Digital Watch: HD Radio Parent Is Acquired; NPR Podcasts Turn 10
Today iBiquity, the parent company behind HD Radio technology, was acquired by DTS, which is best known for creating multi-channel digital cinema sound systems. DTS is a public traded company, while the majority owners of privately held iBiquity are banks and private equity firms. The primary reason for the $172 million deal appears to be […]
Announcing the RPTF Conference: Saving America’s Radio Heritage
Over the past few months the Radio Preservation Task Force (now with a brand new website) has worked to expand its list of affiliate archives. A number of big organizations have also become recently affiliated with the RPTF, including NPR, the Pacifica Radio Archives, the Prometheus Radio Project, and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and […]
Preserving Your Audio Legacy & the Perils of Minidiscs
If you’re at all like me, you’ve got boxes upon boxes of audiocassettes, minidiscs and CD-Rs filled with air checks, interviews, and all manner of audio detritus that you may have produced or just recorded over the years. Sometimes this motley collection feels like nothing but an albatross that I move from domicile to new […]
Bob thegirl’s tips for community radio fund drives
I’m enjoying Bob thegirl’s YouTube video on how to pitch to your audience during a community radio fund drive. I don’t want to give away the presentation (below), but Bob’s first three tips for pitchers include: 1. You have to talk about why your show is important on a personal level. 2. What will listener […]
Radio Survivor Podcast #13: Why the Battle over the Pacifica Network Remains Relevant
Radio Survivor co-founder Matthew Lasar joins us this week to examine recent events at Pacifica Network’s Los Angeles station KPFK, where it’s been reported that all staff have been cut to half-time across the board. Matthew helps to put this action into perspective–especially as it regards the Pacifica Foundation’s unwieldy governance structure–and explains why Pacifica, […]
Vancouver media counting the minutes for Roundhouse Radio to go live
It could be a “scary time to be launching a media venture,” warns the Vancouver Daily Xtra in a feature about Roundhouse radio, a new commercial community station scheduled to go live in September. “[M]edia locally and globally is contracting, with independent platforms getting snapped up by conglomerates.” The times are apparently so terrifying that […]
Can Canada revive its urban Aboriginal radio service?
Canada’s broadcast regulator has put out a call for radio applications to reach urban Aboriginal communities in five cities: Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. “There is a pressing need to serve the Aboriginal community as a whole given that issues vitally important to Aboriginal Canadians are not fully covered or addressed at all in non-Native […]
College Radio Watch: Alum Calls for Return of KTRU’s Old FM License to Rice, WRAS Update + More News
Last week we reported the news that University of Houston is planning to sell the license for the former KTRU-FM frequency in Houston, Texas that it purchased from Rice University back in 2011. I’d been wondering how KTRU supporters were reacting to the news, as they waged a fierce battle in their efforts to keep […]
LPFM Watch: Hispanic Arts of Tampa Responds to Complaint Filed Against its LPFM + More News
A few weeks ago we reported on complaints being made by a commercial radio group against Tampa, Florida-area low power FM (LPFM) station WVVF-LP in reference to its choice in programming. The Beasley Media Group (BMG), which operates a 50,000 watt commercial radio station in the area (WYUU), argued that Hispanic Arts of Tampa (WVVF) […]
Notes on community radio and democracy in Delhi, India and Mkushi, Zambia
Some interesting items on community radio from two very different places. In Zambia supporters of the Patriotic Front (PF) electoral party “briefly interrupted operations” at the Mkushi Community Radio Station on Tuesday “in protest against [the] alleged political inclination of a Board Member of that Station.” That’s according to the Lusaka Times online newspaper. It’s […]