Despite ongoing protests from KTRU fans, Rice University students and alumni, Rice University has gone through with their plan to submit an application to the FCC in order to transfer ownership of KTRU’s FM frequency and license to University of Houston. With this purchase, University of Houston plans to expand its public radio offerings by […]
About a year ago I was driving to work along the 17 freeway, which winds through the mountains of Santa Cruz, California, and listening to Brian Edwards-Tiekert on listener supported KPFA-FM in Berkeley’s Morning Show. He was interviewing someone about the political situation in Turkey, and how politics in that country affects women. It was […]
NPR News recently announced the termination of news analyst Juan Williams based on some comments made during his October 21st appearance on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor. When asked to comment on the current situation between the United States and the Muslim community, Williams publicly stated, Look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the […]
Man, my student Jacob Margolis got himself into a deep tub of digital hot water the other day over at KPCC-FM public radio in Pasadena, CA. Jacob took my telecommunications history class up at UC Santa Cruz and now he’s an intern down there. His crime? Explaining the mechanics of P2P file downloading on one […]
Under the provisions of the Digital Milennium Copyright Act (DMCA) there are several restrictions on streaming radio that don’t exist for terrestrial broadcast. One of the most vexing for a lot of noncommerical stations is the limitation that an online station may not play more than three songs from the same artist, album or compilation […]
The prize for discussion of an issue with a straight face goes to Alicia Shepard, Ombudsman for National Public Radio. Shepard’s latest blog post concedes that a recent Weekend Edition story mishandled the controversial question of male circumcision by (sorry, I can’t help it) cutting an interview with an expert in the field short. The […]
There’s more sad news on the college radio front today, with the report that Rice University is selling off the 50,000 FM signal for their long-time college radio station KTRU. According to a press release issued today, University of Houston System plans to buy KTRU’s tower, frequency, and broadcast license for $9.5 million in order […]
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” […]
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 […]
Since democratizing itself, I estimate that Pacifica radio has spent $2,424,662 on its complex governance system and board elections. Where the heck did that money go?
