One of my favorite people in community radio announced her retirement from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters at last week’s NFCB conference. Ginny Z. Berson is, until her departure, Vice President of the organization. “I started working at NFCB after sixteen years at Pacifica [radio],” Berson explained to the stunned audience. “Most of them […]
Archive | Noncommercial Radio
Andrew Phillips: the education of a KPFA general manager
I attended the National Federation of Community Broadcasters conference on Friday. No sooner did I wander into the main drag of the San Francisco event than I spotted KPFA’s beleaguered General Manager, Andrew Leslie Phillips, staffing a table. “Matthew!” Phillips cheerfully exclaimed after I introduced myself. “Got a lot of respect for what you do. […]
The hazards of slogans and logos in public radio donor announcements
I spent the morning at the National Federation of Community Broadcasters conference here in San Francisco. First stop: a panel on the dos-and-don’ts of underwriting acknowledgements. Expert attorney Michael Berg spoke on the subject, and offered a very nice advisory handout on slogans and logos, from which I draw the following wisdom. Bottom line: the […]
Delving into Family Radio’s Finances Two Years after Judgment Day
Today marks the 2nd anniversary of Family Radio‘s failed Judgment Day/Rapture. It was a surreal few weeks leading up to May 21, 2011, with the Christian radio network’s founder Harold Camping doing daily call-in talk radio shows in order to spread the word about the impending rapture. After the non-events on May 21 (Camping had […]
Radio Station Scavenger Hunt – Genre Color Code Signs Part 5
Wrapping up the radio station scavenger hunt for this week, I’m sharing one more music genre color code sign. This “library legend” sign comes from KFJC, where I’m a DJ. In my travels, I’ve seen incredibly complex systems for categorizing music libraries. There are often many sub-genres and different colors of tape are sometimes affixed […]
Radio Station Scavenger Hunt – Genre Color Code Signs Part 4
Mid-way through my week of radio station genre charts, I started to realize that “charts” isn’t really the most accurate way to describe the music genre signage that I’ve spotted at various radio stations. I guess it’s more appropriately a music genre categorization schematic or a legend or a key. Genre “charts” are more likely […]
Radio Station Scavenger Hunt – Genre Charts Part 3
I was probably the only person who visited Family Radio headquarters during the pre-Judgment Day media frenzy in May 2011 who was interested in seeing the guts of the network’s radio station. I got the grand tour and was intrigued to see that the long-time Christian radio network had a large collection of music. In […]
Radio Station Scavenger Hunt – Genre Charts Part 2
As part of my new Radio Station Scavenger Hunt series, I’m highlighting music genre charts this week. Yesterday’s charts were from KBOO-FM and today I turn to some equally detailed charts from college radio station KZSC-FM at University of California, Santa Cruz. Although I’ve visited KZSC twice now, it was on my last trip (for […]
Breakthrough for college radio? FCC rethinks rule violation fines
The Federal Communications Commission says that it will ease up on the fines that it issues college radio stations when they violate the Commission’s procedures and rules, such as failure to submit ownership reports or adequately maintain a public inspection file. Now, rather than punish such stations with a Notice of Apparent Liability followed by […]
Radio Station Scavenger Hunt – Genre Charts Part 1
Last week I started my new Radio Survivor Scavenger Hunt series, in which I’m sharing pictures of items that I’ve spotted at radio stations during my travels. The first week focused on station graffiti and this week’s quest will reveal a range of music genre charts that I’ve seen at stations. Interestingly, many non-commercial stations […]