Are you still a radio deejay if you just text?
This Thursday the What is Radio conference begins in Portland, and Radio Survivor will be there. Both Jennifer Waits and I are presenting papers. Expect some blogging about the conferences activities too. My paper is titled “The rise of the radioText” deejay, and wonders out loud whether it is possible to function as a radio […]
FCC indecency proceeding filling up with pro-censorship comments
I’ve been keeping an eye on the Federal Communications Commission’s proceeding on its indecency rules. It’s not looking good, from a First Amendment standpoint. Most of the comments seem to support more censorship. Some background: The FCC has been asking for public feedback on how stringently to enforce its broadcast indecency regulations since the Supreme […]
Is AM revitalization a cover to force an all-digital transition?
We received a couple of comments on my post about the revitalization of AM radio pointing to pieces that make convincing arguments that it was not a mere suggestion made at NAB last week to go all-digital with HD Radio on AM. Rather, there are forces at work to put this into policy, contrary to […]
KZSU’s Day of Noise Features 24 hours of Live Experimental Music
Stanford University’s college radio station KZSU 90.1 FM is a few hours away from the conclusion of its 11th Day of Noise. Despite the “noise” moniker, the music being played today isn’t necessarily noisy or discordant. According to the KZSU website, the Day of Noise is “Twenty-four hours straight of live experimentation and improvisation, featuring […]
Dictator blocking your Internet? Try a Radiogram
One of my favorite correspondents has brought the Voice of America’s Radiogram project to my attention. The venture experiments with transmitting digital text and images via shortwave broadcasting. Dr. Kim Andrew Elliott is running the show with some technical assistance from my aforementioned contact: Bennett Kobb. “These experiments are intended to establish the best mode […]
Is AM radio worth revitalizing?
This week is the annual National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas, which brings thousands of broadcasters, manufacturers, producers and journalists together to talk about and see what’s next for broadcasting. Radio tends to play a very quiet second fiddle to television and video at this show. But this year radio’s own second fiddle, […]
WRIR Curates Live Performances at Local Shops for Record Store Day
Record Store Day, the annual celebration of independent record stores, will take place all over the world on Saturday, April 20th. Non-commercial radio and independent record stores often have a synergistic relationship, so it makes sense that they would be natural partners for this event. Over the years I’ve heard about interesting collaborations between radio […]
UCRN Spring College Radio Conference Covers Radio’s Past and Future
Saturday was a fun day of radio immersion for me, as I attended the spring University of California Radio Network (UCRN) conference at KZSC at University of California, Santa Cruz. Around 115 people, including volunteers, students, DJs, staff, and advisers from numerous California college radio stations headed to the lovely station in the woods in […]
Simplify your desktop radio listening with m3u files
Here’s a simple tip for making it easier for you to tune into your favorite radio station as an online stream. That “m3u” file that you sometimes wind up downloading when you click the “listen” button on the station’s web site? Keep it on your desktop and click when you feel like tuning in. That […]
Reports: Pandora rules, AM/FM survives, where is it all going?
Two recent market surveys of Internet music services and AM/FM radio confirm my suspicion that nobody knows where the latter medium is going/staying in relation to the former. If you are an Internet streaming music booster, you will be buoyed by new data from the NDP consumer research group. The survey concludes that in the […]