Glimpse Behind the Scenes at Shortwave Pirate Radio in 1990
As I continue to mine the deeply embedded treasures of YouTube, I’ve dug up another diamond in the rough, a 27 year-old documentary on unlicensed shortwave broadcasting radio. Titled “Inside Pirate Radio,” this hour-long video visits the studio of Radio Wolf International during one broadcast, interspersed with an interview with Andrew Yoder, one of the […]
Podcast #115 – The Federal Consolidation Commission
The Federal Communications Commission just proposed new ownership rules that would drastically loosen restrictions on broadcast station ownership limits. Prof. Christopher Terry from the University of Minnesota joins us again to help understand this proposal, and the threat to local journalism and broadcasting. He argues that it has be viewed in an historical context, with […]
Tackling Creative Inertia with Broadcasting: Radio Cinéola
I just listened to the latest episode of The Quietus Hour featuring an interview with Matt Johnson, the principal behind the English post-punk band The The. Although Johnson largely put the band on hiatus—save some film soundtrack work—since its last formal release in 2000, I learned from the interview that on UK election day in […]
The Spirit of Cassette Culture Lives on ‘No Pigeonholes Radio’
Decades before the invention of the MP3, the audiocassette, along with the home dubbing deck and four-track tape recorders, put the power to create and distribute recordings into the hands of anyone with the will to record. No longer reliant on record labels or the capital investment needed to rent studio time and press records, […]
Podcast #114 – A Common Sense Approach to Unlicensed Broadcasting
Journalism professor John Anderson has been tracking the FCC’s enforcement of unlicensed radio for 20 years, and has seen the agency have little success, despite the periodic uptick in policing the airwaves, such as we’re seeing now. He suggests there are common sense approaches to managing the FM broadcast spectrum that would address the underlying […]
Public Access TV Archive Documents 1970s Portland Pirate Radio
I just discovered this fascinating piece of video tape on YouTube, likely dating from the 1970s, documenting a pirate radio and television station operating in my neighborhood, Sunnyside, in Portland, OR. It’s part of an archive of tapes from an archive of The Video Access Project, digitized by the Oregon Historical Society. It’s truly a […]
KUCR: The Movie
I am so looking forward to the completion of this documentary about KUCR-FM: the radio station of the University of California at Riverside. I have all kinds of fond memories of my stint as a Visiting Assistant Professor at UCR back in 2000. The best thing about that gig was getting to know and becoming […]
College Radio Watch: Students in Public Radio, 1997 as Peak Indie, and More News
This week’s Radio Survivor Podcast is particularly inspiring for college radio, as we look more closely at how KUNV was able to remain under university control, largely due to its increased commitment to students. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas public radio station sought advice from Fordham University’s WFUV about engaging students as vital members […]
The Joy of Finding Truly Local Commercial Radio (Yes, It Exists)
While we mostly celebrate non-commercial radio here at Radio Survivor, that doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate commercial radio when done well. The problem is that in the 20 years since the 1996 Telecom Act grossly deregulated radio ownership, the quality of most commercial radio dropped precipitously, leaving many stations with very little local programming, with […]
Podcast #113 – Mutual Aid Saves College Radio Station
At the end of 2015, it looked like the University of Nevada-Las Vegas might hand over the keys to its radio station, KUNV-FM, to Nevada Public Radio. More than a year later the situation reversed course, with the university deciding to keep the station and increase student involvement. Our college radio watcher Jennifer Waits learned […]