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Can your local radio announcer pronounce your city’s name? Chris Terry on the Telecommunications Act of 1996

Once upon a time no company could own more than 20 AM and 20 FM stations nationwide. Then came the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which removed any national restrictions on radio station ownership. In a recent edition of our podcast, Paul Riismandel and Eric Klein sat down with Dr. Christopher Terry at the University of […]

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Carl [Wolfson] in the Morning

Carl Wolfson to sign off from XRAY-FM on Monday

XRAY-FM of Portland reports that morning show host Carl Wolfson will say goodbye on Monday, February 15, during the course of his 7-9 am program. We’ve written about Wolfson’s impending exit, he citing listeners angry about his comments critical of presidential aspirant Bernie Sanders. In an email blast XRAY adds: “to our members and friends: Yes, […]

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#LPFM News

LPFM Watch: How Internet Radio Royalty Rates Affect Low-Power Stations

Five new low-power FM stations have been granted their full licenses in the last week: KQRZ-LP, Oregon Amateur Radio Club (Hillsboro, OR) WTPB-LP, Third Presbyterian Church of Rockford (Rockford, IL) WEMV-LP, Elijah Message Ministry (Vandalia, IL) KMYB-LP, Killeen Independent School District (Killeen, TX) WBNH-LP, Town of Bedford, NH LPFMs Mostly Unaffected by New Performance Royalty […]

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Podcast #33 – 20 Years Ago Local Radio Was Crushed

Twenty years ago a piece of legislation was passed that would change radio forever–and not for the better. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 lifted ownership restrictions on stations, unleashing an onslaught of acquisitions, consolidation and the ultimate devastation of local radio in communities across the country. Dr. Christopher Terry from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee joins […]

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Internet Pirate Radio

Will Performance Royalties Create a New Class of Radio Pirate?

Thousands of internet radio stations have gone silent in 2016, while thousands more may yet shut down, primarily because of new performance royalty fees that have skyrocketed for small and mid-sized internet radio stations. In this piece I explore how this challenge might encourage some webcasters to give up complying with the law and simply […]

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junglejungala

“Jungala” community radio station unites refugees in Calais, France

They call the camp “The Jungle.” It is a refugee zone on the northern edge of Calais, France. Around 6,000 migrants have streamed into the center of late. As this rough map of the area (below right) indicates, many are coming from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and various Kurdish regions. They also migrate in from countries in North […]

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Independent Internet Radio Still Imperiled

Internet radio expert Kurt Hanson declared January 31 to be Sunday Bloody Sunday for the medium. Most significantly, that was the day that Live365 turned off 5000-some internet radio streams it hosted for broadcasters large and small. The shutdown comes after several other internet stations announced their closure, and countless more quietly went away. The […]

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