The education of a radio pirate
I am belatedly reading Sue Carpenter’s wonderful memoir 40 Watts From Nowhere and chuckling at her evolution from a disgruntled DJ wannabe to a radio station manager. The book is sine qua non for anyone who aspires to run any kind of community-style radio station, as far as I’m concerned, because it shows how different […]
Digital radio revenues up; terrestrial way down
If you are looking for the bright spot in radio’s future, it’s streaming from a digital platform. The Radio Advertising Bureau’s report for this year’s second fiscal quarter makes this abundantly clear. Local and national over-the-air radio saw a 25% drop in revenue, while digital saw a ten percent boost. Digital radio’s revenue from advertising […]
Schenectady DTV Abruptly Closes Its Backdoor to FM Dial
To some it may seem like I’ve been beating a dead horse over the TV channel 6 on FM issue, but I can’t help but be fascinated with TV broadcasters taking such pains to be on what so many observers say is the dying medium of radio. In my second missive on the channel 6 […]
Pandora: news, sports, and weather coming, eventually
“Why can’t I listen to news, talk, or sports radio on Pandora?” the streaming site’s Tim Westergren says Pandora’s fans often ask. “That’s actually something we’ve talking quite a bit about as a company and something we intend to deliver to listeners eventually,” Westergren responded in a video blog he posted this week. But for […]
Texas radio station owner says he'll meet pro-performance rights movement half way
A Texas radio station manager has told the Federal Communications Commission that even though he’s boycotting musicians who support the Performance Rights Act, he’ll play PRA advocate MusicFIRST’s public service announcements over his station. “I have removed all songs of artists that are part of musicFirst and will not play their songs for now,” KXIT […]
The Pulse's Backdoor into FM Not Paved with Gold
It takes a lot of listener donations to take on $3.5 million of debt and liabilities. That’s how far in the hole the owner of New York City’s 87.7 FM The Pulse found itself when the company, Mega Media Group, filed for bankruptcy last week. Loyal RadioSurvivor readers might recall that The Pulse is actually […]
One of the Last "Progressive" Rockers Goes Digital-Only
When it comes to commercial radio, I’d argue that true progressive rock radio died somewhere in the early 80s, as tighter playlisting, more frequent rotations and shorter music sets became required, and DJs by-and-large no longer picked their records. Nevertheless a handfull of stations in the top major markets held onto the progressive moniker by […]
Fairness Doctrine phobes target FCC
Federal Communications Commission Chair Julius Genachowski is in hot water with the right wing talk radio crowd. They’ve discovered that his Associate General Counsel and Chief Diversity Officer, Mark Lloyd, is a co-author of that noted and/or notorious study, The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio. So Senator Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa, has written […]
I love Onion Radio News
Whenever I’m feeling down, I do one of three things to get out of my slump: exercise, talk with friends, or listen to the Onion Radio News. “An airport security pig finds concealed truffles!” announces ORN’s ace reporter, Doyle Redland. “Airport Swine Unit Specialist Kevin Hannah couldn’t be prouder of his partner, Mr. Snout,” the […]
Radio Obsessive Profile #3: "Radio Sticker of the Day" Curator Greg Blouch
Recently I was tracking some college radio news when I ran across Greg Blouch’s website, “Radio Sticker of the Day.” Immediately I was taken back to my junior high school years when radio station stickers were a hot commodity. My classmate Ricky Kanazawa would spend most of our English class time focused on a stack […]