On October 3, 2025, while World College Radio Day was being celebrated all over the globe, Cleveland State University’s nearly 50-year old student-run college radio station WCSB 89.3 FM was shut down by administrators. Staff and volunteers were escorted out of the station by police and programming was soon replaced by JazzNEO, a music service produced by public radio group Ideastream. 

In the ensuing weeks, WCSB participants and supporters have been protesting this move and have organized under the name XCSB. To discuss what happened to the Cleveland State college radio station and what lies ahead for XCSB, two former WCSB student leaders join us on Radio Survivor. Liam Main was the business manager of WCSB and Alison Bomgardner was the most recent General Manager of the station.

Show Notes:

• WCSB Student Leaders and Supporters Fight Against Takeover of Cleveland State University’s Student-Run Station (Radio Survivor)
• XCSB website
• Last capture of WCSB-FM website, when it was student-run station (Wayback Machine)
• Global College Radio Community Unites for XCSB Special Broadcast (College Radio Foundation)
• Ideastream Public Media website
• JazzNEO web page
• College Broadcasters Inc. website
• KUSF DJs and Fans Gear up to Fight Proposed Radio Station Sale (Radio Survivor, January 2011)

Show Credits:

• This episode was produced by Jennifer Waits
• Hosted by Jennifer Waits and Eric Klein
• Edited by Eric Klein

The post Podcast #346 – The Fight for College Radio at Cleveland State Station WCSB appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Jennifer Waits reports back from the Grassroots Radio Conference, held in Spokane Washington from September 11 to September 14, 2025. We recap FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez’s keynote address, in which she spoke forcefully about recent actions by the FCC that threaten freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Gomez talked about the importance of community radio, as a place that inherently provides a diversity of view points.

Also on the show, we hear a bit about the National Campus and Community Radio Conference, which was held in Nanaimo, BC, Canada in June 2025. Plus, Jennifer digs into the latest “best college radio stations” list from Princeton Review.

Show Notes:

• Grassroots Radio Conference 2025, hosted by KYRS in Spokane, Washington
• KYRS, Thin Air Community Radio
• FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez
• Gomez Sounds Alarm on Press Freedoms at Grassroots Radio Conference (Radio World)
• Podcast #267 – Live from the Grassroots Radio Conference: Community Radio and Protests (October 2020 virtual GRC)
• Podcast #162 – The Future of Community Radio, Live from Grassroots Radio Conference (October 2018 in Portland, Oregon)
• National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA) Conference in Nanaimo, BC, Canada
• Counterculture: 20 Years of CIVL Radio in the Fraser Valley documentary
• 35000 Watts documentary about college radio
• Campus and community radio stations that Jennifer visited in Canada (tour reports forthcoming): Radio Sidney, CFUV-FM (University of Victoria), CHLY-FM (Vancouver Island University), Vancouver Co-Op Radio CFRO-FM, CiVL-FM (University of the Fraser Valley), CJSF-FM (Simon Fraser University), CiTR-FM (University of British Columbia)
• Nadwuar the Human Serviette
• On podcast #304, Lesbian Radio History in Canada, Stacey Copeland references some programming on Vancouver Co-Op Radio
• On podcast #330, Wetland Project and Slow Radio, we also discuss the Soundscape Collective at Vancouver Co-Op Radio
• 2026 “Best College Radio Stations” List from Princeton Review (Radio Survivor)

Show Credits:

• This episode was produced by Jennifer Waits
• Hosted by Jennifer Waits and Eric Klein
• Edited by Eric Klein

The post Podcast #345 – Catching up with Community Radio at the Grassroots Radio Conference and NCRC appeared first on Radio Survivor.

While the work of radio stations using terrestrial transmitters is a typical discussion topic on Radio Survivor, for this episode we find ourselves examining music and talk beamed down from satellites orbiting the earth. Satellite radio as we know it began in the 1990s, with its major players launching satellite radio services in the early 2000s. Brian Fauteux, Associate Professor of Popular Music and Media Studies at University of Alberta joins us on the show to discuss the fascinating history and relevance of satellite radio to both radio culture and the music industry. Brian is the author of the new book, “Music in Orbit: Satellite Radio in the Streaming Space Age,” released in 2025.

Show Notes:

• Music in Orbit: Satellite Radio in the Streaming Space Age (UC Press)
• Brian Fauteux
• SiriusXM
• HBCU channel on SiriusXM
• Aquarium Drunkard
• Sirius XMU
• Behind the Scenes of XMU’s “Student Exchange Program” (SpinningIndie)
• Matthew Lasar on “Radio 2.0” (Radio Survivor)
• Radio 2.0: Uploading the First Broadcast Medium by Matthew Lasar
• Flashback Radio Survivor articles by Brian Fauteux circa 2014-2016! (Radio Survivor)

Show Credits:

• This episode was produced by Jennifer Waits
• Hosted by Jennifer Waits and Eric Klein
• Edited by Eric Klein

The post Podcast #344 – Music in Orbit: Satellite Radio in the Streaming Space Age appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Eric, Jennifer and Paul return with a new episode of Radio Survivor, recapping some of the latest news from our travels. Jennifer shares highlights from the annual student media conference hosted by Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS) and from her visits to college radio stations in New York City. Just back from South by Southwest, Paul lends perspective on some of the latest trends in podcasting. Additionally, we provide details about an opportunity for radio stations to broadcast the Wetland Project‘s annual Earth Day 24-hour slow radio event, featuring the sounds of nature. If you are interested in airing all or part of the broadcast, the organizers can be reached at INFO at WETLANDPROJECT dot com.

Show Notes:

• Wetland Project
• Wetland Project artists Brady Marks and Mark Timmings were our guests on episode 333 in 2023
• IBSNYC25 conference hosted by Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS)
• Jennifer’s IBS conference reports from 2009 on Spinning Indie
• Paul’s report on the 2012 regional IBS conference in Chicago
• Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC)
• Radio Survivor episode #335 about DLARC with guest Kay Savetz
• IBS collection in DLARC
• DLARC College Radio collection + December 2024 blog update about the project
• SXSW website
• Vox Media Podcast Stage at SXSW
• Sounds Profitable
• SXSW Radio Day Stage, with performances presented by various radio stations, including KCRW, KEXP, BBC Introducing, NPR Live Sessions, and Austin community radio station KOOP
• KUTX is the University of Texas-owned music radio station launched by NPR station KUT
• Douglas Rushkoff’s website
• iHeart Podcast Awards
• On Air Fest website
• College radio station WKCR at Columbia University + Jennifer’s 2017 station tour report
• College radio station WNYU at New York University + Jennifer’s 2008 station tour report
• Columbia University Amateur Radio Club

Show Credits:

Edited by Eric Klein

This episode was produced by Jennifer Waits

Hosted by Paul Riismandel, Eric Klein and Jennifer Waits

The post Podcast #343 – Catching up on College Radio and Podcasting News (March 19, 2025) appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Several years ago, Radio Survivor had the pleasure of speaking with artist and restaurateur Alice Brock, the woman who provided much inspiration for Arlo Guthrie’s inadvertent Thanksgiving Day radio staple, “Alice’s Restaurant.” Sadly, Alice Brock passed away on November 21, 2024 at the age of 83, just a week before the classic rock radio airwaves will be blanketed with the song that made her famous.

This year, in honor of Alice, we are presenting the Radio Survivor episode that we recorded with her in advance of Thanksgiving 2020, which was the most unusual of holidays, as the COVID-19 pandemic kept many of us separated from friends and family. During our discussion, Alice Brock shares with us not only some insight into the 18-minute anti-war epic “Alice’s Restaurant”; but also stories about her life and holiday traditions. For 2020, Brock was inspired to create a special introductory message for radio stations to play in advance of “Alice’s Restaurant,” and she explains why she was moved to offer up these words of thanks during that pandemic year in particular.

As we approach another holiday, our thoughts go out to Alice Brock’s friends and family. We are so grateful to have had the chance to chat with Alice and share Thanksgiving 2020 with her through the magic of podcasting.

Show Notes:

• Thanksgiving Radio Tradition withstands the Pandemic as “Alice’s Restaurant” Hits the 2020 Airwaves
• Alice’s Restaurant on the Radio Thanksgiving 2024
• Radio Survivor posts documenting where to hear “Alice’s Restaurant” on the radio
• Alice Brock’s Message for Radio Stations (NFCB)
• Alice Brock’s website

Show Credits:

• This episode was produced by Jennifer Waits
• Hosted by Jennifer Waits, Eric Klein, and Paul Riismandel
• Edited by Eric Klein

The post Podcast: Remembering Alice Brock of Alice’s Restaurant appeared first on Radio Survivor.

We travel back to the 1980s, when the show, The Famous Computer Cafe, initially launched over the radio in southern California. With a focus on home computers, computer news, and more, the program had a fascinating roster of guests, including Timothy Leary, Donny Osmond, Bill Gates, and so many others. Although it was assumed that all the recordings of the show were lost; recently 53 episodes were found and digitized. Computer historian and archivist Kay Savetz spearheaded this project and joins us on Radio Survivor, alongside one of the creators and hosts of The Famous Computer Cafe, Ellen Fields.

Show Notes:

• Listen to The Famous Computer Cafe on Archive.org
• The Famous Computer Cafe ads and ephemera on Archive.org
• Interviews with The Famous Computer Cafe founders on ANTIC: The Atari 8-bit Podcast
• Digitizing “The Famous Computer Cafe” Radio Show (GoFundMe)
• The PBS television show The Computer Chronicles (Wikipedia)
• Episode of “The Famous Computer Cafe” that mentions computer ads (at about the 4 minute mark) in New York taxi cabs
• Timothy Leary episode of “The Famous Computer Cafe”
• COMDEX was a computer trade show in Las Vegas from 1979 to 2003 (Wikipedia)
• “Resurfacing Women’s Contributions in Podcasting History” (Radio Survivor #135)
• The Famous Computer Cafe collection at Stanford University Libraries

Show Credits:

• This episode was produced by Jennifer Waits
• Hosted by Jennifer Waits and Eric Klein
• Edited by Eric Klein

The post Podcast #342 – The Famous Computer Cafe appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Journalist Marc Masters joins us to discuss his book, High Bias: the Distorted History of the Cassette Tape. We dive into how the oft-maligned cassette influenced the music industry and our culture by inspiring musicians, taking music to the streets and returning power back to listeners.

Show Notes

• High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape at UNC Press
• High Bias: Music from the Book
• The Music Book Podcast
• The Spindle: A Podcast About 7-inch Records
• Minoy
• Shrimper Records and Tapes
• Aaron Dilloway
• Howard Steltzer
• The Daily Ping: The Personics System

Show Credits:

• This episode was produced by Paul Riismandel
• Hosted by Jennifer Waits and Paul Riismandel
• Edited by Eric Klein

The post Podcast #341 – The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Williams College student Josh Picoult arrived on campus with a fascination for both history and radio. Four years later, he’s about to graduate after completing his undergraduate thesis on the history of college radio station WCFM, where he’s also the general manager. On this edition of Radio Survivor, we are joined by Josh, who talks us through some of the big ideas from his thesis: Gas Pipes, Gigahertz, and Grunge: Broadcasting at Williams College, 1940-1998. Josh also shares details about the current state of radio on campus.

Show Notes:

• Williams College radio station WCFM 91.9 FM in Williamstown, Massachusetts
• Podcast #89 – How to Preserve Radio History (guest Laura Schnitker)
• Podcast #158 – Surveying Community Radio’s Deep Archives (guest Laura Schnitker)
• Jennifer’s radio station tours
• Radio Station Field Trip #100 – WPRB at Princeton University

Show Credits:

• This episode was produced by Jennifer Waits
• Hosted by Jennifer Waits, Eric Klein and Paul Riismandel
• Edited by Eric Klein

The post Podcast #340 – College Radio History at Williams College appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Matthew Lasar talks with Brian Edwards-Tiekert, host of KPFA’s Upfront to commemorate the Birthday of Pacifica Radio.

The post Podcast #339- 75 Years of Listener Supported Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In the last few years YouTube has become one of the most popular platforms for consuming podcasts, even though it’s a primarily a video platform, and podcasts have traditionally been an audio-first medium. This fact has raised both questions and concerns with podcasters. Paul has worked on research studies intended to better understand why and how people use YouTube to consume podcasts. He shares that data along with analyses and thoughts on how podcasters might think about YouTube and video.

Show Notes:

• Sounds Profitable’s Sound You Can See study
• The Download on Podcasts, Fall 2023
• YouTube and Video Will Grow Podcasting in 2024
• Podcasting on YouTube

Show Credits:

• This episode was produced by Paul Riismandel
• Hosted by Jennifer Waits, Eric Klein and Paul Riismandel
• Edited by Eric Klein

The post Podcast #338 – YouTube, Video and Podcasting appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The Radio Survivor team returns for a new episode, during which Jennifer, Eric and Paul recap some of the latest radio news. Topics this week including LPFM, college radio history, radio documentaries, expanding and returning radio stations, and a slow radio broadcast for Earth Day.

Jennifer talks about her new gig working on a college radio history collection that is part of the Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC) on the Internet Archive.

Additionally, we cover some updates to the radio landscape, including details about the most recent low-power FM licensing window, during which 388 groups (and counting) have been awarded construction permits for new LPFM stations. In San Francisco, streaming radio station BFF.fm is the recipient of one of these coveted spots on the dial.

Also coming to the San Francisco airwaves is Seattle-based non-commercial radio station KEXP, which acquired the former KREV full-power FM commercial frequency in a bankruptcy auction. Across the country in New York City, streaming community radio station East Village Radio is returning after it ceased operations nearly a decade ago.

A few radio stories are coming to the big screen. 35,000 Watts, a documentary about college radio, has made its debut and is initially hitting the college radio circuit. Jennifer will be in attendance at a 35,000 Watts screening and panel discussion at Pomona College on March 28th as part of a fundraising event for college radio station KSPC. Another radio film in the works, 40 Watts to Nowhere, recounts the story of pirate radio station KBLT, which ran out of founder Sue Carpenter’s home in Silver Lake near Los Angeles in the late 1990s.

Finally, we alert stations to an opportunity to participate in the annual Earth Day radio event: Wetland Project Slow Radio Broadcast on April 22, 2024. Stations can air all or part of the 24-hour broadcast featuring the sounds of nature, including birds, frogs, insects, and airplanes.

Show Notes:

• Podcast #335 – Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC)
• DLARC on the Internet Archive
• College Radio Collection on DLARC
• Website for the college radio documentary 35,000 Watts
• 35,000 Watts screening dates
• Pomona College radio station KSPC-FM website (and see Jennifer’s tour of KSPC)
• BFF.fm on LPFM (Bff.fm)
• Jennifer’s tour of BFF.fm
• KEXP Coming Soon to the Bay Area (KEXP)
• Jennifer’s tour of KEXP in Seattle
• East Village Radio website
• Here is Why NYC’s Iconic East Village Radio is Coming Back from the Dead after a Decade (NY Post)
• Jennifer’s 2008 tour of East Village Radio
• Granted LPFM Applications for 2023 Filing Window (REC Networks)
• 40 Watts from Nowhere Documentary Kickstarter
• 40 Watts from Nowhere: A Journey into Pirate Radio book by Sue Carpenter (Amazon)
• Podcast #330 – Wetland Project and Slow Radio
• Wetland Project website

Show Credits:

• This episode was produced by Jennifer Waits
• Hosted by Jennifer Waits, Eric Klein and Paul Riismandel
• Edited by Eric Klein

The post Podcast #337 – Catching up on Radio News including LPFM, a College Radio Archive, Documentaries, and More appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On this edition of the show, we explore public radio history, specifically the origins of public radio in the United States, including the important role played by college and university-based stations. Josh Shepperd joins to talk about his new book, Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting, which examines the intersections between the media reform movement, public broadcasting, educational technology and communications policy and research. Josh is an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and is Director of the Radio Preservation Task Force at the Library of Congress.

Show Notes:

• Josh Shepperd’s website at University of Colorado Boulder
• Radio Preservation Task Force of the Library of Congress
• Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting (affiliate link on Amazon)
• Association of College and University Broadcasting Stations (ACUBS) evolved into the National Association of Educational Broadcasters (NAEB)
• Unlocking the Airwaves collection of NAEB materials
• Robert McChesney’s book: Telcommunications, Mass Media, and Democracy: The Battle for the Control of U.S. Broadcasting, 1928-1935 (affiliate link on Amazon)
• What is Low Power FM? (page on Radio Survivor)
• Podcast #333 – Low Power FM for Dummies (LPFM window opens Dec. 6, 2023)
• Prometheus Radio Project
• Common Frequency

Show Credits:

• This episode was produced by Jennifer Waits
• Hosted by Jennifer Waits, Eric Klein and Paul Riismandel
• Edited by Eric Klein

The post Podcast #336 – Educational Radio and the Beginnings of Public Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On this week’s show, we peek behind the scenes of The Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC). A project of the Internet Archive, the DLARC collection includes a range of amateur radio-related materials, including magazines, ham radio newsletters, podcasts and even discussion forums. Within the expansive library are items generally categorized as non-commercial radio, including pirate radio, shortwave, numbers stations, experimental radio, and “radio weirdness.” Additionally, every episode of the Radio Survivor Podcast was recently added to DLARC, which is how we learned about this archive. DLARC’s Curator Kay Savetz joins us on Radio Survivor to talk about not only the archive, but also how you can contribute.

Show Notes

• The Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC)
• Kay Savetz website
• Radio Survivor Podcast episodes archived on DLARC
• October 2022 announcement about launch of DLARC
• Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC)
• Internet Archive
• Podcast #178: Irish Pirate Radio Archive (with guests Brian Greene and John Walsh)
• Podcast #212: Border Radio in North America (with guest Kevin Curran)
• Podcast #260: Radio History on the Northern Border of Mexico (with guest Sonia Robles)
• Look out FCC Part 15 Devices: AM radio is gonna getcha! (learn about Matthew’s Part 15 spider)
• Radio4All
• The Shortwave Report
• Mediageek radio show

Show Credits:

• This episode was produced by Jennifer Waits
• Hosted by Jennifer Waits, Eric Klein, Matthew Lasar, and Paul Riismandel
• Edited by Eric Klein

The post Podcast #335 – Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications appeared first on Radio Survivor.

World College Radio Day takes place on October 6, 2023 and in honor of that, we dig into the early history of college radio on our latest episode of the show. Jennifer Waits walks us through her research about college radio in the 1920s and earlier, sharing details from a paper that she presented this past spring at the Radio Preservation Task Force Conference at the Library of Congress. In that paper, she argues that we should be broadening our definitions of what college radio is, pointing out examples of radio clubs, radio experiments, and amateur radio activities that mirror the activities of future “broadcast” stations.

Jennifer recounts stories from more than 100 years ago, pointing out the incredible contributions that students have made to radio history. Along the way, we hear tales about early student radio practitioners at places like Haverford College, Union College, Harvard University, and Columbia University. Jennifer also asks for listeners to share details that they may have about very early college radio (1920s and earlier) at other schools.

Show Notes:

• College Radio Day
• World College Radio Day is October 6
• College radio history resources on Radio Survivor’s “About College Radio” page
• College Radio Watch: College Radio is Older Than You Think
• Radio Preservation Task Force
• 2023 Radio Preservation Task Force Conference
• Jennifer’s radio station tours
• College radio history on Radio Survivor
• Union College (WRUC) radio tour
• Making Waves: Race, radio and the legacy of Wendell King (Union College)
• From Wireless Experiments to Streaming: The Secret History and Changing Role of College Radio at Haverford College, 1923-2014
• Haverford on the Radio (Jennifer’s piece in Haverford Magazine)
• WHRC – Haverford College Radio Tours from 2009 and from 2014
• College Radio Revival at Haverford College’s WHRC
• California Historical Radio Society
• The Gas Pipe Networks is 80
• Tour of Brown University radio station BSR
• Lee De Forest
• Podcast #333 – Low Power FM for Dummies

Show Credits:

• This episode was produced by Jennifer Waits
• Hosted by Jennifer Waits, Eric Klein, and Paul Riismandel
• Edited by Eric Klein
• Photo: Jennifer Waits’ photo of a photo of the Union College Radio Club. Courtesy of Special Collections, Schaffer Library, Union College (RG-08-006-015)

The post Podcast #334 – College Radio’s Hidden Early History appeared first on Radio Survivor.

10/17/23 Update! The new low power FM filing window has been delayed and is now opening on December 6, 2023. See the FCC’s announcement here.

On our latest episode of Radio Survivor, it’s a very special treat, with all four Radio Survivor hosts at the mic discussing an exciting low power FM opportunity. Another low power FM licensing window for non-commercial radio stations in the United States opens on November 1, 2023 December 6, 2023. Who is eligible to apply for these licenses? And why should they? And what help is available? Our guest, Sharon Scott, joins us to talk us through all things LPFM. Scott is the co-founder and general manager of a low power FM radio station, WXOX-LP in Louisville, Kentucky. She is also the author of Low Power FM for Dummies, which is set to be released in October, 2023.

Show Notes

• FCC Public Notice on Revised Dates for LPFM Filing Window (10/17/23)
• Low Power FM for Dummies (affiliate link on Amazon)
• Sharon Scott’s LPFM Resources website
• Radio station WXOX-LP (ARTxFM)
• Jennifer’s “SpinningIndie” radio station tours
• Podcast #331: New Low-Power FM Opportunity Coming This November
• Sex and Broadcasting, book by Lorenzo Milam (affiliate link on Amazon)
• R.I.P. Radio Trailblazer Lorenzo Milam
• Vanderbilt University’s college radio station WRVU
• 2023 Grassroots Radio Conference is October 19-22 in Charleston, WV, hosted by WTSQ-FM
• Prometheus Radio Project
• WORT-FM, Madison, Wisconsin
• Common Frequency
• Broadcast Tool and Die
• Meow! Get Ready for Low Power FM Radio for Cats and Dogs (Matthew’s piece on Flash Cats Radio)
• Michelle Bradley’s REC Networks
• Free Radio Berkeley
• Mbanna Kantako and the Human Rights Information Network (DIYmedia.net)
• The Inspiration for US Micropower Radio, and the Mediageek Radio Show – Mbanna Kantako from the Archives (Mediageek)
• Pete Tridish at International Media Action
• San Francisco Liberation Radio story on FoundSF
• Seizing the Airwaves – A Free Radio Handbook
• Low Power FM Radio – including details on Class D (10 watt) stations (FCC)
• XRAY.fm in Portland, Oregon
• Solving the Mystery of the Ubiquitous Radio Station Call Letter Signs: The Leo Blais Interview

Show Credits:

• This episode was produced by Jennifer Waits
• Hosted by Jennifer Waits, Eric Klein, Matthew Lasar and Paul Riismandel
• Edited by Eric Klein

The post Podcast #333 – Low Power FM for Dummies appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Jennifer, our intrepid radio station tour guide, leads us through some of her recent visits to college radio stations in New York and Rhode Island. This most recent academic year (2022-23) was an active one, with college campuses and radio stations coming back to life as pandemic restrictions have eased. We also discuss a long-running college radio program that just turned 50 years old. We are curious if listeners know of other programs of a similar vintage. We close the show with a discussion of the 20th anniversary of podcasting.

Show Notes:

• Podcast #329: New York College Radio Tours
• College Radio Station KXLU at Loyola Marymount University
• Alma Del Barrio – show at KXLU
• International Polka Party
• Radio Station Visit #141: WKCR at Columbia University
• College radio station WSLC at Sarah Lawrence College
• Radio Station Visit #171: WSLC at Sarah Lawrence College
• BSR aka Brown Student and Community Radio
• Radio Station Visit #170: BSR at Brown University
• WBRU radio at Brown University
• Brown Student Radio to go Online-Only (July, 2011 article on Radio Survivor)
• WBRU Programming Leaves FM in Advance of $5.63 Million License Sale to EMF (September, 2017 article on Radio Survivor)
• 360 Degrees Experience in Sound show on WBRU
• A Matter of Degrees (film)
• College Radio Survivor: Remembering Film “A Matter of Degrees” and More News
• WPIR Pratt Radio Tumblr
• WPIR Pratt Radio site
• Celebrating Podcasting’s 20th Birthday
• Podnews: Happy 20th Birthday, Podcasting
• Paul’s former podcast: Mediageek
• Jennifer’s appearance on Mediageek: The Value of College Radio (July 16, 2009)
• Why Every Radio Station Sounds the Same
• Paul appeared on the New Media Show episode: Unleashing the Potential of Audio and Video Content #547
• Podcast #135: Resurfacing Women’s Contributions in Podcasting History
• College Radio Station WSVA at the School of Visual Arts

Show Credits:

• Produced by Jennifer Waits
• Hosted by Eric Klein, Jennifer Waits and Paul Riismandel
• Edited by Eric Klein

The post Podcast #332 – More College Radio Tours & Podcasting Turns 20 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

It’s been nearly three years since the FCC first announced that a new low-power FM (LPFM) application window would be forthcoming. Now we know that November 1 – 8, 2023 will be the third-ever opportunity for qualified non-profits to apply for a license. Jennifer, Eric and Paul review all the pertinent details, explaining why there is excitement around LPFM and this next chance for new community and college radio stations to go on the air.

We also take another look at Franken FMs – vestigial low-power TV (LPTV) stations on channel 6 that can be heard at the far left end of the FM radio dial. They were supposed to go off the air a year ago when the last LPTV stations converted to digital broadcasts. But the FCC eventually granted 13 of them “Special Temporary Authority” to continue broadcasting an analog radio signal experimentally even while their video signals went digital. At its July meeting the Commission plans to vote on rules that would allow these Franken FMs to live on, and we discuss what’s at stake.

Show Notes:

• Podcast #269 – How To Get an FM Radio License in 2021
• New Opportunity for Low-Power FM Community Radio Stations Opens November 1, 2023
• Why There Will Be Fewer Opportunities for New LPFMs in the November Application Window
• The Greatest Flowering of Community Radio in History Happened in the 2010s
• Resources on applying for an LPFM license:
  • Rec Network’s LPFM.app
  • Common Frequency
  • Prometheus Radio Project
• KOMF-LP tour in Denver
• San Francisco Community Radio is a LPFM in a time-sharing agreement
• FrankenFMs Up for Final Vote at FCC
• Chicago’s MeTV FM Takes the Back Door to Radio Ratings Success

Show Credits

• This episode was produced by Paul Riismandel
• Hosted by Jennifer Waits, Eric Klein and Paul Riismandel
• Edited by Eric Klein

The post Podcast #331 – New Low-Power FM Opportunity Coming this November appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The Radio Survivors return with a new podcast episode! On this edition of the show, we discuss soundscapes and the concept of slow radio. Our guests, artists Brady Marks and Mark Timmings are the creators and producers of the 7th annual Wetland Project slow radio broadcast, taking place on Earth Day on April 22, 2023. This 24-hour broadcast is comprised of audio recordings made at the ṮEḴTEḴSEN wetland in W̱ SÁNEĆ territory (Saturna Island, BC) and is available for airing on interested radio stations (email info AT wetlandproject DOT com).

Brady Marks is a digital media artist working primarily in audiovisual practices, new media and kinetic art. She is also a member of the Soundscape Collective at Vancouver Co-operative Radio and a frequent host of Soundscape on Co-op Radio. Mark Timmings is a multidisciplinary artist who explores perceptions of place by appropriating data and enfolding them into the domain of art.

Show Notes:

• Wetland Project
• Wetland Project on Twitter
• The Wetland Project Returns for Earth Day 2021 (Radio Survivor)
• Mark Timmings
• Brady Marks
• Vancouver Co-Op Radio
• Soundscape Show on Vancouver Co-op Radio
• World Soundscape Project
• Hildegard Westerkamp
• Slow television (Wikipedia)
• Andy Warhol’s film Empire (Library of Congress article)
• Wetland Project: Explorations in Sound, Ecology and Post-Geographical Art (book)

Show Credits:

• This episode was produced by Jennifer Waits
• Hosted by Jennifer Waits and Eric Klein
• Edited by Eric Klein

The post Podcast #330: Wetland Project and Slow Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The Radio Survivors return with a new podcast episode! Jennifer reports on her visits to four college radio stations in New York state in November, 2022. Part of a longtime project to document radio station field trips, these recent tours are her first since 2019. As COVID-19 restrictions have loosened, stations are largely back to normal operations, with many on an upswing, with more active participants. Jennifer also shares some radio history tidbits, as each of the stations that she visited has fascinating back stories. At Union College, students began broadcasting music over amateur radio in 1920. A trip to the Union College archives was like a dream for our resident college radio historian.

Show Notes:

• Podcast #256: The Robin Hood of the Avant-Garde (episode with Kenneth Goldsmith)
• Peruse all of Jennifer’s Radio Station Tours
• Radio Station Visit #166: College Radio Station WCDB at University at Albany
• WCDB-FM at University at Albany
• WRUC-FM at Union College
• WRUC in the Union College Archives & Special Collections
• WXBC at Bard College
• WRPI-FM at Rensselaer Polytechnic University
• Wave Farm
• Radio Station Visit #145: Wave Farm and WGXC
• Radio Station Visit #146: WGXC Hudson
• Underground (Codes) piece at Wave Farm by Yvette Janine Jackson
• Freeform Portland
• Podcast #41: Raising the Antenna (Eric attends antenna-raising at Freeform Portland)
• Radio Station Visit #151: Freeform Portland
• Scumbag Radio
• Podcast #95: Mixcloud can be Community Radio, Too
• Is YouTube the Home of the New Radio Pirates?

Show Credits:

• Hosted by Eric Klein, Jennifer Waits and Paul Riismandel
• Edited by Eric Klein

The post Podcast #329: New York College Radio Tours appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The Radio Survivors return with a new episode! For this edition, recorded in July, 2022, our guest is Lori Emerson, Founding Director of the Media Archaeology Lab (the MAL). She’s also an Associate Professor in the English Department and Director of the Intermedia Arts, Writing, and Performance Program at University of Colorado at Boulder.

Lori joins us to chat about her current research into “other networks” and her work at the Media Archaeology Lab, which she started in 2009. Full of media from the past (computers, phones, radios, recording devices, books and more), the MAL “is a place for cross-disciplinary, experimental research, teaching, and creative practice using one of the largest collections in the world of still functioning media.” In our discussion, we also explore technology history, talk about Lori’s recent broadcasting experiments, and learn about the ways that experimental poetry is connected with vintage computers.

Show Notes:

• Lori Emerson‘s website
• Other Networks exploration on Lori’s website
• Media Archaeology Lab website
• Lori Emerson’s Twitter
• Sarah Grant, “Plant Nodes” 
• Danja Vasiliev, “Netless“
• Emulated versions of bpNichol’s “First Screening” (1982-83, written in Apple Basic for Apple IIe)
• One Laptop Per Child Mesh Network Wiki
• libi striegl and Lori Emerson article “Anarchive as technique in the Media Archaeology Lab | building a one Laptop Per Child mesh network” (PDF download, requires Academia.edu registration)

Show Credits:

• This episode was produced by Jennifer Waits
• Hosted by Jennifer Waits and Paul Riismandel
• Edited by Eric Klein

The post Podcast #328: Media Archaeology and Other Networks appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On this week’s program, we turn our attention to the history of industrial music – not the noisy music genre – but music played in industrial settings for workers. A variety of services offered (and still offer) background music for workplaces. Muzak and the RCA Plant Broadcasting System are just a few of the products that were sold to companies in the hopes of increasing morale and/or efficiency. Our guest, Alix Hui is associate professor of History at Mississippi State University and has been studying the history of industrial music systems, as well as background music generally.

Show Notes:

• Alexandra Hui profile at Mississippi State University website
• Alix’s paper at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference: “Laboring Sound: Industrial Music Systems, Worker Morale, and Pan-Aural Listening”
• Walter Van Dyke Bingham, industrial psychologist (Wikipedia)
• Muzak history (Wikipedia)
• Mood Media website
• Attention K-Mart Shoppers: K-Mart radio/audio collection on Archive.org
• Muzak to Get Mutated To: E-Z Listening with DEVO (article on Dangerous Minds)
• Scholar Emily Thompson

The post Podcast #327: Industrial Music Systems and Workplace Broadcasts appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The annual Infinite Dial survey from Edison Research was recently released, showing what people in the US are listening to, and where. It even includes social media platforms like TikTok, which Eric observes young people often use like radio, playing in the background as they go about daily activities. We review the stats, and also get into the FCC’s latest count of radio stations. Spoiler alert: there are more than ever.

Jennifer shares her recent visit to the Pyrite Radio art installation, featuring radios using fool’s gold as their crystal.

Show Notes:

• Edison Research Infinite Dial 2022
• FCC Broadcast Stations Totals for Q1 2022
• For comparison, Radio Station Totals for Q1 2012
• Jennifer’s dispatch on Pyrite Radio for Hii Magazine

The post Podcast #326: The State of Listening and Broadcast Radio in 2022 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The Radio Survivors return to their microphones to review what’s new in radio. Of course, the Russian invasion of Ukraine hangs heavy over our heads, and we review how the international community is leveraging radio to delivery needed communications and information to Ukrainians, as well as how radio is attempting to serve the Ukrainian diaspora. Unfortunately, independent voices inside Russia are also being repressed.

March is Women’s History Month, and the 8th is International Women’s Day. Jennifer participated in a special panel on “Gender Dynamics and Industry Barriers in Podcasting, Broadcasting, and Beyond,” airing on affiliate station XRAY.fm in Portland, Oregon.

We also touch on the Franken FMs that refuse to die, the anticipated LPFM application window, and SPIN magazine’s coverage of ICE FM at Antarctica’s McMurdo Station.

Show Notes

• XRAY’s 5th Annual Amplify Women Teach-In
• Polish Radio 1 is serving news to Ukraine with a Ukrainian-language news broadcast on longwave 
• WRMI Radio Miami International has resumed rebroadcasts of Radio Ukraine Int’l on shortwave daily, except Friday, at 1200 – 1230 UTC on 7570 kHz.
• NY Times: BBC revives shortwave radio dispatches in Ukraine, and draws ire of Russia
• The Guardian: State communications watchdog Roskomnadzor restricted access to BBC Russia’s online presence, as well as Radio Liberty and the Meduza media outlet
• Reuters: Liberal Russian radio station is taken off air
• Inside Radio: NAB Says Russian-Sponsored Programming Should Be Off U.S. Radio
• College Radio Stands With Ukraine
• About a “half-dozen” Franken-FMs remain on the air
• SPIN: ICE FM: The World’s Most Remote — And Coldest — Radio Station
• Podcast #146 – Volunteer Radio from Antarctica
• Audium
• World According to Sound
• Jennifer’s review of World According to Sound

The post Podcast #325 – Ukraine Radio, Int’l Women’s Day and Franken FMs appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Your host Eric Klein has dug deep into some personal radio archives to produce this week’s episode…

The waning days of each December is a special time for people who produce media. Very few people want to work during those dark days (literally dark in Northern Latitudes) devoted to spending time indoors, often with family. And chances are, fewer people will be tuning in that week in particular. And yet, the show must go on…

The post Podcast #324 – Heartfelt XMAS Filler appeared first on Radio Survivor.

As the year and semester draws to a close, we get real on this week’s episode and talk about work, burnout, volunteer labor, and how podcasting is not immune to the everyday stressors and challenges that we are all feeling right about now! Two of our favorite scholars, Jennifer Lynn Stoever and Hannah McGregor, join us to lend their perspectives on the work of podcasting and sound studies. We touch on the often-under acknowledged labor behind this work, discuss ways to create personal boundaries around work expectations, and learn about the concept of “hope labor.” Jennifer Lynn Stoever is an Associate Professor of English at Binghamton University, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sounding Out!: The Sound Studies Blog, and the author of The Sonic Color Line. Hannah McGregor is Assistant Professor of Publishing at Simon Fraser University as well as co-director of the Amplify Podcast Network and co-creator of Witch, Please, a feminist podcast on the world of Harry Potter.

Show Notes:

• Jennifer Stoever’s website
• Sounding Out! is a scholarly publication and podcast focused on sound studies
• Jennifer Stoever’s book: The Sonic Color Line: Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening
• Hannah McGregor’s website
• Amplify Podcast Network
• Witch, Please podcast
• SpokenWeb Podcast
• Secret Feminist Agenda podcast
• Previous Radio Survivor episodes with Jennifer Stoever and Hannah McGregor
  • Podcast #132: Sounding Out on the Cultural Politics of Sound & Listening (Jennifer Stoever)
  • Podcast #275: Making Scholarly Podcasts Count (Hannah McGregor)
  • Podcast #284: SpokenWeb and Literary Sound (Hannah McGregor)
  • Podcast # 289: Celebrating Women in Sound (Jenny Stoever and Jennifer Hyland Wang)
• Digital Sound Studies book
• Not Sorry podcasting network
• Patreon
• Podcast #321: The Long Sordid History of Broadcast Indecency Enforcement
• Journal of Popular Music Studies
• Sounding Out! on Twitter
• Sounding Out! Podcast #63: The Sonic Landcapes of Unwelcome: Women of Color, Sonic Harassment, and Public Space
• Locatora Radio

The post Podcast #323 – Hope Labor, Burnout, and Balance: Getting Real about Podcasting appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On the show this week, we explore one of our favorite topics: college radio history. Our guest, Andreas Preuss, just completed a multi-faceted project about student radio station WRAS at Georgia State University in Atlanta for his master’s thesis: Left of the Dial: Right on the Music: 50 Years of Georgia State FM Radio. We dig into various aspects of the station’s past, as well as Preuss’ interesting path to this project, having worked in college radio in the past as well as in commercial media for decades.

Show Notes:

• College radio station WRAS-FM at Georgia State University
• Left of the Dial: Right on the Music: 50 Years of Georgia State FM Radio (MA thesis)
• From R.E.M. to GPB, A Student Documents the Bittersweet History of College Radio Powerhouse WRAS (Saporta Report)
• Radio Survivor coverage of WRAS/GPB programming takeover and protests circa 2014-2015
• Tulane University radio station WTUL-FM in New Orleans
• Shortwave radio station WRNO (Wikipedia)
• WRNO Worldwide website
• Vanderbilt University’s college radio station WRVU
• Katherine Rye Jewell website
• Podcast #244: Exploring the So-Called ‘Golden Age’ of College Radio (with guest Katherine Jewell)
• Podcast #164: College Radio and the Culture Wars (with guest Katherine Jewell)
• WPRB-FM at Princeton University
• College Radio Watch: WPRB Launches History Site
• Jennifer Waits’ 2012 field trip report from visit to WRAS-FM
• Jennifer Waits’ 2016 field trip report from visit to WRPB-FM

The post Podcast #322 – College Radio History at WRAS appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Few topics create as much anxiety at college and community radio stations – not to mention many a commercial radio morning show – than broadcast indecency. Since the dawn of broadcast regulation in the US there have been legal restrictions on the kind of speech that may be broadcast on the public airwaves, with a particular focus on the topics of sexual and excretory functions. Yet, for all the worrying and fretting, for much of history there hasn’t been much action by the FCC. And even when there were more fines and actions, the actual number was still relatively small.

Prof. Christopher Terry from the University of Minnesota joins us to help unravel this history and set the record straight. First we have to define what “indecency” is, because the specific definition used for broadcast enforcement is not necessarily aligned with the common sense definition, nor is it the same as “obscenity,” which has it’s own particular legal definition. Just because some might call a word “obscene” doesn’t mean it necessarily is legally obscene (in fact, it probably isn’t), nor is it necessarily legally indecent (thought it might be).

Then Prof. Terry walks us through a long uneventful period that ends in the 1970s with the very first indecency fine and the Supreme Court decision Pacifica v. FCC, which kicked off a forty year period of increased enforcement and many more fines. Yet, in those four decades, the standard of indecent shifted both due to political pressures and court intervention. It leads up to 2018, when broadcast new organizations struggled with how to report on President Trump referring to some nations as “s**thole countries,” while still remaining compliant.

In the end, in 2021, it’s still the case that airing “indecent” programming between 6 AM and 10 PM may get you an FCC fine, but the risks are different than what you may have thought to be true one, two or three decades ago.

Show Notes

• “The living legacy of FCC indecency enforcement: Trump, ‘shithole’ and profanity in the news.” by Prof. Christopher Terry, Journal of Media Law and Ethics.
• Podcast #318: Battling the Zombie of the Fairness Doctrine

Featured image credit: Paulette Vautour on Unsplash

The post Podcast #321 – The Long Sordid History of Broadcast Indecency Enforcement appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On this week’s show, we return to the topic of hip-hop on the radio. While on Radio Survivor, we typically focus on non-commercial radio, like college and community stations; in this episode we look at why certain types of commercial radio stations were important to the growth in popularity of hip-hop music. Our guest, Amy Coddington, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Music at Amherst College and is writing a book about the history of hip-hop on commercial radio.

Show Notes:

• Amy Coddington’s website
• Podcast #145: Hip-Hop Radio Archive with guest Ryan MacMichael
• Podcast #152: The Longest Running Hip-Hop Radio Show in the World? with guest DJ A-L
• Community radio station KGNU is home to The Eclipse Show
• Racial Formation in the United States by Michael Omi and Howard Winant
• Backstory on “Walk this Way” from the Atlantic: “How Aerosmith and Run-DMC Begrudgingly Made a Masterpiece”
• Power 106 Los Angeles radio station
• Jason Tanz wrote the book: Other People’s Property: A Shadow History of Hip-Hop in White America
• Public Enemy’s “Rebel without a Pause” in the HipHop Archive and Research Institute
• Chuck D
• Paula Abdul’s Opposites Attract
• Amber Ruffin on rap lyrics being cut from radio edits of songs
• Snoop Dog
• Hot 97 radio station in New York
• Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight (1979)
• Blondie’s Rapture (1980)
• Wham’s Wham! Rap (1982)
• Influential DJ Frankie Crocker of radio station WBLS
• The Pharcyde

The post Podcast # 320 – How Hip-Hop Made it to Top 40 Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The Fairness Doctrine – a Federal Communications Commission rule that’s been out of commission since the 20th century – just doesn’t seem to die, at least in the minds of politicians, the press and much of the public. Politicos of many political stripes trot out its specter as a bogeyman any time its convenient, while efforts to regulate online speech draw inevitable comparisons.

According to Prof. Christopher Terry from the University of Minnesota, that’s because people fundamentally misunderstand what the Fairness Doctrine was, why it existed, and what it did. Often assumed to be a mandate for “equal time” for opposing positions, it was both more nuanced and less prescriptive. Moreover, the FCC’s interpretation and enforcement evolved over the years, from its first formulation in 1949, until its death in the 1980s.

Prof. Terry is here to set the record straight, explaining the rationale, history and actual life of the Fairness Doctrine. He also details why it was, and would be, a poor tool to grapple with the perceived imbalance of partisan national media, and why he thinks its zombie should finally be laid to rest.

Show Notes:

• The First Amendment Encyclopedia: The Fairness Doctrine
• Podcast #258 – Trump Admin Raises the Specter of the Fairness Doctrine
• A “distraction” that won’t go away: FCC drops Fairness Doctrine again
• The decade’s most important radio trends: #8 The Great Fairness Doctrine Panic

Photo by Nathan Wright on Unsplash

The post Podcast #318: Battling the Zombie of the Fairness Doctrine appeared first on Radio Survivor.

A year-and-a-half ago high school, college and community radio stations shut their studio doors in response to safety measures to prevent the spread of COVID. They quickly scrambled to find ways to stay on air, broadcasting archived programming, allowing DJs to pre-record or even broadcast live from home. We’ve dedicated several episodes to learning how different kinds of stations in a variety of regions confronted the emergency.

Whatever methods were employed, today – with the pandemic still ongoing – it’s heartening to listen around and note that most stations seem to have survived this period. There’s no sense that more stations closed down than in any other 18-month period. In fact, on October 1, college stations from around the world will join together in celebrating the 11th annual College Radio Day, featuring Ambassador “Weird” Al Yankovic.

We take this opportunity to survey radio’s remarkable survival story. Just as internet technology, like Zoom calls, revolutionized the ability to move work, school and other activities into the home, it also let stations stay connected with programmers and volunteers in a way that would have been significantly more challenging even just a decade earlier. Of course, we’re not arguing this is a net plus – too many lives have been lost or altered forever due to this disease. As well, working or DJing from home isn’t a boon for everyone, on top of the fact that closed studios severely impacts the collaboration and camaraderie that is at the heart of so many stations. Yet, it’s worth reflecting on why and how grassroots radio withstood this unprecedented challenge, continuing to serve listeners and communities and help them through this crisis.

Show Notes

• Episodes on stations dealing with the pandemic:
  • Podcast #237 – How Community & College Radio Can Deal with COVID-19
  • Podcast #238 – Social Distancing, Going Remote and Automation during Global Pandemic
  • Podcast #239 – Hunkering Down with Raven Radio in Sitka, Alaska
  • Podcast #240 – WFMU is Still On the Air During the Pandemic
  • Podcast #285 – Running a Big Community Media Organization in the 2nd Year of the Pandemic
  • Podcast #298 – College Radio at the end of the Academic COVID Year
• Oct. 1 is College Radio Day
• College Broadcasters Inc. Student Electronic Media Convention
• Radio World: “Goodbye ISDN, Hello Streaming“
• The Homelessness Marathon
• Negativland:
  • Negativland’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert
  • Negativland live (online) at the Ann Arbor Film Festival
  • Negativland’s Over the Edge Radio: Brain Science
• Princeton University’s WPRB
• Dr. Demento
• “Weird Al” Yankovic
• KCPR at Cal Poly is where “Weird” Al Got his start in radio
• Jennifer’s Tour of KRRC at Reed College
• KRRC
• Radio Survivor’s Top Radio Shows – Jennifer’s #4 – Dr. Demento

The post Podcast #317 – How Radio Survived 18 Months of Pandemic (and Keeps Going) appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Musician, DJ and radio artist Don Joyce passed away nearly six years ago, leaving behind a voluminous archive of his unparalelled collage radio program “Over the Edge.” The documentary “How Radio Isn’t Done” sheds light on this member of Negativland, his life and his work in recontextualizing the never-ending flow of media messages that flood everyday life.

Director Ryan Worsley joins to talk about Joyce, his hyper-focused artistic process and what she learned creating this affectionate and honest portrait of an iconoclastic figure and broadcasting legend.

Show Notes:

• “How Radio Isn’t Done” on Vimeo
• “How Radio Isn’t Done” on Amazon
• Paul’s review of the film, “An Affectionate & Honest Filmic Portrait of Negativland’s Don Joyce“
• Negativland – “The Chopping Channel”
• RIP Don Joyce: Negativland Member, Artist, KPFA DJ
• Negativland’s ‘Over The Edge’ Catalog Now Available at Internet Archive
• Radio Survivor Podcast #9: Remembering Negativland’s Don Joyce
• ABC (Australia) documentary about a long-running cassette radio show: “Cassette famous“
• Radio on Tape: from ‘Second Side Up’ to ‘The Hour of Slack’
• The Grassroots Radio Conference is happening Oct. 5 – 7 in Portland, OR. The call for proposals is now open.

The post Podcast #316 – How Radio Isn’t Done, According To Negativland’s Don Joyce appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Mitch Jeserich has been working as a host, producer and reporter for Pacifica Radio and KPFA for two decades.

His career in radio was just getting started as a volunteer when 9-11-2001 changed everything.

Host Eric Klein and guest Mitch Jeserich are friends and former co-workers at Free Speech Radio News in 2003, where Mitch was covering the capital in Washington D.C. and Eric was working on the tech-team in Berkeley.

Letters and Politics on KPFA

Letters and Politics on Youtube

FSRN’s website: Free Speech Radio News

FSRN via the wayback machine

The post Podcast #315 – Mitch Jeserich appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On the show this week we explore a pivotal period for radio news in the 1930s and learn why the Lindbergh kidnapping changed everything. Travel back in time with us. It’s March 1932 and a horrible crime has just occurred, the kidnapping of the 20-month-old son of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Imagine that you were living in the United States in 1932 and wanted to follow breaking news about this story. If it were 2021, the answer might be Twitter or the internet. But in the early 1930s, it was obviously a very different media landscape, largely consisting of print journalism, news reels, and radio. Our guest, Thomas Doherty joins us to provide historical context and shed light on radio’s role in the media frenzy surrounding the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby and subsequent trial and why it was a turning point for how breaking news was covered. Thomas Doherty, Professor of American Studies at Brandeis, is the author of Little Lindy is Kidnapped: How the Media Covered the Crime of the Century.

Show Notes:

• Thomas Doherty faculty page at Brandeis University
• Little Lindy is Kidnapped: How the Media Covered the Crime of the Century
• Lindbergh Kidnapping (FBI website)
• Wikipedia entry for journalist and writer Adela Rogers St. Johns
• Women Film Pioneers Project article about Adela Rogers St. Johns
• Canon 35: Cameras, Courts and Confusion
• The March of Time radio program (Wikipedia)
• Testimony of Anne Morrow Lindberg
• 25 Years after O.J Simpson’s Chase, L.A. is Still Obsessed with Police Pursuits (New York Times)

The post Podcast #314 – Radio and the Lindbergh Kidnapping appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On this week’s show, we revisit a topic that is near and dear to us, the preservation of sound. This time around the emphasis is on podcasts. Our guest Jeremy Morris is the founder of PodcastRE (which is short for Podcast Research), a searchable, researchable archive of podcasting culture. Morris is Associate Professor, Media and Cultural Studies in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and that’s where PodcastRE was launched. We dig into the functionality of PodcastRE and talk about some of the reasons why scholars are interested in researching podcasts.

Show Notes:

• PodcastRE website
• Jeremy Morris
• Podcast #230: Library of Congress Launches Podcast Preservation Project
• Podcast #253: Sound Streams: Dissecting the History of Internet Radio (episode with Andrew Bottomley that we re-aired the week of August 24, 2021)
• Podcast #135: Resurfacing Women’s Contributions in Podcasting History (with Jennifer Hyland Wang)
• Podcast #289: Celebrating Women in Sound (with Jennifer Hyland Wang and Jennifer Stoever)
• Eric Hoyt directs the Media History Digital Library
• PodDB
• Preserve this Podcast
• A few of the podcasts mentioned in this episode
  • How to Be a Girl
  • Serial
  • This Week in Blackness on YouTube
  • 99% Invisible
  • 3620 Podcast from doctoral students of the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
  • Reasonably Sound
  • Archive 81

The post Podcast #313 – PodcastRE’s Archive of Podcasting Culture appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Portrayals of radio in popular culture provide an interesting glimpse at radio’s role in society. At Radio Survivor, we’ve long been fascinated by radio depictions on both the small and large screen; so it is a treat to dive into this topic with Hemrani Vyas, Programming Coordinator at Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Vyas curated an entire day of radio-themed films for the cable network, focusing on the era of 1930 to 1950. This week we talk about some of the featured films and also dig into a broader discussion about the changing images of radio in the movies.

This episode originally aired in May of 2020. To hear the longer, original version click here.

Show Notes:

• TCM website
• List of Radio Films Aired on TCM on April 10, 2020:
  • Remote Control (1930)
  • So You Want to be on the Radio (1948) – 10 minute short
  • Are You Listening? (1932)
  • Here Comes Carter (1936)
  • The Next Voice You Hear… (1950)
  • Underground (1941)
  • One Fatal Hour (1936)
  • Mr. Dodd Takes the Air (1937)
  • Genius at Work (1947)
  • The Unsuspected (1947)

• Top 5 Television Shows Depicting Radio
• DJs in Peril: Radio Horror on Film
• Ten essential radio movies for the holidays
• More radio movies for the holidays
• Podcast #86: Radio Resistance from an Alternate Universe
• Podcast #195: Telepathy and Radio Mind

The post Podcast #311 – Classic Films about Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Today on the show we rebroadcast one of our favorite episodes from one year ago, which was described this way:

On August 27, 2020, nomadic online radio station Radioee.net is presenting a live, translingual 24-hour broadcast, Wireless, featuring 24 radio stations from all over the world. Taking place on the 100th anniversary of the first radio broadcast in Argentina and the first mass public entertainment broadcast in the world; Wireless launches at midnight Buenos Aires time on August 27, 2020. This date is significant, as it recognizes the inaugural Argentinian broadcast from Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires on the same day back in 1920, which used smuggled Marconi equipment to present a Wagner opera.

Radioee.net founders Stephanie Sherman, Agustina Woodgate and Hernan Woodgate join us on the show to share their plans for this fascinating broadcast featuring radio stations in Buenos Aires, Wuhan, Nigeria, Cuba, Uruguay, New York, and more. On the episode they talk about some of the topics that will be touched upon, from paratelepathy to radio history to acrobatics.

The audio available on this page is roughly the “radio edit” from one year ago. To hear the longer version (also known as the podcast edit) visit the original page: https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2020/08/podcast-259-radioee-net-celebrates-100-year-history-of-wireless-communication/

Show Notes:

• Wireless event page
• Radioee.net
• Wavefarm’s Wireless event page
• Radio Station Visit #145: Wave Farm in Acra, New York
• Podcast #151: The Wave Farm Grows Transmission Arts
• Early History of Radio Broadcasting in Argentina (OldRadio.com)
• Elsewhere museum and artist residency in North Carolina
• Agustina Woodgate to Broadcast from Henry Ford’s Abandoned Brazilian Factory (Miami New Times)
• Podcast #195: Telepathy and Radio Mind

The post Podcast #310 – Radioee.net Celebrates 100 Year History of Wireless Communication (now 101 years) appeared first on Radio Survivor.

What do home made short wave radios, flexi discs, and cyanotype photography have in common? Kirk Pearson is a composer and founder of Dogbotic, a full service music and sound studio, a radical multimedia arts workshop, and open source creative technology lab. Kirk joins us today to share the planning and thinking behind their next community workshop, Ear Re-Training, Media Manipulation for the Musical Mind.

Show Notes:

Some of the episodes of Radio Survivor referenced today:

• Prison Radio Exhibition episode of Radio Survivor #147

• episode 181 Julia Thomas – Visiting Community Radio Stations Around the World

• episode 71 Sylvia Thomas – Bolivia Is the Birthplace of Community Radio

The post Podcast #309 – Ear Retraining with Dogbotic appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Shortly after its 26th birthday, we revisit this interview celebrating a quarter-century of the MP3.

On July 14, 1995 the file extension .MP3 was chosen and set in place for an audio format that would go on to change music. Artist, scholar and curator John Kannenberg marks the 25th anniversary of this event with an online exhibit, “MP3 @ 25: The Anniversary Exhibition” at his Museum of Portable Sound.

John joins this episode to explain why it’s important to observe this anniversary, and to recount some of the milestones in MP3’s history. From the somewhat apocryphal story of Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner” as the first MP3, to the introduction of the iPod, he helps us understand the role of MP3 in delivering us into the fully digital music universe we now inhabit.

We also dive into his singular museum, which exists on a single iPhone 4s, with a printed catalog to guide the visitor. Because of COVID-19 John is now available to provide guided online tours of the many sound artifacts that Museum of Portable Sound has in its archives. Either way, it’s about experiencing sound directly and purely, without distraction. (And we are here for the love of Radio and Sound.)

Show Notes:

• MP3 @ 25: The Anniversary Exhibition
• The Museum of Portable Sound
• Atlas Obscura: A Loopy Library of Sounds Features Sprinklers, Sirens, and Freud’s Toilet
• The Diamond Rio was one of the first MP3 players, garnering a lawsuit from the recording industry
• 10 Reasons Why CDs Are Still Awesome (Especially for Radio)
• Minidisc.org
• Podcast #255 – ‘Geek of the Week’ and the Beginning of Internet Radio
• Podcast 253 – Sound Streams: Dissecting the History of Internet Radio
• Podcast #167 – Alternative Histories of Podcasting

The post Podcast #308 – Marking a Quarter-Century of MP3 (Replay) appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On this week’s show, we take a trip back in time to look at radio in the 1940s and 1950s. During this post-war period, women’s roles were shifting in the workplace and in popular media. Television arrived on the scene, bringing with it some, but not all, of the programming that people knew and loved from radio. Battles were also brewing over radio content, including violence, sex, and portrayals of family life. Our guest, scholar Catherine Martin, has been poring over FCC complaint letters from this period and explains what all the fuss was about. She is Visiting Assistant Professor in Media Studies in Denison University’s Department of Communication.

Show Notes:

• Catherine Martin’s article Eliminating “Blood and Thunder” from Containment Culture: Audience Efforts to Censor Postwar Radio Programming in the Run-up to Television (U.S. Studies Online)
• Radio Preservation Task Force, a project of the National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress
• Jennifer Stoever’s book, The Sonic Color Line: Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening
• Podcast #132: Sounding Out on the Cultural Politics of Sound & Listening
• The Television Code: Regulating the Screen to Safeguard the Industry by Deborah Jaramillo
• Guiding Light is one of the longest running soap operas on radio and television, airing in some form from 1937 to 2009
• Mr. and Mrs. North radio show episodes on the Internet Archive
• The Adventures of the Thin Man
• Podcast #14: Matthew Lasar Chats about Mae West
• Should NBC Finally Apologize to Mae West?
• Radio Reader: Essays in the Cultural History of Radio
• Vocal Tracks: Performance and Sound Media
• DuMont Television Network
• Honey West was a television crime drama series that aired 1965-66
• Podcast #135 – Resurfacing Women’s Contributions in Podcasting History with guest Jennifer Wang
• Podcast #289 – Celebrating Women in Sound with guests Jennifer Wang and Jennifer Stoever
• Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination by Susan Douglas
• George RR Martin talks about censorship on TV in the 90’s

Image Credit: Stockton Helffrich, “Memo from Stockton Helffrich to John Cleary,” February 2, 1955, Folder 112; Box 349; National Broadcasting Company Records, 1921-1976, Wisconsin Historical Society.

The post Podcast #307 – Battling over Violence, Sex and Women’s Roles on Postwar Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

What are the odds that a popular television series would feature your college radio station as a backdrop for two episodes? That’s exactly what Jennifer found, when HBO’s “Mare of Easttown” employed a set that accurately recreates Haverford College’s station as a location for the limited-run drama. Jennifer talked with the show’s production designer to get the behind-the-scenes scoop.

Paul recently experienced his own radio coincidence when he by chance discovered a storefront radio museum in the small Oregon city of Sutherlin. Although it was closed, the proprietor of the Radio Days Museum saw him outside and invited him in for a quick tour of the radio memorabilia collection. Paul also shares an orchestrated soundwalk he enjoyed down the road in Jacksonville, Oregon.

Show Notes:

• Creating Haverford College Radio on Mare of Easttown
• Podcast #298 – College Radio at the End of the Academic Covid Year
• HBO series “Mare of Easttown”
• Jennifer’s Radio Station Tours
• Radio Days Museum in Sutherlin, Oregon
• Britt Fest’s Ellen Reid Soundwalk
• Podcast #246 – Radio in the Movies
• An Even Bigger Songs about Radio Spotify Playlist
• Podcast #297 – Radio Studies and Sound Work
• California Historical Radio Society
• “On the Radio” Exhibit at San Francisco Airport Celebrates Radio History
• Podcast #138 – Radio History on Display at the San Francisco Airport
• Radio History Imprisoned at Cork’s Radio Museum Experience

The post Podcast #306 – Radio Coincidences, from Easttown to Sutherlin appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Border radio is one of our favorite topics at Radio Survivor and on this week’s episode we dig into the history of radio broadcasting on the northern border of Mexico. Scholar Sonia Robles shares the stories of some of the lesser-known, small broadcasters whose histories are often overshadowed by the wild tales of higher power border blaster stations. Robles is the author of Mexican Waves: Radio Broadcasting along Mexico’s Northern Border, 1930-1950 and Assistant Professor of History at University of Delaware. This episode was originally broadcast in August, 2020. To hear the original, longer version click here.

Show Notes:

• Mexican Waves: Radio Broadcasting along Mexico’s Northern Border, 1930-1950
• Podcast # 212 – Border Radio in North America
• DX Adventures at 1700
• Confirmations of 1700 (AM)
• Podcast #184 – Hidden Women’s Radio History in Uruguay
• Podcast #186 – African-American Preachers on Wax
• Podcast #252 – Exploring the Seeds of Public Radio in Educational Radio Archives
• Podcast #250 – Aimee Semple McPherson and the Early History of Radio Evangelists

The post Podcast #305 – Radio History on the Northern Border of Mexico appeared first on Radio Survivor.

As we wrap up Pride Month, our podcast discussion turns to queer spaces and queer community on the radio and in podcasting, specifically lesbian broadcasters in Canada. Our guest, Stacey Copeland is a media producer and Ph.D. candidate at Simon Fraser University’s School of Communication in Vancouver, Canada. Stacey has been researching the history of lesbian radio shows, including The Lesbian Show and Dykes on Mics. Community radio played an important role in welcoming gay and lesbian programming, with shows airing on stations like Vancouver Co-op Radio and campus-community radio station CKUT. Bringing the conversation to 2021, we also talk about connections between these early shows and current-day queer podcasts.

Show Notes:

• Stacey Copeland‘s website
• SpokenWeb podcast
• Amplify Podcast Network
• Podcast #284 – SpokenWeb and Literary Sound
• Podcast #275 – Making Scholarly Podcasts Count
• Podcast #297 – Radio Studies and Soundwork with Michele Hilmes
• The Archives of Lesbian Oral Testimony
• FemRadio at CJRU
• Vancouver Co-op Radio
• Dykes on Mykes on CKUT
• Listen to The Lesbian Show on Co-op Radio in The Archives of Lesbian Oral Testimony
• Pride FM Toronto
• Podcast # 187 – Archiving LGBTQ Radio History
• This Way Out
• The World Soundscape Project was established by R. Murray Schafer at Simon Fraser University
• Hildegard Westerkamp is a composer, radio artist, and sound ecologist
• Barry Truax is a composer and acoustic communication researcher
• The Heart podcast
• Procyon Podcast Network
• BC Gay and Lesbian Archives
• Queer FM on CITR
• Country Queers podcast
• Podcast #302 – Feminista Frequencies with Monica De La Torre
• KPFA show Lesbe Friends in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting
• Podcast #135 – Resurfacing Women’s Contributions in Podcasting History with Jennifer Hyland Wang
• The ArQuives – Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives
• Mermaid Palace
• Warriors Bards ‘n Brews podcast about Xena: Warrior Princess

Image Credit: Graphic for The Lesbian Show in Vancouver Gay Community Centre Newspaper from City of Vancouver Archives AM1675-S1-F1433

The post Podcast #304 – Lesbian Radio History in Canada appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Just when we thought the Franken FM era might be over for good, the FCC grants “Special Temporary Authority” to a LPTV channel 6 in San Jose, California to keep its analog signal – heard on the FM dial – on the air while transitioning its video signal to digital. We review this news, along with a proposal in front of the FCC to boost low-power FM stations to 250 watts.

We also take a look at the most recent issue of The Wire magazine, dedicated to radio in both broadcast and internet forms. Dedicated to “Adventures in Sound and Music,” the journal looks at stations that share experimental and forward-looking sounds, highlighting Radio Survivor favorites like Wave Farm and the Pirate Radio Sound Map, alongside community-oriented stations in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, South Africa and Palestine.

Then Jennifer shares her experience taking the cassette-hacking course that Eric discussed in episode #299, as we analyze the intermixing of radio, physical and digital media in the 21st century.

Show Notes:

• It’s Alive! FCC Authorizes Last-Minute Franken FM Experiment
• Time Is Running Out for FrankenFMs – Just 4 Months Left
• St. Francis High School Files Paperwork to Sell KSFH to Group Focused on South Asian Community
• REC LPFM Advisory Letter #11 – LP250 Upgrade: Technical Planning Considerations for LPFM Stations
• See if your LPFM station might be eligible for a power upgrade at check.LP250.com
• The Wire #449: Radio Activity / On Air
• Dogbotic: Cassette Hacking: A Modern Musician’s Guide to Mangling Magnetic Tape
• Podcast #293: Exploring Radio Art and Transmission Art with Anna Friz
• Podcast #292: The History of Sound Art with Judy Dunaway
• Radio Survivor Podcast #190: Radio Spectrum and Transmission Art with Amanda Dawn Christie
• Radio Survivor Podcast #193: Wavefarm, Reveil and Transmission Arts
• Radio Survivor Podcast #289: Celebrating Women in Sound with Jennifer Hyland Wang and Jenny Stoever
• Radio Survivor Podcast #151: The Wave Farm Grows Transmission Arts
• Sisters with Transistors
• Podcast #163 – The Post Radio is Dead Era

The post Podcast #303 – Radio on TV, Magazines and Tape appeared first on Radio Survivor.

This week, we take a close look at the history of an influential Spanish language community radio station: KDNA. Located in Washington State, the station launched in 1979 and serves a rural community which includes farm workers and immigrants. Our guest, Monica De La Torre, is Assistant Professor at the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University and is the author of a forthcoming book about KDNA called Feminista Frequencies: Community Building through Radio in the Yakima Valley.

Show Notes:

• Monica De La Torre
• Feminista Frequencies: Community Building through Radio in the Yakima Valley
• Chicana Radio Activists and the Sounds of Chicana Feminisms on SoundingOut!
• Looking Back on the Lesser-known Histories of Chicano Public Radio on Current
• KDNA radio station
• Soul Rebel Radio on KPFK in Los Angeles
• Bilingual community radio station KBBF-FM in Santa Rosa, California
• KRAB Archive for Seattle community radio station KRAB-FM (1962-1984)
• Womxn Who Rock collective
• KRZA community radio station

Related Episodes:

• Podcast #260: Radio History on the Northern Border of Mexico with guest Sonia Robles (1930-1950)
• Podcast #184: Hidden Women’s Radio History in Uruguay with guest Christine Ehrick (Radio Femenina, founded in 1935)
• Podcast #134: The KRAB-FM Archives
• Podcast #72: Pete Tridish Celebrates an LPFM Success Story (KPCN-LP, run by Oregon’s farmworkers union)

The post Podcast #302 – Feminista Frequencies appeared first on Radio Survivor.

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 “Transcript-A-Thon” event.

We welcome guests Vincent Kelley, Archivist at The Riverside Church Archives, and Ryn Marchese, Engagement and Use Manager for the American Archives of Public Broadcasting, to dig into the history of WRVR and its deep archive of truly historical audio. IN 1964 it was the first radio station to win a Peabody for its entire programming, which included coverage of the civil rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama. Among the famous figures who appeared on air are Pete Seeger, Malcolm X, Bob Dylan, Indira Gandhi, Aldous Huxley and Margaret Mead, while Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his pivotal “Beyond Vietnam” speech at the Riverside Church over WRVR-FM on April 4, 1967.

Show Notes:

• The WRVR-FM (Riverside Radio) Collection at the American Archives of Public Broadcasting
• The Riverside Church in the City of New York
• Join the Transcript-a-thon on June 17 at 1:00pm EDT
• WRVR Fix-IT+ Transcript Editor
• Press release about us recovering the original recording of Beyond Vietnam
• From the archive:
  • The Homosexual: A New Minority
  • Changing Attitudes Towards Women
• Podcast #250 – Aimee Semple McPherson and the Early History of Radio Evangelists
• Podcast #186 – African-American Preachers on Wax

The post Podcast #301 – Digitizing & Transcribing the Archives of NYC Progressive Church Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The Federal Communications Commission recently announced that November 2, 2021 will mark the opening of the next licensing window for full-power non-commercial / educational (NCE) FM radio stations. The Commission first hinted at this chance back in fall of 2020. Given how often our listeners ask how and when they can get a radio license, we immediately dedicated an episode to that topic. Now that more is known we decided to revisit it.

Even though the application window dates have not yet been announced, now is the time to get prepared. Broadcast attorney Frank Montero guests to help us understand the process of applying for an FM broadcast license. He’s a partner with Fletcher, Heald and Hildreth, which also publishes the CommLawBlog. He explains who qualifies to apply and other requirements to keep in mind.

License application windows are the only time when an organization may apply for an FM radio license, and they don’t happen frequently. The last full-power NCE window was more than a decade ago, and the last chance at an LPFM was 2013. As the FM dial fills up in cities and towns across the country, this may be the last opportunity for a new station in many regions. If you’re interested in operating a full- or low-power non-commercial station we we hope this episode helps get you started. Even if you’re not interested, it’s important to understand just how stations get on the air in the 21st century.

Show Notes:

• CommLawBlog – The Upcoming FCC Noncommercial FM and LPFM Filing Windows: What You Need to Know
• The Next Noncomm FM License Opportunity Opens November 2
• NFCB: Primer On The NCE Radio Filing Window
• FCC Chair: New LPFM & Noncomm License Opportunities Coming Soon
• FCC Awards Full-Power Licenses to 5 LPFMs, Plus 52 More Orgs (2010)
• FCC’s LPFM order will make 2013 a good year for community radio (2012)
• Radio Survivor documented the roll-out of new LPFM stations beginning with the most recent 2013 application window

Feature image adapted from “The FCC’s front door” by Rob Pegararo / flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The post Podcast #300 – How to Get a Noncomm FM License in 2021 (Replay) appeared first on Radio Survivor.

It seems like physical media continues to have a hold on humans, even while most of us in the West engage with online, streaming and virtual media for much, if not most, of our time. Audiocassettes are like radio, in that they have been declared dead multiple times in the last three decades, yet continue to be found, employed and enjoyed by new generations who insist on keeping them alive. Eric just completed a weekend-long cassette hacking workshop, joined by a diverse group of musicians and sound-makers of a variety of ages. He shares that experience as we discuss conjoined histories of cassettes and radio.

That leads us into a presentation Jennifer watched at this year’s virtual Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference, where she learned about a pre-VCR underground of people who recorded the audio of television shows onto cassette. It turns out some of these recordings may be the only surviving artifacts of some broadcasts that were not preserved, or have never again been seen or heard in their original form. We show how cassettes are for everyone who cares about sound in its myriad forms.

Also under discussion: the shutdown of internet radio directory service Reciva, and the perilousness of proprietary platforms.

Show Notes:

• Dogbotic’s Cassette Hacking Workshop
• Society for Cinema and Media Studies
• Broadcast Historian Nora Patterson
• Podcast #297 – Radio Studies and Soundwork
• Negativland: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
• Wobbly (Jon Leidecker)
• Wikipedia: Iannis Xenakis
• Podcast #145 – Hip-Hop Radio Archive
• Radio World: Reciva Internet Radio Platform Shutting Down
• “Electronic project kits: hands on with a vintage 160-in-1“
• Mystery Show Case #6 Kotter
• The Real World Homecoming: New York
• Billboard: ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ to Return With Fewer Music Videos Due to Licensing Constraints
• “The State” FAQ
• Podcast #141 – How Radio Isn’t Done, According To Negativland’s Don Joyce
• An Affectionate & Honest Filmic Portrait of Negativland’s Don Joyce
• Radio Garden
• Exploring Radio Garden on World Radio Day
• Radio Preservation Task Force
• Podcast #133 – Preserving Brooklyn Pirate Radio
• Soundtap’s College Radio Discovery Tool
• 82 Best Freeform College Radio Stations
• RIP: Podcast #125 – Radio Free America Is an Online Hub for Noncomm Radio
• Internet Archive
• Podcast #168 – A Time Machine for All the Radio plus Shortwave

The post Podcast #299 – Cassettes for Art, Radio and Recording TV appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Colleges and high schools are finishing up their first – and, with hope, last – full academic COVID year, and all indicators are that student radio remained on the air, as students adjusted to online classes and socially distant campuses. Jennifer Waits reports back from the Intercollegiate Broadcast System annual conference, held virtually this year, where she gauged the temperature of student broadcasters and the radio professionals who shared their advice with conference attendees. She and Paul Riismandel discuss what the long-term implications of virtual and hybrid broadcasting may have for college and community radio, taking into account that the accessibility that remote technology offers is weighed against the benefits of face-to-face interaction.

Paul shares some highlights from the 2021 Infinite Dial survey from Edison Research, delivering stats on what audio Americans are using in the car, and the growth of podcast listening. He also reminds us about the upcoming non-commercial radio license opportunity, which now has a firm date in November. Jennifer and Paul then finish things out with a look at Franken FMs, which are scheduled to leave the airwaves in July, when the FCC will require all remaining analog low-power TV stations to convert to digital.

Show Notes:

• Intercollegiate Broadcast System
• Podcast #295 – High School Podcasting with the Hosts of Rice and Shine
• High School Radio Station KMIH “The Bridge”
• HBO series “Mare of Easttown”
• Haverford on the Radio
• Haverford College’s Radio Heyday in the 1920s
• The Infinite Dial 2021
• Podcast #269 – How To Get an FM Radio License in 2021
• Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS)
• Netflix series “Daredevil“
• Leah Steuer
• Time Is Running Out for FrankenFMs – Just 4 Months Left
• The Antenna Man on YouTube: 87.7 Franken FM Radio Stations May Go Dark in July

The post Podcast #298 – College Radio at the end of the Academic COVID Year appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Renowned radio scholar Michele Hilmes is Professor Emerita, Media and Cultural Studies in the Department of Communication Arts at University of Wisconsin-Madison and has been a long time proponent of the importance of studying radio and sound, which have often been neglected in the broader field of media studies. She joins us on the show to discuss radio studies, her call for new terminology surrounding audio works, and the growing interest in sound studies.

Show Notes:

• Michele Hilmes website at University of Wisconsin
• Michele Hilmes piece Soundwork: Something to Work With in Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture
• Radio Preservation Task Force
• Podcast #135: Resurfacing Women’s Contributions in Podcasting History
• Podcast #167: Alternative Histories of Podcasting
• The Music Theory of TikTok Sea Shanties – A YouTube essay by Adam Neely
• Podcast #141: How Radio Isn’t Done According to Negativland’s Don Joyce and the archives of Over The Edge
• Have You Heard George’s Podcast?
• Eric realized during the editing process that the best example of the experimental sound documentary format he was struggling to name is probably The Kitchen Sisters.

The post Podcast #297 – Radio Studies and Soundwork appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Amanda Dawn Christie is an artist enamored with radios and radio waves. The Assistant Professor, Studio Arts at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada) joins us on the show to discuss her most recent transmission art project, Ghosts in the Airglow, in which she created work at the HAARP facility in Alaska.

Christie also shares with us the backstory of how she starting working with radio and radio waves, describing her fascination with radio towers and shortwave and recounting her numerous radio-related art projects.

This episode first aired in April of 2019. To hear the longer verson click here.

Show Notes:

• Amanda Dawn Christie’s website
• Faculty page for Amanda Dawn Christie at Concordia University
• Spectres of Shortwave
• Spectres of Shortwave Installations
• This New Brunswick Town Was Literally Haunted by the Radio (CBC Arts)
• Podcast #92: Conspiracy Theory & Community Radio
• Podcast #168: A Time Machine for All the Radio plus Shortwave
• Spies Still Using Radio
• The Secret Machine Behind Soviet Numbers Stations
• Podcast #86: Radio Resistance from an Alternate Universe
• Resistance Radio: Mesmerizing Dystopian Pirate Radio
• Genetrix Program
• Mystery Solved: ‘Thing in the Woods’ Revealed As… (CBC News)
• Ghosts in the Air Glow
• Concordia Transmission Artist Launches a High-Frequency Project – in Alaska (Concordia University)
• Audio from Ghosts in the Air Glow

The post Podcast #296: Radio Spectrum and Transmission Art – rebroadcast appeared first on Radio Survivor.

This week, we are joined by the hosts of the podcast Rice and Shine. Led by four Seattle-area teenagers, the chat-style program provides a glimpse into the lives of 9th graders beginning high school from a distance during a pandemic. Rice and Shine is an incredible time capsule of the current school year, as hosts Lauren, Sophie, Ava and Grace talk pop culture, discuss the challenges of remote learning, address anti-Asian American violence during the COVID-19 outbreak, and share their experiences as Asian-American girls. They launched the podcast in 2020 as part of their participation at high school radio station KMIH-FM.

Show Notes:

• Rice and Shine podcast
• High school radio station KMIH 88.9 FM The Bridge
• Jennifer’s tour of KMIH
• Podcast #177: Seattle’s Rich High School Radio Scene
• Podcast #263 – Broadcasting High School Radio through Wildfires and a Pandemic

The post Podcast #295 – High School Podcasting with the Hosts of Rice and Shine appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The PIRATE Act was signed into law more than a year ago, but the rules governing increased fines for unlicensed broadcasting are about to go into effect on April 26. The Act is intended to give the FCC additional tools for tamping down pirate radio activity in hot beds like Boston and Brooklyn, NY, but there are reasons to be skeptical.

Brooklyn-based writer, post-production mixer and field recordist David Goren joins to help us tease out the real-world implications. Goren is also the creator of the Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map and has been monitoring and recording unlicensed radio activity in the borough for decades.

Also joining the show is Dr. Christopher Terry from the University of Minnesota. A professor of media law, he helps illuminate some of the legal and bureaucratic elements that complicate the Commission’s efforts. He also catches us up on the latest development in the battle over media ownership rules, with the Supreme Court issuing a narrow unanimous ruling in favor of the FCC’s most recent changes, but not quite addressing the decades-long gridlock in that policy area.

Show Notes:

• David Goren
• The Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map
• The PIRATE Act
• Radio World: FCC Can Use New Pirate Radio Fines Starting April 26
• FCC: Enforcement Bureau Warns Property Managers That Tolerate Pirate Radio
• New York City’s Pirates of the Air
• Podcast #133: Preserving Brooklyn Pirate Radio
• Library of Congress’ Radio Preservation Task Force
• Radio Survivor’s most recent episode on Wave Farm, inluding numerous links.
• KCRW: Outlaws of the Airwaves: The Rise of Pirate Radio Station WBAD
• WVIP
• Podcast #168: A Time Machine for All The Radio Plus Shortwave
• Podcast #3: FCC Paper Tiger Teams vs Pirate Radio (episode with John Anderson)
• Listen to this BBC Documentary about 5 Community Radio Stations around the World
• Podcast #282 – New FCC, Who Dis?
• Podcast #277 – How Does the FCC Solve Anything?

The post Podcast #294 – Reading the PIRATE Act / FCC & the Supremes Pt. 2 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

What is radio art? What is transmission art? We discuss the experimental side of radio and artistic uses of radio transmissions on our show this week, looking at historical and contemporary examples. Artist and scholar Anna Friz joins us to chat about these concepts, sharing how her college/community radio past in Canada inspired her to immerse herself in the practice of sound art and radio art. Friz is Assistant Professor, Film and Digital Media at University of California, Santa Cruz and also serves on the board of Wave Farm.

Show Notes:

• Anna Friz’s website
• Jennifer Waits’ article about Anna Friz’s UC Radio Network presentation about the history of radio art and transmission art
• Anna Friz radio art piece “Collecting Clocks and Losing Time” on Wave Farm’s The Radio Art Hour
• University of British Columbia’s campus-community radio station CiTR
• Western Front, an artist-run centre in Vancouver, BC
• Kunstradio in Austria
• Negativland website
• Delia Derbyshire and the History of the BBC
• Daphne Oram, electronic music pioneer
• Tetsuo Kogawa‘s Radio Art works
• Video of Tetsuo Kogawa performaing
• The Joy Channel release by Anna Friz and Emmanuel Madan
• Solar Radio/Embedded Radio Device piece by Absolute Value of Noise and Anna Friz
• CWCH Collective
• NRRF B Radio
• Transmission Art in the Present Tense – article by Anna Friz
• More about the little people in the radio

Related Episodes about sound art, transmission art, women in sound:

• Radio Survivor Podcast #292: The History of Sound Art with Judy Dunaway
• Radio Survivor Podcast #190: Radio Spectrum and Transmission Art with Amanda Dawn Christie
• Radio Survivor Podcast #193: Wavefarm, Reveil and Transmission Arts
• Radio Survivor Podcast #289: Celebrating Women in Sound
• Radio Survivor Podcast #151: The Wave Farm Grows Transmission Arts
• Radio Survivor Podcast #137: Zach Poff Build a Radio Station Inside a Pond
• Radio Survivor Podcast #105: Incoming Wounded – Interview with WEFT late-night DJ Ed Hadley

The podcast began with a discussion of this recent piece of sound collage https://youtu.be/hhirSscNuuc

The post Podcast #293 – Exploring Radio Art and Transmission Art appeared first on Radio Survivor.

What is sound art? And what do we know about its origin story? We explore this question and more with our guest this week, artist and educator Judy Dunaway. An adjunct professor in the History of Art Department at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Dunaway’s recent article, “The Forgotten 1979 MoMA Sound Art Exhibition,” is a fascinating look at the history of sound art and highlights important contributions by female artists. In our wide-ranging discussion, we also hear about Dunaway’s own artistic practice, from her work with latex balloons to transmission art to a “phone improv” show over BlogTalkRadio a decade ago.

Show Notes:

• Judy Dunaway’s website
• Amplified Tenor Balloon work
• The Forgotten 1979 MoMA Sound Art Exhibition appears in Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture
• Maggi Payne’s website
• Connie Beckley’s artwork at MoMA
• Julia Heyward bio on Electronic Arts Intermix
• Judy Dunaway’s Duo for Radio Stations was simultaneously performed over college radio stations WFMU and WKCR
• Phone Improv Show
• Sound artist Nam June Paik created the transmission art piece Good Morning Mr. Orwell using TV stations in Paris and New York City
• Cellist Charlotte Moorman was Paik’s muse and he made the “TV Cello” for her over which he would broadcast live video
• Max Neuhaus, most known for his piece Times Square, did an early work, Drive-In Music, using radio transmissions as well as other transmission works, including Public Supply I (using listener phone calls to WBAI) and Radio Net
• Alvin Lucier‘s oft-cited piece I am Sitting in a Room can be heard on YouTube
• Artist Rie Nakajima‘s piece Wind Touch
• Sound sculpture organization Powland
• Minimalism (art)
• Minimalism (music)

Related Episodes about sound art, transmission art, women in sound:

• Radio Survivor Podcast #190: Radio Spectrum and Transmission Art with Amanda Dawn Christie
• Radio Survivor Podcast #193: Wavefarm, Reveil and Transmission Arts
• Radio Survivor Podcast #289: Celebrating Women in Sound
• Radio Survivor Podcast #151: The Wave Farm Grows Transmission Arts
• Radio Survivor Podcast #137: Zach Poff Build a Radio Station Inside a Pond

The post Podcast #292 – The History of Sound Art appeared first on Radio Survivor.

A super hero comic is at the heart of The New Adventures of Super Indian, a forthcoming audio drama from Native Voices at the Autry. Our guests on the show include Super Indian’s creator, playwright and director, Arigon Starr (an enrolled member of the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma) and artistic director DeLanna Studi (an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation). Super Indian actually began as a radio serial in 2006 and was transformed into a full-blown comic by 2012. As Native Voices at the Autry looked to its next production during the pandemic, it jumped at the chance to do another audio version of Super Indian. Although theater is quite different in a remote context, the folks behind Super Indian are also relishing the fact that an online audio serial will be accessible to audience members from all over the world. The New Adventures of Super Indian is a 4-part serial. The first episode premieres on April 14, 2021, with subsequent episodes debuting once a week.

Show Notes:

• New Adventures of Super Indian from Native Voices at the Autry
• Super Indian Comics
• Arigon Starr
• DeLanna Studi
• Eric referenced this article at the end of the podcast: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/24/theater/mta-plays-subway-rattlestick.html?referringSource=articleShare

The post Podcast #291 – The New Adventures of Super Indian appeared first on Radio Survivor.

One of the biggest celebrities in Los Angeles in the early part of the 20th century was Aimee Semple McPherson. She inspired scandalous headlines and fictional depictions, including the character Sister Molly on the Showtime series, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels and Sister Alice McKeegan on the 2020 HBO reboot of Perry Mason. Yet the story that is less frequently told is McPherson’s embrace of radio. She built her own powerful station, KFSG, in Los Angeles in the 1920s, which operated from the grand Angelus Temple, where her Foursquare Church was headquartered.

On this episode, scholar Tona Hangen joins us to shed more light into the radio work of Aimee Semple McPherson and to also provide some context about the early days of Christian radio evangelists in the United States. Hangen is the author of Redeeming the Dial: Radio, Religion and Popular Culture in America and is Professor of History at Worcester State University.

Show Notes:

• The original broadcast of this episode, which includes 30 additional minutes of the interview with our guest. (The unheard portion begins after the initial 59 minutes.) Episode #250 of Radio Survivor

• Tona Hangen

• Redeeming the Dial: Radio, Religion, and Popular Culture in America

• Radio Reader: Essays in the Cultural History of Radio (Good Reads)

• Penny Dreadful: City of Angels

• Penny Dreadful: City of Angels – Sister Molly Explained (Den of Geek)

• Will Aimee Semple McPherson Win the Low Power FM Sweepstakes (Radio Survivor)

• Old Time Radio and the Power of Faith (Radio Survivor)

• Radio Survivor Podcast #186 – African-American Preachers on Wax

• Foursquare ChurchHistory of KFSG, Los Angeles (Jeff Miller website)

• There was a musical: Scandalous

The post Podcast #290 – Aimee Semple McPherson and the Early History of Radio Evangelists appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In honor of Women’s History Month, this week’s episode focuses on women in sound. Our guests, Jennifer Hyland Wang and Jenny Stoever, return to the show to discuss sound studies, the cultural politics of listening, the history of women’s voices on the airwaves and on podcasts, as well as broader issues of representation.

Jennifer Hyland Wang is an Adjunct Professor at University of Wisconsin, Madison. Jenny Stoever is Associate Professor of English at Binghamton University and Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sounding Out!: The Sound Studies Blog.

Show Notes:

• Sounding Out!
• The Sonic Color Line: Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening, by Jennifer Stoever
• Jennifer Hyland Wang piece “Producing a Radio Housewife: Clara, Lu ‘n’ Em, Gendered Labor, and the Early Days of Radio”
• Podcast #132: Sounding Out on the Cultural Politics of Sound & Listening
• Podcast #135: Resurfacing Women’s Contributions in Podcasting History
• Podcast #186: African-American Preachers on Wax
• Podcast #250: Aimee Semple McPherson and the Early History of Radio Evangelists
• The Read
• Locatora Radio
• Sounding Out! Podcast #63: The Sonic Landscapes of Unwelcome: Women of Color, Sonic Harassment, and Public Space
• Waiting to X-hale
• Unladylike
• Zigzag
• Why Aren’t There More Female Producers? – A Youtube essay by Benn Jordan about women in music production
• https://www.womeninsound.com/
• https://womensaudiomission.org/
• https://sammusmusic.com/
• The episode of the podcast in which a younger person tells the hosts about their thoughts on physical music – Podcast #179 – Don’t Throw Your CDs Away in 2019
• https://www.standforsonicdiversity.com/

The post Podcast #289 – Celebrating Women in Sound appeared first on Radio Survivor.

This week we share more evidence of how broadest radio is an important informational lifeline and human connection for so many people. As most of the country enters year two of the pandemic, we catch up again with Becky Meiers, General Manager of community radio station KCAW-FM in Sitka, Alaska. We last spoke with Becky at the end of March 2020, before any cases of COVID-19 had been diagnosed in this remote community, though she shared the station’s preparedness plan.

KCAW serves a vital communications role in Southeastern Alaska where small communities are spread out without overland connections, and the only travel is by air or by sea. Becky tells us how the station has gotten through the last year, bringing local broadcasters back to the air as possible, while also growing its local news coverage. Becky also regales us with stories from her journeys to isolated “translator communities” where local repeater transmitters (a/k/a “translators”) required emergency repairs and maintenance.

Show Notes:

• KCAW-FM Raven Radio
• Podcast #239 – Hunkering Down with Raven Radio in Sitka, Alaska
• Touring KCAW, Sitka Alaska’s Raven Radio
• Podcast #197 – Raven Radio in Sitka, Alaska
• Report for America
• Mt. Edgecumbe High School

The post Podcast #288 – Eagle vs. Transmitter appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Jennifer, Eric and Paul join together to review what’s news as we kick off the month of March. Top of the list is an upcoming FCC radio license auction. Originally planned for April 2020, but delayed by the first coronavirus lockdowns, the auction will see 140 commercial radio construction permits up for bid. We discuss if this is a good opportunity for community organizations hoping to broadcast, and things to keep in mind when applying.

A new Nielsen report shows that the podcast audience has grown more diverse than the US population as a whole, and Jennifer alerts us to a fascinating new podcast the dives into the audio diaries of former first-lady Ladybird Johnson. Then we dig into one of the biggest controversies in podcasting right now, the “Reply All” mini-series on the racist workplace culture at “Bon Appetit” magazine, that brought a spotlight on the racial inequities in the podcast’s own corporate home. Rather than picking apart the details, we analyze how simply being a new medium open to fresh ideas and voices isn’t enough to escape the racial and gender biases that are still pervasive in media organizations and the culture at large.

Show Notes:

• FCC: Auction 109 announced
• Completion of this July commercial station auction is a pre-requisite for the upcoming non-commerical and LPFM license windows.
• Inside Radio: Podcast Audiences Are Increasingly Diverse with Different Strokes for Different Folks.
• ABC News: Audio diaries reveal Lady Bird Johnson’s unseen influence in husband’s administration
• Podcast #135 – Resurfacing Women’s Contributions in Podcasting History
• Podcast #184 – Hidden Women’s Radio History in Uruguay
• NY Times: ‘Reply All’ Podcast Is Paused After Accusations of Toxic Culture
• “Mystery Show” podcast
• “Back to the Double R” is Jennifer’s new “Twin Peaks” rewatch podcast

Feature image credit: Wikimedia Commons – CKUA Radio Tower on campus / Public Domain

The post Podcast #287 – New Station Opportunity, Women’s History Month, and more appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On this week’s show we take a look at the ways that Native Americans used sound technology during radio’s earliest days and how that inspired and led to the flourishing Native media landscape, including tribal radio stations. Our guest, Josh Garrett-Davis, is Associate Curator at the Autry Museum and author of a recently completed dissertation: Resounding Voices: Native Americans and Sound Media, 1890-1970.

Show Notes:

• Josh Garrett-Davis website: http://www.joshgarrettdavis.com/
• Autry Museum of the American West website: https://theautry.org/
• Resounding Voices: Native Americans and Sound Media, 1890-1970: https://dataspace.princeton.edu/handle/88435/dsp018910jx50x
• The “Tribal Drum” of Radio: Gathering Together the Archive of American Indian Radio (piece on Sounding Out!) https://soundstudiesblog.com/2015/02/19/the-tribal-drum-of-radio-gathering-together-the-archive-of-american-indian-radio/
• KILI radio, the voice of the Lakota Nation: http://www.kiliradio.org/
• KINI radio: https://www.kiniradio.com/
• Radio Free Alcatraz: https://pacificaradioarchives.org/recording/bb545701-bb545740
• Native American Activism on the Airwaves with the “Seeing Red” Radio Archive: https://historyhub.history.gov/community/american-indian-records/blog/2020/08/10/native-american-activism-on-the-airwaves-with-the-seeing-red-radio-archive
• More details about the “Indians for Indians Hour”: https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/IndiansForIndians.pdf
• Michael Keith’s book, Signals in the Air: Native Broadcasting in America https://www.amazon.com/Signals-Air-Broadcasting-America-Society/dp/0275948765
• Podcast #221: The Intertwined History of the Radio and Recording Industries with guest Kyle Barnett: https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2019/11/26/podcast-221-the-intertwined-history-of-the-radio-and-recording-industries/
• Podcast #186: African-American Preachers on Wax with guest Lerone Martin https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2019/03/27/podcast-186-african-american-preachers-on-wax/
• Podcast #190: Radio Spectrum and Transmission Art with guest Amanda Dawn Christie https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2019/04/24/podcast-190-radio-spectrum-and-transmission-art/
• Podcast #122: The Popular Community Radio Movement in Argentina https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2017/12/26/podcast-122-popular-community-radio-movement-argentina/
• Native Voices over the Airwaves exhibition page at University Libraries at University of Oklahoma https://libraries.ou.edu/content/native-voices-over-airwaves-exhibition-recordings-available-nov-14
• Details about David Goren’s BBC documentary about community radio stations around the world, including one from the Navajo Nation: https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2021/02/15/listen-to-this-bbc-documentary-about-5-community-stations-around-the-world/
• Network Sovereignty: Building the Internet across Indian Country https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295741826/network-sovereignty/
• Podcast #103 – The Popular Community Radio Movement in Argentina – https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2017/08/09/podcast-103-popular-community-radio-movement-argentina/

The post Podcast #286 – Native American Voices on the Air in the Early Days of Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Nathan Moore is the General Manager at WTJU and the Staff Advisor of WXTJ at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He is also the current President of the Board of the NFCB, the National Federation of Community Broadcasters.

We invited Nathan Moore onto the show to ask about running community and college radio stations at the start of the second year of the Pandemic. We talk about remote live broadcasting, training and recruiting new volunteers, and strengthening the mission of community and student media and the arts.

Show Notes:

• Interview with Nathan Moore at the start of the Pandemic: Podcast #238 – Social Distancing, Going Remote and Automation during Global Pandemic
• Nathan Moore’s first interview : Podcast #207 – Building More Communities Around Your Station

• Jennifer’s tour of WTJU and WXTJ https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2017/04/13/radio-station-visit-129-wtju-at-university-of-virginia/
• Public Media For All episode of Radio Survivor: https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2020/11/04/podcast-270-public-media-for-all/
• Virginia college and community radio alliance: https://www.vacollegeradio.org/
• Podcast network Virgina audio collective: https://virginiaaudio.org/

The post Podcast #285 – Running a Big Community Media Organization in the 2nd Year of the Pandemic appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On this week’s show we learn about SpokenWeb, a Canadian project focused on the preservation of literary sound recordings. Partly inspired by the energetic poetry scene of the 1960s, SpokenWeb works to preserve recordings of these live events and also describe and share this material. Our guest, Hannah McGregor, leads the SpokenWeb Podcast Task Force and hosts the SpokenWeb podcast. She shares not only the back story about SpokenWeb, but also the breadth of material featured on its monthly podcast.

Show Notes:

• SpokenWeb website
• SpokenWeb podcast
• SpokenWeb podcast ShortCuts: Short Stories about How Literature Sounds
• Podcast #275 – Making Scholarly Podcasts Count
• SpokenWeb Podcast – Drum Codes: The Language of Talking Drums
• SpokenWeb Podcast – How are We Listening Now? Signal, Noise, Silence
• Podcast #132 – Sounding Out on the Cultural Politics of Sound & Listening
• Podcast #283 – Project STAND is Archiving Student Activism
• Reviews in DH website
• PennSound website
• Jennifer’s original SpinningIndie blog
• Jennifer’s first scholarly journal article about college radio, ‘Does Indie Mean Independence?’ Freedom and Restraint in a Late 1990s U.S. College Radio Community, is in a July, 2008 edition of Radio Journal
• Eric Klein randomly mentioned an old friend who is responsible for his young fandom of Twin Peaks in 1990, Jessica Hoffmann.

The post Podcast #284 – SpokenWeb and Literary Sound appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On Radio Survivor we are interested in not only audio, but also its history as well as preservation efforts. Along those lines, we have done numerous episodes about archives. We additionally have a strong passion for student-produced media, like high school and college radio. On this episode, we discuss an interesting intersection of the two, as we focus on archives and student activism. Our guest, Lae’l Hughes-Watkins, is the founder of Project STAND (Student Activism Now Documented) and is also University Archivist at University of Maryland. She explains to us the importance of archiving student activism, past and present, as well as the complexities and ethical considerations when doing this work.

Show Notes:

• Project STAND website
• Project STAND podcast: A Blueprint
• WMUC Radio
• Saving College Radio: WMUC Past, Present and Future online exhibit
• Spinning Indie Field Trip 66: College Radio Station WMUC at University of Maryland
• Fay M. Jackson and the Color Line: The First African-American Foreign Correspondent for the Associated Negro Press

Photo of Foothill College Archives by Jennifer Waits

The post Podcast #283 – Project STAND is Archiving Student Activism appeared first on Radio Survivor.

What a difference a week makes. President Biden has appointed Jessica Rosenworcel as acting chair of the Federal Communications Commission, only the second time a woman has held the post. This signals the beginning of a new agenda at the Commission – though currently evenly split down party lines – and Prof. Christopher Terry from the University of Minnesota is here to help us read the tea leaves.

But that doesn’t mean the legacy of the old FCC is gone yet. Just one day before the inauguration, the agency was in front of the Supreme Court petitioning to get out of its nearly-two-decade Groundhog’s Day of repeatedly failing to properly revisit and revise media ownership rules. Although many press reports concluded that the justices were more sympathetic to the FCC’s arguments, Prof. Terry isn’t so sure, and tells us why. He also itemized some other important issues – like Network Neutrality – that the Commission will likely have to deal with in the coming year.

Show Notes

• Commissioner Rosenworcel’s podcast is “Broadband Conversations“
• Broadcasting and Cable says: “government attorneys and broadcasters were likely not unhappy with the tenor of the questioning” when the FCC was in front of the Supreme Court
• Podcast #277 – How Does the FCC Solve Anything?
• Podcast #281 – Wrapping Up Section 230 & the VOA
• Podcast #265 – Inside the “Little Known” Voice of America and the U.S. Agency for Global Media
• Leadership Changes at U.S. Agency for Global Media and Voice of America

The post Podcast #282 – New FCC, Who Dis? appeared first on Radio Survivor.

There are a few stories we were watching closely at the end of 2020, and we wanted to bring listeners up to date. First up is Section 230, the law that provides a degree of immunity to online platforms – from social media to community radio stations – for consequences resulting from what their users might post or share on their platforms. Trump had urged its repeal, apparently to get back at big tech companies like Twitter, and installed a new FCC commissioner in December who is very supportive of the FCC taking over administration of the statute, regulating online speech. That put eyes on the FCC’s January meeting. We’ll tell you what happened.

We’ve also been tracking controversies at the Voice of America, where a political appointee has been pressuring staff to avoid news coverage critical of the US. The situation recently came to another head. Then our reflection on VOA’s mission spurs Paul to share the story of when his grandmother was a broadcaster for the service.

We also spend some time learning about Jennifer’s new podcast project, and discuss the evolution of podcast formats since the early days of the medium.

Show Notes:

• On these two episodes Prof. Christopher Terry discusses the recent controversies over Section 230:
  • Podcast #277 – How Does the FCC Solve Anything?
  • Podcast #258 – Trump Admin Raises the Specter of the Fairness Doctrine
• Podcast #265 – Inside the “Little Known” Voice of America and the U.S. Agency for Global Media
• PBS Newshour: What we saw the day the Capitol was attacked | ‘America, Interrupted’ Podcast
• Marc Maron reflects on the medium of podcasting in the 300th episode of WTF
• Updates on changes at the USAGM and VOA in the days following the recording of this episode: Leadership Changes at U.S. Agency for Global Media and Voice of America

The post Podcast #281 – Wrapping Up Section 230 & the VOA appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Radio history is close to our hearts at Radio Survivor and on this week’s episode we explore the story of student radio in Australia. Our guest, Rafal Alumairy, is working on book about this little-told history. She shares with us details not only about the timeline of student radio in Australia, but also some intriguing intersections with pirate radio and commercial radio activities.

Thanks to Radio Survivor friend Jose Fritz of Arcane Radio Trivia for alerting us to Rafal’s work!

Show Notes:

• Arcane Radio Trivia interview with Rafal Alumairy
• Rafal Alumairy’s A History of Student Radio in Australia website
• Episode 1 of Student Radio History Podcast: Pirate Radio 3DR – Make Radio Not War

The post Podcast #280 – Student Radio History in Australia appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Zach Poff put a radio station inside a pond. Poff is a media artist, educator and maker-of-things, and he explains that project and talks about making art with radio technology and listening to sound art. This is a re-broadcast of our episode from April, 2018.

Show Notes

• Zach Poff’s Pond Station is broadcasting live during the day-light hours from just below the surface of a pond.
• Soundcamp is a network of listening points at sunrise on International Dawn Chorus Day, 24 hours of live broadcasting which chases the dawn across the globe. In 2018, Dawn Chorus Day is May 5-6
• Wave Farm is a non-profit arts organization driven by experimentation with broadcast media and the airwaves
• Wave Farm’s WGXC 90.7-FM is a creative community radio station based in New York’s Greene and Columbia counties.
• Making obsolete computer sound hardware work again.
• Video Silence harvests an ongoing compilation of quiet moments from broadcast television.
• The Sun Dialogs
• The Radia network is an international informal network of community radio stations that have a common interest in producing and sharing art works for the radio. http://radia.fm/
• KUNSTRADIO is in Austria (not Australia, Eric Klein regrets the error)
• Radio Survivor ep 96 on Smart Speakers and Community Radio
• Felix Blume is creating public domain sound art from around the globe: www.felixblume.com/
• Felix Blume’s album on Sonic-Terrain
• Eric Klein’s radio drama podcast utilizing the work of Felix Blume: derailer.xyz/2016/11/02/tilting-at-windmillsdreaming-of-defenestration/

The post Podcast #279 – Zach Poff Built a Radio Station Inside a Pond appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Radios in the trees, a transmitter in the pond, and a weather-driven synth. These are just some of what you’ll find on The Wave Farm, a 29-acre property in New York’s Hudson Valley dedicated to radio and transmission arts. It’s anchored by community radio station WGXC, accompanied by a cornucopia of additional tiny terrestrial and internet stations.

Jennifer Waits takes us on an auditory tour of the farm, along with a visit to the station’s Hudson, NY studio, where station manager and managing news editor Lynn Sloneker lays out all these audio feeds. Then in the Wave Farm studio, artistic director Tom Roe details the organization’s history, which has its roots in the unlicensed micropower radio movement of the 1990s.

Every year Wave Farm hosts artists in residence, who create unique works and installations exploring the many aspects of electromagnetic transmission. One was the musical artist Quintron, who created the Weather Warlock, a weather-controlled synthesizer. Eric Klein gave him a call to learn more about this project and his work.

Show Notes:

• WGXC
• Jennifer’s tour of WGXC
• Jennifer’s tour of Wave Farm
• Artist-in-residence Dan Tapper at Wave Farm
• Dan Tapper’s website
• Podcast #137 – Zach Poff Built a Radio Station Inside a Pond
• Podcast #148 – Solving the Mystery of Summer Camp Radio
• Wave Farm Celebrates 20 Years of Transmission Art
• Quintron and Miss Pussycat
• Weather for the Blind
• Weather Warlock at Wave Farm

The post Podcast #278 – The Wave Farm Grows Transmission Arts (rebroadcast) appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Even though Trump is leaving the White House on January 19, he’s set up the FCC to carry on his idiosyncratic policy goals well into the Biden administration, especially if a Republican-led Senate resists the new president’s nomination for a new chairman.

At the last minute, Trump decided not to renominate FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly because he dared to opine that the Federal Communications Commission should not be put in charge of regulating online speech – a position consistent with his conservative political views. However, Trump is hellbent on the evisceration of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides immunity to internet platforms of all sizes and type for the speech posted by third-parties, such as participants in an online forum, or a social media platform.

Prof. Christopher Terry, from the University of Minnesota, joins to help us untangle this situation and the implications of the president’s last-minute nomination – and the subsequent Senate confirmation – of Nathan Simington to the FCC. Simington is believed to be one of the authors behind an executive order that calls on the FCC to “clarify” regulations on internet speech. With the exit of Republican Chairman Ajit Pai with the change of administration, this leaves the FCC with a two Democrat to two Republican deadlock. Together we suss out how community media could be affected should Trump and Simington get their way.

We also review arguments in front of the Supreme Court in the case of the FCC’s media ownership regulations that have failed to pass Appeals Court scrutiny for more than a decade.

Show Notes:

• Federal Communications Law Journal: “The Score Is 4-0: FCC Media Ownership Policy, Prometheus Radio Project, and Judicial Review“
• Electronic Frontier Foundation: The FCC’s Independence and Mission Are at Stake with Trump Nominee
• Podcast #258 – Trump Admin Raises the Specter of the Fairness Doctrine
• The FCC’s Score in Media Ownership Policy is 0 – 4

Feature image credit: Justin Baeder / flickr (CC BY 2.0)

The post Podcast #277 – How Does the FCC Solve Anything? appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Though there are many good reasons why one might not want to look back at the year that was, we still see some aspects worth noting. In particular, radio and podcasting proved to be resilient media, with broadcasters and podcasters rallying to meet the challenges of quarantines and social distancing brought on by the COVID-19 epidemic. This also brought on renewed interest in legal unlicensed Part 15 radio broadcasting, while the FCC authorized the first-ever terrestrial all-digital radio broadcast service, on the AM dial, no less.

The murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor refocused the nation’s attention on systematic racism and the racial and gender inequality that continues to permeate every aspect of American society. This brought about fresh calls for public and community broadcasters to address the effects of this within their own walls, along with efforts to provide mutual aid, support and guidance to BIPOC and advice to white allies.

An eventful year, it was, and we’re here to run it all down.

Show Notes:

• Social Distancing Sparks Interest in Part 15 Unlicensed Broadcasting, but Caveat Emptor
• FCC’s All-Digital AM Plan Likely Will Be Weak Sauce
• Public Media For All
• Podcast #270: Public Media for All
• FairPlay
• WFUV’s EQFM
• Podcast #240 – WFMU is Still On the Air During the Pandemic
• Podcast #239 – Hunkering Down with Raven Radio in Sitka, Alaska
• Podcast #238 – Social Distancing, Going Remote and Automation during Global Pandemic
• Podcast #237 – How Community & College Radio Can Deal with COVID-19
• Voicemeeter Banana is the free software Jennifer has been using to recorder her radio show from home

The post Podcast #276 – 2020 the Year in Radio and Sound appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Podcasting is increasingly being taken up by people in academia, for myriad reasons. Some professors are looking for ways to share their work, others use it as a research tool, some include it as part of their teaching practice, while others seek to include podcasting as an official part of their scholarly output. We dig into these ideas on this week’s show with our guest Hannah McGregor, Assistant Professor of Publishing at Simon Fraser University and co-director of Amplify Podcast Network. A podcaster herself, she is co-creator of the feminist Harry Poster podcast Witch, Please and also the creator of the podcast Secret Feminist Agenda.

Show Notes:

• Hannah McGregor’s website
• Amplify Podcast Network
• Secret Feminist Agenda podcast
• Witch, Please podcast
• Tressie McMillan Cottom on Twitter
• “Scholarly Rap” article about rap album that was part of a PhD dissertation project (Inside Higher Ed)

Episodes on Related Topics:

• Podcast #132: Sounding Out! on the Cultural Politics of Sound and Listening
• Podcast #135: Resurfacing Women’s Contributions in Podcasting History
• Podcast #230: Library of Congress Launches Podcast Preservation Project

The post Podcast #275: Making Scholarly Podcasts Count appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Poet Kenneth Goldsmith created UbuWeb in 1996 as an online repository for obscure avant-garde art that, by virtue of having little commercial potential, was hard to find. Audio was an early component of the archive, owing to Kenneth’s interest in sound poetry, an even more obscure art form.

Since then he’s served as the chief, and only, curator and proprietor of UbuWeb, which has become an invaluable resource for anyone with an interest in underground and unpopular culture. Kenneth chronicled his efforts in the new book “Duchamp Is My Lawyer: The Polemics, Pragmatics, and Poetics of UbuWeb.” He joins this episode to recount some of these tales, telling us what inspired him to build UbuWeb in the first place, and why he maintains it using simple html code of the sort used in the early web, rather than updating to use the latest database and dynamic website platforms.

Because much of the work on UbuWeb is archived without explicit permission from the creators – living or dead – Kenneth explains why he views “cease and desist” orders as an invitation to dialog and how community radio station WFMU was one of his inspirations. We also get into the relationship between piracy and preservation, why he loves “the misuses of UbuWeb” and the value of “folk archiving” and “folk law.”

This interview originally aired in July of 2020, and the longer version is available here: https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2020/07/28/podcast-256-the-robin-hood-of-the-avant-garde/

Show Notes:

• UbuWeb
• UbuWeb Sound
• Kenneth Goldsmith at the University of Pennsylvania Department of English
• Playlists and archives for Kenny G’s Hour of Pain on WFMU
• Duchamp Is My Lawyer at Columbia University Press
• Duchamp Is My Lawyer at Amazon (Radio Survivor will receive a small commission if you purchase from this link)
• What Is an Interlaced GIF?

The post Podcast #274 – UbuWeb is a Hand Coded Archive that Stands the Test of Time appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On this most unusual of Thanksgiving weeks, we are honored to speak with Alice Brock, the woman who provided much inspiration for Arlo Guthrie’s inadvertent Thanksgiving Day radio staple, “Alice’s Restaurant.” Brock shares with us not only some insight into the 18-minute anti-war epic; but also stories about her life and holiday traditions. For 2020, Brock was inspired to create a special introductory message for radio stations to play in advance of “Alice’s Restaurant,” and she explains why she was moved to offer up these words of thanks this year in particular.

Show Notes:

• Thanksgiving Radio Tradition withstands the Pandemic as “Alice’s Restaurant” Hits the 2020 Airwaves
• Alice Brock’s Message for Radio Stations (NFCB)
• Alice Brock Fundraiser (GoFundMe)
• Alice Brock’s website

The post Podcast #273: Thanksgiving and Radio Traditions with Alice Brock of “Alice’s Restaurant” appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Carl Malamud is credited with having one of the very first streaming internet talk radio shows, “Geek of the Week,” beginning in 1993. And because it was available for download, too, it’s considered a proto-podcast.

Carl joins us this week to dig into this early history of internet radio, recounting how his efforts quickly snowballed from hosting a weekly interview show with internet trailblazers to conducting live broadcasts of the National Press Club luncheons and Congressional hearings.

Prof. Andrew Bottomley of SUNY Oneonta also joins as our special expert co-host to help us place these achievements in historical perspective. Carl tells us he was always more motivated to “do it for real,” rather than write a policy paper, and that he was also driven by a commitment to openness, to ensure public access to information of civic import. Today he continues working for the cause of public information as the founder and president of Public Resource.

This episode originally aired on July 21st 2020. Where a longer version of the interview is available.

Show Notes:

• Internet Talk Radio and “Geek of the Week” at the Internet Archive
• Wired Magazine, July 1, 1994: Geek of the Week
• Wikipedia: Carl Malamud
• Public.Resource.org
• Internet Radio Is Older Than You Think
• Streaming Media: 25 Years of Internet Radio, Part 1
• Podcast #160 – Marking a Quarter-Century of Internet Radio
• Podcast 253 – Sound Streams: Dissecting the History of Internet Radio

The post Podcast #272 – ‘Geek of the Week’ and the Beginning of Internet Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Eric, Jennifer and Paul reconvene to catch up on all that is news to us in the worlds of radio and sound. The FCC just unanimously approved all-digital operation on the AM band, while commercial radio – born on the AM band – celebrates its centennial. But keep in mind that broadcast radio is older than that first commodified broadcast.

We also reflect on the very first virtual Grassroots Radio Conference and the history of radio dealing with earlier epidemics.

Show Notes:

• FCC’s All-Digital AM Plan Likely Will Be Weak Sauce
• YouTube: Re-enactment Commemorates 100th Anniversary Of First Commercial Radio Broadcast In Pittsburgh
• YouTube: Should We Hate Spotify? [An Objective View From A Professional Musician]
• Podcast #234 – Community Access Radio in New Zealand
• Prof. Kyle Barrett guested on Podcast #221 – The Intertwined History of the Radio and Recording Industries
• Matthew Lasar explains the history of the rise and fall of “turntable style” music community websites on Podcast #26 – Celebrating Radio Stickers & Turntable Rooms
• Podcast #263 – Broadcasting High School Radio through Wildfires and a Pandemic
• 2020 Virtual GRC Sessions on YouTube
• Podcast #240 – WFMU is Still On the Air During the Pandemic
• WHIV-LP New Orleans, Human Rights & Social Justice Radio

The post Podcast #271: AM Radio Goes Digital as It Celebrates a Centennial appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In the last few years a number of large and prominent public media organizations have been forced to confront the effects of sexism, racism and harassment within their own organizations that has been tolerated for too long. One clear cause is a serious lack of diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the public media system. Public Media for All is a diverse coalition of public media workers, led by people of color, that is organizing to raise awareness of the negative effects of this deficiency and the resulting culture in public media, and sharing solutions for individuals and organizations.

Sway Steward is on the organizing committee for Public Media for All, and joins the show to tell us more. They’re organizing a day of action and education on November 10, providing resources for people of color, white allies and organizational leadership to seek and create accountability and bring about positive change.

Show Notes:

• Public Media for All
• Current: Coalition organizes day of action for movement to fix public media’s workplace culture

The post Podcast #270: Public Media for All appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The Federal Communications Commission has announced that it will open two filing windows for non-commercial FM radio licenses. First up will be an opportunity to apply for a full-power non-commercial / educational (NCE) license, followed by a low-power FM opportunity.

Even though the application window dates have not yet been announced, now is the time to get prepared. Broadcast attorney Frank Montero guests to help us understand the process of applying for an FM broadcast license. He’s a partner with Fletcher, Heald and Hildreth, which also publishes the CommLawBlog. He explains who qualifies to apply and other requirements to keep in mind.

License application windows are the only time when an organization may apply for an FM radio license, and they don’t happen frequently. The last full-power NCE window was more than a decade ago, and the last chance at an LPFM was 2013. As the FM dial fills up in cities and towns across the country, this may be the last opportunity for a new station in many regions. If you’re interested in operating a full- or low-power non-commercial station we we hope this episode helps get you started. Even if you’re not interested, it’s important to understand just how stations get on the air in the 21st century.

Show Notes:

• CommLawBlog – The Upcoming FCC Noncommercial FM and LPFM Filing Windows: What You Need to Know
• NFCB: Primer On The NCE Radio Filing Window
• FCC Chair: New LPFM & Noncomm License Opportunities Coming Soon
• FCC Awards Full-Power Licenses to 5 LPFMs, Plus 52 More Orgs (2010)
• FCC’s LPFM order will make 2013 a good year for community radio (2012)
• Radio Survivor documented the roll-out of new LPFM stations beginning with the most recent 2013 application window

Feature image adapted from “The FCC’s front door” by Rob Pegararo / flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The post Podcast #269 – How To Get an FM Radio License in 2021 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Over the course of four seasons, the Peabody-nominated podcast “Scene on Radio,” a production of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, has earned a reputation for tackling head-on difficult topics around race, gender, justice and equity. But it didn’t start out that way.

It started life as a documentary anthology that host and producer John Biewen calls a “hodge podge.” Then, for the second season John decided to take on race in America by exploring the history and meaning of whiteness. That season, “Seeing White,” forged a new path for the podcast, proving that there was an audience willing to take a deep dive into challenging topics.

John joins the show this week to talk about “Scene on Radio,” and help us understand why and how a white male radio journalist, such as himself, can and should spearhead critical examinations of whiteness and men – the topic of season three – and a revisionist history of democracy in America, as in the current season, “The Land That Never Has Been.” Though he takes on much of the production work himself, for analysis and guidance he turns to co-hosts like Celeste Headlee (“Men”) and Rutgers professor Chenjerai Kumanyika, alongside the many historians and experts who provide facts and perspective.

Though the podcast is unflinching in challenging accepted and closely-held narratives and beliefs, John notes that he’s received relatively little backlash, and tells us why he thinks that is. He also gives us a peek behind the scenes at how he produces a multi-part documentary podcast, and how he and Chenjerai navigate their signature introductions and wrap-ups that help listeners digest each episode.

This is a rebroadcast which originally aired May 26, 2020.

Show Notes

• Scene on Radio
• The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University
• Transom: “Vocal Color in Public Radio” by Chenjerai Kumanyika
• Rutgers University: Chenjerai Kumanyika
• Celeste Headlee

The post Podcast #268 – Scene on Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

This week, the Radio Survivor crew did its first live broadcast from a virtual conference held over Zoom. As part of the 2020 Grassroots Radio Conference, we presented a live radio show during the event, which aired over host station ARTxFM’s (WXOX-LP) FM signal in Louisville, Kentucky as well as over the internet. The topic of our discussion is community radio and protests.

ARTxFM host and producer Tia Marie and Xray.fm Talk Content Coordinator Miranda Selinger are our guests. The conversation focuses on how each of their respective stations are responding to protests and racial justice actions in their communities during a pandemic. Tia Marie produced WXOX-LP’s “Justice for Breonna” nationwide simulcast in honor of the memory of Louisville resident Breonna Taylor and explains how important it was for their station to acknowledge the black women who have been killed by police. Xray.fm has also been producing more local news from its home in Portland, Oregon, which has been especially active with racial justice protests. Selinger shares the station’s work in developing a daily news show as well as its partnership with local station The Numberz.

Show Notes:

• Grassroots Radio Conference 2020 Virtual Summit
• XRAY.fm
• WXOX-LP aka ARTxFM
• Justice for Breonna Broadcast (Radio Survivor story)
• Justice for Breoanna Nationwide Simulcast (ArtxFM)
• Tia Marie Presents on Facebook
• “The Local” on XRAY.fm
• The Numberz.fm
  

The post Podcast #267 – Live from the Grassroots Radio Conference: Community Radio and Protests appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Flirt FM at the National University of Ireland at Galway was one of the first “community of interest” stations to go on the air in that nation. Effectively, this means it was a trailblazing college and community station, hitting the air not long after the state broadcast monopoly began to erode in 1988.

Andrew Ó Baoill founded Flirt FM as an undergraduate student at what was then known as University College Galway. Working together with student government and university officials, they secured a license to broadcast in 1994 and went on the air September 28, 1995. Andrew joins the show this week to recount this history, and establish the station’s place in Irish broadcast history. Also joining is Paula Healy, who has served as Flirt’s station manager since 2005.

Paula coordinated a 25-hour marathon broadcast to celebrate the station’s quarter-century anniversary. She tells us about how the station serves the university and Galway communities, and how they’ve stayed on air during COVID-19 lockdowns and quarantines.

Show Notes:

• Flirt FM
• Flirt FM’s first 5 minutes on air in 1995
• Podcast #258 – Trump Admin Raises the Specter of the Fairness Doctrine
• Jennifer visited Flirt in 2009
• Wireless is Flirt’s show about radio, hosted by John Walsh, one of the co-founders behind the Irish Pirate Radio Archive

The post Podcast #266 – Flirt FM Celebrates 25 Years of College & Community Radio in Ireland appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Over the past few months, there’s been a flurry of media attention focused on the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM). Some reports describe it as a “little-known” agency and, in fact, it may seem mysterious to many in the United States, since it oversees international broadcasting programs all over the world, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

USAGM has been in the news following the appointment of new CEO Michael Pack, subsequent personnel changes, and even a congressional hearing on September 24. This week we explore the history of USAGM and talk about some of the recent changes at the organization. We are joined on the show by Jane Curry (Professor of Political Science at Santa Clara University), Mark Pomar (National Security Fellow at Clements Center for National Security at University of Texas, Austin) and Brandon Burke (Associate Archivist at the Hoover Institution Archives). Jennifer Waits and Eric Klein host this week’s episode.

Show Notes:

• Jane Curry at Santa Clara University
• Mark Pomar at University of Texas, Austin
• Brandon Burke at Hoover Institution Archives
• U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM)
• Voice of America (VOA)
• Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website
• CEO of Voice of America’s Parent Agency Defies Subpoena Despite Bipartisan Concerns (PBS News Hour)
• Purge of Senior Officers at Foreign Broadcast Agency Stirs Fear and Outrage (NPR)
• International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA)
• Open Society Archives
• National Archives
• Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Records at the Hoover Institution
• Radio Preservation Task Force at the Library of Congress

The post Podcast #265 – Inside the “Little Known” Voice of America and the U.S. Agency for Global Media appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Joe Boyd is best known as a record producer (he worked with Pink Floyd and Nick Drake just to name two artists) and he is the author of the book “White Bicycles, Making Music in the 1960’s.” In 2015 he launched a podcast. Joe Boyd’s A-Z which ran for 52 episodes (that’s one episode for every letter of the alphabet – twice over). Before all this, in 1961 he had a Jazz show on WBAI and KPFK he started at age 19.

Show Notes:

• Joe Boyd’s A-Z : The Podcast
• White Bicycles – Making Music in the 1960’s by Joe Boyd
• Moving Air – The sound studio of Peregrine (Pez) Andrews
• The Bob Fass documentary “Radio Unnameable”
• The Quiet Music Festival – Eric mentions at the end

The post Podcast # 264 – Joe Boyd appeared first on Radio Survivor.

With wildfires raging up and down the west coast of the United States amid the coronavirus pandemic, many radio stations are facing different types of challenges than a year ago. Vacaville Christian Schools’ radio station KVCB-LP (aka VCS Radio) is in a community that was hit hard by a wild fire in August 2020. When a nearby commercial radio station was knocked off the air, middle school/high school station KVCB-LP stepped up to provide emergency broadcasting.

Conservatory Education Director Ralph Martin leads the radio station and managed the station’s response during this crisis. Martin is our guest this week and shares with us the work being done at KVCB-LP during not only an extended period of distance learning for students, but also during a local emergency. Martin also manages the school’s music program and is philosophical and upbeat about the importance of embracing new and creative ways to teach, perform, and broadcast, especially when faced with unique challenges.

Show Notes:

• KVCB-LP website
• VCS TV website
• Radio Station Visit #144: High School Radio Station VCS Radio
• Podcast #94 – The High School Radio Station That Went HD
• Podcast #147 – Prison Radio Exhibit and a High School Station in a Band Room

The post Podcast #263 – Broadcasting High School Radio through Wildfires and a Pandemic appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Eric Nuzum started NPR’s podcasting efforts in 2005. He worked at NPR for over a decade and helped produce hit shows like “TED Radio Hour” and “Invisibila.” He left NPR for Audible, where he led Amazons efforts in short form audio and podcasts until 2018.

Eric Nuzum is the author of the book “Make Noise: A Creator’s Guide to Podcasting and Great Audio Storytelling.”

On Radio Survivor today we talk to Eric Nuzum about how he began his career in radio at a college station; his advice for community radio stations when it comes to podcasting; and where to begin when you plan to start a new podcast project to give you the best chance to reach the audience you are seeking.

This rebroadcast concludes with a fresh and lengthy audio commentary from Eric Klein on the interview which includes some listener feed back and a Q and A that originates from the first time the interview aired. (It is worth noting that the original interview dates back to the moment just a matter of days before the Pandemic began to restructure life in the United States, which is part of the focus of the new commentary on the episode and it’s themes. )

Show Notes:

Podcast #64 How to do News and Public Affairs – in which our guest Briand Edwards-Tiekert gives advice to new radio and podcast producers

The post Podcast #262 – Eric Nuzum (rebroadcast) appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Jennifer, Eric and Paul get the gang back together to remember community radio innovator Lorenzo Milam, who passed away on July 19. We reflect on how he helped to propagate a community access model of broadcasting that departed somewhat from the model of the first Pacifica stations, and was reflective of the counter-cultural currents of the 1960s and 70s. Jennifer shares highlights of her correspondence with Lorenzo about his days in college radio at Haverford, where Jennifer also broadcast.

Then we catch up on some important news from the summer, including terrestrial radio’s continued #1 “share of ear,” new non-commercial radio license opportunities in the US, the clock ticking down on Franken FMs and a lament for the closure of Radio Free America.

Show Notes:

• R.I.P. Radio Trailblazer Lorenzo Milam
• Lorenzo Milam’s College Radio Days
• Lorenzo Milam books in the KRAB Archive
• Lorenzo Milam Memorial archived recording on ACORN Radio
• FCC Chair: New LPFM & Noncomm License Opportunities Coming Soon
• The Final Countdown for Franken FMs
• NFCB: Radio Free America Announces Shutdown
• Podcast #125 – Radio Free America Is an Online Hub for Noncomm Radio

The post Podcast #261 – Remembering Lorenzo Milam appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Border radio is one of our favorite topics at Radio Survivor and on this week’s episode we dig into the history of radio broadcasting on the northern border of Mexico. Scholar Sonia Robles shares the stories of some of the lesser-known, small broadcasters whose histories are often overshadowed by the wild tales of higher power border blaster stations. Robles is the author of Mexican Waves: Radio Broadcasting along Mexico’s Northern Border, 1930-1950 and Assistant Professor of History at University of Delaware.

Show Notes:

• Mexican Waves: Radio Broadcasting along Mexico’s Northern Border, 1930-1950
• Podcast # 212 – Border Radio in North America
• DX Adventures at 1700
• Confirmations of 1700 (AM)
• Podcast #184 – Hidden Women’s Radio History in Uruguay
• Podcast #186 – African-American Preachers on Wax
• Podcast #252 – Exploring the Seeds of Public Radio in Educational Radio Archives
• Podcast #250 – Aimee Semple McPherson and the Early History of Radio Evangelists

The post Podcast #260 – Radio History on the Northern Border of Mexico appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On August 27, 2020, nomadic online radio station Radioee.net is presenting a live, translingual 24-hour broadcast, Wireless, featuring 24 radio stations from all over the world. Taking place on the 100th anniversary of the first radio broadcast in Argentina and the first mass public entertainment broadcast in the world; Wireless launches at midnight Buenos Aires time on August 27, 2020. This date is significant, as it recognizes the inaugural Argentinian broadcast from Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires on the same day back in 1920, which used smuggled Marconi equipment to present a Wagner opera.

Radioee.net founders Stephanie Sherman, Agustina Woodgate and Hernan Woodgate join us on the show to share their plans for this fascinating broadcast featuring radio stations in Buenos Aires, Wuhan, Nigeria, Cuba, Uruguay, New York, and more. On the episode they talk about some of the topics that will be touched upon, from paratelepathy to radio history to acrobatics.

Show Notes:

• Wireless event page
• Radioee.net
• Wavefarm’s Wireless event page
• Radio Station Visit #145: Wave Farm in Acra, New York
• Podcast #151: The Wave Farm Grows Transmission Arts
• Early History of Radio Broadcasting in Argentina (OldRadio.com)
• Elsewhere museum and artist residency in North Carolina
• Agustina Woodgate to Broadcast from Henry Ford’s Abandoned Brazilian Factory (Miami New Times)
• Podcast #195: Telepathy and Radio Mind

The post Podcast #259 – Radioee.net Celebrates 100 Year History of Wireless Communication appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The FCC is testing its luck with the Supreme Court, after years of failure in attempting to revise media ownership regulations using justifications that pass Constitutional scrutiny. Prof. Christopher Terry from the University of Minnesota joins us to explain what the Commission argues, and what its odds are.

However, a more immediate concern is that the Trump administration is pushing against Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. This is the piece of law that protects websites of all kinds from liability resulting from the content that users post. While this provides a shield to social media like Facebook and Twitter, the umbrella stretches to cover more grassroots media, like any community media platform – including radio – that allows user comments or contributions.

The administration has filed a petition asking the FCC to evaluate its options to regulate speech online – a chilling thought for any radio station that’s worried about the consequences of getting an indecency fine. Yet, this regulation would extend way beyond the boundaries of indecency, into political speech. Prof. Terry says that it looks a lot like the boogeyman version of the Fairness Doctrine, something that Republicans have trotted out as an imminent threat to free speech for decades since it was abandoned by the FCC. So it’s ironic that it’s a Republican administration pushing for its reinstitution under different pretences.

We also touch on the Trump administration’s attempt to challenge state-level net neutrality laws that sprung up in the wake of the FCC’s decision to overturn its Open Internet order.

Show Notes

• EFF: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
• Podcast #236 – FCC and the Supremes
• The FCC’s Score in Media Ownership Policy is 0 – 4
• Deadline: White House Withdraws Nomination Of FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, Who Doubted Donald Trump’s Executive Order On Social Media

The post Podcast #258 – Trump Admin Raises the Specter of the Fairness Doctrine appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On July 14, 1995 the file extension .MP3 was chosen and set in place for an audio format that would go on to change music. Artist, scholar and curator John Kannenberg marks the 25th anniversary of this event with an online exhibit, “MP3 @ 25: The Anniversary Exhibition” at his Museum of Portable Sound.

John joins this episode to explain why it’s important to observe this anniversary, and to recount some of the milestones in MP3’s history. From the somewhat apocryphal story of Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner” as the first MP3, to the introduction of the iPod, he helps us understand the role of MP3 in delivering us into the fully digital music universe we now inhabit.

We also dive into his singular museum, which exists on a single iPhone 4s, with a printed catalog to guide the visitor. Because of COVID-19 John is now available to provide guided online tours of the many sound artifacts that Museum of Portable Sound has in its archives. Either way, it’s about experiencing sound directly and purely, without distraction. (And we are here for the love of Radio and Sound.)

Show Notes:

• MP3 @ 25: The Anniversary Exhibition
• The Museum of Portable Sound
• Atlas Obscura: A Loopy Library of Sounds Features Sprinklers, Sirens, and Freud’s Toilet
• The Diamond Rio was one of the first MP3 players, garnering a lawsuit from the recording industry
• 10 Reasons Why CDs Are Still Awesome (Especially for Radio)
• Minidisc.org
• Podcast #255 – ‘Geek of the Week’ and the Beginning of Internet Radio
• Podcast 253 – Sound Streams: Dissecting the History of Internet Radio
• Podcast #167 – Alternative Histories of Podcasting

The post Podcast #257 – Marking a Quarter-Century of MP3 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Poet Kenneth Goldsmith created UbuWeb in 1996 as an online repository for obscure avant-garde art that, by virtue of having little commercial potential, was hard to find. Audio was an early component of the archive, owing to Kenneth’s interest in sound poetry, an even more obscure art form.

Since then he’s served as the chief, and only, curator and proprietor of UbuWeb, which has become an invaluable resource for anyone with an interest in underground and unpopular culture. Kenneth chronicled his efforts in the new book “Duchamp Is My Lawyer: The Polemics, Pragmatics, and Poetics of UbuWeb.” He joins this episode to recount some of these tales, telling us what inspired him to build UbuWeb in the first place, and why he maintains it using simple html code of the sort used in the early web, rather than updating to use the latest database and dynamic website platforms.

Because much of the work on UbuWeb is archived without explicit permission from the creators – living or dead – Kenneth explains why he views “cease and desist” orders as an invitation to dialog and how community radio station WFMU was one of his inspirations. We also get into the relationship between piracy and preservation, why he loves “the misuses of UbuWeb” and the value of “folk archiving” and “folk law.”

Show Notes:

• UbuWeb
• UbuWeb Sound
• Kenneth Goldsmith at the University of Pennsylvania Department of English
• Playlists and archives for Kenny G’s Hour of Pain on WFMU
• Duchamp Is My Lawyer at Columbia University Press
• Duchamp Is My Lawyer at Amazon (Radio Survivor will receive a small commission if you purchase from this link)
• What Is an Interlaced GIF?

The post Podcast #256 – The Robin Hood of the Avant-Garde appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Carl Malamud is credited with having one of the very first streaming internet talk radio shows, “Geek of the Week,” beginning in 1993. And because it was available for download, too, it’s considered a proto-podcast.

Carl joins us this week to dig into this early history of internet radio, recounting how his efforts quickly snowballed from hosting a weekly interview show with internet trailblazers to conducting live broadcasts of the National Press Club luncheons and Congressional hearings.

Prof. Andrew Bottomley of SUNY Oneonta also joins as our special expert co-host to help us place these achievements in historical perspective. Carl tells us he was always more motivated to “do it for real,” rather than write a policy paper, and that he was also driven by a commitment to openness, to ensure public access to information of civic import. Today he continues working for the cause of public information as the founder and president of Public Resource.

Show Notes:

• Internet Talk Radio and “Geek of the Week” at the Internet Archive
• Wired Magazine, July 1, 1994: Geek of the Week
• Wikipedia: Carl Malamud
• Public.Resource.org
• Internet Radio Is Older Than You Think
• Streaming Media: 25 Years of Internet Radio, Part 1
• Podcast #160 – Marking a Quarter-Century of Internet Radio
• Podcast 253 – Sound Streams: Dissecting the History of Internet Radio

The post Podcast #255 – ‘Geek of the Week’ and the Beginning of Internet Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On this week’s show, we take a trip back to the early 20th century to learn about the recording industry’s intertwined relationship with radio and music culture. Our guest is Kyle Barnett, Associate Professor of Media Studies in the Department of Communication at Bellarmine University.

Barnett’s forthcoming book, Record Cultures: The Transformation of the U.S. Recording Industry, looks at the early history of the recording industry in the United States. On the episode, Barnett shares tidbits from his research and reminds us of the complexity of the media landscape, calling for scholars to not neglect exploring how industries are interconnected. Along the way, we learn about phonograph parlors, the differences between public and private listening, and why some record labels asked their artists to stay off the radio.

This episode is a rebroadcast from November of 2019.

Show Notes:

• Record Cultures: The Transformation of the U.S. Recording Industry
• Kyle Barnett on Twitter
• Radio Survivor Podcast #186: African-American Preachers on Wax
• Radio Preservation Task Force

The post Podcast #254 – The Intertwined History of the Radio and Recording Industries appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Internet radio was born more than 25 years ago, yet, according to Edison Research, only in the last month has the medium garnered just 10% of all broadcast listening time in the US. We might lay at least some blame on the commercial radio industry, which didn’t embrace it until well into the 2000s, long after the college, community and public radio trailblazers.

Prof. Andrew Bottomley returns to the show to help us understand the reasons behind mainstream broadcasters’s delayed acceptance, and explore why college broadcasters were at the forefront. His new book is “Sound Streams: A Cultural History of Radio-Internet Convergence,” detailing the first comprehensive history of online streaming audio.

We also discuss the similarities between long-distance listening, a/k/a DXing, and internet radio, and how the societal changes wrought by COVID-19 are affecting online radio and podcasting.

Show Notes:

• University of Michigan Press – Sound Streams: A Cultural History of Radio-Internet Convergence
• “Sound Streams” at Amazon
  (Radio Survivor will receive a small affiliate commission if you buy through this link)
• Andrew Bottomley’s website
• Andrew was the guest on: Podcast #167 – Alternative Histories of Podcasting
• Edison Research: Streaming accounts for 10% of broadcast radio’s consumption during covid-19 disruptions

The post Podcast 253 – Sound Streams: Dissecting the History of Internet Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

This week, we explore the ancestor of public radio in the United States: educational radio. Our guest, Stephanie Sapienza, helps to bring educational radio archives to life through her work on the multi-institution “Unlocking the Airwaves” project. As Digital Humanities Archivist at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities at University of Maryland, Sapienza is working with audio from the National Association of Educational Broadcasters (NAEB). She describes the breadth of materials in the collection and its role in public radio history and also shares more about her unique (and entertaining) presentation at the Orphan Film Symposium in which she reported on old time educational radio in an old time radio style.

Show Notes:

• Stephanie Sapienza’s website
• The Orphan’s Radio Hour
• Orphan Film Symposium
• Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH)
• Unlocking the Airwaves
• American Archive of Public Broadcasting
• Radio Preservation Task Force website at Library of Congress
• National Association of Educational Broadcasters collection at University of Maryland
• Podcast #192: Saving Radio History with The Radio Preservation Task Force episode with Josh Shepperd

The post Podcast # 252 – Exploring the Seeds of Public Radio in Educational Radio Archives appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Our guest on Radio Survivor is producing The Global Queer Read-In: A Virtual Pride Event; a 12 hour long webcast to celebrate LGBTQ literature. Brian DeShazor is the brand new CEO of Overnight Productions, which produces the radio show This Way Out. This Way Out has been on the air for 31 years, a weekly radio program, heard on about 200 community stations around the world. Brian DeShazor was last heard on Radio Survivor back on ep #187 when we talked about his incredible project to preserve and archive the sounds of queer radio from the latter half of the 20^th century.

Show Notes:

• Global Queer Read-In: A Virtual Pride Event
• This Way Out
• WBAI’s 1970 War and Peace Broadcast
• OutRight Action International
• Podcast #187 – Archiving LGBTQ Radio History

The post Podcast #251 – The Global Queer Read-In appeared first on Radio Survivor.

One of the biggest celebrities in Los Angeles in the early part of the 20th century was Aimee Semple McPherson. She inspired scandalous headlines and fictional depictions, including the character Sister Molly on the current Showtime series, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels. Yet the story that is less frequently told is McPherson’s embrace of radio. She built her own powerful station, KFSG, in Los Angeles in the 1920s, which operated from the grand Angelus Temple, where her Foursquare Church was headquartered.

On this episode, scholar Tona Hangen joins us to shed more light into the radio work of Aimee Semple McPherson and to also provide some context about the early days of Christian radio evangelists in the United States. Hangen is the author of Redeeming the Dial: Radio, Religion and Popular Culture in America and is Professor of History at Worcester State University.

Show Notes:

• Tona Hangen
• Redeeming the Dial: Radio, Religion, and Popular Culture in America
• Radio Reader: Essays in the Cultural History of Radio (Good Reads)
• Penny Dreadful: City of Angels
• Penny Dreadful: City of Angels – Sister Molly Explained (Den of Geek)
• Will Aimee Semple McPherson Win the Low Power FM Sweepstakes (Radio Survivor)
• Old Time Radio and the Power of Faith (Radio Survivor)
• Radio Survivor Podcast #186 – African-American Preachers on Wax
• Foursquare Church
• History of KFSG, Los Angeles (Jeff Miller website)
• There was a musical: Scandalous

The post Podcast #250 – Aimee Semple McPherson and the Early History of Radio Evangelists appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Scholar Jocelyn Robinson says about one-third of Historically Black Colleges and Universities have radio stations. Her mission is to survey them and help preserve their histories and recorded legacies through the HBCU Radio Station Archival Survey Project, which she directs.

On this episode Robinson tells us about this project, and explains why it’s important to preserve this heritage. Her interest in radio was sparked at WYSO-FM in Yellow Springs, Ohio, a station founded by college students which won a grant to digitize and protect its archives which were maintained for decades almost by benign neglect. Robinson created a radio show for WYSO, pulling from this rich store of historical recordings, called “Rediscovered Radio.” The experience prompted her to widen the search to HBCUs.

In this we explore the reasons why relatively few college and university stations have active archival and preservation programs, how station licenses are “an institutional asset” and the cultural shift that has turned us all into documentarians.

This episode is a rebroadcast of #232 from February, 2020.

Show Notes:

• WYSO’s Rediscovered Radio
• The Chronicle of Higher Education: Saving History at College Radio Stations, One Tape at a Time
• National Recording Preservation Foundation: National Recording Preservation Foundation Distributes $50,000 in 4 Grants for Audio Preservation
• Union College: Making waves: Race, radio and the legacy of Wendell King ‘24
• Black Perspectives: The Race to Preserve African American Radio

The post Podcast #249 – Documenting & Preserving Radio at HBCUs appeared first on Radio Survivor.

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 Washington University in St. Louis, is the author of Preaching on Wax: The Phonograph and the Making of Modern African American Religion.

This is a rebroadcast of episode #186 from March of 2019.

Show Notes:

• Lerone Martin
• Preaching on Wax: The Phonograph and the Making of Modern African American Religion
• The Forgotten Phonograph Preachers
• Podcast #181 – Visiting Community Radio Stations Around the World

The post Podcast #248 – African American Preachers on Wax appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Over the course of four seasons, the Peabody-nominated podcast “Scene on Radio,” a production of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, has earned a reputation for tackling head-on difficult topics around race, gender, justice and equity. But it didn’t start out that way.

It started life as a documentary anthology that host and producer John Biewen calls a “hodge podge.” Then, for the second season John decided to take on race in America by exploring the history and meaning of whiteness. That season, “Seeing White,” forged a new path for the podcast, proving that there was an audience willing to take a deep dive into challenging topics.

John joins the show this week to talk about “Scene on Radio,” and help us understand why and how a white male radio journalist, such as himself, can and should spearhead critical examinations of whiteness and men – the topic of season three – and a revisionist history of democracy in America, as in the current season, “The Land That Never Has Been.” Though he takes on much of the production work himself, for analysis and guidance he turns to co-hosts like Celeste Headlee (“Men”) and Rutgers professor Chenjerai Kumanyika, alongside the many historians and experts who provide facts and perspective.

Though the podcast is unflinching in challenging accepted and closely-held narratives and beliefs, John notes that he’s received relatively little backlash, and tells us why he thinks that is. He also gives us a peek behind the scenes at how he produces a multi-part documentary podcast, and how he and Chenjerai navigate their signature introductions and wrap-ups that help listeners digest each episode.

Show Notes

• Scene on Radio
• The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University
• Transom: “Vocal Color in Public Radio” by Chenjerai Kumanyika
• Rutgers University: Chenjerai Kumanyika
• Celeste Headlee

The post Podcast #247 – Scene on Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Portrayals of radio in popular culture provide an interesting glimpse at radio’s role in society. At Radio Survivor, we’ve long been fascinated by radio depictions on both the small and large screen; so it is a treat to dive into this topic with Hemrani Vyas, Programming Coordinator at Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Vyas curated an entire day of radio-themed films for the cable network, focusing on the era of 1930 to 1950. This week we talk about some of the featured films and also dig into a broader discussion about the changing images of radio in the movies.

Show Notes:

• TCM website
• List of Radio Films Aired on TCM on April 10, 2020:
  • Remote Control (1930)
  • So You Want to be on the Radio (1948) – 10 minute short
  • Are You Listening? (1932)
  • Here Comes Carter (1936)
  • The Next Voice You Hear… (1950)
  • Underground (1941)
  • One Fatal Hour (1936)
  • Mr. Dodd Takes the Air (1937)
  • Genius at Work (1947)
  • The Unsuspected (1947)

• Top 5 Television Shows Depicting Radio
• DJs in Peril: Radio Horror on Film
• Ten essential radio movies for the holidays
• More radio movies for the holidays
• Podcast #86: Radio Resistance from an Alternate Universe
• Podcast #195: Telepathy and Radio Mind

The post Podcast #246 – Radio in the Movies appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In 2019 we celebrated International Women’s Day by recording a fascinating interview about women’s radio history with University of Louisville Professor of History Christine Ehrick.

Author of Radio and the Gendered Soundscape: Women and Broadcasting in Argentina and Uruguay, 1930-1950, Ehrick schools us on the hidden history of a pioneering women’s radio station in Uruguay. Founded in 1935, Radio Femenina quickly became a hotbed for feminist and activist programming, beaming its signal from Montevideo and across the river into Argentina. Ehrick provides context for the station’s origins and discusses how it functioned during some tumultuous political periods in the region.

Our Patreon supporters get to hear more of our conversation with Ehrick in a special bonus episode. She shares more personal stories of a radio historian on the hunt for treasure in the official archives and on Ebay.

This episode originally aired in March of 2019 as #184.

Show Notes

• Christine Ehrick website at University of Louisville
• Radio and the Gendered Soundscape: Women and Broadcasting in Argentina and Uruguay, 1930-1950
• Radio Preservation Task Force
• Radio Femenina Wikipedia Entry
• Investigating some Contenders for the Oldest Women’s College Radio Station (Radio Survivor)
• Podcast #132 – Sounding out on the Cultural Politics of Sound & Listening (Jenny Stoever interview)
• Podcast #135 – Resurfacing Women’s Contributions in Podcasting History (Jennifer Wang interview)
• Podcast #178 – Irish Pirate Radio Archive
• Podcast #134 – The KRAB-FM Archives
• Podcast #158 – Surveying Community Radio’s Deep Archives (Laura Schnitker interview)
• Podcast #176 – Audio Fiction’s Very Long History of Innovation (Neil Verma interview)

The post Podcast #245 – Hidden Women’s Radio History in Uruguay appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Some consider the late 1960s through the mid-1990s to be a “golden age” of college radio. History professor Katherine Rye Jewell, from Fitchburg State University, notes that the period begins with college stations taking to the FM dial, and concludes with the rise of the internet. During that time, college radio stations certainly at times did have prominence in the culture, which meant they also were subject to complaints and kerfuffles, sometimes gaining the attention of local media and politicians.

As part of the research for her upcoming book, “Live from the Underground,” Kate has been diving into many of the controversies, and sharing highlights on Twitter. On air content was definitely one of the flashpoints, especially as the culture wars heated up in the 1980s. While relatively few FCC actions or fines were issued, Kate explains that the Commission preferred college and university administrations keep stations in check, and many did, resulting in a kind of chilling effect that particularly effected emerging music forms like hip-hop.

The reverberations of this time are still felt at many college and community stations, especially where volunteers and staffers still remember when the risk of a $10,000 indecency fine seemed – and probably was – very palpable.

On this live-on-the-air episode, we dig into many entertaining garden paths and stories that no fan of left-end-of-the-dial radio should miss.

Show Notes:

• Kate Jewell on Twitter
• Kate’s website
• Kate’s Twitter thread on complaints to the FCC about college radio stations
• Kate tweets her show notes:
  • “Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music and Changed American Culture,” By Grace Elizabeth Hale
  • “The Beastie Boys Book“
  • “Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements,” by Bob Mehr
  • “The Black Campus Movement,” by Ibram X. Kendi
• Podcast #164 – College Radio and the Culture Wars
• Lyrics to “Makin’ Bacon” by the Pork Dudes (NSFW)

The post Podcast #244 – Exploring the So-Called ‘Golden Age’ of College Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

A common theme on Radio Survivor is that claims of being first should be viewed skeptically. From purported first college radio station to first internet simulcast, we’ve learned that there’s always another challenger to the prize.

This time around, however, we can say this is definitively the first ever episode of Radio Survivor broadcast, and recorded, live on the air. We make the leap into live broadcasting at the request of Portland, OR community station XRAY.fm, which is the station that prompted us to turn our podcast into a proper weekly radio show. They have the task of conducting a fund drive in the midst of a stay-at-home-order, so they asked their shows to try to broadcast live – remotely – one way or another. We were more than happy to comply, each of us from our respective homes, united over a videoconference and an Icecast stream to the XRAY studios.

Fittingly, we take up the topic of firsts, as we note how internet broadcasting and inexpensive automation technology have proven to be tremendously helpful tools for community and college radio during this pandemic – even if many stations absolutely prefer to be 100% live. Staying on the air is vital for listeners and for programmers and hosts, keeping these connections flowing with energy.

We wrap up with some positive college radio news.

Show Notes:

• XRAY.fm
• Icecast is the open source internet radio platform we used to send a high-quality signal to the XRAY studios.
• Podcast #146: Volunteer Radio from Antarctica
• Podcast #167: Alternative Histories of Podcasting
• Jennifer’s Tour of XRAY.fm
• 10 Weird Things Spotted by a Kid during Radio Station Tours
• College Radio Watch: WMHD Relaunch, KSLC Goes Classical, WNUW Coronacasts and More News

The post Podcast #243 – A Radio Survivor First appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Did you know that a lot of folks in Europe listen to radio on their televisions? Neither did we, until we talked with James Cridland, editor of the daily Podnews email newsletter and radio futurologist. He explains that outside of North America much of radio is enjoyed on more platforms, from digital DAB to, yes, television.

With a career reaching back to the early internet forays of the BBC and Virgin Radio in the UK, and as a frequent international conference speaker, James has a broad base of experience around the world. Now based in Brisbane, Australia, he joins the show to help us put radio in a global perspective.

In the process we also learn that James got his start in radio by starting a pirate station in his Yorkshire boarding school, and that a supermarket radio station is the most popular digital station Down Under. That ultimately leads us to a discussion of durability of radio, based upon human connection and shared experience

Show Notes:

• Podnews
• James Cridland online
• Amazing US Launch and Revival of CMJ
• UK Student Radio Association
• UK Restricted Service License
• 4ZZZ is a radio station James’ smart speaker won’t find using British or Australian English

Image Credit: flickr / Thomas Hawk (CC BY-NC 2.0)

The post Podcast #242 – Radio on the TV with James Cridland appeared first on Radio Survivor.

WBCN in Boston, MA is one of the storied freeform FM stations in American commercial radio history. We’re talking about it because there’s a recent documentary film, entitled “WBCN and the American Revolution,” that dives into its history, and how WBCN’s early days in the late 60s and early 70s are intertwined with the counter culture movement in that city.

Our guest is filmmaker Bill Lichtenstein, who was also on-air at WBCN during its formative years. Though much has been said about cities like San Francisco and New York in this era, the stories of Boston are less prevalent in our common cultural history. The story is interesting because the station functioned much like a community station, more like WBAI in New York, than the typical commercial station of the time.

In particular, under the direction of Danny Schechter, “The News Dissector,” who got his start at the station, WBCN wove politically challenging news and public affairs into its music format, reporting live on the scene from pivotal events of the day.

Show Notes

• “WBCN and the American Revolution” website
• Danny Schechter “The News Dissector” wrote for Media Channel in the 90s and 2000s
• Boston Magazine: WBCN: An Oral History
• One of the Last “Progressive” Rockers (WBCN) Goes Digital-Only
• WBCN and the American Revolution Documentary Collection at the UMass Amherst Libraries

The post Podcast #241 – WBCN and the American Revolution appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Ken Freedman is the General Manager and the Program Director of WFMU, a free form community radio station in Jersey City, New Jersey that prides itself on it’s live, in studio sound from every one of it’s DJ’s. So this particular crisis, the Pandemic and the Lock Down, is a unique challenge.

“This disaster is so completely different from any disaster we’ve ever had before such as 9-11, or Hurricane Sandy,” Ken told us on this week’s episode. They are running the station with a small skeleton crew and for the first time ever, they are relying on a lot of rebroadcasts of archived shows. Although Ken is still requiring all of his DJ’s (many of whom do not yet have the gear at home to produce live radio) to participate in the live online chat forum that WFMU had already had built. It’s a compromise Ken is calling “half live.”

The crisis has also increased the radio’s online audience. “Our streaming traffic and online traffic has gone through the roof,” Ken said.

WFMU also has three online-only channels with about 50 volunteer DJ’s who have always been broadcasting live, from their own home studios. Now those remote DJ’s are the online experts who Ken Freedman plans to connect with his WFMU DJ’s that need a little help to learn the ropes of home broadcasting. All of this though, is something that Ken hopes is only temporary. Getting back to live, community radio where everyone uses the same studio and interacts inside the same building is an important part of WFMU’s culture.

This interview was recorded in the morning of April 2, 2020. Careful lovers of radio and sound will note the occasional whine of Ken Freedman’s puppy, who is a very good puppy.

Show Notes:

• WFMU
• The Call-in Comedy Show in which WFMU listeners get “tested” for the virus.

The post Podcast #240 – WFMU is Still On the Air During the Pandemic appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Raven Radio, KCAW-FM, serves Sitka and the remote communities of Southeast Alaska with public radio content, local news and volunteer-produced programming. Like “shelter in place” elsewhere in the lower 48, Sitka is on what they call a “hunker down” advisory. We talk with KCAW General Manager and friend of the show, Becky Meiers about how the station is balancing staff safety and vital public service during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Right now radio broadcasters are considered essential personnel, so they may travel to the station’s studios, but the advised 6-feet of social distance requires only two people can be on premises at any one time – one upstairs and one downstairs. That’s prompted some shifts in daytime programming when it’s important to have at least one news or operations person on hand at all times.

Because KCAW is often the only reliable information real-time information source for remote villages that have limited internet and landlines, Becky serves on the local emergency planning committee and coordinates closely with emergency personnel. At the same time, the station continues to provide music and cultural programming for that much needed break.

When news of the pandemic first hit, KCAW staff and management assembled a preparedness plan. Though there were no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Sitka when we recorded on March 27, once a first case is confirmed, the station will move forward to the next phase of its plan. Learn what that plan is, and how KCAW engages with its community and listenership in this interview.

Show Notes:

• KCAW-FM, Raven Radio
• KCAW just received a grant from the Brown Institute for Media Innovation
• KCAW Coronavirus Information Hub
• “Have an Old Fashioned with a modern twist, thanks to Sitka’s virtual bartender“
• Podcast #84 – Improving Your Radio Reception
• Podcast #197 – Raven Radio in Sitka, Alaska
• Touring KCAW, Sitka Alaska’s Raven Radio

However,

The post Podcast #239 – Hunkering Down with Raven Radio in Sitka, Alaska appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The University of Virgina’s WTJU now only permits one person in their studios at one time and has five remote locations ready to take over live broadcasting. That’s a couple of ways that community and college stations are coping with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Community radio WTJU General Manager Nathan Moore joins this week to explain how university campus-based stations are coping with the ever-changing situation. He is also the staff adviser to student-run LPFM WXTJ. He tells us how forging alliances with local businesses and groups has helped the station provide original programming and a unique community service during this challenging time.

WTJU is primarily a music station, but is able to weave important news and information into its regular programming, without breaking format. We discuss how while a full-on talk program isn’t suited to all listeners or all stations, that doesn’t mean a music station can’t be a vital community resource.

We also review audio listening data from the just-released 2020 Infinite Dial survey. Radio listening continues to change, while podcasting continues to grow. We reflect on what this means for community and college radio.

Show Notes:

• WTJU
• WXTJ-LP
• Charlottesville Tomorrow
• THE BRIDGE Progressive Arts Initiative
• The Front Porch Charlottesville
• Podcast #237 – How Community & College Radio Can Deal with COVID-19
• Podcast #207 – Building More Communities Around Your Station
• Broadcast Using This Tool is how Nathan connects to WTJU remotely
• The Infinite Dial 2020

The post Podcast #238 – Social Distancing, Going Remote and Automation during Global Pandemic appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Community and college radio stations are unique in broadcasting because in addition to being important community services, many are also a community crossroads, hosting dozens or hundreds of people in their studios and spaces in any given week. That means the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic poses a specific challenge for these broadcasters.

KPFA’s “UpFront” co-host Brian Edwards-Tiekert and National Federation of Community Broadcasters program director Ernesto Aguilar join to help us understand how college and community stations should deal with the pandemic on and off the air. As a community journalist, Brian has been on the front lines of helping Bay Area listeners get the best information and advice. He has recommendations for how stations should address critical information, and misinformation, on air, and how they can frame issues for vital community discussion.

Ernesto observes that the pandemic is a “learning opportunity” for stations to be sure they have an emergency response plan that keeps them on air, even if functioning with just one staff, volunteer or engineer. Having automation can be one important tool, causing him to warn that the current situation is a “wake up call” for stations that have resisted the technology as a “badge of honor.”

We also review feedback from listeners and readers who let us know how the stations where they work and volunteer are managing the pandemic.

Show Notes:

• KPFA UpFront
• Brian Edwards-Tiekert shares thoughtful, well-researched advice on Twitter
• Ernesto Aguilar in Radio World: Community Broadcaster: COVID-19 Concerns
• National Federation of Community Broadcasters: Coronavirus Resources For Community Radio

The post Podcast #237 – How Community & College Radio Can Deal with COVID-19 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

FCC policy has left media ownership diversity at “obnoxiously low levels,” especially considering that more minority and women ownership is one of the desired objectives. That’s what Prof. Chris Terry from the University of Minnesota tells us on this week’s show.

The Commission may be headed to the Supreme Court to defend its diversity policy, along with other attempts at ownership rules, after striking out at the Third Circuit Court of Appeals an astonishing four times in 2004, 2011, 2016 and 2019. We’ve been discussing these failures for quite some time on the podcast and Chris helps us understand what the Commission might expect from the Supreme Court.

The FCC’s repeal of Open Internet rules may also land at the Superme Court, as the group challenging that repeal, lead by the Mozilla Foundation, considers a high court appeal.

After the heavy FCC discussion, Jennifer, Eric and Paul lighten things up with a consideration of the first-ever International Minidisc Day, celebrated on March 7.

Show Notes:

• Legal Information Institute: The Chevron Deference
• Podcast #224: How the FCC Could Support Diversity, Localism & Competition in Radio & TV
• The FCC’s Score in Media Ownership Policy is 0 – 4
• Happy International Minidisc Day – A Post-Modern Revival
• International Minidisc Day

The post Podcast #236 – FCC and the Supremes appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Jennifer, Eric and Paul have some college radio news to review, but first they pull back the curtain to survey the state of affairs in Radio Survivorland. They note some recent attention from The A.V. Club and Podnews along with a nice uptick in podcast audience as they reflect on the importance of sticking with and your niche, and how passion for that niche can build a like-minded community over time.

Sad news comes from the University of the South, which just turned in its license for WUTS-FM to the FCC, apparently prompted by outsized and unrealistic fears of a massive fine for public file violations. Jennifer puts these fears in stark perspective, as the reality is much less dire. The job of the FCC, Paul comments, is to keep stations on the air, and Jennifer observes that the Commission has worked with many college stations to bring them into compliance. Yet, there’s no indication WUTS got good advice or ever reached out to the FCC.

Happier news comes from the University of Illinois, where former cable radio station WBML – “Where Black Media Lives” – appears poised for a comeback.

Show Notes:

• The AVClub reviews episode #232 – Documenting & Preserving Radio at HBCUs (6th review down)
• Podcast #232 – Documenting & Preserving Radio at HBCUs
• Podnews gives a tip of the hat to episode #231 with Eric Nuzum
• The unedited bonus version of the Eric Nuzum interview, in which the guest helps Eric Klein frame how the interview should go
• Podcast #145 – Hip-Hop Radio Archive
• Podcast #152 – The Longest Running Hip-Hop Radio Show in The World?
• Jennifer’s Radio World cover story, “KSFP Highlights Journalism, Public Affairs“
• Intercollegiate Broadcasting System Conference 2020
• College Radio Watch: WUTS-FM Turns Back License, the Return of WBML and More News

Photo by Rots Marie-Hélène on Unsplash

The post Podcast #235 – Pulling Back the Curtain appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In New Zealand a dozen partially government-funded radio stations are charged with providing access to under-represented groups and communities. Wellington Access Radio, situated in New Zealand’s capital city, was the first station of its kind in that country, and station manager Kristen Paterson tells us more about its history and mission.

Kristen explains the funding model for community access radio, which differs significantly from community radio in the United States. In fact, there is no history or tradition of listener-funded radio in New Zealand. We touch on how Wellington Access Radio assesses the needs of its community, determining which groups would benefit from airtime.

Also, Kristen got their start in college radio, co-founding a legal unlicensed low-power FM station at Victoria University, and we hear that story and learn more about this very unique radio sector.

Show Notes:

• Wellington Access Radio
• LPFM Drop FM Queenstown, NZ
• New Zealand Has Legal Unlicensed Low-Power FM
• Interference Conflict Between Unlicensed Stations in New Zealand
• Association of Community Access Broadcasters
• Saturday Night on Radio New Zealand

The post Podcast #234 – Community Access Radio in New Zealand appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Radio waves don’t obey borders, and stations have been taking advantage of this fact since the dawn of the medium – often despite the rules of government regulators where the signals go.

Dr. Kevin Curran of Arizona State University has been studying border radio stations extensively, making it the subject of his doctoral dissertation. Everyone has a ton of radio nerd fun as he takes us back to the 1920s, when Canadian and U.S. regulators struck a treaty to split up the AM dial and limit maximum broadcast power, but left out Mexico. That opened up an opportunity for stations in that country to cover the continent with hundreds of kilowatts, attracting broadcasters from north of the border wanting to take advantage.

Many infamous and colorful personalities were amongst this group, from Dr. John Brinkley, who promoted goat glands to cure male potency problems, all the way to man named Bob Smith – later known as Wolfman Jack – who blasted rock and roll that most American stations wouldn’t touch.

Dr. Curran explains why stations along the Mexican border remained popular with U.S. broadcasters even after that country lowered maximum power levels, in treaty with its northern neighbor. He also explores the relationship of U.S. stations to Canadian markets, where stations are more highly regulated. If you’ve ever wondered why radio is different along the border, you’re curiosity will be satisfied.

This episode was originally recorded and aired in September of 2019 as episode #212

Show Notes:

• Radio World: Goat Gland Man Has Enduring Appeal; Though His Remains Are Safely Entombed in Memphis, Dr. Brinkley’s Legend Lives on
• Wide Open Country: How Border Radio Helped Popularize Country Music
• Texas State Historical Association: Border Radio
• SpectacularOptical: Clap for the Wolfman
• The Classic CKLW Page
• Wolfman Jack biography
• Wikipedia: XEROK-AM

The post Podcast #233 – Border Radio in North America (rebroadcast) appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Scholar Jocelyn Robinson says about one-third of Historically Black Colleges and Universities have radio stations. Her mission is to survey them and help preserve their histories and recorded legacies through the HBCU Radio Station Archival Survey Project, which she directs.

On this episode Robinson tells us about this project, and explains why it’s important to preserve this heritage. Her interest in radio was sparked at WYSO-FM in Yellow Springs, Ohio, a station founded by college students which won a grant to digitize and protect its archives which were maintained for decades almost by benign neglect. Robinson created a radio show for WYSO, pulling from this rich store of historical recordings, called “Rediscovered Radio.” The experience prompted her to widen the search to HBCUs.

In this we explore the reasons why relatively few college and university stations have active archival and preservation programs, how station licenses are “an institutional asset” and the cultural shift that has turned us all into documentarians.

Show Notes:

• WYSO’s Rediscovered Radio
• The Chronicle of Higher Education: Saving History at College Radio Stations, One Tape at a Time
• National Recording Preservation Foundation: National Recording Preservation Foundation Distributes $50,000 in 4 Grants for Audio Preservation
• Union College: Making waves: Race, radio and the legacy of Wendell King ‘24
• Black Perspectives: The Race to Preserve African American Radio

Feature image integrates image by @ingoshulz from Unsplash

The post Podcast #232 – Documenting & Preserving Radio at HBCUs appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Eric Nuzum started NPR’s podcasting efforts in 2005 where he worked for over a decade and helped produce hit shows like “TED Radio Hour” and “Invisibila” – he left NPR for Audible, where he led Amazons efforts in the realm of short form audio and podcasts until 2018.

Eric Nuzum is currently a consultant and podcast maker with his company Magnificent Noise and is the author of the new book “Make Noise: A Creator’s Guide to Podcasting and Great Audio Storytelling.

On Radio Survivor today we talk to Eric Nuzum about how he began his career in radio at a college station – his advice for community radio stations when it comes to podcasting and where to begin when you plan to start a new podcast project to give you the best chance to reach the audience you are seeking.

The post Podcast #231 – Eric Nuzum appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On this week’s episode we learn about a brand new project at the Library of Congress that is focused entirely on archiving podcasts. Ted Westervelt, Manager of the Podcast Preservation Project at Library of Congress, joins us to share early details from this new initiative. He explains that the hope is that a wide variety of all types of podcasts will be part of the collection, including the Radio Survivor Podcast.

Show Notes:

• Library of Congress
• Artist in the Archive: Be the Bit (Library of Congress)
• Podcast #167 – Alternative Histories of Podcasting
• Podcast #186 – African-American Preachers on Wax
• Podcast #221 – The Intertwined History of Radio and the Recording Industry
• Preserve this Podcast

The post Podcast #230 – The Library of Congress Launches Podcast Preservation Project appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The PIRATE Act, recently passed by Congress, is intended to stem the tide of unlicensed radio broadcasting by providing the Federal Communications Commission with new tools. Chief amongst them are new maximum fines, and a shortcut to issuing them. But will this really work?

Author and radio scholar John Anderson says that a lot of the Act’s provisions amount to “unfunded mandates,” requiring the FCC to make semi-annual sweeps in pirate radio hotspots, but without any additional budget. John joins the show to details all of the PIRATE Act’s provisions, and assess what effect they may have.

We also analyze the role of unlicensed radio stations in their communities –recently recognized by even the Boston Globe – and what effect, if any, the Act might have on Part 15, legal unlicensed broadcasters.

Show Notes:

• Boston Globe: Give Radio Pirates a Chance to Go Legit
• The PIRATE Act text
• The PIRATE Act was sponsored by former New York Rep. Chris Collins who was just sentenced to prison for insider trading
• Part 15 Lab: A Look Back at KENC 1620 AM, Stayton, OR
• Internet Archive Wayback Machine: Allston-Brighton Free Radio
• Internet Archive Wayback Machine: Boston Globe article on Allston-Brighton Free Radio’s Part 15 network

The post Podcast #229 – Reading the PIRATE Act appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Last week we declared that the 2010s were a banner decade for community radio. As Jennifer notes, though college radio had a tough start to the last decade, with the loss of prominent stations like KUSF, KTRU and WRVU, the service seriously bounced back, aided by factors like the low-power FM boom, internet radio, HD Radio and support from the new College Radio Foundation. That all adds up to the defensible declaration that it was also the biggest growth decade for college radio, too. We unpack all that happened.

Digging further into our second “Decade in Review” episode, Jennifer also looks at how efforts to preserve radio programming and materials stepped up, seen most prominently with the founding of the Library of Congress’ Radio Preservation Task Force. On that subject, we’re pleased to report that this show has been selected for collection by the Library of Congress as part of a new podcast program. We’ll talk to the manager of the Podcast Preservation Project on next week’s show.

Finally, we also dig into how video, and YouTube specifically, has become radio, in many ways. A picture may be required, but what does it matter if it’s the audio that’s most important?

But, wait, there’s more! Find out how Jerry Lee Lewis fuels a discussion of border blasters, the tempestuous relationship between radio and the record industry through times of both war and peace in some bonus content that didn’t fit into this episode. Our Patreon supporters can hear this bonus episode, and so can you for a gift of just $1 a month.

Show Notes

• More College Radio than Ever in the 2010s as it Takes New Forms
• Preservation is One of the Most Important Radio Trends of the Decade
• Podcast #207 – Building More Communities Around Your Station
• Is YouTube the Home of the New Radio Pirates?

The post Podcast #228 – College Radio’s Biggest Decade appeared first on Radio Survivor.

We begin part one of our review of the last decade in radio with the observation that it saw the greatest expansion of community radio in history. Though the second US LPFM licensing window that happened in 2013 is a significant driver, the growth happened all over the world.

The 2010s were also a growth period for a lesser-known type of radio station, that isn’t officially even radio. We’re talking about FrankenFM TV stations that can be heard on the FM dial. Not remotely as numerous as low-power FMs, they nevertheless increased in number.

We also note the cataclysmic shifts in independent internet radio that went largely unnoticed outside specialist press (and Radio Survivor). Though indie stations, and platforms supporting those stations, still exist, an unknown number were effectively forced to shut down.

Still, at the end of the decade, there are substantially more radio stations on the air than ten years ago. Not bad for a dying medium, eh? Next week, in part two, we dig into the decade in college radio, and dig deeper into the convergence of radio and video.

Show Notes:

• The Greatest Flowering of Community Radio in History Happened in the 2010s
• Podcast #67 – New Community Radio in Borneo
• Podcast #103 – The Popular Community Radio Movement in Argentina
• Podcast #198 – Defending Human Rights with Radio in Honduras
• Podcast #170 – Community Radio in Brazil
• The Near-Death of Independent Internet Radio Is One of the Most Important Radio Trends of the Decade
• The Rise and Possible Fall of FrankenFMs Is One of the Most Important Radio Trends of the Decade
• Understanding Radio in the Popular Zeitgeist – An Analysis of Radio Survivor’s Most Popular Posts of the Decade 2010 – 2019

The post Podcast #227 – A Banner Decade for Community Radio and FrankenFMs appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Here at the close of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 we’re celebrating the 31st anniversary of the end of one of the most fascinating periods in radio broadcast history, when pirate radio ruled the Irish airwaves. We enjoyed this interview – recorded at the beginning of 2019 – and we think you will, too.

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 and John Walsh tell us about this rich history, in which some of the biggest stations broadcast with multi kilowatts of power, with listeners as far away as London and Wales. Stations ran the gamut, from these high-powered “super pirates” which often emulated American commercial radio to hobbyist broadcasters and community radio. Some of the Irish pirate radio stations were extremely political, focusing on the Irish language, or political prisoners. One station was a feminist pirate where only women’s voices were broadcast. While the scene came to an official end when the Irish government passed a new law with more severe penalties, these pirate stations helped to force open the country’s airwaves to non-governmental radio, which had a monopoly for more than fifty years.

Little known outside of Ireland, this hidden history is a must-listen for radio historians, enthusiasts and nerds of all stripes.

We went down several pirate radio wormholes that we couldn’t fit into this episode. Supporters of Radio Survivor can hear that extra material in Bonus Episode #178.5 right now on Patreon.

Not a patron? Sign up now for as little as a $1 a month and you can get access to this episode and even more great bonus content.

Show Notes:

• Irish Pirate Radio Archive
• Flirt FM
• Wireless on Flirt FM
• Wireless of Flirt FM #26: Highlights of the Pirate Radio Archive to date
• Radio.ie
• Radio Station Field Trip 18 – Flirt FM in Galway, Ireland
• “The 1988 closedown: How a legal loophole led to an explosion in Irish pirate radio“

The post Podcast #226 – Irish Pirate Radio Encore appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Matthew Lasar starts off this episode by declaring that this was the year that his undergraduate students stopped listening to broadcast AM/FM radio. Then he admits, he’s nearly stopped, too. Find out why in this lively rundown of what was significant to radio in 2019.

On the other hand, our resident college radio expert Jennifer Waits reports that she’s listening to more terrestrial radio than ever, even as she notes that college broadcasters are making more podcasts, often focused on increasing the diversity of voices in audio media.

Paul Riismandel notes that the comeback of physical audio media is reaching a kind of apotheosis, as he’s received word of a new Minidisc Day coming our way in 2020, inspired by the likes of Record Store Day and Cassette Store Day. It seems all audio and radio tech is good as we close out the second decade of the 21st century.

Show Notes:

• Beloved paranoid community: the meaning of Welcome to Night Vale
• KSQD-FM Santa Cruz, CA – The Squid
• Technician: MargRock highlights underrepresented local artists
• Podcast #221 – The Intertwined History of the Radio and Recording Industries
• Reddit: International Minidisc Day – March 7th 2020

The post Podcast #225 – A Review of 2019 in Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

All nine judges on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently denied the FCC’s request for a rehearing on its many-times rejected media ownership rules. Prof. Christopher Terry calls this the Commission’s “Legacy of Failure.” But it begs the question, what does success look like?

Prof. Terry, who teaches media law at the University of Minnesota, joins us to discuss what another broadcast world might look like. Going back to fundamentals, he explains that media ownership rules are expected to serve the objectives of furthering diversity, localism and competition, and that is the standard against which they are judged. The Third Circuit has ruled again and again that the Commission has failed to provide evidence that rules changes – in the face of 23 years of increased consolidation, reduced localism and a dwindling number of women and minority station owners – would stem this tide.

While these seem like difficult trends to reverse, Prof. Terry thinks that a recent FCC policy initiative might actually work, with just a few modifications. He tells us how this could happen. He also fills us in on the status of Network Neutrality as public interest petitioners file their appeals in the appeals court case that upheld the Commission’s reversal of the 2015 Open Internet rules.

Show Notes:

• “Localism as a Solution to Market Failure: Helping the FCC Comply with the Telecommunications Act” by Christopher Terry
• The FCC’s Score in Media Ownership Policy is 0 – 4
• Podcast #199 – The FCC Is ‘Flunking Statistics 101’
• Podcast #214 – Net Neutrality Is a Local Issue Now
• Wikipedia: National Cable & Telecommunications Ass’n v. Brand X Internet Services
• Ars Technica: FCC’s “illogical” claim that broadband isn’t telecommunications faces appeal

The post Podcast #224: How the FCC Could Support Diversity, Localism & Competition in Radio & TV appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The Federal Communications Commission is all about radio at the end of 2019, and we catch you up on what you need to know. We all have questions about the possibility of AM stations going all-digital, including the FCC. The regulatory body released the things it wants to know about how digital stations would work, and how it would impact listeners, especially those in rural communities.

Also, the Commission is reconsidering restrictions on duplication programming between AM and FM stations, and the fate of Channel 6 TV on the radio, a/k/a FrankenFMs, hangs in the balance.

Then we dive into the reports that CMJ – the publication and event series that documented and supported the cultural influence of college radio – will come back from the dead. Will it return to print? Will there be an annual Music Marathon in NYC? We ponder.

There was more to discuss about the CMJ return than we had time for, including provocative questions, like: Do we even need a CMJ anymore? Our Patreon supporters get to hear this unvarnished exchange in a Patron-exclusive bonus episode. You can hear it, too, when you sign up to support our work at Radio Survivor, starting at just $1 a month.

Show Notes:

• Call for Papers: ‘Century of Broadcasting: Preservation and Renewal’ Conference
• Podcast #192: Saving Radio History with the Radio Preservation Task Force
• FCC Opens Proceeding for All-Digital AM Radio
• Radio World: FCC Takes Your Questions on AM All-Digital
• Multichannel News: FCC Seeks Input on Analog Radio as Digital TV Service
• Davis Wright Tremaine LLP: FCC Seeks Comment on All-Digital AM and Radio Non-Duplication NPRM
• The Rise and Possible Fall of FrankenFMs Is One of the Most Important Radio Trends of the Decade
• College Radio Watch: CMJ to Return in 2020 and More News
• College Radio Watch: CMJ Lawsuit, WREK’s 50th, Station Tours, and More News
• Podcast 62 – The FCC’s Legacy of Failure & CMJ’s Uncertain Future
• What is the Future of CMJ?
• College Radio Participants Meet Up at CMJ’s Inaugural College Day on Tour in Portland

The post Podcast #223: Will CMJ Return, Will AM Go Digital and Will FrankenFMs Disappear? Plus Other Big Questions appeared first on Radio Survivor.

November 30 was the 20th anniversary of the “Battle of Seattle” protests against the World Trade Organization ministerial meetings in that Pacific Northwest city. The broad array of groups and 80,000 people who assembled understood they would not receive a fair hearing in the mainstream press, so they built their own internet-based platform to instantly publish accounts from the street in words, sound, pictures and video. They called it Indymedia, sparking a citizen-journalism movement that quickly went worldwide before the invention of YouTube, Facebook or Twitter.

To mark this anniversary we return to our conversation with Slate journalist April Glaser, who was active in the Indymedia movement and low-power FM. Earlier this year April wrote a piece for Logic Magazine called, “Another Network is Possible,” observing how the path of what we now call “social media” is just one possible outcome, and that Indymedia was another possibility. That said, we discuss how the innovation and spirit of the movement lives on today.

Show Notes:

• “Another Network Is Possible” April Glaser’s article in Logic Magazine
• Radio Survivor’s coverage of Vanderbilt University college station WRVU
• A popular tweet Eric referenced on today’s show about the lack of evening community spaces in the U.S.
• Infoshop News compiled a list of articles reflecting on the 20th anniversary of the “Battle of Seattle”
• Last year our friends at Interference Archive released a podcast looking back on WTO Protests, Seattle 1999

The post Podcast #222 – Marking the 20th Anniversary of Indymedia appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On this week’s show, we take a trip back to the early 20th century to learn about the recording industry’s intertwined relationship with radio and music culture. Our guest is Kyle Barnett, Associate Professor of Media Studies in the Department of Communication at Bellarmine University.

Barnett’s forthcoming book, Record Cultures: The Transformation of the U.S. Recording Industry, looks at the early history of the recording industry in the United States. On the episode, Barnett shares tidbits from his research and reminds us of the complexity of the media landscape, calling for scholars to not neglect exploring how industries are interconnected. Along the way, we learn about phonograph parlors, the differences between public and private listening, and why some record labels asked their artists to stay off the radio.

Show Notes:

• Record Cultures: The Transformation of the U.S. Recording Industry
• Kyle Barnett on Twitter
• Radio Survivor Podcast #186: African-American Preachers on Wax
• Radio Preservation Task Force

The post Podcast #221 – The Intertwined History of the Radio and Recording Industries appeared first on Radio Survivor.

When Jim Bolt was in college at Sacramento State University in 1989 college radio was exerting unprecedented cultural influence in the U.S. But this campus no longer had a radio station. Though he had heard stories of an earlier student-run AM station – KERS – he couldn’t get to the bottom of why it no longer existed. In the same period the university transferred its FM license over to Capitol Public Radio.

Convinced that the school and the Sacramento community deserved real college radio, he and a group of fellow students pushed hard for two years to finally get KEDG off the ground and onto the AM airwaves in 1991. Today that station continues to thrive online as KSSU. But the struggle to bring college radio back to Sacramento State is why he says it’s “a startup that shouldn’t exist.”

Jim tells this founding story and explains why he and his fellow co-founders endeavored to keep the founding story alive with words and archival materials. He shares hard won advice for college students looking to build their own stations, and for alums who want to preserve their broadcast legacies.

Show Notes:

• KSSU
• KEDG Online Archive
• New York Times: The Power of Tower Records
• The State Hornet: KSSU radio station celebrates 25 years of giving voice to Sac State community
• Sacramento News & Review: Radio Control
• CollegeRadio.org: Sac State Students Refuse to Be Sacked: A Story of Student Radio Startup and Survival in Sacramento
• Inside Radio: Radio Plays Outsized Role In Small And Mid-Market America

The post Podcast #220 – The College Radio Station ‘That Shouldn’t Exist’ appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In April 2020 the FCC will open up the next auction for FM radio licenses. This is the next, and only currently scheduled opportunity to build a new radio station in the U.S. Jennifer, Eric and Paul discuss this news, along with celebrating the 60th birthday of KFJC-FM at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, CA. We reflect on how KFJC and other college stations were trailblazers in programming and service, functioning a lot like public radio in the years before National Public Radio was created.

We also dive into the proposal to allow AM radio stations to all-digital, using HD Radio. These stations would be unreceivable on the millions of radios that don’t receive digital HD signals. We survey the supposed benefits of the idea, and the deficits.

Finally, we celebrate another momentous occasion, the 25th anniversary of a terrestrial station simulcasting on the internet. And, wouldn’t you know it – both stations credited with being first are college stations.

Show Notes

• Happy 60th to College Radio Station KFJC
• Can We Save AM Radio by Killing It? Considering All-Digital AM Radio
• Inside Radio: FCC Is Auctioning 130 FM Signals. Here’s What You Need To Know
• Internet Radio Is Older Than You Think

.@DVD points out that today is the 25th anniversary of @wxyc debuting the internet simulcast stream of its broadcast radio signal. This was indeed the birth of modern streaming media as we know it (not just streaming audio, but streaming media, period) 1/4 https://t.co/F4RDHkx5By

— Andrew Bottomley (@abottomley) November 7, 2019

The post Podcast #219 – The Next Chance To Get an FM Station License; a College Station 60th; All-Digital AM appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On this week’s episode, Karen Cariani, the David O. Ives Executive Director of the WGBH Media Library and Archives, joins us to talk about the work of the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB).

A collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH, the AAPB not only archives public radio and television; but it also makes material searchable and accessible through its website.

Show Notes:

• American Archive of Public Broadcasting
• WGBH – What’s Happening Mr. Silver (two online, more are available on site at WGBH or the Library of Congress)
• AAPB Special Collections
• AAPB Scholar Exhibits
• FIX IT+, Transcribe to Digitize challenge
• AAPB blog
• Open Vault (WGBH Media Library and Archive website)

The post Podcast # 218: Archiving Public Media appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Amanda Dawn Christie is an artist enamored with radios and radio waves. The Assistant Professor, Studio Arts at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada) joins us on the show to discuss her most recent transmission art project, Ghosts in the Airglow, in which she created work at the HAARP facility in Alaska.

Christie also shares with us the backstory of how she starting working with radio and radio waves, describing her fascination with radio towers and shortwave and recounting her numerous radio-related art projects.

This episode first aired in April of 2019. To hear the longer verson click here.

Show Notes:

• Amanda Dawn Christie’s website
• Faculty page for Amanda Dawn Christie at Concordia University
• Spectres of Shortwave
• Spectres of Shortwave Installations
• This New Brunswick Town Was Literally Haunted by the Radio (CBC Arts)
• Podcast #92: Conspiracy Theory & Community Radio
• Podcast #168: A Time Machine for All the Radio plus Shortwave
• Spies Still Using Radio
• The Secret Machine Behind Soviet Numbers Stations
• Podcast #86: Radio Resistance from an Alternate Universe
• Resistance Radio: Mesmerizing Dystopian Pirate Radio
• Genetrix Program
• Mystery Solved: ‘Thing in the Woods’ Revealed As… (CBC News)
• Ghosts in the Air Glow
• Concordia Transmission Artist Launches a High-Frequency Project – in Alaska (Concordia University)
• Audio from Ghosts in the Air Glow

The post Podcast #217: Radio Spectrum and Transmission Art appeared first on Radio Survivor.

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 aired on community radio in decades past.

On the episode, we discuss the history of queer radio programming as well as DeShazor’s work to bring some of the hidden LGBTQ stories to light.

This episode originally aired on April 2, 2019 as episode #187, which is slightly longer.

Show Notes:

• Queer Radio History: Pacifica Radio (Journal of Radio & Audio Media)
• Pacifica Radio Archives/UC Berkeley Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Activism Sound Recording Project (Internet Archive)
• LGBTQ Radio Research Project (GoFundMe)
• Queer Radio Research Project fundraiser on Facebook

The post Podcast #216 – Archiving LGBTQ Radio History (Rebroadcast) appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Today our online networks are largely owned and operated by corporations that spy on us for profit, but 20 years ago leftist activists built a very different kind of online network. It was called Indymedia. It was one of the first online spaces where people could self publish photos and text as well as audio and video. The network was designed for people to report their own news. Each local Indymedia website was linked to and run out of a physical space (Independent Media Center) where people gathered to work on telling their stories and to form community.

Our guest is April Glaser, technology and business journalist at Slate. April previously worked at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Prometheus Radio Project, Radio Free Nashville, and the Tennessee Independent Media Center.

Show Notes:

• “Another Network Is Possible” April Glaser’s article in Logic Magazine
• Radio Survivor’s coverage of Vanderbilt University college station WRVU
• A popular tweet Eric referenced on today’s show about the lack of evening community spaces in the U.S.

The post Podcast #215 – Lessons Indymedia Has for Us Today appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Net neutrality received a very mixed ruling from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals last week. The Court largely upheld the significantly looser rules passed by the FCC in 2017 under the leadership of Republican Chairman Ajit Pai. But at the same time the Court said the Commission overstepped its bounds in attempting to forbid state and local governments from passing their own open internet rules.

Prof. Christoper Terry from the University of Minnesota is back again this week to help us understand the implications of this blow to net neutrality. He’s joined by Tim Karr, Senior Director of Strategy and Communications for Free Press. We learn how the Court justified the Pai FCC’s dismantling of Open Internet rules the Obama-era Commission had passed just two years prior, rules that survived a previous challenge in front of the same court.

However, hope for an open internet lies with state and local governments, which have been passing their own rules in the last two years, and are now specifically cleared to do so by the Appeals Court. We’ll understand what those efforts look like, and why Tim Karr is optimistic about the future of net neutrality.

Show Notes:

• Free Press: Court Defers to FCC on Dismantling Net Neutrality for Now but Opens Door for States, Higher Courts and Congress to Act
• Podcast #157 – Restoring Net Neutrality, One State at a Time
• Net Neutrality Is Over (For Now) – What It Means for Radio
• Why Radio Survivor Supports the Day of Action for Net Neutrality
• The FCC Passes Network Neutrality, Kills Internet “Fast-Lanes”
• Four reasons why net neutrality matters for mobile radio

The post Podcast #214 – Net Neutrality Is a Local Issue Now appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The FCC lost in court for the fourth time on September 23, in what’s become a really bad habit in the case known as Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals keeps sending the Commission back to do homework to justify with evidence the changes it wants to make in loosening media ownership rules. And the Commission just keeps failing.

Prof. Christopher Terry of the University of Minnesota returns to tell us why the FCC failed again this time. He notes that the FCC has been at it for fifteen years. This means media ownership policy has seen nary an update pretty much since the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which infamously triggered massive consolidation in broadcast radio and television. Prof. Terry explains why this stalemate doesn’t serve the public interest, in part because the overall diversity in media has declined sharply in that time.

He also lets us know about a recent buried change in FCC procedure that threatens to undermine the voice of local citizens and groups in commenting on Commission rules and proceedings.

Show Notes:

• Prof. Terry’s companion piece: The FCC’s Score in Media Ownership Policy is 0 – 4
• The FCC’s Legacy of Failure: Failure Then Gives Us More Failure Now
• Could the FCC’s Legacy of Failure Trigger Even More Consolidation?
• Podcast #33 – 20 Years Ago Local Radio Was Crushed
• Happy (?) 21st Birthday to the Telecom Act of 1996

The post Podcast #213: Four Strikes for the FCC’s Media Ownership Policy appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Radio waves don’t obey borders, and stations have been taking advantage of this fact since the dawn of the medium – often despite the rules of government regulators where the signals go.

Dr. Kevin Curran of Arizona State University has been studying border radio stations extensively, making it the subject of his doctoral dissertation. Everyone has a ton of radio nerd fun as he takes us back to the 1920s, when Canadian and U.S. regulators struck a treaty to split up the AM dial and limit maximum broadcast power, but left out Mexico. That opened up an opportunity for stations in that country to cover the continent with hundreds of kilowatts, attracting broadcasters from north of the border wanting to take advantage.

Many infamous and colorful personalities were amongst this group, from Dr. John Brinkley, who promoted goat glands to cure male potency problems, all the way to man named Bob Smith – later known as Wolfman Jack – who blasted rock and roll that most American stations wouldn’t touch.

Dr. Curran explains why stations along the Mexican border remained popular with U.S. broadcasters even after that country lowered maximum power levels, in treaty with its northern neighbor. He also explores the relationship of U.S. stations to Canadian markets, where stations are more highly regulated. If you’ve ever wondered why radio is different along the border, you’re curiosity will be satisfied.

Show Notes:

• Radio World: Goat Gland Man Has Enduring Appeal; Though His Remains Are Safely Entombed in Memphis, Dr. Brinkley’s Legend Lives on
• Wide Open Country: How Border Radio Helped Popularize Country Music
• Texas State Historical Association: Border Radio
• SpectacularOptical: Clap for the Wolfman
• The Classic CKLW Page
• Wolfman Jack biography
• Wikipedia: XEROK-AM

The post Podcast #212 – Border Radio in North America appeared first on Radio Survivor.

More than 600 community radio recordings from 1965 – 1986 are archived at the University of Maryland. These tapes were shared through a program exchange operated by the National Federation of Community broadcasters. The breadth of programming contained in these programs is remarkable, and underscores the still-active mission of the NFCB to support and promote the participation of women and people of color at all levels of non-commercial broadcasting.

Laura Schnitker is the curator of the Broadcast Archives at the University of Maryland, joining the show to tell us more about this special archive of programming, highlighting some of the gems in the collection.

This episode of the program was recorded and originally aired in September of 2018 and is being rebroadcast this week. The original episode number was 158

Show Notes:

• Historic Community Radio Broadcasts Now Available in UMD Digital Collections
• National Federation of Community Broadcasters collection at University of Maryland
• Online Finding Aid for NFCB Collection at University of Maryland
• Georgetown University Radio Station WGTB’s Storied Past (Radio Survivor)
• College Radio Station WGTB Field Trip Report (Radio Survivor)
• Podcast #135: Resurfacing Women’s Contributions in Podcasting History (Radio Survivor Podcast)
• Podcast #156: Can We Strengthen Audio’s Public Domain? (Radio Survivor Podcast)

The post Podcast #211 – Surveying Community Radio’s Deep Archives appeared first on Radio Survivor.

RadiOpio Program Director Laura Civitello has the enviable job of running a youth radio station on the Hawaiian Island of Maui. From an upstairs perch at the beach side Pa’ ia Youth and Cultural Center, Civitello manages KOPO-LP, whose on-air hosts range in age from 9 to 19 years old. On this week’s show, Civitello tells the story of how RadiOpio came to be and talks about the unique role that this LPFM station is playing for young people in the town of Pa’ia.

Show Notes

• RadiOpio website
• Pa’ia Youth and Cultural Center
• The 40 Best Little Radio Stations in the U.S. (Paste Magazine)
• Radio Station Tours on Radio Survivor
• Mahalo to Mana’o Radio, Maui’s Community Radio Station
• Mana’o Radio website
• KOKO-LP
• KAKU-FM
• Free Speech Radio News Documentary – On Being Hawaiian and Homeless

The post Podcast #210 – Youth Radio by the Beach appeared first on Radio Survivor.

From the “Classical Radio Era” to today’s hottest podcasts, we’re here for the love of radio drama and fictional sound-art. Our guest is Neil Verma, author of a book and teacher of classes on the subject, although as he tells us on today’s episode, the class became a lot more popular with students after he changed the name from “Radio Drama” to “Audio Drama.”

Today’s episode is a rebroadcast of one of our favorites from this year. It originally aired 1/15/2019 as episode #178

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Show Notes:

Theater of the Mind – Imagination, Aesthetics, and American Radio Drama

Neil Verma essay on The Shadows

Some audio drama recommendations from this episode

The Classical Radio work of Norman Corwin

J.G Ballard’s Radio Plays on the BBC

The Shadows

Wolverine: The Long Night

The Truth

Homecoming

Classic Radio’s The Shadow

Nightvale and affiliated programs

Pacific Northwest Stories

Ars Paradoxica

Limetown

Deathscribe

Jennifer Waits’ article on Unshackled

Matthew Lasar writes about and speaks on the podcast about Mae West

The post Podcast #209 – Audio Fiction’s very long history of innovation appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Jennifer is back from travels, that included Hawaiian community radio, to join Eric and Paul. First up, a question: is “pathfinder” a good replacement for the word “pioneer,” the latter of which has an unfortunate colonial heritage? Listener Pat Flanagan suggested it to us after we asked for input a couple of episodes, so we provisionally adopt it here to talk about people who are finding new paths for our favorite audio media.

Jennifer updates us about a new pathfinding low-power FM station backed by the San Francisco Public Press, and announces that the call for papers is open for the next Radio Preservation Task Force conference in October 2020.

Paul reports back from Podcast Movement, where some 3000 podcasters of many stripes met for 3 days in Orlando, Florida. He remarks on the wide variety of podcast email newsletters he learned about, and the Podcast Brunch Club. We note recent allegations of plagiarism against a popular true crime podcast, using it as a launching point for a discussion about journalism and ethics in community broadcasting and podcasting.

Show Notes:

• Call for Papers – ‘Century of Broadcasting: Preservation and Renewal’ Conference
• Podcast #192: Saving Radio History with The Radio Preservation Task Force
• Muni Diaries
• San Francisco Public Press
• Podcast #191: How an LPFM Produces an Hour of Hyper-Local News Every Weekday
• Podcast Movement 2019
• Preserve This Podcast
• Podcast Brunch Club
• The Adventure Zone podcast
• NY Times: Popular ‘Crime Junkie’ Podcast Removes Episodes After Plagiarism Accusation

The post Podcast #208 – Radio and Podcast Pathfinding in San Francisco and Podcast Movement appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Nathan Moore is the General Manager of WTJU at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. Hear how and why he has lead the way to build a podcasting studio for the community to use, as well as a student run LPFM college radio station and a concert series and a summer camp.

Show Notes:

• “Unsettled” WTJU’s one minute stories on immigrants
• teej.fm, WTJU’s podcasting network
• WXTJ
• www.wtju.net
• Radio Station Visit #129: WTJU
• Freeform Music, House Shows, and Art: Touring College Radio Station WXTJ-LP at University of Virginia
• College Radio 50 State Tour: WTJU
• University of Virginia to Launch LPFM College Radio Station WXTJ-LP

The post Podcast #207 – Building More Communities Around Your Station appeared first on Radio Survivor.

With mergers, acquisitions and millions of dollars changing hands, podcasts continue to be in the news. But just when it seems like well-funded networks are edging out the indies, Paul and Eric are here to assure community and college broadcasters and independent podcasters that there is growing opportunity for them, too.

Show Notes:

• Paul on The Wolf Den Podcast
• The Verge: iHeartMedia will start airing its own podcasts on over 200 of its radio stations every Sunday
• That NY Times articles that podcasters hated so much: Have We Hit Peak Podcast?
• Podcast #98 – Celebrating ‘Small’ Podcasts
• Podcast #195: Telepathy and Radio Mind
• Podcast #178 – Irish Pirate Radio Archive

The post Podcast #206 – Podcasts Are Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Hello, Eric Klein here. This week’s episode of the radio show features wall to wall music selected by Matthew Lasar to demonstrate his passion for the radio format he would like to hear more of in the world, Hybrid Highbrow. All that music would be against the rules in a podcast, so this web-only version of the show this week features a little bit of me talking about Matthew’s ideas; I talk about a few of the recent episodes of the program you might have missed; and then a quick update on the conclusion of our humble fund raising campaign.

Show Notes:

• Hybrid Highbrow Podcast #1: Mamie Smith and Enrico Caruso, Birds of an Acoustic Feather
• Hybrid Highbrow Podcast #2: Arabesques!
• Hybrid Highbrow Podcast #3: Classical tangos!
• Hybrid Highbrow Podcast #4: Why Jazz loves Béla Bartók.

The post Podcast #205 – A Brief Update appeared first on Radio Survivor.

This week we explore the role of radio as a tool for resistance with two of the eight organizers of the “Resistance Radio ‘The People’s Airwaves'” exhibit in Brooklyn, New York.

Interference Archive volunteers Celia Easton Koehler and Elena Levi join us on the podcast to discuss the scope of the exhibit, which investigates a cross-section of themes, including black liberation, radio and prisons, squatting radio, war and revolution radio, and more.

The physical exhibit (on view until September 29, 2019) includes artifacts and audio from a wide range of radio stations from all over the world. Additionally, the team is producing a series of events, a ‘zine, and an online companion exhibit.

Show Notes:

• Resistance Radio at Interference Archive
• Online exhibit for Resistance Radio
• Resistance Radio Live Broadcast
• Audio Interference Podcast
• Prometheus Radio Project
• Kichwa Hatari (NY radio program in Kichwa)
• Italian station Radio Alice
• Radio La Conciencia
• Bush Radio (station in Cape Town that began via pre-recorded tapes on buses)
• ‘Zine quote from Rosa Ramón, KDNA (Granger, Washington) in “Programas Sin Verguenza: Mapping Chicanas in Community Radio in the 1970s”
• Podcast #174: Preserving Brooklyn Pirate Radio
• The Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map is Now Online
• Podcast #181: Visiting Community Radio Stations Around the World
• Radio Survivor Patreon campaign
• We’re Making a ‘Zine for Our Supporters
• Help us Tell the History of Indymedia and LPFM