The Radio Survivors return to their microphones to review what’s new in radio. Of course, the Russian invasion of Ukraine hangs heavy over our heads, and we review how the international community is leveraging radio to delivery needed communications and information to Ukrainians, as well as how radio is attempting to serve the Ukrainian diaspora. […]
Archive | International
Radio to and from Ukraine
The Russian invasion of Ukraine greatly upsets me, as my heart goes out to the Ukrainian people. I feel a connection because my father’s family is from Estonia, which also borders Russia and has a long, unhappy history of Russian domination. While Estonia today is a free republic, the assault on Ukraine understandably puts the […]
“Radio Is my Bomb” ‘Zine Is a Still-Relevant Snapshot of Free Radio in the 1980s
Thanks to Twitter, I learned about a UK ‘zine recently scanned and uploaded to the Internet Archive: “Radio Is my Bomb: a DIY Manual for Pirates.” Published in 1987, it’s a fascinating document of the 1970s and 80s free radio in the UK and elsewhere, though principally focused on western Europe. Amusingly, the entry on […]
Ireland’s Longwave Radio RTÉ 252 Is Back on the Air
Thanks to reader Paul Bailey I’ve recently been alerted that Ireland’s long-running longwave (LW) radio station RTÉ 252 is back on the air, after a period of maintenance beginning in June of this year. The service rebroadcasts public broadcaster RTÉ Radio 1, reaching longer distances than the mediumwave AM band – no longer in use […]
Brazilian Authorities Cracking Down on Free Radio in 2021
We welcome new contributor Martin Butera, reporting from Brasilia DF, Brazil. In his first article, he examines the growing crackdown on free radio in that country. Readers should note the parallels between unlicensed radio there and in the US, where stations in dense urban areas are often employed by communities and populations not well served […]
Listen to this BBC Documentary about 5 Community Stations around the World
In celebration of World Radio Day this past Saturday, the BBC World Service released an hour-long documentary about five different community radio stations around. the world. Beginning with Cameroon’s Radio Taboo, a solar-powered station started by an artist, presenter Maria Margaronis then takes us to Romania’s Danube Delta, which is focused on preserving the region’s […]
World Radio Day is Saturday, Feb. 13
In 2011 UNESCO declared February 13 to be World Radio Day, celebrating radio’s power for democratic discourse, serving humanity in all its diversity. 2021 is the 10th World Radio Day, and stations spanning the globe will join in the commemoration. Hofstra University’s WRHU will receive the 2021 World Radio Day Award. The 60 year-old station […]
Leadership Changes at U.S. Agency for Global Media and Voice of America
With the new Biden administration in place, we’ve quickly seen a series of leadership shifts at the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) and its related international broadcasting groups, including Voice of America (VOA). Up until his final weeks, Trump-appointed CEO Michael Pack had been installing conservative allies throughout the organization and its affiliates. […]
Podcast #280 – Student Radio History in Australia
Radio history is close to our hearts at Radio Survivor and on this week’s episode we explore the story of student radio in Australia. Our guest, Rafal Alumairy, is working on book about this little-told history. She shares with us details not only about the timeline of student radio in Australia, but also some intriguing […]
Podcast #266 – Flirt FM Celebrates 25 Years of College & Community Radio in Ireland
Flirt FM at the National University of Ireland at Galway was one of the first “community of interest” stations to go on the air in that nation. Effectively, this means it was a trailblazing college and community station, hitting the air not long after the state broadcast monopoly began to erode in 1988. Andrew Ó […]