Once more into the breach for the Prometheus Radio Project, visiting the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday and again urging the agency to allow for second adjacent frequency waivers for Low Power FM stations, similar to the Commission’s rules for FM translators. The big victory in 2011 was that Congress legalized licensing LPFMs on the […]
Archive | Community Radio
Three takes on how many new LPFMs might be in major markets
How many new LPFM stations will there be? That is one of the biggest questions on the mind of community radio supporters, especially since the FCC’s March ruling resolving the tension between processing the backlog of translator applications and saving room for new low-power stations. Radio World recently published a short survey of best guesses […]
Behind the scenes at a grassroots international daily radio news program
Listeners to Free Speech Radio News may not realize that only two of the producers are in the same location. The rest of the staff–not just reporters and correspondents–are geographically dispersed and work together over the phone and internet. This is due to the grassroots nature of FSRN, but also because the organization’s tight finances […]
Localism and time sharing: Low Power FM faces tricky questions
I’ve been reading through the Federal Communications Commission’s proceeding on how to reward Low Power FM radio stations to applicants. It’s pretty clear from some of the filings—the latest from the Prometheus Radio Project—that the Commission still faces some complicated questions about how to pick the applicant winners, especially when it comes to localism criteria […]
KUSF FM Lives on… In Oregon
Today the FCC released its most recent list of call sign actions. Amid the alphabet soup of new and changed call signs was a familiar set of letters: K-U-S-F. As of July 20, 2012, Common Frequency has reserved the former University of San Francisco radio station’s call letters for a yet-to-be-constructed non-commercial radio station at […]
Radio Valencia: we are two years old (and moving!)
Radio Valencia in San Francisco hit the terrible twos late last week. I wrote to John Hell, the community outlet’s co-founder, to get an update on the station’s plans. He sent me this commentary, which is published below in full. —Matthew Lasar On Saturday, August 11th Radio Valencia celebrated its 2nd anniversary. That went by […]
WFMU doc kickstarts into gear; Radiovision Festival announced
Sometimes I feel like WFMU news should be its own category here at Radio Survivor, due to the station’s constant innovation and newsworthiness. First up, I can report that the Kickstarter for the WFMU documentary Freeform or Death–which I reported on in June–ended successfully last month. 736 backers pledged 61% more than producer Tim K. […]
New Community Radio Station KHOI Launches in Ames, Iowa
Over the weekend, brand new community radio station KHOI launched in Ames, Iowa. Five years in the making, the license application for the full power non-commercial educational (NCE) FM station was submitted to the FCC in 2007 and was granted in 2009. KHOI went on the air and began their testing phase on 89.1 FM […]
Supporters help Free Speech Radio News reach funding goal
Radio Survivor readers might recall that the independent daily news half-hour Free Speech Radio News began an emergency fund-raising campaign in May in order to close a $75,000 budget gap. Last week FSRN announced that the goal had been matched and surpassed in July. Development director Alan Searle says that, “it is important to note […]
Rough notes: towards the end of Pacifica Radio (and the start of something new)
As the troubles facing Pacifica radio persist without apparent end, I sometimes wonder whether the five station listener supported radio network should voluntarily dismantle itself—that is, transfer its licenses to five local non-profit entities. I am not the first person to suggest this. Community radio pioneer Lorenzo Milam more or less laid the idea out […]