Podcast Survivor: Podcast Networks, Part Trois
Generally speaking I don’t cover the debut of many new podcasts, or new podcast networks, for that matter. In part it’s due to practicality–it’s tough to keep up. More importantly, it’s because I’m interested in the underlying structure of podcasting. When I do write about a new show or network it’s spurred by an interesting […]
Remembering Robin Williams as Irreverent DJ Adrian Cronauer in Good Morning Vietnam
It’s always sad to learn about another great talent who left this world too early. As you probably know, comedian and actor Robin Williams died on Monday. So many of his performances are permanently etched on my psyche, from watching Mork and Mindy during my 80s childhood, to memorable performances in The World According to […]
Internet DJ week: acrostic Spotify messages, Pokemon radio attacks, youth wasted on young
The Music Machinery blog alerts us to a new Spotify related application, Acrostify, which creates Spotify playlists based on “acrostics,” aka secret word messages embedded in other things. Since yesterday (Sunday, August 10) was the Russian composer Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov’s birthday, I input “Happy Birthday Glazunov” and selected the “classical” format. Out came this playlist: […]
Welcome To Night Vale Returns To “Normal”
Welcome To Night Vale, soon to embark on their first European tour, has just released their fifty-first episode, “Rumbling”. After a drawn out corporate conflict, a mayoral “election”, and some reconstruction, the little desert burb of Night Vale has finally returned to a state we could dubiously call normal. Indeed, many facets of the show […]
LPFM News: More Guel Dismissals, LPFM Supplier Closes
Two new low-power FM construction permits were issued by the FCC this week, to stations in Santa Ana, CA and Ferndale, MI. There were also nine more dismissals of applications associated with Antonio Guel in Milwaukee, Denver, Houston, Des Moines, and Palm Springs. Like last week’s dismissals, these were all cancelled because the Commission was […]
Princeton Review Releases 2015 Survey of Most Popular College Radio Stations
This week, the Princeton Review released the results of its annual college survey (registration required). For me the annual Princeton Review list of the “Best” college radio stations is a summer tradition. I like to see if any new schools made the list (sometimes I find out about college radio stations that way). Additionally, schools […]
NPR One App Represents a Possible Future for Podcasting
Podcasts are really just on-demand audio. However, the medium debuted in the period before nearly-ubiquitous wireless data and wifi. That’s the historical reason why it still relies heavily on downloading, rather than simply streaming programs from the internet like video platforms, such as YouTube, Hulu and Netflix. Of course, it’s also because audio files are […]
Steve Post is gone, but where is the Enema Lady?
The New York Times has a graceful obituary for Steve Post, talk radio host at WNYC-FM and before that for Pacifica station WBAI in New York City. I listened to Post endlessly on ‘BAI in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and like many others I read his book Playing in the FM Band: A […]
Internet DJ week: When can I vote for Bollywood tunes at my local restaurant?
My otherwise chaotic Sunday was rescued by the discovery of Gaana, India’s online music and radio emporium. It works beautifully on my Google Chrome tablet and comes with endless streams of Bollywood hits. I strongly recommend the Filmy Mirchi radio channel, which will surely cheer you up under most circumstances. I also love the Perla […]
College Radio Watch: WSJ Reports on “Shift” in College Radio as Evidenced by WRAS Situation
This week the Wall Street Journal ran a piece about recent changes at Georgia State University’s college radio station WRAS-FM. As we’ve been reporting, the student-run station in Atlanta, Georgia was recently told that administrators had made a secret deal with Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB). As part of that arrangement, student voices are now only […]