It’s a good sign that people continue to write articles praising radio offerings from coast-to-coast; so I just wanted to take a moment to share a couple of stories about some interesting things happening in various radio markets. A piece in the L.A. Times profiles AM station KAZN in Pasadena, California, which was the first […]
Archive | Noncommercial Radio

The Record Store vs. the Search Engine
This past week I visited San Francisco. In addition to finally meeting my co-bloggers Matthew and Jennifer in person, I also made my pilgrimage to one of the best music stores in the country, Aquarius Records in the Mission. The oldest music store in the city, Aquarius is not big, and it’s far from comprehensive […]

Community Radio to Provide Soundtrack for Films on Coit Tower
Just when people think that radio is dead, there are signs of it continuing to reinvent itself in interesting ways. The morning news today (on both KTVU’s “Mornings on Two” television broadcast and in the pages of the San Francisco Chronicle) brought word of an innovative art installation taking place over the Thanksgiving holiday at […]

Low Power FM bills moving forward with Senate action soon
Hmm. It seems like there’s a fair chance that a law opening up new possibilities for Low Power FM might actually get to prez Obama’s desk this or next year. I’ve been skeptical up until now, but Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington’s Local Community Radio Act S 592 is scheduled for markup and committee vote […]

Andrea Lewis of KPFA has died
It was a hard thing for me to learn today that Andrea Lewis, long time public affairs programmer at KPFA-FM in Berkeley, is dead. The statement from KPFA’s Amelia Gonzalez (see below) says that it may have been a heart attack. Whatever did her in, it’s a huge tragedy. She was 52 years young. Andrea […]

Radio is Alive and Well at the CMJ Music Marathon
Last week I was in New York City for the 29th annual CMJ Music Marathon. From the beginning, this industry conference was a way to connect college radio DJs, label representatives, and musicians. With panels during the day and music performances at night, it’s an action-packed week designed for music discovery on a grand scale. […]

New study says "little or no local news" at most radio stations
A new study says that most commercial stations “do little or no local news reporting,” and public stations aren’t much better.

FCC Opens another Window for Aspiring Educational Broadcasters
There’s some excellent news from the FCC today. They’ve just announced that there will be another window of opportunity for non-commercial, educational broadcasters to obtain an FM frequency. Between Friday, December 11 and Friday, December 18, 2009; aspiring stations will be able to apply for open FM frequencies. Take a look at some of the […]
FCC Fines College Radio Slackers
The FCC just announced today that they’d levied $7,000 fines against several college radio stations. The crime wasn’t anything salacious like playing songs with bad words. In fact, it’s much more embarrassing as it was a “failure to timely file renewal application,” which in turn led to “unauthorized operation” of said stations. This is a […]

LPFM Expansion Moves Forward, but Is It Too Late?
Today the House Commerce Committee unanimously passed the Local Radio Act by voice vote, opening up the gates to send the bill for a vote by the full House. This bipartisan action is the best hope the restoration of low-power FM has seen since its wings were clipped back in 2000. When the FCC created […]