Radio World editor chuckles at Matthew’s economic analysis of pirate radio, but forgets his radio history
In his “From the Editor” column Radio World’s Paul McLane takes up Matthew’s recent calculation finding that pirate radio generates a half-billion dollars worth of jobs. Recall that my esteemed Radio Survivor colleague was riffing off a recent study sponsored by the National Association of Broadcasters that claimed $135 billion in economic output is attributable […]
Missing persons: how postwar Japan used radio to save itself
I am reading John W. Dower’s wonderful book, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II. One of the tome’s many virtues is that it reminds us how crucial radio was to Japan’s reconstruction process. Close to three million people were dead and many Japanese cities almost completely destroyed when Emperor Hirohito went […]
Happy 30th Anniversary MTV: “Doing for TV, what FM did for Radio”
Over the weekend I was so jealous when various friends mentioned that they were tuning in to the original first hour of MTV. In celebration of the 30th anniversary of MTV’s launch on August 1, 1981; VH1 Classic is in the midst of a 3-day marathon full of retro MTV programming, including a rebroadcast of […]
Broadband talk radio up and talking
One of my favorite talkers about Internet related matters now has his own talk radio show. Community broadband advocate Craig Settles is calling it Gigabit Nation, and you can expect it to talk up the virtues of various kinds of municipal and public broadband networks on a regular basis. The online program is sponsored by […]
USF Granted Request to Limit Scope of FCC Inquiry into Pending KUSF Sale
University of San Francisco (USF) and Classical Public Radio Network (CPRN) are probably in the midst of scrambling to pull together documents for the FCC regarding the proposed sale of college radio station KUSF and the currently-in-place “Public Service Operating Agreement” (PSOA) which is allowing CPRN to air classical music station KDFC over the KUSF […]
Delving into WJMF’s Move off FM as College Radio Station Makes Way for WGBH’s 99.5 All Classical
Earlier this summer when I learned that Bryant University’s college radio station was leaving its FM home, I was upset to find out that nobody seemed to be protesting the hand-over of the frequency to a public radio station. Much of the story seemed like deja vu, as a private university announced during summer break […]
Kettle Falls Radio to FCC: we want our LPFM back
The city of Kettle Falls, Washington describes itself as 1610 Friendly People and One Grouch. All of them had an Low Power FM Radio Station, it seems. “But was stolen after 2 years of operation,” writes Richard Walter, President of the Kettle Falls Radio Group, to the Federal Communications Commission. “Upon investigation it was found […]
Brown Student Radio Station BSR to Go Online-Only August 1
All of a sudden Providence, Rhode Island is ground zero for the latest round of changes regarding terrestrial college radio stations. Earlier this summer it was announced that Bryant University was taking its student station, WJMF, off of the FM airwaves in order to allow WGBH to use the frequency for a simulcast of its […]
Four ways to access ad free music on the ‘Net
I went over to Pandora this morning, logged in via my account, and was presented with a very large visual ad offering me the chance to meet singles in San Francisco. It came complete with pictures of fictional women named “sugarfresh16” and “StarCrossedLuvly.” I switched to my Debussy channel and got an Enrico Morricone sound […]
Music on AM: The untold story of Tucson’s Power 1490
The late 1980s were a turning point for AM radio in the US, as music gave way to the rise of talk. By the 1990s most of the music on the AM dial was limited to old time country and easy listening; essentially music favored by truckers, in the case of the former, and senior […]