5 Funky Last Minute Gifts for Radio Fanatics
Although it’s been a few years since we’ve put together our Radio Survivor Holiday gift guides, listing off radio gifts that we love, I’m always thinking about these lists. Whenever I run across an intriguing radio gift idea, I make a mental note and sometimes I race out to pick something up for myself. In […]
flashback: The Meat Puppets, live at The Mason Jar in 1984 via KXCI-FM
In case you want to relive some of the glory days of The Meat Puppets, here’s one way. Check out this 1984 appearance by that hallowed punk band at The Mason Jar in Phoenix, Arizona, rebroadcast by Tucson community station KXCI-FM. The show is accessible via one of my favorite things in the whole universe, […]
Podcast #75 – The Most Significant Radio Stories of 2016
From the unprecedented build-out of LPFM community stations and the indie internet radio implosion to 100+ radio tours and a recent tragedy, Jennifer, Eric and Paul run down some of the most significant stories in radio for 2016 in our last podcast of the year. But first, they discuss the now-changed title of last week’s […]
Not All Stations (but Perhaps Too Many)
Mea culpa. When one sets out to launch an ambitious critique of community radio programming mistakes will be made, and I made them. This is a necessary aspect of testing ideas, as is coming back to revise, tweak and clarify. I am very grateful for the comments, feedback and criticism of my last two posts, […]
Mourning those Lost in Oakland, including College Radio Participants from KALX
I woke up Saturday morning to bits of news about the devastating fire at the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland late Friday night. Friends posted messages on social media, expressing concern for loved ones who were at the music event and who hadn’t been heard from. I clicked on the party invitation for the show […]
Podcast #74 – Station or Static? KCHUNG Is L.A.’s Underground Radio
Jennifer Waits brings us the voices of three programmers at a mysterious and chaotic community station with deep connections to the Los Angeles art scene. KCHUNG is an unlicensed part 15 AM radio station with about 40 station managers and extremely eclectic programming. Paul Riismandel wrote a series of articles, offering strongly worded advice for […]
College Radio Watch: Holiday Radio Drama Season is Here and More News
In the past week, I’ve been amazed by the amount of Christmas music that is emanating from sound systems in the local businesses that I’ve been frequenting. Coffee shops, medical offices, shopping malls, and clothing stores have been some of the places where I’ve heard familiar holiday tunes. College radio is a mixed bag, with […]
Public Access vs. Public Service – Addressing the Biggest Hidden Tension in Community Radio
One of the greatest tensions for community radio stations lies in the spectrum between public access and public service. Although this conflict may not be explicitly discussed, it implicitly affects every single programming decision. It’s time for this tension to be made explicit, and for stations to actively grapple with how to balance a focus […]
Podcast #73 – Catching Up with Bainbridge Island’s Community Podcasting Experiment
This week we follow up with the subject of one our first episodes, Bainbridge Community Broadcasting. Paul took a day trip on a ferry from Seattle to visit Bainbridge Island and drop in on BCB. Co-founder Barry Peters took a few minutes to give a tour of the BCB studios and provide an update on […]
Trapped in the Grid: Why Community Radio Risks Irrelevance
This is a transitional time for community radio, unprecedented in the medium’s more than 60-year history in the U.S. Thousands of new LPFM stations are going on the air bringing service to communities that never had community radio, or adding new services to supplement existing community stations. At the same time many community stations risk […]