A new survey by Brandwatch reconfirms earlier findings about United States radio stations and Twitter—the relationship could be a lot more dynamic, particularly for commercial music radio stations. Here is some of the Brandwatch data: Only around 0.06 percent of radio listeners tweet about a US radio station. “This is 10 times less frequently than […]
Archive | Music
Who doesn’t like free? Spotify channels iPod shuffle for free smartphone app users
Who doesn’t like free? That’s what Spotify is counting on with the announcement today that its mobile smartphone and tablet apps will let users stream their favorite artists and playlists for free. The catch with smartphones is that you can’t select particular songs. Instead, Spotify is channeling the iPod Shuffle, letting you randomly “shuffle play” […]
Rough notes: the case for radio deejays talking over music
Full disclosure: once upon a time I was a radio deejay. In the 1980s I took jazz/public radio aficionado Jim Bennett’s engineering course at KPFA in Berkeley and learned how to run the live studio board at the station. The more I “board-opped”, the more I was called upon to substitute for various absent hosts. […]
Scanning the 2013 Thanksgiving Radio Dial for Alice’s Restaurant Broadcasts
Catch Alice’s Restaurant on the 2023 radio dial. See our latest listening guide. Although people have mixed feelings about the annual radio broadcasts of Arlo Guthrie’s 18-minute plus epic “Alice’s Restaurant” on Thanksgiving, it’s something that has become a tradition for many families and radio stations. This year is no exception, with stations all over […]
Commercial classical radio: a long view
After reading our story about the end of a commercial classical music radio station in North Carolina, Fred Krock sent us this reflection on his career working in radio. I began working for a major market commercial classical music station in 1953. All major markets and many smaller markets had a commercial classical music station […]
Radio News Round-Up: Dallas station to air tapes from JFK assassination, Iggy Pop holiday broadcasts
Here’s a quick radio news roundup to round-out your Thursday afternoon: Nielsen just released its annual Music 360 study that shows 63% of music listeners still turn to terrestrial radio to discover new music, and that radio drives many listeners to look for music on YouTube. The Radio and Internet Newsletter talked with David Bakula, […]
Lights out for North Carolina commercial classical radio station
Another one bites the dust. Wilmington North Carolina’s Star News reports that Wilmington Bach radio at 95.9 FM and 1180 FM is no more. Those frequencies will now stream Port City Radio news until a new format is unveiled later this month. The Star article quotes Wilmington public radio station WHQR FM manager Cleve Callison saying […]
Former KTRU Frequency, Classical 91.7, Cuts Local Hosts
On Thursday, Culture Map Houston broke the news that Houston classical public radio station KUHA had laid off 8 full-time staffers and was replacing local programming with syndicated classical music content from Classical 24. Culture Map speculates that the University of Houston-licensed station is struggling after its purchase of the 91.7 FM license from Rice […]
CASH Music supports musicians with open source technology & events
Lately I’ve been thinking about the important relationship between independent musicians and independent radio. This was sparked by attending TechFest NW in September–an adjunct to MusicFest NW–where I also learned about CASH Music, a Portland-based non-profit building open source tools to help musicians connect with their audiences, online and off. Co-executive director Jesse Von Doom […]
RadioSearchEngine delivers instant gratification, but not yet the Google of radio
Online radio entrepreneur Michael Robertson has unveiled yet another station portal, this one called, simply enough, RadioSearchEngine.com (RSE). Is this a possible contender to become the “Google of radio”? I spent several fun hours testing RSE and surfing radio from around the world with ease. The site delivers on music search results for songs, artists […]