Pirate radio round-up: turntable.fm feeds NM station; FCC picks low-hanging fruit in Miami and Oregon
Maybe it’s because spring is in the air in North America, but pirate radio is bubbling up a bit in the popular consciousness, as well as the FCC’s. Seems like a good time for a pirate radio news round up. Albuquerque’s Alibi hazily reports on “at least one station operating without a license” in Northern […]
Will the end of driving mean the end of radio?
US Pirg has released a new report on commuting patterns that has to be worrying some radio people: we are driving less. “The Driving Boom is over,” proclaims US Pirg Senior Analyst Phineas Baxandall. “The constant increases we saw in driving up until 2005 show no sign of returning. As more and more Millennials become […]
Clear Channel: fixed date for digital AM conversion would be “challenging”
Federal Communications Commissioner Ajit Pai and his Chief of Staff Matthew Berry conferenced with two executives from Clear Channel on Wednesday. They talked up a variety of issues. The meeting’s last item caught my eye. I presume from the language of the filed summary that Pai asked Clear Channel Vice Presidents Jeff Littlejohn and Jessica […]
Radio Station Scavenger Hunt – Genre Color Code Signs Part 5
Wrapping up the radio station scavenger hunt for this week, I’m sharing one more music genre color code sign. This “library legend” sign comes from KFJC, where I’m a DJ. In my travels, I’ve seen incredibly complex systems for categorizing music libraries. There are often many sub-genres and different colors of tape are sometimes affixed […]
Radio Station Scavenger Hunt – Genre Color Code Signs Part 4
Mid-way through my week of radio station genre charts, I started to realize that “charts” isn’t really the most accurate way to describe the music genre signage that I’ve spotted at various radio stations. I guess it’s more appropriately a music genre categorization schematic or a legend or a key. Genre “charts” are more likely […]
Radio Station Scavenger Hunt – Genre Charts Part 3
I was probably the only person who visited Family Radio headquarters during the pre-Judgment Day media frenzy in May 2011 who was interested in seeing the guts of the network’s radio station. I got the grand tour and was intrigued to see that the long-time Christian radio network had a large collection of music. In […]
Radio Station Scavenger Hunt – Genre Charts Part 2
As part of my new Radio Station Scavenger Hunt series, I’m highlighting music genre charts this week. Yesterday’s charts were from KBOO-FM and today I turn to some equally detailed charts from college radio station KZSC-FM at University of California, Santa Cruz. Although I’ve visited KZSC twice now, it was on my last trip (for […]
Breakthrough for college radio? FCC rethinks rule violation fines
The Federal Communications Commission says that it will ease up on the fines that it issues college radio stations when they violate the Commission’s procedures and rules, such as failure to submit ownership reports or adequately maintain a public inspection file. Now, rather than punish such stations with a Notice of Apparent Liability followed by […]
Radio Station Scavenger Hunt – Genre Charts Part 1
Last week I started my new Radio Survivor Scavenger Hunt series, in which I’m sharing pictures of items that I’ve spotted at radio stations during my travels. The first week focused on station graffiti and this week’s quest will reveal a range of music genre charts that I’ve seen at stations. Interestingly, many non-commercial stations […]
WMBR DJ’s 8-hour Radio Marathon during Boston Lockdown
I hadn’t really given much thought to how DJs in Boston coped with the the lockdown during the search for the Boston Marathon bombing suspect until I read a fascinating story about a college radio DJ at M.I.T. radio station WMBR in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Jon Bernhardt, the long-time host of the Friday morning edition of […]