100% User-Controlled Radio?
In his post about Pandora yesterday, Matthew mentioned that he’d like to see a different model of radio on the Internet, where both listeners and DJs have some sort of control over the music selections. Well, we’re definitely in an era full of user-generated content and of success stories like American Idol, where fans vote […]
Hey Pandora: I'd pay even more than 99 cents for DJs
Everybody’s breathing a sigh of relief now that Sound Exchange has released its new and more affordable performance royalty rates for webcasting. And the biggest exhale is blowing in the direction of Pandora “internet radio,” as it calls itself. “Pandora Lives!” is the victory cry du jour. Pandora is being a bit more circumspect than […]
And Now, a Long-Distance Dedication
The relevancy of the Billboard Top 40 singles chart seems to have faded over time in concert with the splintering of genres and audiences, and so the final broadcast of Casey Kasem on American Top 20 this past weekend seemed to garner only the barest of media notices. Perhaps that’s because Kasem handed off the […]
Stevie Wonder’s case against the Arbitron Portable People Meter
Among the top Federal Communications Commission-related headlines this morning is Arbitron’s insistence, yet again, that the FCC doesn’t have regulatory authority over the alleged inadequacies of its controversial Portable People Meter (or PPM as it is acronymed). And RBR/TVBR.com (the “Voice of the Broadcasting Industry”) adds its growl to the chorus: “A note to new […]
Home-Brew Radio in a WWII POW Camp Shows Radio's Survivability
This interview with Lieutenant Colonel R G Wells who constructed a radio receiver and transmitter in a Japanese POW camp during World War II has been making the blog rounds recently (via free103point via BoingBoing via MAKE). Though somewhat technical, the account is a fascinating example of what a simple technology radio is given that […]
Garrett Wollman's Radio Tower Quest
Fandom is an amazing thing and thanks to the Internet it’s easier and easier to find like-minded obsessives who share one’s passion for the most obscure objects, idols, and idiosyncrasies. Radio is no exception. Loads of websites document radio history, with nostalgic archivists collecting ephemera, airchecks, and reminiscences from San Francisco to Boston. Various forums […]
Palin bows out as Alaska Gov. Is the next step talk radio?
Ever since John McCain made his disastrous decision to pick Sarah Palin as his running made in ’08, I’ve been saying that the winner of that election was her. It was only a matter of time, I told my circle of friends, before she ducked out of her gig as Alaska’s governor and cashed in […]
Radio's Murder of Music
I’m on a quest to document the early history of my college radio station WHRC, which began in the 1920s as a Haverford College Radio Club station known as WABQ. As I was doing a quick search for material today, I found a goldmine of vintage radio information on David Gleason’s website. For one thing, […]
Should the FCC count public radio station board members as owners?
The four major organizations that represent public broadcasting say the Federal Communications Commission shouldn’t count public radio and television station board members as the “owners” of the license in question.
Clear Channel Station Can't Trust Its Own Forecast
The irony would be so delectable if it weren’t for the 1033 unfortunate drivers whose cars were stuck in the mud, many of which were totaled and not returned for over a week. As Jerry Del Colliano reports at Inside Music Media, a Clear Channel station in Grand Rapids, MI threw its annual B93 Concert […]