Harold Camping to Issue Statement Today on Non-Rapture
I’ve been listening to Family Radio pretty much non-stop since I first heard Harold Camping emanating from my car’s speakers a few weeks back. Although I personally didn’t buy into his May 21 Rapture prediction, I’ve become obsessed with it, especially after visiting Family Radio HQ on May 12. As it drew closer to May […]
What’s the problem at KPFA? by Carol Spooner
At the request of KPFA programmer Peter Phillips, I am posting this public statement by Carol Spooner, former Pacifica National Board member. It offers Spooner’s assessment of why layoffs were necessary at KPFA. I am not sure whether Spooner will approve of this posting. In a separate statement, she has accused me of “Glenbeckian” distortions […]
In case of Rapture, Family Radio will be unmanned
You’ve seen the bumper stickers, and today at least it’s true for Family Radio. Their website has been unreachable all day, likely due to being overloaded with traffic. So that’s also made it difficult to get their online radio stream. So I tuned in to Family Radio’s shortwave station WYFR this afternoon (at 13615 Khz) […]
Chicago’s Latino community radio station Radio Arte up for sale
In a scenario that’s becoming too familiar to Radio Survivor readers, the Chicago-based Latino community radio station Radio Arte is now up for sale by its parent organization, the National Museum of Mexican Art. In fiscal year 2009 the museum reported a deficit of $677,121, and according to President Carlos Tortolero the museum has been […]
WTF? Marc Maron’s podcast coming to public radio
You know public radio is truly keeping with the times when a podcast named What the F*ck gets repurposed for a 10-episode run syndicated by the Public Radio Exchange. I wrote about WTF, as it is more commonly known, back in March because it’s become my favorite podcasts, in part because host/creator Marc Maron is […]
Flower Power at Last.fm
Last.fm is doing another one of their fun (if a bit perplexing) audio visual experiments. This one involves tracking the complexity of a song’s rhythm, harmony, and timber, then translating that variability into a flower-like image. The thicker the respective color petal (green=harmony; red=rhythm; blue=tambor), the more variability. As so: The image to the left […]
Behind the Scenes at Family Radio as May 21st Judgment Day Approaches
When I visited Family Radio’s headquarters last Thursday, May 12, 2011, I was not only interested in President and General Manager Harold Camping’s thoughts about Judgment Day; but I also had a lot of questions about the inner-workings of the Christian radio network. Obviously Family Radio has attracted worldwide attention and media interest for Camping’s […]
Citadel and Cumulus want to merge into Son-of-Clear-Channel
I’m not sure how I missed this bit of news, but I just learned that Cumulus, which boasts being the second largest owner of radio stations in the US, is bidding to buy the third largest, Citadel Broadcasting. Such a merger would create a conglomeration of 572 stations nationwide. This would still be about 300 […]
Slacker rolls out Premium service for iPad, iPhone, Android and BlackBerry
Slacker radio has released a new service tier above its basic and “plus” packages: Slacker Premium Radio. “Slacker Premium Radio enables listeners to search, play and replay specific songs and entire albums from the Slacker library, which features over 8 million songs, as well as provides easy access to top songs and artists from each […]
Family Radio Counts Down to Judgment Day on May 21
A few weekends ago while on a road trip to Santa Barbara, I scanned the left side of the radio dial for interesting college radio stations. After I lost all trace of college radio, somewhere around Santa Maria, I happened upon the show “Open Forum” on Family Radio. Pretty quickly I became riveted by the […]