Will SoundCloud pay rent to labels as the price for existing?
I apologize for what some might experience as the presumptuous headline query, but I am unable to interpret the latest SoundCloud news otherwise. Here is the lead paragraph in last week’s Bloomberg report: “The largest record labels are closing in on a deal for a stake in buzzy digital-music service SoundCloud Ltd., in exchange for […]
College Radio Watch: Protests over Future of WRAS Continue, With WABE Critiquing the Deal as Well
As I composed this post, supporters of student radio programming on WRAS-FM were assembling at a protest at Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) headquarters in Atlanta. The peaceful protest by SaveWRAS supporters is part of a larger effort to spread the word about changes at the Georgia State University radio station in order to either stop […]
FCC Reports that the Number of Radio Stations in the U.S. Increased last Quarter
The FCC released its quarterly list of the total number of broadcast stations this week and once again the number of radio stations increased from the prior quarter. As of June 30, there were 15,425 licensed full power radio stations in the United States. The only categories that were on the decline were AM stations […]
Classic Rock Radio Isn’t What You Think It Is
Just what is Classic Rock? It’s a question that has vexed many a radio listener tuned in to a set that includes Billy Joel, Led Zeppelin, the Clash and Motley Crue, artists that likely wouldn’t have been played together on any other format. What’s the connecting feature? What’s in the center of that Venn diagram? […]
LPFM News: Original Proposer Says the Service Is “Incomplete”
Four more LPFM construction permits were granted in the last week, but the big news is that the FCC released its list of 79 MX groups for states west of the Mississippi, as we reported yesterday. These are groups that are competing for a single frequency in their respective communities. Now these applicants have the […]
USA and Czech radio: the historical connections
Czech Radio has one of the world’s largest repositories of archived radio sound. Radio Prague’s David Vaughan brings this library to our attention in a recent post. The archive goes all the back to the 1920s and includes a variety of recordings in English. Earlier this year Vaughan deployed a team of undergraduates to explore […]
FCC releases Low Power FM MX list for western United States
The Federal Communications Commission has released a compendium of 79 Mutually Exclusive (MX) application groups for Low Power FM radio stations for states on the western side of the country. There are 248 applications all told. The FCC will now apply its points system for deciding which applicants among these clusters will actually get an […]
Podcasts: a Kick in the Pants of the Public Radio Establishment
Last week the New York Times published a feature article on Ira Glass and This American Life. Ostensibly it covers the show’s departure from distributor Public Radio International to join the more independent-minded Public Radio Exchange. However, the piece also follows Glass’s multi-tasking forays into other endeavors, like leading an off-Broadway dance show. Relevant to […]
Revisiting the birth of Scrobbling
I had fun over the Fourth of July rummaging around the Internet Wayback and looking at old images of audioscrobber.net, Richard Jones’ early version of Scrobbling as he was joining forces with Last.fm. Here is screenshot circa November 2004. Jones was a third year student at the University of Southampton at the time he cooked this […]
LPFM News: North Columbus Community Radio Application Dismissed after its “President” Denies Involvement with Group
On Monday, the application for a new LPFM license for North Columbus Community Radio in Columbus, Ohio was dismissed by the FCC. Several Informal Objections and Petitions to Deny (by REC Networks, Prometheus Radio Project, Common Frequency, and Percy Squire) were submitted in reference to this application. The application was dismissed by the request of […]