With all the commotion over the Wikileaks files, I figured I’d search them for tidbits about radio related activities around Afghanistan, of which we’ve taken an interest at Radio Survivor. Turns out there are plenty. Here are a few. I’m not going to pretend I’m an expert on any of this intel. Just posting what […]
Archive | International
Radio as Survival Tool in Sudan
Although many of us are fixated on radio crises in the United States, from stations getting shut down to favored radio hosts being fired, to college radio stations getting sold off; it’s rare that we talk about the important role that radio can play in keeping citizens informed and engaged. As I wrote in my […]
International Radio Festival Hits Zurich in September
With webcasting we all have the opportunity to sample radio stations from all over the globe, but it isn’t every day that there’s a chance to listen to a curated selection of international stations. The organizers of the International Radio Festival hand-picked more than 30 radio stations for inclusion in their festival taking place September […]
Regulated Musical Diversity on Canadian Airwaves
On July 22, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued a revised version of their Broadcasting and Regulatory Policy (PDF) as it applies to campus and community radio in Canada. Amid all of the policy changes (and a nice promise of funding), which for the most part are meant to simplify the ways that […]
Ghost Story with Physics: Radio Drama Explores Wireless Pioneer
Coming up this weekend on the evening of Sunday, July 25th, BBC Radio 3 will be airing a 90 minute radio drama that explores the life of wireless radio pioneer Sir Oliver Lodge. British physicist Sir Oliver Lodge transmitted radio signals in 1894 (before Marconi), studied wireless transmissions and also investigated psychic phenomena such as […]
Spies still using radio
Numbers stations have been part of radio lore for decades. If you’ve ever listened to much shortwave radio at some point you would have come across an unidentified station broadcasting only a person reading off numbers, like an endless lotto feed: “21 99 36….” Sometimes this is in English, and often in Spanish or other […]
75 or so words you really ought to think about before you say them on UK radio
Ofcom (the United Kingdom’s equivalent of the FCC) has just published a new survey of which words British radio listeners and TV watchers don’t like, or sort of don’t like, or really object to, depending on the circumstances. The most important circumstance is whether the word was said pre- or post-“watershed”—post being the equivalent of […]
"Cold Waves" – a must see for radio history fans
Anyone interested in how broadcast radio and international politics merged in the late 20th century should watch Alexandru Solomon’s masterpiece, Cold Waves, a documentary on Radio Free Europe’s role in Romanian society from the 1950s through the Cold War. LinkTV ran it over the weekend here in San Francisco. “I grew up with it,” Solomon […]
Less "specialist jazz" for London "smooth" radio?
It will be interesting to see what Ofcom, the United Kingdom’s broadcast regulatory agency, says about GMG Radio, aka “Smooth Radio” of London and North West’s request to pare down its jazz format. Here’s the gist of the request for the stations (I’ve added the bold): “Current Character of Service AN EASY LISTENING STATION FEATURING EASY […]
Spain Planning a Pirate Radio Crackdown
For Americans it may be hard to believe that Spain only this year passed a law that gives a new Spanish central radio authority the ability to pursue and shut down unlicensed radio broadcasters. Back in January the Spanish radio industry group AERC complained that 3000 pirate stations are operating in the country and need […]