Since my first post for the Radio Survivor Academic Series, the Radio Preservation Task Force has started to accumulate finding aids from regional archival collections. Just prior to the deadline for Research Associates to submit their finding aids to their Regional Directors, it was reported that approximately 250 archives and contacts had been aggregated, which […]
Archive | History
Radio Station Hauntings
Happy Halloween! It’s the time of year when we think about ghosts, goblins, and the afterlife on both All Hallow’s Eve and on Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Day). Whether you are planning a spooky costume to scare Trick-or-Treaters or are crafting an altar to honor your deceased ancestors for Day of the […]
WESU-FM Celebrates 75th Anniversary of College Radio at Wesleyan University
This Sunday, November 2nd, Wesleyan University’s radio station WESU-FM will be holding an event on campus to celebrate the Connecticut station’s 75th anniversary. I’m also really pleased to see that the school has an exhibit on view which tells the tale of the station’s storied history. (more…)
Introducing the Radio Survivor Academic Series
The work of media history serves to not only enrich our understanding of the past and of the everyday use of communications technologies, but it also offers helpful methods and frameworks for making sense of new technological developments and new uses and practices. A number of scholars have tempered the revolutionary claims of newness that […]
The Secret Machine Behind Soviet Numbers Stations
I recently learned of a series of YouTube videos that show a German machine that is alleged to be the voice behind Soviet cold war numbers stations. The videos, uploaded four years ago, show something that looks like a piece of electronic lab equipment that emits a sampled or synthesized voice rattling off a programmed […]
The Library of Congress Launches Radio Preservation Task Force
Editor’s Note: A few weeks ago, John Anderson shared with Radio Survivor readers some details about a Library of Congress initiative focused on the preservation of local radio history all over the country. As he mentioned, The Radio Preservation Task Force is now hard at work identifying radio collections in every corner of the United […]
Library of Congress Launches Local Radio Preservation Project
I mentioned this initiative a few months ago when I first heard about it, but the details have only recently been released. Can you help us assemble a national archive of local radio broadcasts? The official name of this project is the Radio Preservation Task Force, being conducted under the auspices of the LoC’s National […]
Ripon College Turns Back License for College Radio Station WRPN-FM
Last week, the license for Ripon College radio station WRPN 90.1 FM in Ripon, Wisconsin was cancelled. In a letter dated September 11, the Ripon College Board of Trustees wrote, “The college has made the decision to cancel the license and the station will officially go off-air at 5:00pm on Monday, September 15, 2014. We […]
Radio Matters: Pete Simon on “My Passion for Radio and Starting WXDR”
Radio Matters is a new feature on Radio Survivor in which guest authors share their thoughts on the relevance of radio. In this post, radio veteran Pete Simon writes about his passion for radio and his role in the development of college radio station WXDR at University of Delaware and reflects on the future of […]
Steve Post is gone, but where is the Enema Lady?
The New York Times has a graceful obituary for Steve Post, talk radio host at WNYC-FM and before that for Pacifica station WBAI in New York City. I listened to Post endlessly on ‘BAI in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and like many others I read his book Playing in the FM Band: A […]