Alas, I made it a day late for the inaugural launch-party broadcasts. But I have signed myself up for boxout.fm’s impending new online community radio service. India Today has an interview with the founders. “Initially,” says one of the progenitors: ” . . . we will start off with 4-6 hours of daily live shows hosted by […]
Archive | International
Norway to Shutter Nat’l FM Broadcasts, 200 Local Stations to Remain
Norway will turn off national FM broadcasts on January 11. However, about 200 local FM stations will continue to broadcast for at least another five years, as we reported last year when the story first hit the international press. That crucial detail was missing from international coverage then, and it continues to be overlooked now. […]
New Zealand Has Legal Unlicensed Low-Power FM
I was in New Zealand over the recent holidays, and while waiting in line at a beachside food stand near Christchurch I noticed a t-shirt the teenager behind the counter was wearing, advertising “Rotten Radio 107.7 fm, Lyttelton.” I asked him about the station, and he only said that it’s “cool” and I should listen […]
The “Jungle” of Calais, France is gone, but where is its radio station?
The New York Times reports that a huge refugee camp in Calais, France is “finally” gone. “The Jungle,” as its residents called the site, offered shelter to thousands of North African and Middle Eastern migrants. It was a great big ramshackle humanitarian crisis, and now authorities have cleared it out. Al Jazeera says that some of these […]
Ireland’s Longwave Station RTÉ 252 Spared from Imminent Closure
Listeners located in the U.K. who enjoy Ireland’s RTÉ 252 radio service are breathing a sign of relief. The planned 2017 closure of this longwave station has now been put on indefinite hold, according to Independent.ie. I first reported on RTÉ 252 two years ago, when news of its shutdown–originally set for January 2015–put longwave […]
Radio host Khadija Ismayilova of Azerbaijan is free, sort of
When last we checked in on Azerbaijani radio host and investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, she was languishing in prison. Courts had convicted and sentenced her to 7-1/2 in the slammer for “running an illegal business, tax evasion, abuse of power and embezzlement.” Since then, Ismayilova has been freed and now lives under house arrest in Baku. On Thursday she spoke via […]
India clears 115 community radio stations for operation
India’s broadcast regulator, which keeps close tabs on its community radio stations, has given permission to 115 of them to continue operating. They received notice of a list of Grant of Permission Agreements (GOPAs) on August 29. These allow the mentioned organizations to continue running through their license period or up to December 31 or this year, whichever date […]
Is a dissident Sierra Leone radio host still on the run?
I can’t find any updates on the fate of Sierra Leone radio manager Sahr Amadu Komba, who “fears for his life,” according to journalist rights groups. Mr. Komba got the heck out of that country’s equivalent of Dodge this month after pissing off the wrong people. Like lots of folks in and around Sierra Leone’s eastern Kono district, he’s […]
Podcast # 59 – Community Radio Africa
Radio Survivor’s Matthew Lasar is fascinated by the news of what is going on at community stations in places outside of the U.S. like India, South East Asia, Mexico, and Africa. He is especially interested in the dramatic and sometimes extreme nature of the “normal” experiences of stations like these. “Community radio in those places […]
The perils and joys of running a community radio station in South Africa
As the three or so people who regularly follow my Radio Survivor posts know, I keep an eye on community radio stations in Africa. It is more complicated and in many ways more interesting to run such operations in various African countries. It is also more difficult to follow these projects from my basement office […]