The rocky ride and kiwi-flavored future of Turntable.fm
Regular Radio Survivor readers are doubtlessly aware of Turntable.fm, my colleague Matthew’s favorite online music site. Turntable lets users join a room, pick an avatar and play DJ for all the other listeners in the virtual club. Matthew likes the “Classical of all kinds” room, but there are rooms dedicated just about every other genre […]
SiriusXM sees strong 1st quarter amid minor turmoil
SiriusXM announced positive first quarter results on Tuesday, with the number of subscribers growing to an all time high of 22.3 million. The company also said that its retaining 45% of subscribers who got a trial subscription with the purchase of a new satellite radio equipped car. Its stock (SIRI) price jumped a bit–from $2.26 […]
Shortwave advocate urges Canada to reconsider Radio Canada International cuts
An interesting piece in the Toronto Star laments the recent cuts to Radio Canada International. And the protest comes from an American—Thomas Witherspoon, who staffs Ears to our World. The non-profit sets up short wave band radio networks in developing areas. “Sadly, many Canadians must not be aware of RCI, or of its valiant but […]
Wellesley College Celebrates 70 Years of College Radio on Campus
Not many college radio stations can lay claim to 70 years of broadcasting, so it’s exciting to hear that student radio has been a part of campus life at Wellesley College since 1942. The first station, WBS 730 AM, launched in 1942 and was apparently the first all-woman college radio station. Eventually that station evolved […]
Pacifica radio Executive Director: we are out of money for elections
In a special meeting of the Pacifica National Board held on Thursday, April 26, Pacifica Executive Director Arlene Engelhardt dropped this long overdue bombshell. “I just am very concerned where we are going to come up with a quarter of a million dollars to run an election this year,” she told the Board. This is […]
Merlin Media killing smooth jazz 87.7 to bring alt rock to TV Ch. 6 in Chicago
Editors’ note: Since the publication of this article the smooth jazz format has returned to the Chicago airwaves. Read this December 31, 2014 update for more details. In a move whose logic I honestly don’t understand, Randy Michael’s Merlin Media has entered into a local marketing agreement with Venture Technologies Group, which owns the low-power […]
College Radio History Lesson: KUOI’s 1945 beginnings at University of Idaho
I’ve spent the past through days digging through college radio history artifacts and it’s been inspiring to read about the passion and energy that has gone into building radio stations on campuses across the country since the 1920s. University of Idaho’s free form college radio station, KUOI, started up in 1945 and was a descendent […]
FCC proposes rules to let non-comm broadcasters fundraise for charities on-air
So, last night I wondered if the deletion of the non-commercial station fundraising item from the FCC’s open meeting agenda meant that they were going to release a proposal ahead of time. Today, the Commission answered that question by releasing a proposal to give non-commercial and educational (NCE) stations a limited ability to raise money […]
HD Radio smartphone prototype lands with a thud
Remember that HD Radio enabled smartphone set to debut at the National Association of Broadcasters show last week? There was hoopla–mostly in the industry–leading up to the show. And, then, radio silence. I looked for news reports all last week and didn’t find a thing. Only a NAB email newsletter sent this week brought any […]
Is Twitter a radio station?
Perhaps inspired by its new report indicating that almost one in five Americans have listened to Internet radio in their cars, the Edison research group has a new revelation: Twitter is a form of broadcasting. Upon what evidence is this thesis based? The responses to a survey question that the outfit put to a sample […]