Podcast #45 – The Controversy of Firsts
College radio correspondent Jennifer Waits joins for a discussion on the difficulty of claiming “firsts” in radio. Sparked by claims that WTBU in Boston was the first college station to stream online in 1999, Jennifer, Eric and Paul examine these kinds of proclamations. Then Paul shares some low-power FM news from Los Angeles where the […]
KUSP falls short of marathon goal, will continue programming through May 7
Beleaguered public/community radio station KUSP-FM of Santa Cruz, California has concluded its “Mayday” fund drive. Unfortunately the operation only raised around a third of the money it needs to keep going over the coming six months. Here’s the bottom line from KUSP’s latest blog post: “We cannot afford our regular broadcast and still tend to the financial obligations that are […]
LPFM Watch: Win-Win Resolutions in Massive Los Angeles MX Group
Los Angeles has been the site of the biggest group of applicants in the country battling it out for a single low-power FM frequency. A partial resolution of this competition has been reached, thanks to the efforts of the LPFM advocacy group Common Frequency and the cooperation of existing stations. As a result many more […]
Podcast #44 – From Prince To The New Deal, Radio Brings Us Together
Radio Survivor co-founder Matthew Lasar has just released a new book. Radio 2.0 explores the development of radio into its current form as both analog and digital, terrestrial and internet. Matthew joins to discuss his ideas, suggesting that the primary question now is to consider what we want radio to become. In College Radio Watch […]
The joys and perils of outback mining town community radio
Australia’s ABC News service has an nice profile of Moranbah community radio, an outback Queensland station that broadcasts to the mining town of that name. Interestingly, the general manager of station 4RFM called deejaying at the signal a great cure for the blues. “It can change your perspective,” Kayreen Burgum told ABC. ” . . […]
Hey Santa Cruz: you have 7 days to decide about KUSP-FM
It is crunch time for KUSP-FM in Santa Cruz, California. The newly launched Adult Album Alternative non-commercial radio station has challenged itself to raise $300,000 or bust by May 1. Here’s the good news. KUSP has become a really nice contempoary rock/pop signal, with live deejays playing all kinds of cool music I’ve never heard […]
College Radio Watch: Celebrating Prince on the Radio
I was as shocked as everyone else yesterday when I glanced up at a TV screen at my local diner and saw the breaking news that Prince has died. I voiced my disbelief and soon there was a chorus of commentary from my fellow restaurant patrons. Wasn’t Prince just in town performing? Was he really […]
LPFM Watch: KUZU-LP, WKYW-LP, and WUUK-LP Set to Launch
Although there hasn’t been much FCC action related to low power FM (LPFM) in the past few weeks, numerous stations are working furiously to get on the air. In Texas, KUZU-LP is preparing to launch in the city of Denton. According to the Denton Record Chronicle, the station is actively fundraising and will host a […]
Happy High School Radio Day Today
Today is the 5th annual High School Radio Day. By last count, 78 high school radio stations from 30 states planned to celebrate the day devoted to the power of student-run radio, high school style. I’ve been lucky to visit a handful of high school radio stations and I’m always in awe of the opportunity […]
Podcast #43 – NPR: When Disrupted, Go Local
A recent Slate article about the podcast challenge to NPR added fuel to the debate about how the public broadcaster should respond to this disruption. Paul jumps into the fray to posit that superserving affiliates and local listeners is key to NPR’s future, while Eric argues that calls for a shift in how coverage is […]