NPR asked its jazz listeners to rate their favorite songs, and gleaned from those responses a list of the top ten Jazz songs of all time[1]. What is interesting about the lists is not that they can establish what is “best,” whatever that might mean, or what is most popular (sales records, etcetera, show that). Looking at […]
In the past few weeks a number of college radio participants have written pieces for their local papers reflecting not only on the current challenges facing college radio, but also on the ongoing relevance of their stations. I’d agree that 2011 has been a rough year for college radio, with a number of stations disappearing […]
Christian radio conglomerate Family Radio is in the process of selling off radio stations in 2 major markets. On the heels of its November sale of WFSI 107.9 FM in Annapolis, Maryland to CBS for $8.5 million (Family Radio programming left the station’s airwaves last Thursday, December 1), paperwork was accepted for filing by the […]
The United Kingdom’s broadcast regulation agency Ofcom has published its annual report (.pdf) on the state of community radio, and the figures indicate that income for UK community outlets has markedly declined. No big surprise, given the global recession. But the data also contains interesting clues suggesting that certain kinds of community radio strategies or […]
A month ago the FCC issued a $10,000 Forfeiture Order to Pirate Cat Radio founder Daniel “Monkey Man” Roberts, for “willfully and repeatedly violating section 301 of the Communications Act of 1934…by operating an unlicensed radio broadcast station” in San Francisco. Today, Roberts’ attorney Michael Couzens filed a Petition for Reconsideration with the FCC, claiming […]
As the Occupy movement picks up at university campuses across the United States, many college radio stations have been working overtime to report on these historic protests. Following last week’s pepper-spraying of students by campus police at Occupy University of California, Davis, the college radio station, KDVS, is presenting live coverage of the protests and […]
On Monday, November 14, 22 non-commercial radio stations in Canada took part in a day of action and celebration dubbed “Reclaim Your Radio.” Organized by the National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA), the day-long radio event was designed to bring awareness to the importance of campus and community radio. A special 8-hour broadcast (an […]
Underwriting represents a very modest percentage of the budget of most Low Power FM radio stations in the United States. So reports the Prometheus Radio Project in a filing to the Federal Communications Commission. The latest data comes from a 2011 study conducted by Prometheus in collaboration with Keith Brand, Associate Professor of Radio, Television […]
It is said that there are some things best left forgotten. If that is your philosophy, stay away from New Jersey community radio station WFMU-FM’s wonderful Beware-of-the-blog blog. There WFMU listener Bob Purse has posted a slew of Dominos Pizza radio ads from the 1980s in MP3 format. I thought I had blocked these insipid […]
NPR has finally gotten around to responding to a column in Slate describing the network’s army of listener e-mail and letter writers as “snoots.” In March, Farhad Manjoo went medieval on NPR listeners who protest various items on popular culture aired on All Things Considered and Morning Edition. He was particularly incensed at listener tirades […]
