Can We Save AM Radio by Killing It? Considering All-Digital AM Radio
Can you save AM Radio by killing it? The original broadcast band gets little love as it prepares to celebrate its 100th birthday. Plagued by electromagnetic interference from wi-fi routers, LED lights and all sorts of other modern electronics, and dominated by tired right-wing and sports talk programming targeting a shrinking demographic, there’s not much […]
Podcast # 218: Archiving Public Media
On this week’s episode, Karen Cariani, the David O. Ives Executive Director of the WGBH Media Library and Archives, joins us to talk about the work of the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB). A collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH, the AAPB not only archives public radio and television; but it also […]
The Eton Mini Grundig Edition Is My New Travel Companion
One of life’s little pleasures is tuning around the radio dial late at night before drifting off to slumber. I especially enjoy this while traveling, touring foreign radio dials, encountering strange and distant signals. This means that a small portable radio is my constant traveling companion. I prefer to travel light, so said radio must […]
Happy 60th to College Radio Station KFJC
This fall has been a hectic time at the college radio station, KFJC-FM at Foothill College, where I am a volunteer DJ and Publicity Director. On October 20th, the station turned 60 years old and we celebrated with various on and off-air activities. With my interest in college radio history, I felt compelled to do […]
Podcast #217: Radio Spectrum and Transmission Art
Amanda Dawn Christie is an artist enamored with radios and radio waves. The Assistant Professor, Studio Arts at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada) joins us on the show to discuss her most recent transmission art project, Ghosts in the Airglow, in which she created work at the HAARP facility in Alaska. Christie also shares with us […]
Podcast #216 – Archiving LGBTQ Radio History (Rebroadcast)
Our guest is Brian DeShazor, an independent radio researcher and founder of the Queer Radio Research Project. Formerly the Director of the Pacifica Radio Archives, DeShazor has taken a special interest in uncovering and highlighting the LGBTQ voices that have aired on community radio in decades past. On the episode, we discuss the history of […]
Podcast #215 – Lessons Indymedia Has for Us Today
Today our online networks are largely owned and operated by corporations that spy on us for profit, but 20 years ago leftist activists built a very different kind of online network. It was called Indymedia. It was one of the first online spaces where people could self publish photos and text as well as audio […]
No, Vinyl Records Aren’t Outselling CDs – Do the Math
Last month news spread that, “Vinyl Is Poised to Outsell CDs For the First Time Since 1986,” as Rolling Stone reported. The source of that prediction is the recording industry’s own mid-year report, which showed vinyl sales racking up $224.1 million on 8.6 million units in the first half of 2019, creeping up on CD’s […]
Podcast #214 – Net Neutrality Is a Local Issue Now
Net neutrality received a very mixed ruling from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals last week. The Court largely upheld the significantly looser rules passed by the FCC in 2017 under the leadership of Republican Chairman Ajit Pai. But at the same time the Court said the Commission overstepped its bounds in attempting to forbid […]
Radio Station Visit #162: College Radio Station KSDT at UC San Diego
At the end of a long day of travel, I found myself in the relaxing digs of streaming college radio station KSDT at University of California, San Diego (UCSD). In a quiet spot on campus, the station’s lobby door opens onto a pathway within the old student center complex. It’s near the student-run television station […]