Seven new low-power FM construction permits granted in the last week bring the grand total up to 1792. One goes to third largest media market in the US, Chicago, where the Legend Media Network Group will serve the Ghanaian and broader African community of the city’s far north side at 98.3 FM. Ninety miles to […]
Author Archive | Paul Riismandel
Digital Watch: Will Open Internet Order Let FCC Regulate Internet Radio Decency? Not Likely
Since the FCC passed its new Open Internet rules, reclassifying internet service as a telecommunications utility, I’ve fielded some questions–occasionally hushed, others less so–about if there might be another edge to this sword. Concerns seem to be sparked by the Commission’s recent decision to throw the book at a Roanoke, VA television station for the […]
Beyond the Hype – Will All Musicians Benefit from Jay-Z’s TIDAL?
Monday Jay-Z’s newly acquired TIDAL streaming music service pulled back the curtain on its relaunch, but just a little bit. As predicted, TIDAL is adding a compressed music service, competing with the likes of Spotify, to accompany its lossless CD-quality HiFi service. The compressed service is $9.99 a month, while the lossless version is double […]
Please Support Radio Survivor with Patreon
Today we at Radio Survivor launch our first fundraising campaign so that we can sustain and build up our coverage of radio that matters. After publishing more than 4,500 posts over the course of nearly six years we’re turning to readers like you to help keep Radio Survivor going. We’re using the crowd-funding platform Patreon, […]
Analyzing Jay-Z’s Acquisition of TIDAL Music Streaming Service
Rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z is throwing his hat into the streaming music arena with his acquisition last week of the Swedish company Aspiro and its two music services WiMP and TIDAL. WiMP is a Spotify competitor only available in Scandinavia, Germany and Poland. TIDAL is a CD-quality lossless service available in 31 countries world-wide, including […]
Review: TIDAL Streams Uncompressed Music to More Devices, but Not Worth It for Everyone
TIDAL–recently acquired by rapper/entrepreneur Jay-Z–is one of two uncompressed streaming music services available in the US. Instead of serving up tracks compressed using so-called “lossy codecs” MP3, AAC or Ogg Vorbis like Spotify, Beats Music or Rdio, uncompressed services stream full CD-quality music for higher fidelity. Deezer’s Elite service beat TIDAL to the uncompressed punch […]
Digital Watch: Congressional & Legal Challenges to Open Internet Order Begin
It’s not like we didn’t see it coming. The FCC is taking flak from Congress about its Open Internet rules passed last month, and this week the first wave of lawsuits has been filed. The United States Telecom Association is the biggest plaintiff, representing the nation’s largest broadband providers. The other suit was filed by […]
Amazon Prime Music Stations Review
In the world of streaming music services Amazon Prime Music is more like the bubble gum in a pack of baseball cards. It’s not the reason you buy the pack, but you’ll probably chew it anyway. Introduced last year, Prime Music serves up commercial-free, on demand music to subscribers to Amazon Prime, which also has […]
LPFM News: FL Pirate Denied LPFM; Upcoming Events
It was a slow week in LPFM approvals, with just five construction permits issued. There’s one time-sharing arrangement in the bunch, with two Catholic-associated organizations broadcasting on 106.5 FM in Raleigh, NC. The Corporation for Educational Advancement will be on from 2 PM to 2 AM seven days a week, while the Columbus Club of […]
Digital Watch: Even Online There’s No Such Thing as ‘Free Radio’
While internet radio is sometimes thought of as the wild and untamed cousin of terrestrial broadcast, it’s not entirely unshackled. While web broadcasters don’t require an FCC license, and are unrestricted with regard to using four letter words, stations still have to have to pay up for the right to play recorded music. Even if […]