a review of FCC actions against unlicensed broadcasters, including one on the shortwave band and another on the CB band, good buddy. Plus, there’s an investigation into one of the country’s most notorious TV pirates. Sniffing […]
Family Radio-owned shortwave radio station WYFR is slated to resume broadcasts on December 1, following the sale of the station facility to Radio Miami International (WRMI). As we reported earlier this year, WYFR ceased broadcasts on June 30, 2013. Many in the shortwave community were saddened by the loss of this historic station, as it […]
Some unexpected excitement for iTunes Radio, digital radio future for Sweden and an online shortwave archive are in today’s round-up of radio news not to miss. Music blogger Tyler Hayes published an excited mash note to Apple’s new iTunes Radio for FastCo.Labs, based upon sampling the beta version. Our own Matthew Lasar expressed his own […]
Shortwave Central is reporting that Christian broadcasting network Family Radio will cease operations from its Florida-based shortwave radio station WYFR at the end of June. According to a message posted from WYFR Station Manager Dan Elyea, “We regretfully inform you that the final day of operation for WYFR will be June 30, 2013.” No reason […]
State broadcasters around the world have been cutting back on their shortwave transmissions over the last few years, typically attributing the reductions to a combination of budget challenges and declining listenership. With the start of April and the beginning of the 2nd quarter the Voice of America and BBC just trimmed shortwave broadcasts. Citing budget […]
Last week police in Zimbabwe banned the use of so-called “specially designed radios” capable of receiving shortwave broadcasts from outside the country, not just FM broadcasts from the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Company which is loyal to President Robert Mugabe’s party. According to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) the law is aimed at hand-cranked and […]
