Intercollegiate Broadcast System Chicago conference focused on professionalization
This past Saturday I attended the Intercollegiate Broadcast System’s Midwest conference in Chicago, hosted by Columbia College. This was my first IBS conference, despite having advised a Chicago-area college station for the last four years. This one-day event was billed for high schools in addition to colleges, and the attendance appeared equally split between secondary […]
An even bigger Songs About Radio Spotify playlist
Thanks to the many Radio Survivor readers who posted additional suggestions to my initial Songs About Radio Spotify playlist. They were all excellent recommendations, and I’ve added as many as I could to the list, which is now 79 songs long. John Anderson came through with a remarkable catalog of tunes about pirate radio. I couldn’t […]
Prometheus keeping flame alive on second adjacent Low Power FM
Once more into the breach for the Prometheus Radio Project, visiting the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday and again urging the agency to allow for second adjacent frequency waivers for Low Power FM stations, similar to the Commission’s rules for FM translators. The big victory in 2011 was that Congress legalized licensing LPFMs on the […]
College Radio Day Goes International on October 2
The second annual College Radio Day will take place next Tuesday, October 2. Following the success of last year’s event (which attracted more than 365 participating stations), this year’s celebration of college radio will expand to stations all over the globe. So far, 415 radio stations in the United States and 135 radio stations outside […]
College Radio News Round-Up: KURE’s Music Fest, WBGU’s Indie 5K, WUTK on mtvU, new Station in Florida
With the beginning of a new semester on many college campuses, it’s that time of year when publications often take note of the role played by student stations. Here’s a recap of some recent articles about college radio: KURE Hosts 3rd Annual Music Festival- KURE-Fest in Ames, Iowa this Friday Iowa State University’s college radio […]
Yikes! Helmet cam video shows 1768-foot broadcast tower climb
I’m not particularly scared of heights, but watching this video definitely raised my heart rate. It’s a helmet-camera view from a tower worker scaling a 1768-foot broadcast tower to perform maintenance. The first 1600 feet are in an elevator, but the last 60 are a “free climb” without safety harnesses. I know the video has […]
Three takes on how many new LPFMs might be in major markets
How many new LPFM stations will there be? That is one of the biggest questions on the mind of community radio supporters, especially since the FCC’s March ruling resolving the tension between processing the backlog of translator applications and saving room for new low-power stations. Radio World recently published a short survey of best guesses […]
Radio Valencia: inside the new Mission Street digs
As promised, San Francisco community based radio station radiovalencia.fm has moved from Chicken John’s Chez Poulet hangout on Cesar Chavez to a swell new third story studio operation at 2390 Mission Street “on the northwest corner of 20th St directly across from Bruno’s,” as the relocation announcement put it. I dropped by on Sunday to schmooze […]
Pandora rallies fans for performance royalty reform
Pandora’s own Tim Westergren took to the blogosphere on Friday to urge support for a new performance royalty reform bill freshly introduced to Congress: Representative Jason Chaffetz’s (R-UT) Internet Radio Fairness Act. The proposed law would correct an “unfair royalty system that forces us to pay massive licensing costs,” the founder of the music streaming […]
Is this Sign at Your Radio Station?
After visiting probably 40 radio stations, I’ve come to expect to find certain artifacts at every station. As I wrote back in 2010, there are a whole bunch of items that I regularly see when I travel to college radio stations, including skull-themed paraphernalia. I frequently see sticker-covered cabinets, funky couches, pop culture artifacts (from […]