Central College Turns License for KCUI Back to FCC
Just before winter break, college radio station KCUI officially ended its life as an FM station when its license holder, Central College, turned its class D FM license back in to the FCC. Although it was a tiny station at just 10 watts out of Pella, Iowa, it had been a fixture at the private […]
One step closer to more low-power community radio; FCC says LPFM no threat to commercial stations
Last week the FCC released its report on the economic impact of low-power FM stations on commercial radio. The report was mandated by passage of the Local Community Radio Act of 2010 (LCRA), and its primary conclusion should surprise nobody with any knowledge of LPFM: “LPFM stations are unlikely to have more than a negligible […]
Four turntable.fm features you may have missed
Turntable.fm has a new blog post updating users on features that the service has added over the last few months. I’m a regular tt.fm user, and while I’ve noticed some, I’ve missed a few myself. Ignore Last night I was on the Classical of Any Kind room, and somebody starting complaining that my choice of […]
Radio Still Growing in U.S. According to Latest FCC Stats
The FCC released a list today, updating its statistics on the total number of licensed broadcast stations in the United States. Based on this list, there are more radio stations today (14,952) then there were a few months ago. The number of AM stations, FM commercial stations, and FM educational stations all increased since the […]
Michael Savage: Ron Paul supporters are hysterical, dyed-in-wool liberals
Earlier this week we explored how left wing listener supported radio station KPFA in Berkeley is debating Republican libertarian candidate Ron Paul. Just to be bi-partisan, now let’s see how conservative talk radio guy Michael Savage is handling the Texas Congressional representative. Keep in mind that several months ago, Savage offered Newt Gingrich a million […]
Roots women rule: Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams top 2011 roots music radio lists
The latest Roots Music Report is out, with data on roots bands getting airplay over radio stations in 2011. A lot of great women artists made top billing, including Alison Krauss & Union Station, Gillian Welch, and Lucinda Williams. But before we get to the rankings, here is how RMR describes itself: We compile radio […]
Call Sign Changes in San Francisco: KKSF to KOSF, KNEW to KKSF, and KKGN to KNEW
As part of an overall re-branding and re-formatting effort across several Clear Channel-owned stations in San Francisco, call signs for KKSF, KNEW, and KKGN were changed yesterday. The station formerly known as KKSF, now branded as oldies station 103.7 FM, became KOSF. That left the KKSF call letters available for use by the former KNEW […]
Racist or empire foe (or both?); KPFA vets the Ron Paul question
Berkeley, California based listener supported station KPFA did an interesting and informative program on the candidacy of libertarian Republican Ron Paul on Tuesday. KFPA talk show host, Mitch Jeserich, hosted the discussion on his Letters and Politics show as Republicans (including Paul) compete for favor in the Iowa Caucuses. [UPDATE 10:41 PM CST: Paul comes […]
Radio Survivor’s 2011 Year in Review
Happy 2012. Over the past few weeks, Matthew, Paul and I have written up our obligatory “year-end” pieces, summarizing some of the big radio trends from 2011. I covered college radio in my article, 2011: The Year that College Radio Fought Back, Paul wrote about some of the technological changes in music in his piece, […]
2011: The Year that College Radio Fought Back
The champagne is chilling in the ‘fridge, marking the end of another year. As I look back on the events of 2011, it’s been a rough year for college radio. But, at the same time, 2011 will go down in history for its worldwide protests. Time recently named “the protestor” as its person of the […]