Continuing my excavation of digitally archived college/community radio programs, I have found this nugget on the Internet Archives: a recording of WQAX-FM DJ “Gary Indiana” hosting a music show, circa February 1981. WQAX (aka, “Quacks” 100.3 FM) broadcast to Bloomington, Indiana as a cable station for two decades, from 1973 through 1993. The signal offered a […]
Earlier this week, Pitchfork published a long-form piece with the provocative title, Does College Radio Even Matter Anymore? The sub-head continues the theme, adding, “How left-of-the-dial stalwarts are fighting to stay alive.” Click-bait for college radio fans and practitioners, the article is actually more nuanced than its alarmist descriptors suggest. (more…)
Meandering through the Internet Archives, I ran into this chestnut, circa 1974: “Community Radio in Canada,” authored by Toronto’s Office of Community Radio.
I was disappointed to hear that University of Washington, Bothell’s college radio station UWave (see my 2014 tour here) is facing opposition to its planned move to a low power FM (LPFM) channel. Although the station has a construction permit from the FCC for the new LPFM station, University of Washington officials told students that […]
After waking before dawn and grabbing breakfast at a nearby Waffle House (we don’t have them in California!), I began a beautiful drive from Fayetteville, Arkansas to Clarksville, in order to see college radio station KUOZ-LP at University of the Ozarks. Lyrics to the Monkees song “the Last Train to Clarksville” kept swirling in my […]
It was such a treat getting to visit so many new low power FM (LPFM) radio stations last fall, including KPSQ-LP in Fayetteville, Arkansas. After my evening tour of college radio station KXUA on October 6, I journeyed to Fayetteville’s historic downtown to see community radio station KPSQ (97.3 FM on the dial), aka “Public […]
Happy Lunar New Year! It feels like the semester is just getting started and there’s already some interesting news on the college radio front. On Radio Survivor Podcast #77, I give an update about college radio station KUNV, which is remaining under university control after a proposal for a public radio takeover fizzled. Meanwhile, folks […]
The Central Intelligence Agency has digitally released 930,000 documents previously available only at the National Archives in Maryland. Of course I went straight to the search engine and started rummaging around for community radio stuff. So far, the CIA’s Pacifica radio files aren’t especially earth shattering, but there are some cute items, like this one: (more…)
One of the more unusual radio stations that I’ve visited is KCHUNG in Los Angeles. Around since 2011, the station has caught the ears of not only the artist community in its home town, but also the attention of the national press. Visiting journalists typically paint a portrait of KCHUNG’s diverse programming and quirky lair, […]
This week’s podcast is a rare treat, featuring all four Radio Survivors: me, Matthew Lasar, Paul Riismandel and Eric Klein. In the college radio segment, we discuss the pending sale of the FM license for University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s college radio station WUMD. When we recorded the podcast, I hadn’t heard from many WUMD participants, […]
