I’ve been reading through the Federal Communications Commission’s proceeding on how to reward Low Power FM radio stations to applicants. It’s pretty clear from some of the filings—the latest from the Prometheus Radio Project—that the Commission still faces some complicated questions about how to pick the applicant winners, especially when it comes to localism criteria […]
Today the FCC released its most recent list of call sign actions. Amid the alphabet soup of new and changed call signs was a familiar set of letters: K-U-S-F. As of July 20, 2012, Common Frequency has reserved the former University of San Francisco radio station’s call letters for a yet-to-be-constructed non-commercial radio station at […]
Radio Valencia in San Francisco hit the terrible twos late last week. I wrote to John Hell, the community outlet’s co-founder, to get an update on the station’s plans. He sent me this commentary, which is published below in full. —Matthew Lasar On Saturday, August 11th Radio Valencia celebrated its 2nd anniversary. That went by […]
Sometimes I feel like WFMU news should be its own category here at Radio Survivor, due to the station’s constant innovation and newsworthiness. First up, I can report that the Kickstarter for the WFMU documentary Freeform or Death–which I reported on in June–ended successfully last month. 736 backers pledged 61% more than producer Tim K. […]
Over the weekend, brand new community radio station KHOI launched in Ames, Iowa. Five years in the making, the license application for the full power non-commercial educational (NCE) FM station was submitted to the FCC in 2007 and was granted in 2009. KHOI went on the air and began their testing phase on 89.1 FM […]
Radio Survivor readers might recall that the independent daily news half-hour Free Speech Radio News began an emergency fund-raising campaign in May in order to close a $75,000 budget gap. Last week FSRN announced that the goal had been matched and surpassed in July. Development director Alan Searle says that, “it is important to note […]
As the troubles facing Pacifica radio persist without apparent end, I sometimes wonder whether the five station listener supported radio network should voluntarily dismantle itself—that is, transfer its licenses to five local non-profit entities. I am not the first person to suggest this. Community radio pioneer Lorenzo Milam more or less laid the idea out […]
Radio is a tough business to be in, regardless of whether one’s station is a commercial or non-commercial enterprise. Bills keep coming in and donations and advertising dollars don’t always keep pace. A few days ago, community/public radio station KZYX posted a dire message on its website with the headline “The Station is in Pretty […]
Jennifer and I attended the Grassroots Radio Conference this past weekend in Urbana, IL. These are my old stomping grounds, having lived in the twin college towns of Champaign-Urbana for about 13 years until 2008. Home to the University of Illinois the cities are also home to a disproportionate of grassroots action and interesting radio. […]
We briefly return to the Great Car Talk Debate in this post. I lean towards the argument that public radio stations shouldn’t recycle old editions of the popular show, now that it has ceased new broadcasts. Radio Survivor’s Paul Riismandel put it very well in his commentary supporting Ira Glass’s objection to the idea. “I […]
