Yesterday I shared my initial impressions of Apple’s Beats 1 Radio, and why I think it’s decidedly global orientation is its most interesting quality. Now I turn a critical ear to the actual programming and sound quality. Originally I planned to write a review of Apple Music for today’s feature. But after spending additional time […]
Apple Music raised the hackles of musicians–especially independent artists and those signed to independent labels–this week. That conflict highlights the brewing storm over the future of free music–that is, music that listeners don’t have to pay for directly to hear. As nearly all players struggle to make money from music, I argue that independent non-commercial […]
Non-commercial radio station KEXP has created quite a name for itself with its emphasis on live in-studio sessions in its Seattle digs and has been recording hundreds of performances every year. Beginning this fall, KEXP will start sharing select live performances with college and community radio stations (including new low power FM stations) from all […]
There’s an old saying in and around community radio stations: “We do meetings.” That’s definitely the situation over at KUSP-FM in Santa Cruz, California, which has been holding a variety of public, Community Advisory Board, official Board, and who knows whatever other kind of gatherings over its uncertain future. Station management, declaring the signal over […]
The community in and around community radio station KUSP-FM of Santa Cruz, California continues to debate its future. When last we visited this crisis KUSP management had posted a variety of possible new formats for the struggling signal, dubbed “Pine,” “Maple,” “Plum,” “Fig,” and “Walnut.” Some of these bucolic scenarios involve all news, or all […]
I have been listening to computer-based digital music for nearly two decades now. This includes streaming internet radio as well as music files like MP3s. It’s amazing to recall my first efforts to play then-new MP2 and MP3 format files I downloaded, very slowly, over my 56kbps dial-up connection, around 1996 or ’97. In fact, […]
An exciting envelope recently arrived in the mail, containing a stack of vintage college radio station playlists from the 1970s and 1980s. Mostly handwritten or typed on typewriters, the “music surveys” capture lists of the most recently added music to these station’s libraries. Sometimes broken down by genre or divided by different types of rotation […]
The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports that public radio station KUSP has taken a major step towards selling its license. On Monday KUSP’s board, staff, and volunteers approved a letter of intent to offer it to the Classical Public Radio Network for $1 million. CPRN owns classical radio station KDFC in San Francisco and is headquartered […]
National Record Store Day has once again come and gone and [doh!] I keep forgetting to post a piece on that day mentioning that for years I worked for one of the biggest post World War II record chains on the East Coast: Sam Goody records. I clerked at the 49th street and Broadway store […]
Ever since the early days of Record Store Day (RSD for short), I’d wondered why there weren’t more collaborations between record stores and radio stations on a day heralding the importance of local, independent businesses and media. Over the years various radio stations did set up tables at record shops during Record Store Day and […]
