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Now Streaming: ‘Corporate.FM’ Clearly Explains the Decline of Commercial Radio

“The radio industry… is an example of an industry that was doing pretty well, and they gutted it.” The “they” is the private equity industry, which provided the financing to companies like Clear Channel (iHeartRadio) and Cumulus to go on the epic buying sprees that resulted in today’s enormously consolidated commercial radio landscape. Investigative reporter […]

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Truly Local Commercial Radio

The Joy of Finding Truly Local Commercial Radio (Yes, It Exists)

While we mostly celebrate non-commercial radio here at Radio Survivor, that doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate commercial radio when done well. The problem is that in the 20 years since the 1996 Telecom Act grossly deregulated radio ownership, the quality of most commercial radio dropped precipitously, leaving many stations with very little local programming, with […]

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Oct 2017 California Wildfire satellite image

Local Radio’s Value Demonstrated During Emergencies

The local service of radio grows enormously in value when disaster strikes a community. This is what we’ve seen with the wildfires that have swept through the Northern California counties of Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake and Solano beginning last week. Fast moving and unpredictable, these deadly fires also took out communications infrastructure like cell towers, […]

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Podcast #107 – Exploring Community Podcasting

On this episode we revisit our features on Bainbridge Community Broadcasting, and our interviews with founders Barry and Channie Peters. BCB started out as a low-power community radio initiative, but pivoting into podcasting when the group discovered that would better serve their community. We’ll listen to our first conversation with them from July 2015, and […]

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WBRU Programming Leaves FM in Advance of $5.63 Million License Sale to EMF

At 11:59pm last night, Brown University’s student-run commercial college radio station WBRU brought its broadcasts over 95.5 FM in Providence, Rhode Island to a close, making way for syndicated Christian radio programming from K-LOVE. On Wednesday, we learned more about the impending FM license sale to Educational Media Foundation, as paperwork was filed with the […]

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WUVA stickers at commercial college radio station WUVA. Photo: J. Waits

Country Music and a 70-year Commercial College Radio Legacy: Visiting WUVA at University of Virginia

While making plans for my trip to Charlottesville, Virginia for the College Radio: Then, Now and Next symposium, I was looking forward to seeing all three radio stations that have an affiliation with the University of Virginia: WTJU (see my tour report #129), WXTJ and WUVA. Each has a distinct personality. WTJU is a non-commercial […]

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1951: Uncle Sam produces military training film on independent radio

It is beyond me why The United States Army produced a documentary on running an independent radio station in 1951, but here you have it. “Also serving the public,” the film notes, “are radio stations without networks. Typical is this small independent station in New York.” The “typical” indie station the Army focused on was […]

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