Technics SL-1200G: The Wheels of Steel Are Back, But There’s a Catch
DJs, vinyl-heads and radio nerds rejoiced at the unveiling this week of the new Technics SL-1200G turntable. It’s an all-new version of the venerated DJ deck that ruled clubs, radio studios and many living rooms for nearly 40 years until being discontinued in 2010. However, for many there’s a grey cloud looming over this sunny […]
Reasonably Priced Turntables for Your Radio Station
I fear I didn’t write last month’s post on good inexpensive turntables soon enough. To the surprise of many, Amazon announced that its top selling item in electronics during the 2015 holiday season was a turntable. Unfortunately, it was a too-cheap, plastic, vinyl-chewing record player that barely costs more than two new LPs. My only […]
College Radio Watch: Catawba College Radio Expands, KTUH Power Boost, WMUC Documentary and More News
Happy New Year! It’s been awhile since I’ve written a “regular” College Radio Watch column, although there’s been quite a bit of college radio news in the past few weeks. I’m slowing making my way towards my 100th radio station tour report and am really looking forward to visiting more college radio stations in 2016. […]
2015 in Review: LPFM Made it Community Radio’s Biggest Leap Forward
With regard to new stations going on the air, 2015 represented the biggest single-year leap forward for non-commercial and community radio in U.S. history. At the end of the year 524 new low-power FM stations had been fully licensed during the year. This represents a 68% increase in the overall number of LPFM stations compared […]
The Mysterious Black College Radio Convention
Over the years I’ve seen references to the Black College Radio Conference and its annual award ceremony. Although scant information is available online, William Barlow writes about the convention’s origins in Voice Over: The Making of Black Radio. He says that the Atlanta-based event was launched by Lo Jelks and that the student-focused convention was […]
Reviewing the 2015 Yule Logs: They’ve Gone to the Dogs
A year ago I rhapsodized about my love of televised yule logs and gave my report on some of the examples that aired during the 2014 Christmas holiday. Well, Christmas 2015 also brought with it many opportunities to view yule logs on TV and I ended up catching a few that I’d never seen before. […]
Investigating Some Contenders for the Oldest Women’s College Radio Station
A few days ago I learned about a documentary about the “first all-woman radio station,” a commercial country station WHER which launched in Memphis in 1955. Of course it piqued my curiosity, not only because it sounds like an intriguing station, but also because I’m aware of college radio stations at all women’s colleges that […]
Why American Independent Internet Radio May Go Extinct in 2016
The new performance royalty rates that internet radio will pay artists and record labels were released on December 16 and many small and mid-sized internet-only broadcasters are now fearing they’ll be put out of business. While there was a modest increase on the fee paid for each song played, the bigger concern is what’s missing. […]
Running a hybrid classical radio station with Earbits
It has been a while since I checked in on Earbits, the commercial free online music application that encourages you to become an active fan of the bands and musicians on your stream. Since then, it has greatly improved and I have constructed a hybrid classical radio channel via its excellent Chrome extension feature. For those […]
Riverwest radio: the ongoing video thing continues
I continue to be fascinated by Riverwest radio, the Milwaukee Low Power FM station where everything gets videoed and you can just sit back and watch. Here’s a Riverwest radio deejay bopping to the music in his deejay chair: Your browser does not support iframes. There’s a whole feature about Riverwest in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. […]