Clear Channel: let AM stations go all digital on a voluntary basis
Clear Channel Communications has posted its response to the Federal Communications Commission’s proceeding on AM radio revitalization. The radio giant has many recommendations, among them the suggestion that the FCC should permit all digital AM operations “on a voluntary basis.” “As more HD receivers are installed in vehicles and more consumer digital receivers are purchased, […]
Still asynchronous? Internet radio at 21
It appears that Internet radio can soon celebrate its 21st birthday. The New York Times identified what is arguably the first Internet radio station in an article posted by reporter John Markoff on March 4, 1993. “Talk radio is coming to desktop computers,” Markoff wrote from San Francisco. “Within a few weeks, a Virginia-based entrepreneur […]
Podcast Survivor: The week’s podcasting news
This week I round up the latest podcasting news: Podcast Awards founder defends his methodology; Welcome to Night Vale live performance reviewed; Why no viral podcasts?. Why doesn’t audio go viral? Last week public radio journalist Stan Alcorn published a thorough and well-researched article titled “Is Thing On” exploring the question of why internet audio […]
Newly Granted College and High School LPFMs are Next Wave of Student Broadcasters
Last week the FCC began granting new LPFM applications and so far, it has granted several applications for new LPFM college, high school, and middle school radio stations. I profiled two of the college stations, Washington College and York Technical College, in College Radio Survivor on Friday and in this post I will run through […]
Beats Music is out & in the app store. We kick the tires
We had Rhapsody, Pandora, Rdio, Slacker, Songza and Spotify. Then last year Google Play All Access and iTunes Radio joined the scene. Today producers and headphones impresarios Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine are bringing us Beats Music. Like Spotify and similar platforms, Beats offers up on-demand music for unlimited listening. In part the service hopes […]
Unclaimed Tom Waits CD: am I old or is it Spotify?
I teach history courses at a big university in California. Classes started three weeks ago. One of mine takes place in one of the largest lecture halls on campus. I walked into the room, which holds almost 200 people, and there on the corner of a front desk sat two CDs, one by Tom Waits, […]
College Radio Survivor: 2014 Starts Well, With New College Radio LPFMs on the Horizon
In this week’s College Radio Survivor, I look at two new potential LPFM stations on college campuses and recap some college radio news from the past few weeks. On Wednesday the FCC started granting new LPFM applications and in the mix of the first 107 grantees, there was one potential college radio station: York Technical […]
It’s official: Winamp and Shoutcast acquired by Radionomy Group
It’s finally for real: Winamp and Shoutcast live on. Though there have been reports that the online radio platform Radionomy purchased them from AOL, Radionomy just made the official announcement today. This comes some 26 days after Dec. 20, 2013, which was the date AOL said the services would be shut down and taken offline. […]
LPFM Watch: FCC Grants 107 LPFM Applications, More Oppositions Filed
This week there were some interesting developments on the LPFM front. Most notably, the FCC began to grant LPFM applications yesterday and by day’s end there were 107 non-profit groups that were one step closer to getting on the air with a new licensed radio station. These singleton applicants faced no competition for their frequencies, […]
Those NSA radio snoop chips, are they FCC Part 15?
Reading today’s New York Times story about National Security Agency USB hack gadgets that radio computer data back home, I immediately thought to myself: are these authorized by the Federal Communications Commission as Part 15 unlicensed broadcast/radiation devices? Or even, gulp, licensed? The Times reports that the NSA gadgets get plugged into foreign host computers […]