On July 22, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued a revised version of their Broadcasting and Regulatory Policy (PDF) as it applies to campus and community radio in Canada. Amid all of the policy changes (and a nice promise of funding), which for the most part are meant to simplify the ways that […]
For the past year we’ve been chronicling the evolution of FCC FREE Radio in San Francisco. Starting out as renegade LPFM community radio broadcasters in 2009, they went Internet-only in May 2010 and are now embarking on a mission of becoming a broader-based Internet radio station and content provider. When I visited a few weeks […]
The early history of college radio has not been documented sufficiently and much of it is sequestered away in the archives of colleges and universities. Last year I was thrilled to see Hugh Slotten’s book, Radio’s Hidden Voice: The Origins of Public Broadcasting in the United States, as it is one of the first publications […]
Every year scores of community and public radio stations apply for funding from the Department of Commerce’s Public Telecommunications Facilities Program. The venue funds a host of capital expenses that many of these stations can’t afford otherwise. The cash goes to upgrading transmission towers, funding shelters for transmitters, and buying new control room equipment, console […]
I’ve visited more than 23 radio stations all over the world, from tiny store-front operations like East Village Radio in New York City to small town community radio stations to a big corporate commercial station and everything in between. Not only am I passionate about what goes on in the DJ booth, but I’m also […]
National Public Radio’s ombudsman Alicia Shephard pondered an interesting conundrum this week. What do you do when you are covering elections in a state like Utah, where just about everybody can be classified as a “conservative”? How do you grade the distinctions in conservatism? The network’s Howard Berkes decided to roll out the term “ultra-conservative” […]
Although I still haven’t sleuthed out the origins of “Oscar Grant Radio,” the mobile radio station that offered up a voice for citizens on the streets of Oakland following the Johannes Mehserle verdict on Thursday, today I learned about another station that was live on the street in order to both discourage violence and offer […]
After the verdict was read yesterday in the trial of former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle in the shooting death of Oscar Grant, there was a great deal of media coverage about local reactions in the San Francisco Bay Area. Most interesting to me was a brief glimpse of a mobile radio station in Oakland […]
Why do I always feel like I’m the bearer of bad news about college radio? In another sad sign of the times, Clover Park Technical College in Tacoma, Washington has decided to cut costs by passing along control of its 51,000 watt college radio station KVTI to Washington State University’s Northwest Public Radio. As a […]
University of Virginia radio station WTJU was at the center of much buzz and heated online debate last week, as staff and listeners reacted to news about proposed changes to both the station’s format and volunteer involvement. Concerned and frustrated DJs turned to the Internet, with one penning a blog post called, “WTJU is Facing […]
