Dozens of UK community radio stations apply for digital experiment
The news from Norway is that the country plans to dump FM and go all digital by 2017. The United Kingdom isn’t quite ready to do the same, but over fifty radio outlets have responded to the UK’s invitation to apply for a digital experiment for smaller broadcasters. Ofcom, Britain’s broadcast regulator, has announced trials to […]
Norway’s Digital Radio Transition Is an Outlier
See our most recent update to this story: FM in Norway Isn’t Dead, Says Norwegian Local Radio Association Last Thursday Norway’s Ministry of Culture announced the national transition from analog FM to digital DAB radio beginning on January 11, 2017. This move, akin to the digital television transition the US made in 2009, has been […]
Nat’l Record Store Day footnote: my years at Sam Goody records
National Record Store Day has once again come and gone and [doh!] I keep forgetting to post a piece on that day mentioning that for years I worked for one of the biggest post World War II record chains on the East Coast: Sam Goody records. I clerked at the 49th street and Broadway store […]
Visiting High School Radio Station KBCP at Bellarmine College Preparatory
Last last year I received an email inviting me to visit high school radio station KBCP (aka “the Bell”) at Bellarmine College Preparatory School in San Jose, California. I’m always excited to see stations and it’s rare that I get to visit high school radio stations. After exchanging a few emails, I arranged to visit […]
Short Documentary Looks at College Radio at KSPC and KUCR
I love college radio documentaries and YouTube is full of these gems, giving us an opportunity to peek into a variety of stations all over the world. A new 10-minute documentary looks at the state of college radio in 2015 at two southern California stations: Pomona College’s KSPC-FM (my alma mater station!) in Claremont, California […]
4th Annual High School Radio Day is Happening on April 22
Next Wednesday, April 22nd marks the 4th annual High School Radio Day. Inspired by College Radio Day, the event is a celebration of high school radio. So far, 69 stations have signed up to participate in the day (see a list here). On the High School Radio Day website, stations can register for the event, […]
College Radio Watch: WXAC Celebrates 50th, WSOU’s Record Store Day Remote, and the 9 Lives of WKPS
This week I wrote up another college radio station visit as part of my ongoing Spinning Indie Radio Station Field trip series. Laney College’s streaming radio station, 9th Floor Radio, has been around for nearly a decade in Oakland and is preparing to add a low power FM (LPFM) broadcast to the mix this summer. […]
Record Store Day Radio Launches in Time for Record Store Day 2015
Ever since the early days of Record Store Day (RSD for short), I’d wondered why there weren’t more collaborations between record stores and radio stations on a day heralding the importance of local, independent businesses and media. Over the years various radio stations did set up tables at record shops during Record Store Day and […]
LPFM Watch: FCC Enforces More Involuntary Time-Shares
The FCC issued another nineteen construction permits for new low-power FM radio stations in the last week, brining the grand total to 1821. Ten of these went to organizations in four cities that will have to abide involuntary time-shares. In each city there was an MX group of two or more applicants competing for a […]
Touring Future LPFM Radio Station ARTxFM in Louisville
One of my most eagerly anticipated radio station tours this year was to see ARTxFM in Louisville, Kentucky. I’ve been friends with its founder, Sharon Scott, for several years and have been closely monitoring the station’s progress as a streaming radio station (it launched in 2012). In October 2014, ARTxFM was granted a construction permit […]