Recently a reporter asked me how common independently-owned commercial radio stations were. I told him that they were a dying breed and another example of this disappearing category is talk radio station WYBG-AM in Massena, New York. After 57 years on the air, the station shut down on June 30. Its owners still hold out […]
Chicago may be the home of the highest rated channel 6 TV station dressed in a radio station’s clothes. I wrote about MeTV FM in February when it hit the airwaves. The station broadcasts on the audio channel of WRME-LP channel 6, which is receivable at 87.7 FM. I call these “back door” radio stations […]
Cumulus media has closed the South Bay bureau for KGO news-talk radio. Just like that, according to the San Jose Mercury News blog Internal Affairs: “Here at IA, we’re told it was done in a particularly sudden and ugly way: Two officials with Cumulus Media, which bought the station four years ago, showed up last […]
We got a press release late last week for a new digital station that I’m thoroughly enjoying: Pulse Radio. It’s a LGBTQ oriented HD2 channel extending KMVQ-FM of San Francisco, home to the Bay Area deejay duo Fernando and Greg and afternoon host St. John. Lots of Ke$ha, Marina and the Diamonds, Martin Solveig and similar […]
Last month I told you about nocturnal radio king Art Bell’s scheduled return to broadcasting. At first it looked like his show, Midnight in the Desert, would be internet-only, save a single shortwave broadcast. But now 17 AM and FM stations have signed on as affiliates. Another shortwave station, the infamous WBCQ, will also broadcast […]
The University of Sioux Falls has filed paperwork with the FCC in order to assign the license for its student-run college radio station KCFS 94.5 FM to Badlands Airtime, which is affiliated with Sioux Falls, South Dakota pawn shop, Badlands Pawn. According to the Asset Purchase Agreement, the sale price for the KCFS license is […]
It’s hard to believe that some radio stations still haven’t gotten the message that the Emergency Alert System (EAS) is no joking matter. Today the FCC announced that it has fined iHeartCommunications $1,000,000 (see the order and consent decree here) after an investigation into an October, 2014 broadcast of the syndicated “The Bobby Bones Show.” […]
The Pew Research Center released its annual State of the News Media report for 2015. One fact struck me that I haven’t seen otherwise commented on elsewhere: only 30 Spanish-language radio stations in the US air news and talk programming, out of more than 500 Spanish-language format stations total. That’s seems really low to me. […]
As if it wasn’t already obvious, online audio of all types is growing by leaps and bounds. In fact, 44% of all Americans over age 12 listen every week. It’s most popular with young people, though also quickly gaining traction with everyone under age 55. This is according to the the 2015 edition of their […]
The Federal Communications Commission is proposing updated guidelines for broadcaster contests, allowing radio and television stations to post the rules for these events on websites as a substitute for completely explaining them over the air waves. At present “licensees are permitted to employ nonbroadcast methods for disclosing material contest terms,” but “they may not substitute […]
