Report: London is pirate radio heaven (or hell, depending on your viewpoint)
The United Kingdom is so famous for its pirate radio stations that Hollywood made a movie about one. But as always the government is quite dour about these unlicensed signals, and has shut 400 of them down recently, according to a newspaper report. The London Evening Standard says that a quarter of the crackdowns over […]
Anger follows Cumulus closure of KGO’s South Bay wing
Cumulus media has closed the South Bay bureau for KGO news-talk radio. Just like that, according to the San Jose Mercury News blog Internal Affairs: “Here at IA, we’re told it was done in a particularly sudden and ugly way: Two officials with Cumulus Media, which bought the station four years ago, showed up last […]
College Radio Watch: 50 Best College Radio Stations?, Two New FM Stations, WSOU Metal Countdown, WMSE Adds Podcasts + More News
In this week’s Radio Survivor Podcast (our 4th!) I join Paul Riismandel and Eric Klein as the third co-host for the first half hour of the podcast. In addition to talking about radio in general, I also spent more time discussing some stories that I’ve written about here, including Nikki Marra’s college radio documentary, the […]
LPFM Watch: The Six Segments of LPFM + More Community Radio in Seattle
I just noticed a great piece on REC Networks, “The Six Segments of LPFM,” which outlines the wide array of groups that hold licenses for low power FM (LFPM) radio stations. As we’ve been following the growth of LPFM, particularly after the 2013 application window, I have been interested to learn more about stations in […]
Digital Watch: Apple’s Beats 1 Radio Is Safe as Milk
Yesterday I shared my initial impressions of Apple’s Beats 1 Radio, and why I think it’s decidedly global orientation is its most interesting quality. Now I turn a critical ear to the actual programming and sound quality. Originally I planned to write a review of Apple Music for today’s feature. But after spending additional time […]
KUSP’s day of decision; Devizes radio is 20; more community radio for SE England
Community radio station KUSP-FM in Santa Cruz, California has posted the date for its next Board of Directors meeting: July 13 at the Aptos Community Foundation building at 6 PM. I presume that it is at that meeting or soon following that the Board will decide what kind of format to adopt for the station. “It […]
Apple’s Beats 1 Radio Is Interesting Because It’s Purposely Global
I started listening to Apple Music’s new Beats 1 Radio this morning at 10 AM PDT, two hours after the new service launched. On the face of it there is nothing particularly innovative about the station. Even though Apple unsuccessfully tried to find a new word for “radio,” Beats 1 is just that. The most […]
Radio Survivor Podcast #4: Breaking the Public Radio Podcast Mold
Can public and community radio find ways to innovate with podcasting, and reach new audiences, rather than mostly repackage what’s on air? Ernesto Aguilar, program director of Pacifica station KPFT-FM in Houston, joins to tackle that question. Our college radio correspondent Jennifer Waits joins as third co-host to run down our radio news headlines, and […]
Botswana debates whether community radio encourages “tribalism”
An advisory group to the Parliament of Botswana has unanimously endorsed the establishment of community radio stations in that southern African country to “mitigate communication breakdown between Dikgosi and their communities.” Dikgosi is the plural for Kgosi, a Setswana word for tribal chief. The problem, as the advisory board Ntlo ya Dikgosi sees it, is that […]
College Radio Watch: College Radio Road Trip Documentary, Commercials on College Radio?, Metal and Activism & More News
I enjoyed listening to Nikki Marra’s radio documentary, “The College Radio Road Trip” this week. Although she released it last fall as part of College Radio Day‘s on-air festivities, it’s getting some renewed attention after receiving a finalist certificate at the New York Festivals’ International Radio Program Awards in the editorial/viewpoint subcategory of the larger […]