The Local Community Radio Act of 2009 was scheduled for a floor vote in the House of Representatives today, a moment that LPFM activists have been awaiting for almost nine years. And wait they did. Anyone who has watched her share of C-SPAN knows that the House moves at its own pace, for its own […]
Author Archive | Paul Riismandel
Greed and Consolidation Trigger Another Bankruptcy in Radioland
On Friday the Wall Street Journal reported news that’s no surprise to radio industry watchers, that the third largest radio owners in the country, Citadel Communications, is about to declare bankruptcy in a deal pre-arranged with its creditors. The loudest critic of Citadel has been industry-insider Jerry Del Colliano who predicted last week that the […]
Chicago Public Radio Calls Out LPTV Stations Exploiting Backdoor to FM Dial
Far outside the view of the general public, the virtual cratediggers of the FCC’s electronic recesses like Matthew and myself are sometimes privy to the little slap-fights that go on between broadcasters. In this case things are getting a little heated over the far left end of the FM dial, with a prominent public radio […]
The Record Store vs. the Search Engine
This past week I visited San Francisco. In addition to finally meeting my co-bloggers Matthew and Jennifer in person, I also made my pilgrimage to one of the best music stores in the country, Aquarius Records in the Mission. The oldest music store in the city, Aquarius is not big, and it’s far from comprehensive […]
Pirates on 87.9FM at Greater Risk?
I was disappointed but unsurprised to learn about the end of Pirate Cat Radio’s unlicensed FM broadcast resulting from the FCC issuing a notice of apparent liability (NAL) to Pirate Cat’s operator Monkey Man a/k/a Daniel K. Roberts. However, I am surprised at how long Pirate Cat was able to make a go of it […]
NYC's the Pulse Flatlines
Perhaps it was too good to be true. The overcrowded FM dial of the New York City metroplex offered no easy opportunity to bring a new cutting edge dance music station to the radio. But an opportunity was found at the far left end of the dial in the space occupied by TV channel 6 […]
The Clock Is Winding Down for Channel 6 Backdoor to FM
Regular readers may recall that I’ve been doggedly pursuing the minor phenomenon of analog TV channel 6 broadcasters exploiting their audio signal’s proximity to the FM dial to become radio broadcasters. At present the only analog TV stations capable of exploiting this backdoor are low-power TV stations which were not required to go digital this […]
LPFM Expansion Moves Forward, but Is It Too Late?
Today the House Commerce Committee unanimously passed the Local Radio Act by voice vote, opening up the gates to send the bill for a vote by the full House. This bipartisan action is the best hope the restoration of low-power FM has seen since its wings were clipped back in 2000. When the FCC created […]
A Latent Radio Hidden in Your iPhone?
Hot on the heels of the new FM-enabled iPod Nano comes the rumor that there’s actually an FM radio already hidden inside current iPhones, and that Apple is about to turn it on. Apparently the radio circuitry is currently used as part of the Nike+ that connects up certain sneakers to report exercise data back […]
Recording Radio for Fun, Games and Posterity
I started reading the Professor’s detailed travelogues of his AM and shortwave radio band excursions back when he was writing for WFMU’s Beware of the Blog. After he quit contributing to BotB I learned that he was keeping things going at his own Radio Kitchen blog. The Professor belongs to a group of radio enthusiasts […]