After visiting probably 40 radio stations, I’ve come to expect to find certain artifacts at every station. As I wrote back in 2010, there are a whole bunch of items that I regularly see when I travel to college radio stations, including skull-themed paraphernalia. I frequently see sticker-covered cabinets, funky couches, pop culture artifacts (from […]
Today the FCC released its most recent list of call sign actions. Amid the alphabet soup of new and changed call signs was a familiar set of letters: K-U-S-F. As of July 20, 2012, Common Frequency has reserved the former University of San Francisco radio station’s call letters for a yet-to-be-constructed non-commercial radio station at […]
Over the weekend, brand new community radio station KHOI launched in Ames, Iowa. Five years in the making, the license application for the full power non-commercial educational (NCE) FM station was submitted to the FCC in 2007 and was granted in 2009. KHOI went on the air and began their testing phase on 89.1 FM […]
Radio is a tough business to be in, regardless of whether one’s station is a commercial or non-commercial enterprise. Bills keep coming in and donations and advertising dollars don’t always keep pace. A few days ago, community/public radio station KZYX posted a dire message on its website with the headline “The Station is in Pretty […]
Jennifer and I attended the Grassroots Radio Conference this past weekend in Urbana, IL. These are my old stomping grounds, having lived in the twin college towns of Champaign-Urbana for about 13 years until 2008. Home to the University of Illinois the cities are also home to a disproportionate of grassroots action and interesting radio. […]
Radio Survivor readers should already be aware of the love we express for New Jersey’s non-commercial freeform radio powerhouse WFMU. Although the station may not be as popular or highly rated as a top commercial station, it has many admiring listeners, who themselves are productive and creative. Filmmaker Tim Smith is one such fan, who […]
If you’re in the US you haven’t been able to avoid news about the recall election happening in Wisconsin today, where an enormous grassroots movement mobilized to kick Gov. Walker out of office, following last year’s protest and capitol occupation. Grassroots and community media, especially radio, were vitally important in providing fair coverage of the […]
I’ve long admired New Jersey non-commercial freeform station WFMU. It started life as the college station for Upsala College. When the college went bankrupt in 1995 the volunteers formed a nonprofit corporation to buy the license, rather than see it liquidated. Since then WFMU has been a strong voice for true freeform radio and an […]
Back in January I reported on Ft. Myers, Florida resident Albert Knighten, a retired Navy air traffic controller who was arrested in December 2011 on charges of unlicensed broadcasting for running a neighborhood community radio station. Knighten got in additional hot water when he missed his arraignment hearing in order to appear on a panel […]
I was talking with my pal John Anderson earlier today about how relatively muted the reaction is to the FCC’s LPFM decision on Monday. We did get a statement from Prometheus Radio Project pretty quickly. But even today, three days later, there’s only a handful of hits on a google news search. Perhaps the news […]
