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 […]
Right now college radio DJ Anthony Saia is in the midst of a 24-hour special on University of Idaho’s radio station KUOI. He started this marathon DJ stint at 11:00 this morning and will continue through to 11:00am tomorrow. He is only playing CDs and vinyl from the massive KUOI record library (which contains over […]
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 […]
Several months ago CBC Ottawa ran what turned into a no holds barred debate about gun control. Someone complained about the discussion, charging that CBC host Hallie Cotnam had shown a “lack of respect” for the guest who opposed collecting personal information about gun owners. A CBC Ombudsman review has found no bias in the […]
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 […]
