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 […]
Archive | Community Radio
Does running a LPFM now require persuading millennials to come back to FM?
I am following Ferndale Radio’s campaign to raise enough funds to launch a Low Power FM station in and around the Rust Belt Market zone of Metro Detroit. The group has a nice promotional Vimeo on its indiegogo page. It confirms what I already knew but haven’t really wanted to face. Lots of young people really, truly do […]
LPFM Watch: FCC Approves San Francisco Community Radio and San Francisco Public Press Time-Share and More News
The FCC has been busy processing more low power FM (LPFM) applications in the last month and just this week issued construction permits to San Francisco Community Radio (SFCR) and San Francisco Public Press for new stations on 102.5 FM in San Francisco. Last month the FCC asked the two groups to come up with […]
South Africa community radio station forced to cancel discussion about mining deal
It looks like the staff of South Africa community radio station Madibeng FM 105.3 thought an on air dialogue with activists critical about a cash-for-mining-access deal would go smoothly. Unfortunately they were wrong. On Thursday beneficiaries of the controversial arrangement with the Lonmin platinum metals consortium surrounded the building and forced management to shut the program […]
Radio Station Visit #107 – New LPFM Radio Station KOMF-LP in Denver
My second radio station visit in Denver was to Open Media Foundation (OMF)’s new low power FM (LPFM) radio station KOMF-LP. On the afternoon of Thursday, July 7th, I met up with Chief Engineer Dave Dieter and Steering Committee Member Greg Barman to learn more about the station. (more…)
Platform B! UK licenses “pirate” community radio station for Brighton youth
The United Kingdom’s broadcast regulator (Ofcom) has authorized six more community radio licenses, all in southeast England. The radio project that will serve the Brighton area seems especially interesting. It calls itself Platform B. I quote from the group’s Facebook page: “Working like a pirate station, Platform B will challenge the formal infrastructure of traditional radio – […]
Radio Station Field Trip #105 – CHIRP Radio in Chicago
On a trip to Chicago this spring, I was excited to finally visit CHIRP Radio. The online community radio station was established by the Chicago Independent Radio Project (thus, the moniker CHIRP) and is now the holder of a construction permit for new low power FM (LPFM) radio station WCXP-LP at 107.1 FM in Chicago. […]
LPFM Watch: One Step Closer for San Francisco LPFMs, D.C. Area Station Tours, and More News
A flurry of low power FM (LPFM) updates means that it’s time for another edition of LPFM Watch, two months after we put a pause on our weekly updates. This week we learned that the FCC is closer to resolving the contentious battle for the new LPFM channel in San Francisco, with the application by […]
Podcast #52 – Small Town LPFM
Low Power FM radio stations can be a great addition to the media landscape in the big city, but on this episode we focus on rural LPFM. Eric Klein takes listeners on a tour of KFSL, the low power FM station that is the sole broadcaster in Fossil,Oregon (population 454). The station is staffed by […]
Radio Station Field Trip #104 – Radio Arlington Station WERA-LP
My next stop on my grand radio tour in the Washington, D.C. area was to low power FM (LPFM) community radio station Radio Arlington (WERA-LP) in Arlington, Virginia. A project of Arlington Independent Media (AIM), the station launched over 96.7 FM in December, 2015, just a few months prior to my visit on February 28, […]