From 1961 to 1976 WRVR-FM broadcast a progressive slate of social justice and jazz programming from the Riverside Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Beginning in 2018 those archives are being digitized and transcribed by the American Archive of Public Broadcasting, and on June 17 they’re asking volunteers to help correct those transcriptions in a […]
For the first time in a while I needed to dip into my dwindling archive of cassette tape airchecks. A couple of tapes immediately caught my eye and spurred me to restart the digitizing project I’ve been working on and off for the last five years. They took me on a fun journey back in […]
Welcome to 2020! As Matthew Lasar noted this week, this year marks the 100th anniversary of some significant moments in radio history, including KDKA’s first broadcast. While other stations were on the air with regular broadcasts prior to 1920 (shout out to Doc Herrold’s early broadcasts to fellow radio amateurs); KDKA’s debut is a rallying […]
Rosa Parks interviewed on KPFA in 1958. A 1986 recording of Mr. Magic’s Rap Attack on WLBS in New York City. A clip of astronaut Jose Hernandez from the “Historias de Si Se Puede” series. These are a few of the audio and radio archives recently shared by the Kitchen Sisters as part of their […]
For about a decade, ending in 1988, pirate stations dominated the Irish radio bands, exploiting a loophole in the law that made punishments for unlicensed broadcasting on par with a speeding ticket. Now the sounds and artifacts of this cultural movement are being preserved online in the Irish Pirate Radio Archive. Archive co-founders Brian Greene […]
We’ve talked a lot about archiving and preserving radio here at Radio Survivor, especially on our podcast. Inevitably during these discussions I’ll open my big mouth and muse about how I should archive my own work somewhere it’ll be in safe hands, like the Internet Archive. But up to now, it’s just been talk. Now, […]
I’ve been following the work of historian and archivist Jason Scott for more than a decade, ever since he released his film “BBS: The Documentary” (available on the Internet Archive). He’s known for relentless efforts to preserve digital artifacts and media, like the text files that were the stock-in-trade of the early internet, Usenet and […]
KRAB was the fourth-ever community radio station in the U.S., serving Seattle, WA from 1962 to 1984. Like any community station, it broadcast thousands of hours of original and important programming during that time, documenting important social movements and voices not heard, or not heard clearly, in mainstream media. Former volunteer and board member Chuck […]
Portland community radio station KBOO-FM celebrates its 50th year on air in 2018, and to commemorate the anniversary the station is hosting an exhibit at the Oregon Historical Society Museum. While an exhibit seems simple enough on the surface, in fact a lot of time, thought and work goes into curating the artifacts and narrative […]
While looking for info on a BBC session recording of the 1980s new wave / post-rock band Talk Talk I stumbled upon a version of the band’s Radio 1 broadcast on a site called Past Daily. Digging into its archives I discovered a treasure-trove of audio archives, from a 1991 CBS Radio world news roundup […]
