Opinions, editorials and fun stuff.
“I think radio did a very poor job of marketing itself, and everybody started talking all about the shiny new things.” That’s Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman explaining why radio lost much of its public mindshare at Adweek’s Power of Personality event. Sure, that claim is plausible to someone who hasn’t been listening to radio […]
![An attempt to resolve Walkman/Boombox tension via a 'boombox/walkman' [stereo2go.com]](https://www.radiosurvivor.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/boomwalk-250x125.jpg "Notes on the Boombox/Walkman war of the early 1980s")
I’ve been rummaging through old articles about the emergence of the Walkman in the 1980s, and one thing stands out: some people thought it was a social cure for the Boombox. Here’s an excerpt from an old column by George Will, responding to the charge that the Walkman isolated people from each other. ‘Some sociologists […]
This week the National Association of Broadcasters convention takes over Las Vegas. To kick it off, the lobbying group’s top man, Gordon Smith, took to the stage Monday to set the tone. And the tone was this: Hey, FCC what about us broadcasters? Leading off Smith’s list of complaints is the FCC’s effort asking TV […]
Every week in our Radio Survivor Bulletin email newsletter we count down the top 5 stories of the week, along with alerting readers to other important radio stories. Now, here are our top 10 stories in radio news for March, as ranked by unique hits: 50th Anniversary Celebration for Radio Caroline, the UK’s 1st Pirate […]
April 1st is a day when you must not turn off your critical faculties if you’re planning on turning on the radio or TV, surfing the internet, or even leaving the house. Luckily, most pranks are fun and harmless. Also, the FCC is watching broadcasters, who won’t be off the hook if a hoax results […]
Turntable.fm shut down its last component earlier this year: Turntable Live—a concert version of now gone turntable.fm. TT.fm founder Billy Chasen reflected on the end of the Turntable project in a blog entry posted on Wednesday: “Ultimately, I didn’t heed the lessons of so many failed music startups. It’s an incredibly expensive venture to pursue […]
Last Thursday the national board of the Pacifica Foundation fired Executive Director Summer Reese, who was hired for the position in November after serving on an interim basis for more than a year. The how and why of Reese’s ouster are unclear. According to the New York Times article that broke the story, board members […]
Late last month Paul Riismandel wondered why audio so rarely goes viral, especially in comparison to videos. “Will audio ever go viral like a cat video, and what would it take?” he asked Radio Survivor readers. Well, Paul’s answer has arrived. Here is a recording of a Portland, Oregon family calling 911 in fear of […]
I don’t know about you, but the cable show The Soup has long been one of my top five guilty pleasures. Judge me as you will, but I simply must know what Honey Boo Boo, Gary Busey, and/or Justin Bieber did or said over the last 72 hours. Thus I keep my eyes peeled to […]
Every week in our Radio Survivor Bulletin email newsletter we count down the top 5 stories of the week, along with alerting readers to other important radio stories. Now, here are our top 10 stories for February, as ranked by unique hits: My Chromecast Is an Internet Radio Remembering Philip Seymour Hoffman in Pirate Radio […]
