Happy High School Radio Day! Today marks the 6th Annual High School Radio Day and as I write this, 83 high school radio stations from 31 states plan to participate. I’m heartened that high school radio is going strong and hope that in 2017, I’ll be able to visit more high school radio stations. You […]
On a Friday evening in October, I traveled to Temple University in Philadelphia to see college radio station WHIP (pronounced W-H-I-P). As I approached its TECH Center building home, buses in the area were idling nearby, collecting passengers for a Temple football game that night. When I arrived at the station, WHIP’s General Manager Ed […]
The long-running independent community radio news program Free Speech Radio News announced this week that its last edition will be broadcast on April 28. In a press release, the collective cites a decline in distribution and inability to find a “firm financial footing,” as causes for the closure. Born from the labor of freelance reporters […]
In January FCC moved to allow AM stations to acquire and geographically locate FM translator repeater stations a little further away from their main AM transmitter than previously permitted—within either 25 miles of their station, or within their daytime broadcast area, whichever is larger. Before this ruling those translators were limited to being located within […]
WRIR is a community radio station born from the first wave of low-power FM in the early 2000s. Yet the station has roots in the rich history of independent media in Richmond, VA. Intrepid radio tourist Jennifer Waits shares her tour of the station, uncovering obscure cable radio history along with some unexpected facts about […]
Low-power community radio station KPCN in Woodburn, OR serves the unionized farmworkers of the Willamette Valley, with news, information and entertainment in Spanish and indigenous languages. The station recently celebrated its 10th anniversary on the air, which we recognized on episode #72 of the podcast. At this past weekend’s Alliance for Community Media Northwest Summit […]
Community radio stations are not just transmitters and studios. Similarly, public access TV stations aren’t just cable channels with studios. They are community media platforms, with a privileged place and sense of permanence that comes from their FCC license or franchise agreement, respectively. This week we explore how community radio and public access TV can […]
When I was planning my trip to Virginia, I had hoped that I would be able to see college radio station WXJM-FM, as I’d long been interested in its association with the MACROCK music festival. Now in its 20th year, the event was launched by WXJM in 1996 and at the time was called the […]
On a brisk morning on Thursday, March 16, I set out from Richmond for a westerly road trip, with my first stop at WMWC at University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. I parked on a street bordering the back of campus and as I made my way uphill, I heard some alarming, repetitive thunder-like […]
This weekend the Alliance for Community Media’s Northwest Chapter will hold its conference on March 31 and April 1 in Portland, OR, hosted by Open Signal community media. Although ACM has historically represented public access, educational and government cable television channels (so-called PEG channels), this event also invites community radio folks to participate. This cross-medium […]
