Podcast #201 – A Fantasy FCC Serves the Public Interest
A different media world is possible. What if the FCC truly regulated in the public interest, creating policies and services that promoted community voices and civic values? It does happen occasionally, but not often enough. It’s easy to assume our media system turned out this way because it was inevitable, but in truth it was […]
College Radio Watch: 200th Podcast, Our ‘Zine + College Radio News
It’s been a decade that I’ve been covering college radio on Radio Survivor, which was one of the topics that we discussed on our 200th episode of the podcast/radio show this week. It was a treat to have another rare episode with all four Radio Survivor principals: Matthew Lasar, Paul Riismandel, Eric Klein and myself. […]
Walter Benjamin radio diary entry #2: “the downside of radio.”
“Maybe someday I’ll meet one of you there,” Walter Benjamin once said to his radio listeners. “But we won’t recognize each other.” Was Benjamin right about that?
Podcast #200 – How We Survived a Decade of Independent Publishing
Radio Survivor celebrates 10 years on the internet and four years podcasting with our 200th episode. Matthew Lasar joins Jennifer Waits, Eric Klein and Paul Riismandel for this review of the last decade in radio that matters. Matthew tells the Radio Survivor origin story that sprang forth from his I.F. Stone inspired research deep into […]
We’re Making a ‘Zine for Our Supporters
We wanted to find a special way to thank the readers and listeners who support us every month via our Patreon campaign. Something unique, hand-made and in the spirit of great college and community radio. Why not make a ‘zine? If you’ve never heard of a ‘zine, it’s an independently produced publication, often photocopied and […]
Reflections on the Walkman and Radio on the Occasion of the Former’s 40th Birthday
The Sony Walkman celebrated its 40th birthday on Monday, July 1. While portable audiocassette recorder/players that you could connect to headphones had been around pretty much since the invention of the medium, the Walkman was the first one designed specifically for stereo playback on the go, for personal listening, without even a tiny speaker. Although […]
College Radio Watch: Ten Years of College Radio Coverage and More News
I’m back from some college radio travels in San Diego and can’t wait to share more tour reports in the coming weeks. It’s always such a treat to meet fellow college radio participants and fans and with each visit, I find myself wandering down research rabbit holes as I hunger to learn more about the […]
A Decade of Radio Surviving
Ten years and 16 days ago we opened the doors on this website. On June 11, 2009 Matthew Lasar inaugurated Radio Survivor with this post: “Congress grills FCC, NAB on Low Power FM.” This was still about 18 months before the Local Community Radio Act was signed into law, opening up the most recent wave […]
Podcast #199 – The FCC Is ‘Flunking Statistics 101’
The FCC was back in front of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals again, defending its failure to address declines in minority- and women-owned broadcast stations, amongst other failures. In fact, as our guest, University of Minnesota Prof. Christopher Terry, explains, the Commission claims it’s too hard to assess the change in ownership between 1996 […]
Walter Benjamin radio diary entry #1: selective snouting
Walter Benjamin’s first radio essay focused on the Berlin “Schnauze” or snout, but selectively so.