The forgotten BBC radio history of Teddy Bear’s Picnic
The other day I looked up the history of the song “Teddy Bear’s Picnic” and found an interesting radio related connection. Apparently the formative 1932 recording made by BBC band leader Henry Hall offered such fine tonal quality that the Beeb used it for three decades to keep audio equipment up to speed. One BBC […]
SHIELD Act could save podcasting
A patent troll has been threatening the future of podcasting. A company called Personal Audio owns a patent that it claims covers podcasting, and has begun contacting prominent podcasters demanding payment for licensing their patent. The patent in question was only issued in 2012, some 7 years after the widely acknowledged invention of podcasting, and […]
Occupy Boston Radio Hosts Radio Camp
Occupy Boston Radio (OBR.fm), a one-year old online radio station, is in the midst of a 2-week Radio Camp. Events kicked off with an open house last weekend and as I write this, the station is holding a workshop (“Making Radio Sound Good”) hosted by radio programmer Linda Pinkow from M.I.T. radio station WMBR. Sessions […]
Radio Scholarship Highlighted at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference
I am a radio scholarship nerd and get particularly excited when I come across other college radio scholars/theorists/historians. Today I learned that the upcoming Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference in Chicago (March 6-10) will feature more than a dozen papers and panels about radio. The organization also recently launched a Radio Studies Scholarly […]
At Earbits radio you promote the music, earn “Groovies,” and listen on demand
Earbits has been around for about two years, running a nice site full of curated music channels where independent artists can strut their stuff. Nothing earth shattering about this; we’ve been reviewing indie oriented streaming sites for years. But then someone got an idea. Why not reward the network’s listeners for extolling Earbit artist selections […]
Radio sings with memories of Van Cliburn
One of the great concert pianists of the twentieth century has departed. Van Cliburn died this morning at the age of 78. He is best remembered as the winner of the 1958 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow—a victory that contributed to the “thaw” of the Cold War in late 1950s and early 1960s. Van Cliburn […]
Haverford High School Radio Station Celebrates $10K Gift
When I was a student and DJ at Haverford College’s campus-only station, I longed for the audience available to nearby Haverford High School’s FM radio station WHHS. As was the case with my own station WHRC, I had no idea about WHHS’s incredible history. One of the oldest licensed high school radio stations in the […]
FCC Approves WXLV-FM License Assignment to Religious Broadcaster
FM broadcasts for Lehigh Carbon Community College radio station WXLV will cease by early April, following the consummation of the sale of the FM license to Four Rivers Community Broadcasting. On January 28, the FCC approved the assignment of the 90.3 FM license to the religious broadcaster. An article in the Express-Times states that, “On-the-air […]
Zimbabwe government bans radios, sees independent shortwave broadcasts as a threat
Last week police in Zimbabwe banned the use of so-called “specially designed radios” capable of receiving shortwave broadcasts from outside the country, not just FM broadcasts from the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Company which is loyal to President Robert Mugabe’s party. According to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) the law is aimed at hand-cranked and […]
College Radio Comes to U.S. Virgin Islands with Launch of WUVI-AM
Students at University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) launched their first radio station on January 9. Broadcasts currently air from 6am to 6pm over 1090 AM. Previously this frequency was the home of the religious broadcaster WGOD. A post on UVI Today states that WGOD’s owner, Three Angels Corporation, is leasing the frequency to UVI […]