On the Radio Survivor Podcast this week, I discussed the concept of “college radio firsts.” Not only am I fascinated with college radio history, but I’m also a stickler about getting the facts right. My high school journalism teacher Nick Ferentinos would have berated me if I had published unsubstantiated claims in our high school […]
Archive | History
Preserving Podcast History
We’ve been covering radio preservation quite a bit here at Radio Survivor. But, despite the medium’s relative youth, it’s not too soon to think about podcast preservation either. Because podcasts are distributed as downloaded files they seem less ephemeral than radio broadcasts, which someone has to take the initiative to record and save. However, think […]
Radio 2.0: Uploading the First Broadcast Medium
My third book about radio is scheduled to be released on March 31 by its publisher, ABC-CLIO. It is titled Radio 2.0: uploading the first broadcast medium. The writer Susie Bright has already noticed its release via her Twitter account. The press has a very nice page for the small tome on its website. I […]
College Radio Watch: Preserving College Radio’s History at the RPTF Conference
I’m back from my whirlwind East Coast travels, which included numerous radio station tours and the Radio Preservation Task Force‘s inaugural conference: “Saving America’s Radio Heritage: Radio Preservation, Access, and Education” at the Library of Congress and University of Maryland. The two-day conference was a wonderful opportunity to talk radio with an incredible roster of […]
College Radio Watch: College Radio in the 1970s – Industry Notes Influence of Carrier Current Radio
It can be challenging to track down the history of specific college radio stations and I often find interesting tidbits while doing online research. In the course of my research, I ran across a couple of sources from the early 1970s that point to the state of college radio at the time. As I’m ensconced […]
College Radio Watch: College Radio is Older than You Think
Awhile back I saw a post on social media announcing the 75th anniversary of college radio. Although I’m excited any time someone writes about college radio history, I was also troubled, because I know that college radio is much older. Being quite fascinated with the early days of college radio, I’m aware of licensed college […]
Radio Art and New Media in Radio Studies: An Interview with Magz Hall – Pt. 2
We’re happy to return to the second part of our interview with radio scholar and radio artist Magz Hall. In the first part of the interview, Hall detailed the many ways in which we can understand radio, in both a contemporary and historical context, through the lens of radio art. She introduced us to a […]
College Radio Watch: MLK Speech Found in WAMH Archives & WKDU Brings Back Sports
On the Radio Survivor Podcast this week, I talked about the ongoing controversy at college radio station WMUA at University of Massachusetts, Amherst surrounding changes to the station’s programming schedule which are reducing the number of hours devoted to non-student programming. Matthew Lasar brought my attention to the protests surrounding the decreased number of hours […]
My Visit to the Oldest High School Radio Station in the U.S.: Portland’s KBPS
Radio Survivor readers are well aware of my passion for radio history and my appreciation for high school radio. For those reasons, it was a thrill to finally visit KBPS 1450 AM in Portland, Oregon a couple of months ago. Licensed to Portland Public Schools, the station is housed at Benson Polytechnic High School (thus […]
The Mysterious Black College Radio Convention
Over the years I’ve seen references to the Black College Radio Conference and its annual award ceremony. Although scant information is available online, William Barlow writes about the convention’s origins in Voice Over: The Making of Black Radio. He says that the Atlanta-based event was launched by Lo Jelks and that the student-focused convention was […]