NPR ran a story this morning on npr.org about yesterday’s Occupy Wall Street/Brooklyn Bridge arrests. The piece, bylined as “NPR STAFF AND WIRES,” noted that 700 OWS protesters were arrested for marching on a bridge road. The problem, as this YouTube video indicates, is that the cops appear to have led the demonstrators onto the […]
Author Archive | Matthew Lasar
Turntable.fm: we’re working on the connection glitches
If you’ve been using Turntable.fm over the last few days, you know that the system has been freezing and crashing a lot, certainly on Firefox and Chrome browsers. Some DJs are losing their connections, chat messages are lagging or not posting, and users are being dropped out of rooms. The tt.fm blog has an update […]
What is your radio station’s Facebook strategy?
Jacobs Media has an interesting Xtranormal post on YouTube, which suggests that the rock radio consulting firm thinks that radio stations ought to use their Facebook pages in more interactive ways. Two little Xtranormal piggies stand next to a couch and argue. One is presumably a radio station listener, the other a radio station DJ. […]
NPR chides itself for “abortion doctor” reference
There aren’t very many subjects that NPR listeners won’t fight about, including tinnitus, circumcision, and Yellowstone Park bears. But when it comes to abortion—now that’s when you get the 300 comment threads. I’ve got to concur, however, with NPR listener Marcia Bryant of Cleveland, Ohio, who complained about a NPR Morning Edition story calling an obstetrician […]
NPR, professor have he said/she said over “he said/she said” abortion story
NPR is not taking scholar Jay Rosen’s charge that the network has engaged in one of the “lowest forms of journalism” lying down. “Rosen is a journalism professor whose provocative positions on media responsibility and new media have often succeeded in shaking up a sometimes hidebound profession,” notes NPR Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos. “But this time he […]
In search of Doris Day on the new iHeartRadio app
I’m listening to Clear Channel’s new updated version of iHeartRadio, which allows you to create Pandora-like music channels. iHeart is pretty easy to access via your Facebook account. And if you overlook the annoyance that it requires you to ‘like’ it to get started, it’s a limited but reasonable application. Once you’re logged in, you […]
September 11 and the radio revolution
NPR’s Ombudsman has a new post promising “massive 9/11 anniversary coverage” this weekend. It mentions a listener who has protested the network’s use of the phrase “terror attacks.” “Terror did not attack us on September 11th, terrorists did,” she wrote to NPR. Terror does not have hands with which to use box cutters. Terrorists do. […]
Undercurrents: getting Native music into the mix
UnderCurrents—one of the best syndicated public radio music shows around, has hit a milestone. “After six years of subverting formatting conventions across the USA, we’ve somehow reached 100 stations!” the show’s host Gregg McVicar wrote to us this week. The magic number loomed when the program was picked up by seventeen members of the […]
WFMU and the anti-hippy tradition
Lurking around WFMU-FM of New Jersey’s great website, I’ve been stumbling across all kinds of fun blog posts about anti-hippy songs. The most famous of these, of course, is Merle Haggard’s “Okie from Muskogee,” but a 2008 post mentions others, including Ed Faucet’s “Hippy Stomp,” Alvie Self’s “Hippieville,” and Johnny Bucket’s “Hippy in a Blunder.” […]
Twelve communications tips for getting through Hurricane Irene
The Federal Communications Commission has issued a guide for how to stay in communication with others if you live in a Hurricane Irene affected area. It’s definitely worth a read, although I wouldn’t have put “Tune-in to broadcast and radio news for important news alerts” all the way at the bottom of the list. Here are […]