College Radio's Love-Hate Relationship with Non-Student DJs
When you tune in to your favorite college radio station you might be surprised to learn that the people behind the microphones might not actually be college students. Many college radio stations rely on non-student DJs and it’s not uncommon for some stations to have more DJs from the community than from the college. On […]
Hear Something a Little Different on the Radio Today?
Did you get fooled today? Radio stations are often one of the last remaining outlets to celebrate April Fool’s with gusto. Morning show DJs read fake news reports, radio shows are replaced, and some stations switch their formats for 24 hours. Howard Stern once pretended that he’d been fired on April 1st over his crude […]
That Next License Is Going to Cost You
While we commonly accept that broadcast stations and, especially, their licenses to broadcast have a market value, for most of US broadcasting history there was no direct cost to obtain that license. Sure, there were engineer surveys to conduct, lawyers to pay, and so on. But the license itself came at no cost from the […]
Did Brecht want radio or the Internet?
I am rereading portions of German composer Bertold Brecht’s famous 1932 essay “The radio as an apparatus of communications,” and I am confused. Is he really talking about radio? The medium, Brecht wrote, “is one-sided when it should be two- . . . ” “It is purely an apparatus for distribution, for mere sharing out. […]
UK Pirate Radio – Now and Then
Amazon.com Widgets Sunday was the forty-sixth anniversary of Radio Caroline, one of the most famous UK pirate stations of the 1960s, and the inspiration for the recent movie Pirate Radio a/k/a The Boat That Rocked. Those radio pirates were inspired, in part, by the fact that the BBC played almost no rock music, and was […]
Yamamoto's audio picks: Placebo, Melee, Hellogoodbye, and The Rolling Stones
Each week I’m posting audio links to a few bands, songs, and music videos that have caught my eye at some point. Enjoy! Bands 1) Placebo: I was lucky enough to have been introduced to this band’s music as early as middle school. Without You I’m Nothing, the band’s second full album, is probably one […]
UK approves conflict resolution community radio for Essex
The United Kingdom’s broadcasting regulator has given the green light to a new community radio station in the Essex county area. It’s SAFE radio for young listeners in Grays and the outer regions of Thurrock (that’s about ten miles east of the outskirts of London). The new signal “aims to unite young people from different […]
Virgin America's Innovative In-Flight Radio Options
Often music is thrust upon us in public places, from elevators, to telephone hold music, to restaurants. Sometimes it’s amazing and notable, but when it’s bad, it can be torturous. I can never just ignore these background sounds that are meant to calm elevator passengers, amp up teen mall shoppers, or increase worker productivity. Memories […]
The End of Channel 6 on FM Is Imminent
Over the past year I’ve been tracking the mini-phenomenon of a few low-power TV stations on channel 6 using their signal as a back-door to the FM dial rather than real TV stations. This situation occurs because the audio portion of analog TV channel 6 bumps up against the far left end of the FM […]
WOXY Abruptly Goes Offline; Streaming Ain't Cheap
I–along with many other online radio fans–was surprised to learn this morning that online indie rock station WOXY abruptly shut down its live stream this morning. The only explanation was a short blurb on their website blaming “current economic realities and the lack of ongoing funding” for the closure. The situation was all the more […]