Albert Knighten is a retired Navy air traffic controller in Ft. Myers, Florida who was busted by local police for running an unlicensed radio station back in December. Now the FCC has caught up with him, too, issuing him a Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) for $15,000 on Monday [PDF]. He was operating a community […]
Author Archive | Paul Riismandel
Tune in the Wisconsin recall tonight with WORT and Free Speech Radio News
If you’re in the US you haven’t been able to avoid news about the recall election happening in Wisconsin today, where an enormous grassroots movement mobilized to kick Gov. Walker out of office, following last year’s protest and capitol occupation. Grassroots and community media, especially radio, were vitally important in providing fair coverage of the […]
DAR.fm ranks the podcasts with the broadcast shows
I love it when I get mail! After reading my post about Stitcher’s podcast charts, Michael Robertson, online audio pioneer, founder of MP3.com and current CEO of DAR.fm emailed me today to let me know that his site also features charts for all the programs that users record, right on the home page. I knew […]
Charting the Maturation of Podcasting
On Tuesday Stitcher Radio announced the Stitcher List which is something like the Billboard Hot 100 for podcasts. Stitcher is a smartphone app that lets you listen to podcasts and other online radio on demand, with the “stitch” part of the name coming from the ability to create custom stations by stitching together different shows […]
The 7 dirty words’ mid-life crisis
It was forty years ago this Sunday that comedian George Carlin recorded the Class Clown album which five years later would inadvertently provoke the Supreme Court to canonize seven simple words as the apotheosis of American verbal vulgarity. That case, FCC v Pacifica, would come to be known as the “seven dirty words” ruling, named […]
Free Speech Radio News asks supporters to “keep the flame burning”
Producing a daily, grassroots and nonprofit with an international scope is not an easy business. Free Speech Radio News has been pulling it off for more than a dozen years, since Pacifica Reporters Against Censorship went on strike from the Pacifica Network and turned their efforts to an independent, collectively run newscast. While FSRN is […]
There’s still jazz on Chicago radio, despite the death of Smooth 87.7
Editors’ note: Since the publication of this article the smooth jazz format has returned to the Chicago airwaves. Read this December 31, 2014 update for more details. My post about the demise of Chicago smooth jazz station Smooth 87.7 two weeks ago continues to gather comments lamenting the station’s passing. Many of the commenters express […]
America’s Got Schmaltz – Howard Stern’s disappointing America’s Got Talent debut
Lured in by the debut appearance of Howard Stern as a judge, I watched both hours of tonight’s season premiere of America’s Got Talent. I’ve never watched the show before, nor any of its stablemates, like American Idol. So let’s not bury the lede: I will not be watching again. You see, I’m a lapsed […]
Remembering Adam Yauch and the Beastie Boys’ on-and-off relationship with college radio
Adam Yauch, also known as MCA, of the Beastie Boys passed away from cancer today at the age of 47. Although I knew Yauch had been battling cancer for the last few years, the news still hit me as a shock. I started to think about how my relationship to Yauch and his bandmates’ music […]
The rocky ride and kiwi-flavored future of Turntable.fm
Regular Radio Survivor readers are doubtlessly aware of Turntable.fm, my colleague Matthew’s favorite online music site. Turntable lets users join a room, pick an avatar and play DJ for all the other listeners in the virtual club. Matthew likes the “Classical of all kinds” room, but there are rooms dedicated just about every other genre […]