Activating the Medium Festival explores Radio as Source Material for Sound Art
Radio doesn’t always begin and end with a broadcast over the airwaves. Sometimes radio transmissions are used by artists as another tool for creative expression. This year the arts organization 23five is curating the Activating the Medium XIV festival in San Francisco and will present several performances and radio broadcasts focused on the theme of […]
Chicago’s Numero Group label to broadcast pop-up radio station on Record Store Day
Record Store Day, now in its fifth year, is an annual celebration of the independent record store. This year it goes down next Saturday, April 16. Participating stores hold special events, like in-store concerts, while selling limited-edition singles and albums. I’ve been attending since 2008 and enjoy the recognition of the threatened species of the […]
Pandora’s privacy problem: a quick timeline
Interesting last sixty days for Pandora, privacy-wise. Here’s a timeline, going backwards. April 5: The Veracode software security company says that it ran tests on Pandora Android application and discovered that the app "appears to be integrated with a number of advertising libraries." Specifically we found FIVE (yes that’s FIVE!) advertisement libraries compiled into the […]
USF’s 2nd Request to Move KUSF Transmitter Met with Opposition by KZSU
As they await word on the proposed sale of University of San Francisco’s college radio station KUSF to Classical Public Radio Network (CPRN), the folks at USF and CPRN have been working to gain approval from the FCC in order to move the KUSF transmitter off-campus and out of San Francisco to Mt. Beacon in […]
Ottawa pirate teen convicted for harassment and unlicensed broadcasting
So that kid I posted about on Monday, who was running a pirate station in Ottawa, Ontario and accused of threatening to kill another local radio personality? He was convicted Thursday of criminal harassment of both the DJ and the officer from Industry Canada who was investigating the station. He was also convicted of violating […]
Vietnam cracks down on Falun Gong pirate radio
The advocacy group Reporters Without Borders says that the Chinese government has “successfully pressured” Vietnam to arrest two Falun Gong members who operated an unauthorized short wave station out of that country. “The organization is worried by this latest evidence of Chinese influence over its Asian neighbors in matters concerning media freedom, and urges the […]
KFJC’s “Return of the Invasion of Maximum Louie Louie”
Back in 1983 college radio station KFJC (where I currently DJ) embarked on an ambitious project to do a radio marathon featuring hundreds of different versions of the song “Louie Louie.” Soliciting help from both musicians and listeners (one of my close friends fondly recalls heading up to KFJC to drop off the cassette tape […]
Radio Caroline Pursuing a Legit License
On the heels of Radio Caroline’s 47th birthday last week, the New York Times published a story reporting on the outfit’s attempt to garner an actual license to broadcast in the UK. Caroline is pursuing 531 KHz on the mediumwave band (known as AM in the US) which was recently vacated by the BBC. While […]
Youth Radio named in Google Buzz settlement
Twelve organizations are named to share an $8.5 million class action settlement pot over the great Google Buzz Fiasco. I was happy to see that Youth Radio of Oakland is one of the groups listed. The outfit just won a Peabody Award for its series on prostitution. Some background: about a year ago Google tried […]
Pirate Radio Roundup: Albuquerque memories, Ottawa teen tantrum
A couple of interesting pirate radio stories passed through the transom this week that I need to share. First, a writer calling himself “Captain America” wrote a short piece for the Albuquerque, NM Alibi fondly recalling an unlicensed micropower station called Rebel Radio that broadcast from that city’s “student ghetto” during the mid-90s, a period […]