This week I wrote up another college radio station visit as part of my ongoing Spinning Indie Radio Station Field trip series. Laney College’s streaming radio station, 9th Floor Radio, has been around for nearly a decade in Oakland and is preparing to add a low power FM (LPFM) broadcast to the mix this summer. […]
The FCC issued another nineteen construction permits for new low-power FM radio stations in the last week, brining the grand total to 1821. Ten of these went to organizations in four cities that will have to abide involuntary time-shares. In each city there was an MX group of two or more applicants competing for a […]
Federal Communications Commission Chair Tom Wheeler is at the National Association of Broadcasters NAB show in Las Vegas and just gave a talk at which he told the suits that although the FCC wants to streamline its field office system, that doesn’t mean the agency won’t crack down on unlicensed broadcasters when necessary. Indeed, “flying teams” […]
Should radio stations have to upload their public files to a publicly accessible database? These days if you want to read the public files of television stations, it’s no problem. Just go the Federal Communications Commission’s public and political file web interface and type in a TV station’s call letters and there you are: a […]
Despite years of enforcement action and the establishment of low-power FM, unlicensed pirate radio has not gone away, though it hardly qualifies as a runaway problem or nationwide epidemic. True, there are some hotspots with a high density of communities underserved by local broadcasters–such as Brooklyn, NY and South Florida–where unlicensed broadcasting is arguably more […]
Just under eleven months ago pioneering internet radio station East Village Radio shut down after eleven years of operation. Station CEO Frank Prisinzano cited the costs of royalty payments and internet service as making it difficult for East Village Radio to even break even. Now, the station is poised for a comeback, promising a return […]
Seven new low-power FM construction permits granted in the last week bring the grand total up to 1792. One goes to third largest media market in the US, Chicago, where the Legend Media Network Group will serve the Ghanaian and broader African community of the city’s far north side at 98.3 FM. Ninety miles to […]
Since the FCC passed its new Open Internet rules, reclassifying internet service as a telecommunications utility, I’ve fielded some questions–occasionally hushed, others less so–about if there might be another edge to this sword. Concerns seem to be sparked by the Commission’s recent decision to throw the book at a Roanoke, VA television station for the […]
It’s not like we didn’t see it coming. The FCC is taking flak from Congress about its Open Internet rules passed last month, and this week the first wave of lawsuits has been filed. The United States Telecom Association is the biggest plaintiff, representing the nation’s largest broadband providers. The other suit was filed by […]
The Federal Communications Commission has released specifics on its new net neutrality rules. There are lots of details to pore over. I gave the document a quick scan to see if it had anything to say about sponsored data plans—deals like T-Mobile’s “Music Freedom” plan in which ISP selected Internet radio services (Pandora, Spotify) don’t […]
