In 2014 armed thugs murdered Mexican community radio activist Atilano Roman Tirado as he spoke live in his station’s studio. I wrote of the crime on these pages. Tirado was a leader of a coalition of hundreds of families in Sinaloa asking for compensation after losing their homes to the Picachos dam. He was a […]
I just finished listening to the latest Radio Survivor podcast and as usual it is informative and lots of fun. Paul Riismandel and Eric Klein were having at it over the latest #infinitedial stats. I’ve transcribed a bit of the chat: Paul: Here’s one of the big headlines about and it kind of actually blew […]
Licensed radio stations of all types–including LPFMs–are required to stay on the air, unless granted specific and limited exemptions by the FCC. The logic is clear and sound: licenses are for broadcasting, not collecting and monopolizing like so many empty parcels of land. A church-owned station in Buffalo, WY recently fell afoul of this rule. […]
Last time we checked in on the community radio scene in Zambia, government officials were thwarted in their bid to dissolve the board of a local signal in that country’s Mkushi district. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to have discouraged various law enforcement functionaries from mucking around with other community radio operations. The Panos Institute of Southern […]
This was a pretty quiet week in the world of low power FM (LPFM). Stations continue to work towards getting on the air and the FCC is still making its way through some lingering applications. (more…)
I’m back from my whirlwind East Coast travels, which included numerous radio station tours and the Radio Preservation Task Force‘s inaugural conference: “Saving America’s Radio Heritage: Radio Preservation, Access, and Education” at the Library of Congress and University of Maryland. The two-day conference was a wonderful opportunity to talk radio with an incredible roster of […]
During my East Coast travels last week, I met up with folks from two new low power FM (LPFM) radio stations. During one of the visits, I was peppered with questions about community radio and it was suggested that Radio Survivor publish some pieces about what makes for a good community radio station. In a […]
This might surprise you, but I spend quite a bit of time thinking about how community-focused broadcasters (and podcasters, for that matter) can create healthy organizations that result in amazing programming. Part of this requires shaking off decades-old assumptions about community radio, as well as embracing the challenges of today’s media environment. Many of my […]
There’s a great interview up on SoundCloud with Anne Bennett, director of Hirodelle USA, which supports community based radio projects across Africa. I transcribed some of Bennett’s comments, which she made during a World Radio Day conference in London. They focused on how to get public health information out to women that women will regard as credible, […]
The first new low-power FM construction permit since January has been issued, to Wimberly Texan Radio, in Wimberly, TX. Also, in the last two weeks 18 new LPFMs have received their licenses. There was one interesting dismissal from an applicant that the FCC determined was associated with an unlicensed station. As discovered and reported to […]
