Reading today’s New York Times story about National Security Agency USB hack gadgets that radio computer data back home, I immediately thought to myself: are these authorized by the Federal Communications Commission as Part 15 unlicensed broadcast/radiation devices? Or even, gulp, licensed? The Times reports that the NSA gadgets get plugged into foreign host computers […]
For reasons that remain unclear to me, I bought an Xbox One with Kinect over the holidays. I’m trying to remember how I talked myself into the purchase—something about being able to communicate with my TV via voice. “Xbox! Go to Skype!” I commanded. It worked, except I didn’t have anyone to Skype with at […]
I spent some of this weekend up to my nose in Soundrop, a Spotify chat room application. Soundrop has been available for about two years. I wouldn’t call the feature competition for plug.dj or its predecessor, Turntable.fm, but it is around and worth knowing about if you are a Spotify fan. To access Soundrop you […]
I have an RSS link to everything that YouTube produces tagged “radio,” and the strangest things come into my browser as a result. Today’s example: this Gmod video titled “radio” by Eltorro64Alt, whose work seems to be inspired by cult movie maker Alejandro Jodorowsky. In this piece the rather meaty protagonist wanders about some kind […]
Plug.dj has rolled out its new look and expanded community based structure. I am wandering about its corridors, marveling at the sights. Here are six of the most well attended communities as of this weekend. All of them revel in various kinds of dubstep, electronica, and sampling based themes and sounds. 1. Monstercat + Tasty […]
We’ve been talking about this for a while, and at last it has happened. Radio Survivor has fired up a forums site: radiosurvivorforums.com. The beta site has three forum topics for starters: College Radio, Low Power FM, and Indie Internet Radio. Why the new venue? First—to get some kind of discussion system up that isn’t […]
WFMU’s RadioVision festival enters its third year this October 19 at the Scholastic auditorium in Manhattan’s SoHo. Curator Benjamen Walker said the overarching focus this year is, for radio producers and artists, “How can you stay true to yourself and find the right path?” One successful path is “what someone like (keynote speaker) Laurie Anderson […]
Every time RAIN (the Radio and Internet Newsletter) announces semi-finalists in its upcoming Internet radio awards, I learn about some interesting new online radio service. The latest is Zeno Radio, one of four semi-finalists in RAIN’s “Best Overall Digital Strategy” category. ZenoRadio lets North Americans hook up to radio and audio from anywhere via their […]
The Media Audit research group has dubbed Portland, Oregon NPR affiliate KOPB-FM‘s www.opb.org/radio “the top radio station website in the country.” The outfit’s “FYI” newsletter cites a report (presumably its) that concludes that “more than 385,000 out of a total metro population of nearly 2 million have visited the public radio station’s website in the past 30 […]
Meet the latest innovation in digital communications technology: a radio receiver built the year that Disney released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It is a 1938 Philco console rigged by shortwave operator Gerhard, W6XH to pick up a Voice of America Radiogram. These radiograms are basically radio propelled text messages transmitted via the multiple-frequency shift […]
