College Radio Day has come and gone, but I’d like to add a historic footnote to the festivities. College radio broadcasters in the 1960s convinced Congress to fund radio as well as television in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. Without that campaign, it is unlikely that NPR would exist. The story is beautifully told […]
Archive | Noncommercial Radio
6 Things You Should do to Support College Radio on College Radio Day
Today marks the first annual College Radio Day. More than 350 stations all over the United States and Canada have signed up to participate. The concept’s fairly simple, it’s a day when people are encouraged to tune in to college radio and the goal is increasing awareness of the amazing range of stations based at […]
Podcast Prowler: ‘casts for the radio nerd
Podcasts don’t have to be an alternative to radio, they can make a great complement to radio, too. Not to get all meta on you, but as a certifiable radio nerd I’ve enjoyed many podcasts about radio for many years. I recently discovered a new one which prompted me to share my list of radio-centric […]
NPR: We R2 covering Occupy Wall Street!
It appears that NPR is smarting from charges that it has given the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City and elsewhere short shrift when it comes to coverage of the demonstrations. We’ve noticed some discontent in this area, and so has NPR’s ombudsman in his latest post, citing one complaint from a listener […]
Family Radio’s Harold Camping Speaks: End of World “Probably” on October 21
Now that it’s October, my thoughts have turned to the pronouncements by Family Radio that the end of the world will take place on October 21. As we reported, the worldwide Christian radio network spent a fortune advertising the May 21, 2011 “Judgment Day,” and its founder Harold Camping had to back pedal after the […]
Is NPR really covering the Wall Street protests?
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 […]
Disgruntled Punk Fan Threatens to Shoot Up College Radio Station
Like many college radio DJs, I don’t necessarily honor the requests made by listeners. Sometimes the song suggestions don’t fit with the style of my show, other times the artists are too mainstream, but most typically I don’t have time to search the library or can’t find the selection mentioned by the caller. An unlucky […]
Fighting for College Radio…and Winning: Part One – WWPV
Last week, I helped fact-check a lengthy list of colleges who had sold or transferred control of their student radio stations to outside entities. It was a depressing chore, as I delved into the stories behind these losses. Yet, it also reminded me that there is a more heroic story that I keep wanting to […]
RadioFlag’s Search Engine for Radio Courts College Stations
Amid all of the new tools for music discovery, there are many that get lumped in with online radio since they approximate a radio listening experience. Whether it’s algorithms or human DJs selecting the tunes, these customized playlists may feel like the radio of the 21st century to their users. Since I still love old-fashioned […]
R.E.M. Breaks Up, College Radio Nostalgia Ensues
The web is buzzing today with the news that R.E.M. has broken up. Once a staple of college radio, R.E.M. eventually crossed over into the mainstream. A BBC News headline today declared, “R.E.M.: The band that defined, then eclipsed college rock.” In fact, R.E.M. was one of the bands that epitomized the “college rock” or […]