WBAI-FM Mourns the Deaths of Three Radio Hosts
I was stunned when I heard the news that three program hosts at New York’s Pacifica station WBAI-FM were found dead this week. On June 3, Ibrahim Gonzalez died in his sleep. The long-time WBAI staple (he’d been at the station for 23 years) and host of In The Moment and Radio Libre is being […]
KALW’s Community Story Gathering Project Hits NFCB
For the editorial crew at Radio Survivor (Matthew Lasar, Paul Riismandel and myself), it’s a labor of love. Much like many non-commercial radio practitioners, we are reporting on radio because we are radio fans. We care about radio history, we monitor the current state of the medium, and we are hopeful that there’s a bright […]
NFCB’s Ginny Berson: I “failed miserably” at not caring
One of my favorite people in community radio announced her retirement from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters at last week’s NFCB conference. Ginny Z. Berson is, until her departure, Vice President of the organization. “I started working at NFCB after sixteen years at Pacifica [radio],” Berson explained to the stunned audience. “Most of them […]
The podcast patent troll speaks (to Planet Money)
In March we told you about the SHIELD Act which was introduced into Congress to help reform patent laws, particularly targeting patent owners who are “non-practicing,” meaning that they aren’t actually making use of their patents. One such “non-practicing” patent owner is Jim Logan, whose company Personal Audio is suing podcasters like Adam Corolla, claiming […]
Andrew Phillips: the education of a KPFA general manager
I attended the National Federation of Community Broadcasters conference on Friday. No sooner did I wander into the main drag of the San Francisco event than I spotted KPFA’s beleaguered General Manager, Andrew Leslie Phillips, staffing a table. “Matthew!” Phillips cheerfully exclaimed after I introduced myself. “Got a lot of respect for what you do. […]
The hazards of slogans and logos in public radio donor announcements
I spent the morning at the National Federation of Community Broadcasters conference here in San Francisco. First stop: a panel on the dos-and-don’ts of underwriting acknowledgements. Expert attorney Michael Berg spoke on the subject, and offered a very nice advisory handout on slogans and logos, from which I draw the following wisdom. Bottom line: the […]
“Rats!” Canadian listeners debate commercials on Radio 2 and Espace Musique
As requested by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada’s broadcast regulator has approved the placement of advertising spots on Radio 2 and Espace Musique radio. The latter service describes itself “the largest directory of French music internet radio in Canada.” Judging by the comments on the CBC news website notice, many listeners are anything but happy […]
All Access brings on-demand Spotify competitor to the Googleverse
Google introduced its entry into the on-demand music streaming market at its recent developer conference Google I/O. Sitting atop its existing Google Play media store, the awkwardly named Google Play All Access provides Spotify-like listening to a large music library, along with the ability to build playlists or tune in to artist-based radio stations. Unlike […]
“Elite Woodstock”: a history of Goddard’s 1970 Alternative Media Conference
Community radio pioneer Larry Yurdin has posted a YouTube account of the Alternative Media Conference held at Goddard College in 1970. “Many of the key players in the early days of non-commercial radio were there,” Yurdin notes, “as well as most of the pioneers of commercial FM rock radio.” The historic gathering of perhaps as […]
Wasting energy? “Erratic” radio gives you wrong frequency on purpose
I am reading Evgeny Morozov’s diverting book To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism. The conclusion mentions a variety of machines that act dysfunctionally in some way, but for a purpose—to alert the user that s/he is wasting energy. Among the theorized gizmos that Morozov cites is an “erratic radio,” described by […]