I am jealous that my Radio Survivor colleagues Jennifer and Matthew were both able to attend the What is Radio? conference this past weekend in Portland, OR, while I could not. Nevertheless, I am glad that they were able to represent, and am really pleased that this important conference took place. For those of us […]
Several times a month, mysterious and unique sounds appear on the Chicago airwaves. Listeners might hear the rumble and pop of very low frequency signals generated by environmental electromagnetic fluctuations, or collaged field recordings from distant city streets. Some may mistake these transmissions for strange interference, or a broken radio, while others may be briefly […]
An uncompromising voice for human rights, unafraid to make unrestrained and harsh criticisms of local and federal officials, is still heard on the airwaves of Illinois capital city. Despite multiple letters and visits from the FCC over the years, the Springfield, Illinois unlicensed station Human Rights Radio celebrated its 25th anniversary last fall. This week […]
Al Jazeera reports on the unlicensed Radio Free Sarawak which is making itself a thorn in the side of the Malaysian government, broadcasting independent voices in the run-up to general elections in that country. Sarawak is a former British colony located on the island of Borneo. The station is operated by expatriates out of studios […]
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 […]
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, […]
State broadcasters around the world have been cutting back on their shortwave transmissions over the last few years, typically attributing the reductions to a combination of budget challenges and declining listenership. With the start of April and the beginning of the 2nd quarter the Voice of America and BBC just trimmed shortwave broadcasts. Citing budget […]
Last year we posted about the Decentralized Dance Party’s appearance at SXSW. The DDP uses a low-power unlicensed FM transmitter worn in a backpack, instead of a PA, to broadcast dance party music in public places to participants carrying boombox radios all tuned to the same frequency. Project founders Tom and Gary call it “The […]
Looking for an alternative perspective on world news on your FM dial? If you live in Chicago or Washington, DC you can now tune in the Russian government’s Voice of Russia service, which began broadcasting English language programming at the beginning of March on the HD2 channel of WTOP-FM in DC, a news-talk station, and […]
