BAM! The Future of Rock N Roll (is online only)
Before we got married, in the late 90s my wife lived for two years in Dayton, OH. I would drive four hours across Indiana from my Champaign, IL home to see her. I knew that I had exited the radio desert of the Hoosier State when I could just barely tune in WOXY out of […]
Is Future Perfect Radio the Future of Radio?
I spend a lot of time exploring Internet radio stations. And while most of it is for fun, I’m definitely on a Diogenes/Morpheus-looking-for-Neo sort of mission. I’m searching for Internet radio that feels like real radio. What is “real radio?” you ask. It’s radio that feels like it is situated in some actual place and […]
Hearing Radio from Thousands of Miles Away
When I was a kid we had a large old-fashioned radio that had stations listed on it from all over the country and globe. I can’t remember if we ever had any luck tuning in to far-away stations, but it seemed like such a magical concept. Certainly in the early days of radio that was […]
Congress, FCC launch campaigns for net neutrality, device openness
In moves that could have an impact on every voice and streaming radio service on the Internet, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission proposed laws and launched inquiries today that show that the Obama administration and its allies on Capitol Hill weren’t kidding when they promised to promote net neutrality and device openness. First, representatives […]
Princeton Review's Bogus College Radio Rankings
It’s time for my annual rant about the Princeton Review college survey! Every year they survey college students from all over the land (at 371 colleges this time around) in order to learn more about campus life for their “Best Colleges” guide that they market to high school students. 300ish students on average are surveyed […]
Listen to the Radio Survivors
In the vein of practice what you preach, two of the bloggers here, myself and Jennifer Waits, have regular weekly radio programs. Our third accomplice, Matthew Lasar, is a frequent guest on my program, mediageek. The mediageek radioshow covers grassroots media along with a focus on the regulatory and legal maneuvers that affect our ability […]
Remembering Save KPFA Day
Ten years ago this Friday, one of the most remarkable events in the annals of United States broadcasting took place. Looking back on it now, I can hardly believe that it happened, even though I was there and saw it myself. On a very sunny Saturday July 31, 1999, about ten thousand people gathered in […]
College Radio Read: Kill the Music
I love reading stories about radio and every time I run across a college radio mention in a book, my interest in piqued. In the months to come I’m going to work on compiling a list of college radio “must reads,” from the academic to the autobiographic. My first pick: Kill the Music. Kill the […]
Vatican Radio Goes Commercial
Did you know about Vatican Radio? Around since 1931, it’s the official voice of the Pope and the Catholic Church. All these years it’s been broadcasting the Pope’s musings commercial free. Starting on July 6th, the station began airing ads in order to help defray some of the mounting costs associated with their global broadcasts […]
Clear Channel unloading four silent radio stations to minority non-profit; 846 to go
It was definitely a feel good moment last week when Clear Channel announced that it plans to donate four radio stations to the Minority Media Telecommunications Council. The MMTC says it will work with the National Association of Broadcaster’s Leadership Training Program to “use the stations for training and to incubate new minority and women […]