How the FBI worked with radio to investigate the song “Louie Louie”
Our regular Welcome to Night Vale correspondent Aidan Herrick has written an excellent research paper (pdf) on the 1960s era Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation of the song “Louie Louie.” Why the probe? Because parents across the United States were complaining to the government that The Kingsmen’s 1963 remake of the Richard Berry song contained […]
Can we do better than sell KUSP to the Classical Public Radio Network?
Editor’s note: Shortly after I posted my first story about the proposed sale of KUSP in Santa Cruz to the Classical Public Radio Network, Rachel Anne Goodman and I began corresponding about the prospect. Goodman teaches journalism at Cabrillo College in Aptos. By her own description she has “been a radio host on one station or another since […]
A Glimpse of College Radio’s Past in Playlists from the 1970s and 1980s
An exciting envelope recently arrived in the mail, containing a stack of vintage college radio station playlists from the 1970s and 1980s. Mostly handwritten or typed on typewriters, the “music surveys” capture lists of the most recently added music to these station’s libraries. Sometimes broken down by genre or divided by different types of rotation […]
College Radio Watch: College Radio’s Influence on Music Biz, WLUW Axes Some Community Shows, and More News
As I wrote in LPFM Watch yesterday, it’s thrilling to see the increasing number of college radio stations with new low power FM (LPFM) construction permits. With the addition of Reed College and Drury University this week, that brings the total number of granted LPFM construction permits for colleges and universities (from the 2013 application […]
NFCB Holding Regional Summits for Community Radio Stations
This year the National Federation for Community Broadcasters is holding regional summits instead of one big national conference. The registration price is lower, and travel should be easier and less expensive for most people. Therefore they’re great opportunities for community broadcasters, especially new LPFM stations, to meet likeminded radio-makers and take advantage of what the […]
LPFM Watch: Reed College and Drury University to go LPFM and More LPFM News
This week ten more groups were granted construction permits for new low power FM (LPFM) radio stations. I’m thrilled to see two colleges and one school district in the mix, as not many schools have received grants in the past few months. By my count, 76 colleges/universities have now received new LPFM construction permits (out […]
UK runs YouTube draw for short term radio licenses for Ramadan
Ramadan is coming, and various broadcasters in the United Kingdom want short term radio licenses for the month of fasting, which begins on Wednesday June 17 and ends on Friday July 17. So how is the UK’s telecom regulator allocating them? As the YouTube video below indicates, Ofcom got itself a bunch of lottery-style balls […]
Digital Watch: FCC Approves Pandora Broadcast Buy; HD Radio Patent Troll Dismissed
At the top of this week’s digital radio news is an analog broadcast station. In a deal that took nearly two years to complete, on Monday the FCC removed the first barrier to Pandora buying Rapid City, SD FM station, KXMZ. The Commission granted a waiver of foreign ownership rules which otherwise prohibit a company […]
Santa Cruz’s KUSP votes to sell license
The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports that public radio station KUSP has taken a major step towards selling its license. On Monday KUSP’s board, staff, and volunteers approved a letter of intent to offer it to the Classical Public Radio Network for $1 million. CPRN owns classical radio station KDFC in San Francisco and is headquartered […]
Visiting Bellarmine Radio in Louisville
It’s sort of a weird coincidence that in the past few months I visited radio stations at two different institutions called Bellarmine. I wrote about my trip to see Bellarmine College Preparatory’s AM station KBCP in San Jose, California a few weeks ago and now I’m covering my visit to Bellarmine University’s radio station, Bellarmine […]