Radio and bicycles: can they help each other?
We are always writing about North Carolina State University campus station WKNC-FM around here, and now they’ve gone and done something fun and creative again. This time it’s the WKNC “Radio Ride,” billed as an “alleycat” bicycle race and scavenger hunt fundraiser through Raleigh for the station. On August 29, contestants will meet at the […]
Princeton Review Shares 2016 List of the 20 “Most Popular” College Radio Stations
Once again it’s time for the Princeton Review’s annual college survey results (registration required), including the deceptively titled “Best College Radio Station” list, which is based on student surveys. I’ve been scrutinizing these lists for years and it always drives me nuts that the rankings are listed as “Best College Radio Station,” when the results […]
Farewell to WFMU’s Beware of the Blog (for now)
A brief notice on WFMU in New Jersey’s Beware of the Blog blog indicates that the feature is going into what could be called a deep hiatus. “After ten fun-filled years, we’re packing up shop here at WFMU’s Beware of the Blog,” the post says. “Many thanks to the dozens of volunteer authors who put […]
Radio Survivor Podcast #9: Remembering Negativland’s Don Joyce
This week Jennifer Waits joins us live in studio as we remember Don Joyce, a pioneering sound artist and member of the culture jamming musical group Negativland, who passed away on July 22. We also discuss AT&T’s plan to activate the FM radio’s on the carrier’s Android phones, and KEXP’s recent 12-hour marathon broadcast exploring […]
Visiting WGMU Radio at George Mason University
While my family slept, I snuck out of our Washington, D.C. hotel room early in the morning on (Good) Friday, April 3rd, 2015 in order to feed my desire to see more college radio stations. After carefully mapping out the journey on public transit, I headed for the Metro station and grabbed the Orange line […]
Herbert Hoover’s four warnings about radio
Hoover was a staunch believer in public control of the airwaves. He wrote that when he arrived at the Harding Administration in 1920, radio broadcasting developers wanted regulation to prevent interference with each other, but “many of them were insisting on a right of permanent preemption of the channels through the air as private property […]
College Radio Watch: College Radio’s Part in Local Music Scenes, Controversies over Non-Students in College Radio, and More
I was just reading about the loss of some music clubs in Boston and within the same article there’s discussion about how the independent music scene is supported and fostered by not only an active live music culture, but also by the presence of college radio. In a piece for WBUR’s Radio Boston, Musician Peter […]
Southwestern College Turns Back Class D FM license as it moves to LPFM
Class D FM radio licenses are a dying breed. Low power and subject to getting shuffled around the dial in order to make way for bigger broadcasters, it can be tough for many non-commercial educational FM class D stations (mostly college and high school stations) to be heard. In recent years we’ve seen a number […]
Can WFMU’s Audience Engine Shake Up Non-Profit Journalism?
Related: Matthew Lasar takes a look under the hood of Audience Engine. Does America’s maverick freeform music station have what it takes to shake up non-profit journalism? It’s no secret non-commercial news online is facing hardships. Funding and engagement remain persistent needs, with no guaranteed formulas for staying afloat in a competitive journalism field. The […]
Keeping your listeners with you: inside WFMU’s Audience Engine
Community radio station WFMU-FM in New Jersey has won another grant from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation to further its brainchild-in-the-works: Audience Engine. This additional $100k brings the Dodge Foundation’s support for the project up to half a million dollars. WMFU has partnered with Boston software developer Bocoup to create the system, and will distribute […]