Podcast #95 – Mixcloud Can Be Community Radio, Too
After covering the comeback of the live streaming radio platform Live365 two episodes ago, listeners asked us to check out MixCloud, which offers free streaming of music radio shows, DJ sets, mixtapes and podcasts for anyone, including radio stations and independent producers. So this week we talk with Xanthe Fuller, Head of Community for Mixcloud. […]
What’s the Deal with LPFM and HD Radio?
Our latest podcast is all about the first, and—to the best of our knowledge—only low-power FM station broadcasting digitally with HD Radio. The episode has stimulated quite a bit of conversation on social media and raised some questions about the relationship between LPFM and HD Radio. Here I’ll try to answer the most common questions […]
Podcast #94 – The High School Station that Went HD
If you’ve heard of HD Radio it was probably in a spot on a major commercial station, not a high school station. KVCB-LP is the exception to that rule, a high school radio station that is likely the first and only low-power FM station to start broadcasting in digital HD Radio. Ralph Martin is the […]
Radio Station Visit #138 – Philadelphia’s Community Radio Station WPPM-LP
In a serendipitous coincidence, new low power FM (LPFM) community radio station WPPM-LP had its launch party while I was in Philadelphia for the College Broadcasters Inc. convention last October. Not one to miss a historic radio event, I sneaked away from the conference in order to attend the festivities on October 20, 2016. Excitement […]
Podcast #93 – The Return of Live365 Boosts Indie Internet Radio
Independent internet radio was devastated in January 2016 when music royalty rates shot up and long-time webcasting company Live365 went out of business. Now Live365 is back under new ownership, and CEO Jon Stephenson joins the show to tell us how the company is ready to help small webcasters get back to broadcasting online affordably, […]
How and Why Public Comments on Net Neutrality Make a Difference
On May 18, by a strict 2 to 1 party-line vote, the FCC decided to begin a proceeding to undo the 2015 Open Internet Order, rescinding the network neutrality protections that have been in place for more than two years. It’s something that Chairman Ajit Pai promised to do not long after taking office, and […]
Podcast #92 – Conspiracy Theory & Community Radio
Mae Brussell hosted radio shows focused on the JFK Assassination, fascism and other conspiracies on community radio stations KLRB an KAZU in the 1970s and 1980s. Brussell’s brand of broadcasting represents a strain of community radio show thatcontinues to be found, often to the chagrin of program directors and boards of directors. Matthew Lasar joins […]
Even Its Creator Can’t Kill MP3
The MP3 is dead, we’re to believe. That’s because the technology’s inventor, the Fraunhofer Institute, has ended licensing of the patented technologies needed for the encoding and decoding of MP3 files. Reality, of course, it a little more complicated. As Fraunhofer itself clarified in a blog post this past week, the licensing program ended because […]
College Radio Watch: WETN Sale Finalized and More News
I just learned that the sale of college radio station WETN has been finalized. You may recall that last fall I reported that Wheaton College was contemplating a sale of its FM license for college radio station WETN in Wheaton, Illinois. By December, it was announced that the 88.1 FM license would be sold to […]
Mae Brussell, the KLRB and KAZU years
In the service of my course on conspiracies and conspiracy theories at UC Santa Cruz, I’ve been listening to Mae Brussell’s many radio programs on YouTube. “At some point you have to get information or documentation about what’s happening,” Brussell told her radio audience in July of 1972, “you can’t just sit in the drawing room […]