The Past Week In Radio
Catch up on stories you might have missed from the past week in radio. Dirty Money Talk radio’s biggest names are paid millions of dollars to “use a script, outline or set of talking points,” according to a new report. The Heritage Foundation pays roughly $2m for Rush Limbaugh and $1.3 for Sean Hannity. Glenn […]
Sad Final Moments of WRVU’s Terrestrial Broadcast Recounted as Supporters Fight Proposed College Radio Station Sale
As I read through the accounts of WRVU’s final terrestrial moments last week, I get a horrible feeling of deja vu as I recall how I felt when learning about the sudden shut-downs of KTXT and KUSF. Although Vanderbilt Student Communications had alerted WRVU to the possibility that the station could be sold back in […]
Saving College Radio Stations Panel at NFCB Offered Tips for Stations in Peril
Of the many fine panels at the recent National Federation of Community Broadcasters’ conference (you can find our complete coverage here), the one that was closest to my heart was the “Saving College Stations” session (mp3) on Saturday, June 4. As was the case at a similar panel at SXSW this year, the participants included […]
Has classical music become a weapon against college radio?
I’m a classical music lover. I’m also a college radio fan. And I’m very worried that college administrations are developing a clever strategy for dumping their campus radio stations—sell them to public entities as classical music outlets, and pawn the exchange off as in the “public interest” because of the scarcity of classical signals and […]
College/community radio music shows: the art of taking risks
If you host a music show at a college or community radio station, how far off the beaten path should you go when choosing songs? That was one of the topics addressed at the Great Music Programs workshop sponsored by the National Federation of Community Broadcasters conference, held in San Francisco earlier this month. I […]
Happy Birthday, Radio Survivor (we’re two!)
This weekend, Radio Survivor embarked on the Terrible Twos. On June 11, 2009 we posted our first story on Low Power FM radio. Jennifer Waits, Paul Riismandel, and I have been blogging away ever since. 24 months later, our mission is the same. We see ourselves as critical advocates for participatory radio—community, public, college, Low […]
Maritime Radio Historian to Offer Rare Tour of Coastal Station on June 11
Back in January I took an amazing tour through the radio collection of the San Francisco Maritime Museum. Led by Bill Ruck, a maritime radio historian and chief engineer of college radio station KUSF, the tour took the 20 or so visitors through the normally off-limits radio artifacts housed at Aquatic Park. Tomorrow, Ruck will […]
FCC: local Internet radio journalism faces steep climb
Internet radio has transformed radio, the Federal Communications Commission’s new report on media observes. But it isn’t clear whether the medium’s economics will facilitate the growth of local online radio journalism. There are two economic/technological impediments, the FCC’s newly released Information Needs of Communities notes. First, bandwidth costs—a problem we’ve discussed here as well: “We […]
KUSF Studio Dismantled Prematurely While Sale of College Radio Station Awaits FCC Approval
Just four months after University of San Francisco (USF) pulled the plug on KUSF’s terrestrial broadcast, the former KUSF studio in Phelan Hall has been dismantled. When I stopped by the station on May 17, DJs were still broadcasting from the now online-only KUSF.org. I was told that May 18th would be the final day […]
Nashville Public Radio to Buy Vanderbilt College Radio Station WRVU for Use as Classical 91.1
Today is the day that supporters of college radio at Vanderbilt University have been dreading. After yesterday’s news leak that the call letters to beloved college radio station WRVU had been changed to WFCL, official word came today that the station is in the process of being sold to Nashville Public Radio for $3.35 million […]