Podcast Survivor: 2013 – The year in podcasting
This was the year podcasting crested puberty and had its teenage growth spurt. Two statistics make this point clear. Apple reported the milestone of one billion podcast subscriptions through iTunes in July. A recent Pew Research Center poll says that 27% of internet users download or listen to podcasts. That percentage was just 6% in […]
Classical segregator or savior? The case for Q2, WQXR’s online “living composers” channel
Hallowed New York City classical radio station WQXR’s “Q2” channel is now well over three years old. I am a big fan of the service. It is one of the few places in the classical music radiosphere in the United States where you can consistently listen to a high quality stream of contemporary classical music […]
College Radio Survivor: Touring College Radio Stations in 2013
It’s no secret that I’m passionate about college radio. It’s more interesting to me than commercial radio and I love that it’s for the most part programmed by individual DJs. Because of that, I was tickled to spot some kind words for college radio in an article in Radio Ink about the tired state of […]
Will Aimee Semple McPherson win the Low Power FM sweepstakes?
I cannot predict which of the thousands of applicants for Low Power FM radio stations will win frequencies from the Federal Communications Commission next year, but of one thing I am sure. Many of the winners will be churches, especially in the south and southwest. You do not have to be a spiritual psychic to […]
Better Spotify chat rooms with updated Soundrop
Shortly after we posted my review of Soundrop, Spotify’s chat room application, Soundrop marketing Vice President Thomas Ford wrote to us. “I think you published just a few weeks too soon,” he observed. “We’re planning to launch the new Spotify app tomorrow [December 17]. I hope it helps solve some of the interaction issues by […]
College Radio Survivor: This Week’s College Radio News
Even though some college campuses are already closed for the winter break, there’s still a bunch of news on the student radio front this week. This week’s College Radio Survivor includes some year-end charts from CMJ, details about another holiday special, the latest on college LPFM applications, and word on some changes at a few […]
How the FCC helped win World War II
I am reading Tim Weiner’s diverting book Enemies: A History of the FBI and have learned something about the Federal Communications Commission as well. Its Radio Intelligence Division played a critical role in anti-Fascist counterespionage in the southern hemisphere. Weiner writes: “The civilians of the Radio Intelligence Division intercepted clandestine Germany communications with spies in […]
Report says Winamp sale is imminent, shutdown will be averted
Friday is going to be a long day for Winamp fans. TechCrunch reported earlier this afternoon that “AOL is finalizing negotiations to sell off Winamp and Shoutcast in a deal that would allow both products to live on.” The buyer is not identified, though according to writer Anthony Ha, his source says that s/he is […]
Saving Winamp and Shoutcast may be prohibitively complex
Fans of Winamp are sitting on the edge of their seats as AOL’s December 20 shut-down for application downloads and “associated web services” is less than a day away. As I pointed out previously, also on death row are the Shoutcast streaming audio platform and the Shoutcast directory of thousands of independent online stations. More […]
Low Power FM in Texas: the next wave
I was happy to see that our friend Jim Ellinger’s Low Power FM event last Saturday in Austin, Texas went well. “Half a dozen applicants, commissioners and academics, radio talent and sponsors showed up,” the Austin Airwaves Facebook page reports. “A phone in call from Ian Smith of the Prometheus Radio Project answered a lot of […]