Most press coverage of low-power FM focuses on particular stations, or the flourishing of the medium in the last half-decade. Not unexpectedly, rarely do articles delve into the deep history, which goes all the way back to 1948, with mileposts in the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s, leading up the FCC’s eventual creation of the […]
It started in college radio and now is sweeping stations around the world. No, I’m not talking about R.E.M. It’s Vinylthon! This Saturday, April 13 – which, not coincidentally, happens to be Record Store Day – 140 stations will feature programming with only vinyl records, some going all day long. The ones that clock in […]
The Hip-Hop Radio Archive aims to digitize, preserve, share, and contextualize recordings of hip-hop radio from the 1980s and 1990s from commercial, college, community, and pirate stations of all sizes, telling the stories of the shows and the people that made them. Our guest is founder of the archive, Ryan MacMichael. This is a rebroadcast […]
This week, so many fascinating college radio stories caught my eye. We learn about college radio’s profound influence on music culture in the 1980s and 1990s in a piece about the marketing of Nirvana as well as in Trent Reznor’s recent speech at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Reznor explains that college radio […]
This week our guest is Brian DeShazor, an independent radio researcher and founder of the Queer Radio Research Project. Formerly the Director of the Pacifica Radio Archives, DeShazor has taken a special interest in uncovering and highlighting the LGBTQ voices that have graced the community radio airwaves. On the episode, we discuss the history of […]
On this week’s episode, scholar Lerone Martin shares with us the fascinating history of African-American preachers who distributed their sermons on 78rpm records during a time when they had limited access to the radio in the 1920s-1940s. Martin, Associate Professor in Religion and Politics at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at […]
I was sad to read about college radio station WCWM’s troubles after a burst pipe in its building led to major damage last summer. When I visited the College of William and Mary radio station in 2017, I was amazed by the historical materials in its basement home, including an impressive collection of very old […]
Mercer Island High School radio station, KMIH is the third in a trio of high school radio stations that I visited while in Seattle in October, 2018. First licensed in 1970, KMIH holds a class D FM license, currently over 88.9 FM in Mercer Island, Washington. Hand-made KMIH poster. Photo: J. Waits Founded in 1969, […]
Every week we seek out compelling stories about sound and radio and share them on Twitter. Here are some of the most intriguing from the last week: Vote looms on bringing jazz radio back to MHCC“The Mt. Hood Community College Board will vote next week on whether to bring jazz radio station KMHD back to […]
College radio has garnered much news in the past few weeks thanks to a plethora of student media awards being presented by various organizations. It’s another reminder that awards can be a great reason to spread the word about college radio’s excellent work and pick up some media attention in the process. Two New College […]
