There are a number of radio and music scholars who write for both academic and non-academic audiences. Eric Weisbard is one example of that. In the 1990s, he made his living as a rock critic for publications such as Spin and the Village Voice and today he is an Assistant Professor of American Studies at […]
Archive | Commercial Radio
Thanksgiving 2014 Brings Another Chance to Hear Alice’s Restaurant on the Radio
Catch Alice’s Restaurant on the 2023 radio dial. See our latest listening guide. Once again it’s time for my annual run-down of some of the radio stations playing the Arlo Guthrie epic “Alice’s Restaurant” as part of an annual Thanksgiving Day tradition. There’s no exhaustive list of stations that plan to air the song, so […]
Number of U.S. Radio Stations on the Rise, Especially LPFM, according to New FCC Count
The FCC released its quarterly list of the total number of licensed broadcast stations this week and once again the number of radio stations has increased since last quarter. As of September 30, there were 15,433 licensed full power radio stations in the United States. The only category that decreased was the number of AM […]
The Death Spiral of AM Talk Radio
Darryl Parks is the former corporate brand manager for Clear Channel talk stations and was program director for Cincinnati news/talk WLW-AM. Now independent, Parks keeps a blog where he recently has trained his sights on his old business. A couple of weeks ago he dissected the plummeting ratings across the mostly-conservative AM talk radio format. […]
Classic Rock Radio Isn’t What You Think It Is
Just what is Classic Rock? It’s a question that has vexed many a radio listener tuned in to a set that includes Billy Joel, Led Zeppelin, the Clash and Motley Crue, artists that likely wouldn’t have been played together on any other format. What’s the connecting feature? What’s in the center of that Venn diagram? […]
Lebanon 1982: the year that Casey Kasem got real
Late as usual, I thought I’d still write up my own recollection of the legendary radio hit-meister Casey Kasem. Paul Riismandel has a great reminiscence of him posted last week. As for me, I always experienced Kasem’s Top 40 Countdown as a dreary auto-pilot affair, served up with a canned voice and a canned smile. Then, […]
Negativland Releases “U2” Masters, Kasem Outtakes & All
In my memorial of Casey Kasem yesterday I mentioned Negativland’s infamous “U2” single that integrated into cover versions of the band U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” blooper outtakes of Kasem generally losing his cool while recording America’s Top 40. It turns out that Negativland is making their own tribute of sorts […]
So Long, Casey Kasem, and Thanks for All the Hits
Broadcasting legend Casey Kasem passed away Sunday at the age of 82. For those who grew up in the 70s and 80s Kasem is an icon of classic pop radio. His passing is sad, but causes me to reflect on how a single weekly broadcast so neatly encapsulated American music culture for a time, and […]
Vermont loses only commercial classical radio station
WCVT of Vermont is changing formats, marking the end of the state’s only commercial radio station. The signal has been airing classical music since 1977. According to Vermont NPR news, WCVTs’s popular morning show announcer disclosed his retirement on Friday. His leaving and the presence of Vermont Public Radio’s classical service convinced the owners of […]
Podcasting News: From Broadcast to Podcast
In this week’s podcasting news updates there are two new podcasting networks. One comes from the mainstream public radio world, while the other comes from the universe of local commercial morning shows. PRI Launches SoundWorks Public Radio International is catching up with NPR and PRX by starting its own podcast network. According to the network […]