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 […]
FCC drops non-commercial radio fundraising item from Friday’s meeting
Wednesday the FCC announced that it’s dropping from Friday’s open meeting an item addressing non-commercial radio stations’ ability to fundraise on-air for other non-profit organizations. The item appears to deal with stations raising money for efforts like disaster relief. But, as I wrote earlier this month, this rulemaking might also address non-commercial stations being operated […]
The top three Change.org radio related petitions
As Change.org Ben Rattray founder told the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart on Monday, the web service has been around for about five years. The site lets you launch your own petition, asking a government, or a company, or some other entity to do (or stop doing) something. Here are the top three radio related Change.org […]
Dick Clark: race, class, and the payola scandal of 1959
American Bandstand‘s Dick Clark has died, and the season of online commemorations for him has more or less receded. As a television watching toddler in the early 1960s, I never glommed onto the program. I was just a little too young, and so its huge significance as the first TV rock-and-roll show went past me. […]
Students Occupy Camosun College Radio Station to Protest Cuts
This week students at Camosun College in Victoria, British Columbia took over the campus radio station, VillageNow.net, in order to protest cuts to the radio program. According to an article in the Vancouver Sun, “College president Kathryn Laurin announced the suspension of the applied communication program last week in a round of deep cuts to […]
Family Radio’s WKDN Morphs into All-Hannity Radio after Sale to Merlin
Yesterday, Camden, New Jersey radio station WKDN made a radical change in programming, switching from Family Radio to Hannity@106.9 FM Radio following the the station’s sale to Merlin Media for $22.5 million. Listeners to WKDN in the Philadelphia-area could hear Family Radio’s religious programming transitioning to a loop of the R.E.M. song “It’s the End […]
Radio Break Utilizes Low Power Radio to Broadcast Art Across Los Angeles
Over the weekend the public art exhibition Radio Break opened in Los Angeles. Curated by 9 University of Southern California (USC) graduate students, the performances in this exhibit all utilize low power radio transmissions. Last weekend performances and transmissions took place in downtown and East L.A. and this weekend they will occur in Hollywood and […]
FCC Chairman tells NAB that “business is better,” but your public files are going online
The National Association of Broadcasters annual show and convention just started in Las Vegas, bringing together nearly every sector of the broadcast industry to show off new products, discuss trends and hob nob. Unfortunately, the Radio Survivor travel budget doesn’t yet cover more than cab fare across town, so we don’t have a correspondent on […]
Do receptionists get hired as on-air commercial radio hosts any more?
KTUF-FM‘s Helen Adams is retiring after 45 years of service. She began her stint at the Kirksville, Missouri FM country music radio station in 1967. “When I started here I was fresh out of high school: secretary, receptionist, traffic controller who schedules the commercials on the programs,” Adams recalled. “I did that for eighteen years.” […]
KZSU Brings Back Radio Drama with “Our American Cousin” Tonight
To commemorate the 147th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, a crew of DJs at Stanford University’s college radio station KZSU will be performing a special radio drama tonight. KZSU’s adaptation of “Our American Cousin,” the play that Lincoln was watching when he was shot, will air on 90.1 FM (and stream on their website) tonight […]