Speaking of unions… KBOO employees ratify 1st contract
A little while after I hit publish on the post about Chicago Public Media workers seeking SAG-AFTRA representation, this report from NW Labor Press came across the transom. On October 8 employees at community radio KBOO-FM in Portland, OR ratified their first contract as a collective bargaining unit. The employees joined the Communications Workers of […]
WBEZ staff seek SAG-AFTRA union representation
The staff of Chicago Public Media, the parent company of NPR affiliate WBEZ-FM, is attempting to unionize. That’s according to a report in Current, which says a majority of staff signed a petition requesting representation by SAG-AFTRA and submitted it to interim CEO Alison Scholly on September 25. Recall that CPM is looking for a […]
Welsh modern rock station petitions to switch to “male focused” format
South Wales commercial FM station holder Nation Radio Ltd. has petitioned the United Kingdom’s broadcast regulator for a format change. It has informed Ofcom that it wants to alter its “Character of Service” from a modern rock station targeting listeners age 15 to 34 to “one which requires the service to play rock-oriented music and […]
Portland Radio Project plans to reunite public service and music
The public service obligation of radio broadcasters has changed, and not for the better. That reality is what’s driving a group of Oregon volunteers to create the Portland Radio Project, a new locally-oriented online station that starts streaming October 18. The group is running a Kickstarter for $100,000 to build and fund a station that […]
Internet radio in my car diary, Entry #1: it works!
The Decision Last December I made a New Years resolution: I would get Internet radio in my Honda Civic by the summer. So in the middle of July I went over to New Sound car stereos in San Francisco and talked to the proprietor Ed Sosa about what I needed: a console with AM/FM plus […]
WFMU’s RadioVision Festival to explore new routes to produce and sustain radio
WFMU’s RadioVision festival enters its third year this October 19 at the Scholastic auditorium in Manhattan’s SoHo. Curator Benjamen Walker said the overarching focus this year is, for radio producers and artists, “How can you stay true to yourself and find the right path?” One successful path is “what someone like (keynote speaker) Laurie Anderson […]
How FSN Reports came to be offered in place of the shuttered Free Speech Radio News
Many listeners and supporters were surprised to learn last week that a brand-new half-hour daily news program was ready to take the place of Free Speech Radio News on the Monday just after its final program aired. It was just the Saturday after FSRN’s last airing that Pacifica made the announcement that Feature Story News […]
2 days left to help Prometheus support the next wave of LPFM community radio
There are just a little more than two days left in Prometheus Radio Project’s IndieGogo fundraiser. As I explained when the fundraiser went live: The goal is to raise $20,000 by October 9 to help support the most promising groups who have successful LPFM applications. The funding will help Prometheus support its engineering and technical […]
UK commercial radio turns 40 this week
Commercial radio in the UK turns 40 years-old this week. Here in the US we tend to take for granted that broadcast media would be funded by commercials interrupting our programs several times an hour. But the rest of the world came to embrace the commercial system much more slowly. The development of commercial broadcasting […]
‘Q Radio’ breaking LGBT barriers in India
A Bangalore based radio station dedicated to exploring ‘gender fluidity’ is making waves in India and the rest of the world, judging by the level of media coverage it has gotten. The “Q” in Q Radio “stands for queer,” explains a station staffer in the YouTube video below. “It is for the LBGT community. It […]