Santa Barbara classical radio in peril
Santa Barbara, California’s eight decades old classical radio signal KDB 93.7 FM is up for auction. The Santa Barbara Foundation, which owns the license, has voted to sell it off. The Foundation’s principals say that the operation has run up big deficits that the non-profit cannot afford. “Unfortunately, despite the on-air pleas we made during […]
FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel champions radio and LPFM to the Future of Music Summit
In her Tuesday keynote address to the Future of Music Summit, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel emphasized the still relevant role of radio in her remarks about the relationship between the music industry and the work of the Commission. First, she revealed that her brother is a professional bongo player, as a percussionist for the alt […]
Learn radio storytelling and production with Transom Online Workshops
Burgeoning radio producers have the opportunity to learn critical skills online with the new Transom Online Workshop. Transom, which calls itself “a showcase and workshop for new public radio,” received support from the Knight Prototype Fund to create two paths for the Online Workshop, a free self-guided course and a fee-based instructor-led course. Transom has […]
Radio should pay & no consensus on Spotify: Impressions from day 1 of the Future of Music Summit
Fighting off as-yet-undiagnosed intermittent internet issues I still managed to watch a good portion of several Monday sessions from the Future of Music Summit in Washington, DC. While I cannot report substantially on any one session, I can give my overall impressions of the day. It seems like there were three major recurring themes: 1. […]
Broadcast Engineering magazine to end publication Thursday
On the heels of the news that Monitoring Times will close this year, comes the news of the closure of another radio publication. Industry magazine Broadcast Engineering announced on Friday that it will end publication this Thursday, October 31. Though probably not well known outside of the world of radio engineers and the people who […]
Poof!? Why are Low Power FM stations vanishing?
In our last post on the latest broadcast station statistics I noticed that while the number of FM radio stations is steadily increasing, the number of Low Power FM stations has been consistently declining. Take a look at the Federal Communications Commission’s broadcast station spreadsheet (excel download): over 860 LPFMs in March of 2010, down […]
Somali journalists protest radio station crackdown
Update (10/28/2013) Reporters Without Borders condemns Somali government attack on radio stations. Somali reporters are up in arms over a police raid of the Shabelle Media Network, which describes itself as the “leading independent media network in Somalia,” located in Mogadishu. Here is Shabelle’s account of the Saturday incident: “Security personnel cordoned off the building […]
Lou Reed, composer of fine-fine-fine-fine music, is dead at 71
Velvet Underground legend Lou Reed has died. I cannot do his remarkable life justice in this brief post, but note that Reed wrote one of my favorite songs about radio: “Rock ‘n Roll.” “Jenny said, when she was just five years old you know there’s nothin’ happening at all Every time she put on the […]
Is College Radio Making a Comeback?
An article on PolicyMic, 4 Awesome College Stations Keeping Radio Alive, posits that college radio was in a downward spiral and is now in a period of renaissance. After author Chelsea Hawkins takes a look at some recent CMJ-award-winning college radio stations, she surmises, “Two years ago, it looked like student radio was heaving its […]
Monitoring Times ends 33 years of publication, The Spectrum Times to take its place
The SWLing Post tips us off to a changing of the guard in one corner of the radio publication world. Monitoring Times is the magazine that has served enthusiasts tuning in to all manner of radio signals, from shortwave, AM and FM to the obscure territories of longwave, amateur satellite and military communications. After 33 […]