Radio Survivor

Over the weekend Sirius XM’s Doctor Radio Reports ran a show called Is Your Kid High?—Teens Speak Out, which offered advice to parents on how to tell if your tweens/teens are doing drugs. I read with great interest the summary of the wisdom offered by Elizabeth Urquhar and Naveed Etemadipour of San Diego’s Phoenix House during this program, since I went through this complicated process myself with a teen.

Here’s Naveed’s advice:

• If you are concerned your kid might be doing drugs, go into their rooms and open their drawers when they are not there—it’s ok to cross that boundary.
• Pens are sometimes used to smoke marijuana and other drugs. Check to see if the pen smells burnt. You can take a pen apart and make a pipe out of it and then put it back together so that nobody knows that you’ve smoked out it.
• Broken glass could indicate methamphetamine use because glass pipes are commonly used to smoke meth.
• Crumbled tin foil is a possible indication of drug use.
• Marijuana can be smoked out of almost anything.
• Light bulbs can be used to do drugs.

Well, you can decide that it’s “ok to cross that boundary,” but rest assured, your girl or boy won’t. Let’s face it, if they’re late 12 to early 14, they’ve probably already got you down as Nurse Ratched or Uncle Fester—see above photo for the latter; perhaps not the most apt analogy since the Urban Dictionary defines an “Uncle Fester” as a way to smoke  pot. In any event, doing a J. Edgar Hoover on their their room, opening their drawers, pulling apart their pens and light bulbs, or rummaging about for “almost anything” because you think they’re smoking doobies is going to kill any trust left between you and them for years. So do this only if you think it’s absolutely necessary.

The Phoenix House duo also offer these “warning signs and changes to look out for in your child’s behavior and personality:” (more…)

When I was doing my recent interview with Jeff McMahon for his “Radio Obsessive” profile he asked me an interesting question that cuts to the mission of this entire website. He said, “I’m not sure what a ‘radio survivor’ is. Could you explain that to your readers?”

So, in light of Jeff’s question, Matthew, Paul and I will each share our take on the meaning behind our blog’s title of Radio Survivor.

Here’s my interpretation:

First of all, I want to point out that when I was invited to join Radio Survivor, the blog had already been named. So, my interpretation about the meaning has more to do with my personal feelings about radio and connections with radio than with the official origin of the name (I’m excited to get the real back-story on that in Matthew’s upcoming post).

As we begin 2010 many people have already written off radio as either a dead or dying medium. Commercial radio has been in a state of decline for years and non-commercial radio also has its struggles. But, despite all of the negative pronouncements levied against radio by listeners and critics, I maintain that radio is still vibrant and valuable.

Radio survives and thrives and part of my mission as a writer is to share stories about both stations and individuals who are working hard to keep radio fun and relevant.

I think radio is a survivor and I’m most interested in non-commercial radio stations (especially college radio stations) who are focused on independent music and programming.

I am also a radio survivor. Having been a college radio DJ off and on since 1986, it’s hard to believe that I’m still passionate about doing radio (through all of its ups and downs) 24 years after my first stint behind the mic.

As a college radio DJ, I’m also committed to the survival of not only my station, but radio in general. I love doing my show and being exposed to new music every week. I also enjoy the process of crafting my playlists and figuring out the combinations of tracks that might work together sonically. It’s icing on the cake when I get a compliment from a fellow DJ or listener about something that I’ve played.

So, I’m devoted to the survival of radio, think radio is a survivor, and have made it my mission to evangelize radio as much as I can in order to remind people that it still has the power to be an incredible force.

A radio station that staged a prank call to a New York woman claiming that her husband had been badly hurt in a motorcycle accident, then died in a hospital, has received a proposed fine of $16,000 from the Federal Communications Commission.

Here’s an excerpt from the August 2007 exchange:

“Mr. Ithier: Juliana, oh, oh I’m so sorry he just died right now.
Call Recipient: (crying)
Mr. Ithier: I will, Juliana I want to ask you something. Just two or three questions
please. I can’t hear you.
Call Recipient: What?
Mr. Ithier: So this is for when you come here you don’t have to ask too many
questions when you identify him.
Call Recipient: No, no, I’m going over there right now.”

“Although we exercise discretion in this instance in not imposing a higher forfeiture, we warn the Licensee that future violations of this nature may result in harsher enforcement action, including license revocation proceedings,” the FCC told station WSKQ-FM in New York City (“La Mega 97.9″) on Friday.

As far as I’m concerned, the FCC should revoke WSKQ’s license now.  People have heart attacks on hearing news like this. What if she  had been on a mobile phone and had a car accident?

But WSKQ got dinged on a technicality, allegedly violating “the telephone broadcast rule.”  Section 73.1206 of the agency’s rules stipulate that, “before broadcasting or recording a telephone conversation for later broadcast, a licensee must inform any party to the call of its intention to broadcast the conversation.”

It gets even weirder:  the third party vendor (“Rubin Ithier”) who pulled this stunt in August of 2007 for the Spanish Broadcasting System owned station apparently did this at the husband’s request. No comment on that aspect of the story. The prank was broadcast on WSKQ twice, according to the FCC. Here’s a full transcript of the exchange.

Mr. Ithier: Can I speak with Ms. Juliana please?
Call Recipient: Who is this?
Mr. Ithier: The Doctor Raymond Martinez, I’m just calling from [bleeped out]
Hospital
Call Recipient: Aha? Yes Juliana
Mr. Ithier: Do you know anybody with the name Luis, Luis Miguel?
Call Recipient: Yes
* * * * * (more…)

For as much as I love radio I have to admit that there’s very few programs that I might consider appointment listening. Sure, I tune in to NPR daily to catch up on the news with Morning Edition and All Things Considered, but they’re pretty interchangeable to me. If, for some reason, the BBC News Hour were on instead I’d notice the difference, but I wouldn’t turn off the radio.

My #5 is not appointment listening. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t like it. I do know when it’s on, and if I happen to be in a radio listening mood at that time, I will be sure to tune it in. In fact, when it comes to commercial radio–especially syndicated commercial radio–it’s my favorite program currently on the air.

Little Steven’s Underground Garage stands out from most commercial music radio because it still shows the idosyncratic touch of its namesake host. Focused on the somewhat ill-defined subgenre of garage rock, the program plays rough-edged rock and roll that finds its roots with 1960s bands like the Troggs who went on to inspire early punks like the Ramones and later rockers such as the White Stripes. While this sort of rock is a mainstay of the Underground Garage, Little Steven takes a kind of “I know it when I see it” approach to the show, including a healthy does of Motown and other early rock nuggets alongside the more catholic selections. But his approach is not a hodge podge, like any real music DJ he draws connections between the songs he plays, often explaining why he deems an unorthodox choice worthy of inclusion.

Host Little Steven Van Zandt is otherwise known as a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, but in his off time has dedicated himself to the promotion and preservation of garage rock. While I certainly like most of the music labeled garage rock, I would never have considered myself a particular fan, as such. I first became aware of Little Steven’s campaign for the subgenre when a band local to Champaign-Urbana, IL, where I used to live, The Blackouts (now The Living Blue) won his first Underground Garage Battle of the Bands. That’s when I first tuned in to the program Sunday nights on the local classic rock station.
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In sharing my list of my 5 favorite radio programs, I’m going to be mixing it up a bit by offering up some selections from both my past and present. So, I thought I’d begin with some of the earliest radio that I remember listening to. I’m pretty much a non-commercial radio loyalist these days, but like most people my early years of radio listening tended to happen on the commercial slice of the dial.

I have vivid early childhood memories in which I’m in my bedroom late at night, with the lights off listening to the radio drama “The Shadow.” I can’t remember the station that aired this, but chances are that it was a San Francisco-based AM radio station (most likely KSFO).

Listening to these suspense-filled shows as I nodded off to sleep as a small child not only was one of my first introductions to the concept of radio as a companion; but was also the first step in my eventual embrace of horror fiction. Listening to “The Shadow” probably paved the way for me reading creepy Stephen King stories by the age of 11.

These days radio dramas are few and far between, but you can catch archives of “The Shadow” and various other vintage dramas online and over some terrestrial stations. Here are a few suggestions of both classic and contemporary radio dramas: (more…)

I think I can speak for my fellow Radio Survivors when I say that we really enjoyed putting together our run-down of the fourteen most important radio trends of the last decade. And yet, we’ve barely scratched the surface of the many aspects of radio that we really love.

So, beginning this month each of us will run down our own personal Top 5 of something radio-related. For January that Top 5 will be our favorite radio programs. These programs can be local or syndicated, commercial or noncommercial. But what joins them is that each of us thinks they’re amongst the best that broadcast radio has to offer. We’ll be counting down our Top 5 radio programs beginning this coming Monday, January 25.

We’ll share our Top 5s the last week of every month. We also hope that you’ll share your responses to our picks, along with posting your own favorites in the comments.

We’re also interested in your suggestions for future Top 5 countdowns. If you have an idea post it as a comment or drop us an email to editors@radiosurvivor.com.

One of the most satisfying aspects of putting together our review of the decade’s most important radio trends was the number of comments we received. It appears we touched a nerve or two. And while not everyone agreed with our arguments or conclusions, we did get some thought provoking responses.

Seeing as how we like to encourage some rousing debate about radio, with this post I’d like to highlight a few of them.

Responding to #11, cash-strapped schools turn their backs on college radio, Seth Thornberry points out:

In another example of the spirit of independent radio, the DJs from KTXT got together and created The Llano Idea which has kept up the volunteer run radio (online, at least).

In response to #6, HD Radio launches, but who listens? Who cares? BrianK finds some hope for the service:

Ford announced today that HD Radio is factory installed in their autos and the at least 4X digital power increase for HD radio is on the cusp of being approved which will give listeners stereo reception upto twice as far as traditional auto FM receivers in noise-free and to my ears much better high frequency response

But Greg begs to differ, noting that,

Ford has been announcing that it would add HD Radio since 2007, but it never materialized. Also, Ford is an investor in iBiquity. … BMW even has an HD Radio trouble-shooting guide, and there are nothing but complaints about HD Radio in BMW Forums, so I’m guessing that it will be the same situation with Ford.

And Robert D Young Jr quips:

PS. just one little correction: CD quality is really “seedy” quality.

(more…)

As I said in my introduction to our subjective and opinionated review of radio in the 2000s, I still think it was darn near impossible to predict how the medium of radio would end up at the beginning of 2010. Sure, the seeds for satellite radio, HD radio, low-power FM, internet radio and MP3s were already planted by the turn of the century. But home broadband–nevermind wireless or mobile–was a relatively exclusive luxury. MP3 players were lucky to sport enough memory to hold about a hundred minutes of music and weren’t integrated into cell phones. Satellites for Sirius and XM were launched, and HD Radio was being experimented with, but no stations were on the air. Clear Channel was flying high for more than $90 a share.

Anyone taking a broad view of the radio industry in 2000 could certainly see a lot of balls being thrust up into to the air, but it would have taken a psychic to predict where they would land. Nevertheless, for all of the churn we can say very safely that audio-focused content is alive and well.

It’s become clear to me that we Radio Survivors do consider radio to be greater than just the traditional electromagnetic broadcast medium. While we included the RF-based college radio, pubic radio, LPFM, HD Radio and satellite radio in our review, we also touched upon internet radio, Pandora and digital downloads. I believe we are first and foremost fans of terrestrial broadcast radio, but that does not cause us to ignore or discount new audio media. Nor does it cause it us to claim that they are not, in essence, radio services.

The homogenization and delocalization of the broadcast dial caused listeners to seek alternative places to hear more interesting and diverse content. At the same time the popularity of MP3 players and Pandora shows that people were also looking for customization.
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There has recently been a lot of controversy regarding Verizon’s recent decision to up its early termination fees (ETFs) for advanced devices (smart phones), many of which feature a mobile web browser that provides users with Internet access and a number of online applications and entertainment options offered by the company. Among  these various applications and entertainment features is a “Music” option, listed under “Entertainment and Apps” on the Verizon website. Considering the limited variety offered under Verizon’s “Music” category, one must ask if the increased early termination fee and  costs for data usage make the feature worth it. I spoke about these issues with some Verizon’s consumers and was fairly surprised by some of the responses that I received.

King sized ETFs

Verizon Wireless recently announced an increase in its ETFs for smart phones. Implemented on November 15th, this new policy has increased the initial fee from $175, the current rate for normal devices, to $350 with a pro-rate of $10 per month. Even with this slight decrease in the fee over time, consumers owning smart phones will still be left with a $120 fee if they abandon their contract only one month before the termination of a two-year agreement.

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Myself, I can hardly believe that another decade is coming to a close. It seems like just yesterday we were stockpiling canned goods, bottled water and batteries in anticipation of the Y2K global computer meltdown. Of course, on every millennial survivalists’ compound shopping list was a good battery-operated radio.

Now, ten years on, radio has undergone many changes. Many–like the rise of internet radio–were certainly predictable, even if the particular forms were not. While those of us critical of the consolidation fever that gripped the industry in the late 90s certainly believed that trend would lead to no good, I’m not certain that any of us knew just how badly Clear Channel and its brethren would gut commercial radio, and how many bankruptcies would arise by the end of the decade.

Between now and New Year’s Day my fellow co-bloggers and I will set about enumerating the fourteen most important trends in radio during the 2000s. These trends are in no particular order. Why fourteen? Well, ten was too few, and, uh, we ran out of steam at fourteen.

So, tune back in tomorrow when Matthew and Jennifer will school you about numbers 14 and 13.

The radio-trends-of-the-decade series

• #1: The birth and troubled childhood of satellite radio
• #2: The growth of Internet radio
• #3: I-tunes lures listeners away from terrestrial radio
• #4: Podcasting
• #5: The Age of Pandora
• #6: HD Radio launches, but who listens?
• #7: Internet Radio’s Day of Silence
• #8: The Great Fairness Doctrine Panic
• #9: The FCC authorizes Low Power FM
• #10: Clear Channel goes private equity
• #11: Cash strapped schools turn their backs on college radio
• #12: National Public Radio keeps growing
• #13: College radio tightens its playlist
• #14: Pacifica radio democratizes itself