California College Radio Stations Congregate at UCRN Conference at KSPC
On Saturday, November 10, I was thrilled to be back at KSPC at Pomona College (Claremont, California) for the fall 2012 UCRN (University of California Radio Network) conference. Twice a year, student radio stations affiliated with University of California (UC) schools convene at a college radio station in order to talk shop, hear from radio […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s radio mess
The US Office of Inspector General has put out a report that I’ll bet has the Department of Homeland Security cringing. It chronicles the epic fail of a scheme to build an interoperable radio communications system for the DHS and its network of 22 sub-federal agencies. The target was a common channel usable by the […]
California Historical Radio Society in Final Push to Buy KRE Building in Berkeley
California Historical Radio Society (CHRS) is in the process of fundraising in order to purchase the vintage KRE radio station building in which the society is housed in Berkeley, California. CHRS has been located in the KRE building (also home of the annual Radio Day by the Bay) and would like to remain there following […]
Clear Channel Pulls Plug on Portland Progressive Talk Radio, Supporters Scramble to Save KPOJ
Portland, Oregon’s only left wing commercial talk radio station has suddenly been switched from politics to sports. KPOJ was the first Air America affiliate in the country, according to its supporters, who learned early on Friday that the host of the locally produced morning show had just been fired by Clear Channel effective immediately. That […]
NPR’s clipped version of public radio history
Emily Hellwell over at the Inside NPR blog has a piece titled “How Public Radio Scotch-Taped Its Way Into [the] Public Broadcasting Act.” I thought of titling this response post “How NPR took a scissors to public broadcasting history.” The essay acknowledges the most famous part of the story—that the 1969 law almost went through […]
FCC to make final decisions on low-power FM expansion at November meeting
On Friday the FCC announced that it will take up the final implementation of the Local Community Radio Act at its November 30 open meeting. The commissioners will also consider final procedures to deal with more than 6000 pending applications for FM translator repeater stations. These issues overlap because translators compete for the same spots […]
What if broadcast radio had taken off around 1906 instead of the 1920s?
I’m looking forward to this Sunday morning, when I will be on the Gramophoney Baloney show again over at Radio Valencia in San Francisco. This week the show’s host DJ McShmormac is planning a four hour Armistice Day special. I asked him for specifics on Facebook: “4 hours of recordings dating from the WWI-era 1914-1918 […]
Bethany College Radio Station WVBC May Be Sold to Pittsburgh Public Media
There are reports that the license for Bethany College radio station WVBC-FM is in the process of being sold to Pittsburgh Public Media for use as a jazz station. According to an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “The nonprofit Pittsburgh Public Media (PPM), which owns a local online jazz radio station, has signed an agreement […]
Community Radio in the 21st Century offers Comprehensive Look at Radio around the World
As the calendar turns to November, many of us are starting to think about holiday gift lists. There are always lots of great radio-themed gifts to choose from and books are often at the top of my list. Earlier this year I was sent a copy of the anthology Community Radio in the Twenty-First Century. […]
Conservative talk radio on Obama: no soul searching today
Everybody is saying that the Republicans are going to have to engage in some “soul searching” in the wake of yesterday’s Obama victory. I’m not hearing a whole lot of that from Rush Limbaugh. “What are we supposed to do now?” the Rushbo asks. “In order to get the Hispanic or Latino vote, does that […]