The FCC just released its quarterly list of the total number of licensed broadcast stations in the United States. Based on their statistics through March 31, 2012, the number of licensed broadcast radio stations is still on the rise, continuing the trend that we saw in last quarter’s update. Based on this list, there are […]
Archive | Community Radio
WFMU Manager Ken Freedman honored by NFCB for online innovation
I’ve long admired New Jersey non-commercial freeform station WFMU. It started life as the college station for Upsala College. When the college went bankrupt in 1995 the volunteers formed a nonprofit corporation to buy the license, rather than see it liquidated. Since then WFMU has been a strong voice for true freeform radio and an […]
Retired Navy air traffic controller to do community service for running pirate radio station
Back in January I reported on Ft. Myers, Florida resident Albert Knighten, a retired Navy air traffic controller who was arrested in December 2011 on charges of unlicensed broadcasting for running a neighborhood community radio station. Knighten got in additional hot water when he missed his arraignment hearing in order to appear on a panel […]
Reactions to the FCC’s LPFM ruling
I was talking with my pal John Anderson earlier today about how relatively muted the reaction is to the FCC’s LPFM decision on Monday. We did get a statement from Prometheus Radio Project pretty quickly. But even today, three days later, there’s only a handful of hits on a google news search. Perhaps the news […]
Progressives scratch heads over Pacifica radio hire of Jackson Lewis
The KPFA Worker website says that the Pacifica Foundation has retained the law firm of Jackson Lewis to manage some of its legal affairs. The foundation owns listener supported station KPFA in Berkeley, and four similar non-commercial stations in Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C. and Houston. “We see the entry of Jackson Lewis as […]
FCC acts to preserve space for new low power community radio stations
A couple days ahead of its March open meeting, on Monday the Federal Communications Commission released a two orders addressing the implementation of the Local Community Radio Act to bring more low-power FM community radio stations to the nation’s airwaves [press release PDF]. Most significantly, the FCC has decided to prioritize the establishment of LPFM […]
San Francisco Bay Area’s Bounty of Independent Radio Offerings
Yesterday I was excited to see that the cover story for the San Francisco Chronicle’s “pink section” was all about independent radio in the San Francisco Bay Area. Based on the cover’s headline, “Up in the Airwaves: The state of independent radio in the Bay Area,” I expected to see a comprehensive list of local […]
Soundtap Madness Pits Independent Radio Stations in Head to Head Listening Tournament
With a nod to March Madness, Soundtap has just released details about “Soundtap Madness 2012,” an 18-day tournament beginning this Thursday featuring consecutive rounds of head to head battles between independent college and community radio stations. Soundtap, which bills itself as “the only crowd-sourced, show-specific way to enjoy independent radio,” is an online tool that […]
University of Colorado’s College Radio Station Radio 1190 to Revamp
An article in the Colorado Daily last week announced that changes are afoot at University of Colorado’s college radio station KVCU-AM, popularly known as Radio 1190. A re-branding effort along with a new website, the elimination of several paid student staff positions, a stronger collaboration between student journalists and the station, and the digitization of […]
Low Power FM decision on the agenda for FCC’s March meeting
The FCC just released the tentative agenda for its March open meeting, to be held March 21. LPFM and translator stations are on the agenda: Creation of a Low Power Radio Service Report and Order: The Commission will consider a Report and Order to implement a market-specific FM translator processing scheme, adopt application caps to […]