PRX’s Radiotopia ended its Kickstarter last Friday at $620,412, which is 148% more than its initial goal of $250,000. The money will help fund four new podcasts–three hosted by women–along with financing a development fund for more new shows. On Tuesday Apple reported that the Serial podcast from This American Life has become the fastest-downloaded […]
NPR Headquarters. Photo: J. Waits While visiting the Washington, D.C. area in April, I took the opportunity to visit NPR‘s new headquarters. Although NPR isn’t technically a radio station, I made an exception for this series, since it is in the business of producing public radio programming. (more…)
About a year ago, just as the Federal Communications Commission was approving applications for Low Power FM construction permits, I wrote up a list of contenders with the most attention grabbing names. These include Bakersfield Burrito, Shaggers, Electron Benders, and Rusting Sprocket Art. But the most intriguing applicant, at least for me, was the Global […]
WMUC graffiti at station. Photo: J. Waits Back in April, I was fortunate to speak at the Saving College Radio Symposium at University of Maryland. Held in conjunction with the exhibit Saving College Radio: WMUC Past, Present and Future, the event definitely piqued my interest about University of Maryland’s storied college radio station WMUC-FM. So, […]
Wall at WRGW. Photo: J. Waits In April 2014, I had the pleasure of presenting at the Saving College Radio symposium at University of Maryland. While in the area, I took the opportunity to visit a few nearby stations, including college radio station WRGW at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. (more…)
As the end of the year approaches, I’m already starting to think about what the overarching themes of 2014 were for college radio. Like many recent years, it’s been a mix of good and bad news this year. The situation at Georgia State University’s WRAS-FM is a high profile example of public radio’s ongoing interest […]
As of today, 1468 new low power FM (LPFM) construction permits have been issued as a result of the fall 2013 application window. As 2014 draws to a close, we’re hearing more and more about the plans for many of these new stations. In case you missed our other LPFM coverage this week, be sure […]
Since my first post for the Radio Survivor Academic Series, the Radio Preservation Task Force has started to accumulate finding aids from regional archival collections. Just prior to the deadline for Research Associates to submit their finding aids to their Regional Directors, it was reported that approximately 250 archives and contacts had been aggregated, which […]
Alex Blumberg’s podcasting company Gimlet Media just crowd-funded $200,00 in less than two days. Only the company didn’t use Kickstarter, Indiegogo or another familiar platform. Instead Gimlet invited qualified investors to become actual equity stakeholders under a provision of the 2012 JOBS Act. Gimlet ran this campaign using the help of a new platform called […]
A new book chronicles “the practices of an activist organization focused on LPFM” during the first low-power licensing window at the turn of the century. Low Power to the People: Pirates, Protest, and Politics in FM Radio Activism is written by Christina Dunbar-Hester, a professor of Journalism and Media Studies in the School of Communication […]
