“You know, don’t a be a bitch,” declared the masked man on the Sunday Night Showdown radio network. “You know what I mean?” “Please give a fuck,” added another panelist. “That’s right,” concurred the masked guy. “Please give a fuck about the city that you live in and that some day your children will live […]
Archive | Noncommercial Radio
High School Students doing Radio: Radio Drama on CFSI and DJs at WLCA
I didn’t get the chance to do radio until I was a freshman in college, so I’m always envious of those lucky teenagers who are broadcasting from their very own high school radio stations. Since very few high schools actually have radio stations, it’s inspiring that there are some college and community radio stations who […]
Radio’s Fall – Part One: No Money, Mo’ Problems
Editor’s Note: Radioactive Gavin has collected more than 300 articles on radio and digital music over the past 3 months for Common Frequency. This is the first of a series of seven posts he will be contributing in the coming weeks, looking back at the end of a rough year in radio. Conservatives crying “Defund NPR” […]
College Radio Gets Break from Copyright Royalty Board on Webcasting Rates and Reporting
College Broadcasters, Inc. (CBI) is reporting that they’ve achieved an important milestone after their settlement with SoundExchange on copyright royalty fees for music played by educational radio webcasters was preliminarily adopted by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB). CRB’s “Initial Determination of Rates and Terms” (PDF) was released on December 14 and outlines the payment terms […]
KTRU Supporters Make Another Appeal to the FCC to Save College Radio at Rice University
With the FCC’s 30-day comment window now closed, the decision on whether or not to grant University of Houston its request to purchase Rice University’s student radio station KTRU is in the hands of the FCC. The group Friends of KTRU submitted an extensive “Petition to Deny” to the FCC on December 7, outlining all […]
Can the Internet save classical music? An interview with KUSC’s Brenda Barnes
It’s hard to believe, but once upon a time classical radio was ubiquitous. Most cities had at least several popular classical music radio stations, and many had three. I remembering setting my clock alarm to a New York City based classical FM signal back in the late 1970s. One morning I woke up at six […]
Hello new Morning Show; goodbye KPFA
You can always tell a true community radio politics junkie, because eventually he or she will open up a post with a line like the following: “This is the last thing I’m ever going to say about Pacifica radio.” Yeah, right. So let me put it a little more tentatively. This is the last thing […]
Hate groups. How should NPR handle them?
Some NPR listeners were clearly offended after a 48-second spot by Barbara Hagerty about the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. The group is composed of roughly 70 members and boasts a website with the not-so-charming URL of www.GodHatesFags.com. Primarily known for their protests of soldiers’ funerals, displaying signs such as “Thank God for Dead Soldiers,” […]
Breaking: The LPFM bill just passed the Senate
Talk about a nailbiter. After languishing for months in the Senate due to a series of anonymous (then outed) holds placed by republican senators, followed by gridlock over the tax bill, it was starting to look like the Local Community Radio Act was never going to make it to a vote. But thanks to the […]
Breaking down the House’s new LPFM bill
It’s certainly easy to understand the sentiment expressed by a commenter to my last LPFM post: If the NAB is for it, you can pretty much guarantee that it is to the detriment to LPFM. And while the LPFM bill passed by the House yesterday, HR 6533, does contain compromises agreed to by the NAB, […]