As 2018 draws to a close the FCC is poised to throw another death blow at radio, proposing to allow complete ownership monopolies in hundreds of radio markets. At the same time the Commission has to defend its decimation of network neutrality in court, even after the DC Court of Appeals ruled the earlier open […]
“The radio industry… is an example of an industry that was doing pretty well, and they gutted it.” The “they” is the private equity industry, which provided the financing to companies like Clear Channel (iHeartRadio) and Cumulus to go on the epic buying sprees that resulted in today’s enormously consolidated commercial radio landscape. Investigative reporter […]
Late night talk radio innovator Art Bell has died at the age of 72. He passed away in his sleep, at home in Pahrump, Nevada on Friday, April 13. For the night owls, insomniacs, late-shift and early-morning workers, Bell was a comforting voice crackling through the AM airwaves on his shows “Coast to Coast AM” […]
Looking for info on how to listen to this 2021’s Super Bowl LV? Click here. Every year I enjoy the little treasure hunt of figuring out where you can listen to the Super Bowl on the radio. Having done this for five years now, parts are the same every year, especially when it comes to […]
While we mostly celebrate non-commercial radio here at Radio Survivor, that doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate commercial radio when done well. The problem is that in the 20 years since the 1996 Telecom Act grossly deregulated radio ownership, the quality of most commercial radio dropped precipitously, leaving many stations with very little local programming, with […]
The local service of radio grows enormously in value when disaster strikes a community. This is what we’ve seen with the wildfires that have swept through the Northern California counties of Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake and Solano beginning last week. Fast moving and unpredictable, these deadly fires also took out communications infrastructure like cell towers, […]
On this episode we revisit our features on Bainbridge Community Broadcasting, and our interviews with founders Barry and Channie Peters. BCB started out as a low-power community radio initiative, but pivoting into podcasting when the group discovered that would better serve their community. We’ll listen to our first conversation with them from July 2015, and […]
At 11:59pm last night, Brown University’s student-run commercial college radio station WBRU brought its broadcasts over 95.5 FM in Providence, Rhode Island to a close, making way for syndicated Christian radio programming from K-LOVE. On Wednesday, we learned more about the impending FM license sale to Educational Media Foundation, as paperwork was filed with the […]
Rumors have been circulating for awhile that the 95.5 FM license for commercial radio station WBRU at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island was up for sale and just last month there was speculation that an announcement would be coming soon. Over the weekend, Providence Journal reported that WBRU was selling its license to Christian […]
While making plans for my trip to Charlottesville, Virginia for the College Radio: Then, Now and Next symposium, I was looking forward to seeing all three radio stations that have an affiliation with the University of Virginia: WTJU (see my tour report #129), WXTJ and WUVA. Each has a distinct personality. WTJU is a non-commercial […]
