Radio Conference Season Begins
The next six months are chock full of opportunities to connect with college and community radio practitioners at a range of non-commercial radio conferences. Here’s a quick look at some of the events happening between now and October, 2012.
BEA 2012
First up is the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) conference in Las Vegas this weekend (April 15-18, 2012). Sessions include “The State of the Radio Industry 2012,” Ten Years After the Introduction of LPFM: Low Power to the People,” “The Diminishing Role of Radio in 21st Century Broadcast Curricula,” as well as workshops and an awards ceremony. The “college radio crisis” will also be discussed in the session “Is the Tipping Point Coming for College Radio,” in which panelists will discuss ways to ensure a station’s future at its home university.
NFCB’s 37th Annual Community Radio Conference
The National Federation of Community Broadcasters will be hosting its annual conference in Houston from June 13 to 16, 2012. The wide-ranging sessions will focus on compliance, development, community engagement, governance, programming, and technology. Prometheus Radio Project will also lead a special LPFM workshop. Our coverage of last year’s conference can be found here.
Grassroots Radio Coalition Conference
The annual Grassroots Radio Coalition (GRC) conference will be held in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois from July 26-29, 2012. Details about conference sessions have yet to be announced, but journalist and media advocate Joe Torres is scheduled to speak. You can read a recap of last year’s conference here.
CMJ Music Marathon
The CMJ Music Marathon takes place in New York City from October 16 to 20, 2012. The annual College Day is focused entirely on college radio and always features lively panel discussions about the ins and outs of running a student radio station. You can see my coverage of last year’s conference here.
CBI National Student Electronic Media Convention
College Broadcasters Inc. (CBI) will be hosting its own conference for the first time. In the past they’ve teamed up with other student media organizations, but from October 25-27, 2012 they will be holding their own fall convention in Atlanta, Georgia. The conference will have “an exclusive focus on issues related to student radio, TV, and online broadcasters.” Last year’s event featured some great practical workshops and sessions on topics ranging from the college radio crisis to roundtable discussions with station managers, to “ask a broadcast lawyer” sessions.
