A new report says that public broadcasters fall short when it comes to providing their audiences with news and information about their city or neighborhood.
Archive | Noncommercial Radio
A letter from Radio France
Radio France has quite a few devotees in the San Francisco Bay Area, among them the noted filmmaker Veronica Selver. You can listen to the service live, or you can download podcasts via your iPhone, as does Veronica. It helps if you understand French, of course. If not, she sent us this summary of some […]
WXPN Lets the Listeners Program Desert Island Picks for Fundraiser
I’m always interested to see how various radio stations handle the daunting task of fundraising, especially since I’m now in the thick of things begging for cash at my own station KFJC (hint, hint…if you’re a fan of the station we need your dough!). Well, public radio station WXPN at University of Pennsylvania has a […]
How to avoid breaking the FCC’s ridiculously lenient rules against non-commercial radio advertising
It never ceases to amaze me that some public radio stations continue to run afoul of the Federal Communications Commission’s sieve-like rules against running advertisements, but they do. The latest station to wrangle with the Commission on this matter is religious non-profit WKSG-FM in Cedar Creek, Florida, run by Daystar Public Radio. WKSG seems like […]
The Romance of Radio Rediscovered on the iPod Nano
I probably don’t have to convince anyone reading Radio Survivor that radio rules. But just in case you need some persuading, I’d like to share a beautifully written love-letter to radio (written by a reviewer at Popular Mechanics of all places). While checking out the new FM radio feature on the iPod Nano, former college […]
Celebs Rally to Help WLIU Stay Local and On the Air
As Paul Riismandel reported in August, Long Island University-owned public radio station WLIU is about to lose funding from its institution and is entertaining offers to purchase the station. Yesterday was the deadline for bids and a star-studded group of “friends” held rallies and pulled together an offer to save the station from extinction or […]
The great Pacifica radio election is on!
While we’re on the subject of public radio station fundraiser marathons, there’s a related event in progress: board elections at the Pacifica radio network. Subscribers and staff at all five Pacifica stations in New York City, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Houston are voting for members of their respective local station boards. There are […]
Low Power FM gets backing of new FCC Commissioners
Congressmember Mike Doyle (D-PA) came to today’s House Commerce subcommittee hearing on the Federal Communications Commission with a question posed to all the new Commissioners. “Do you recommend that Congress lift the restrictions on LPFM stations—the so-called ‘third adjacent protections’?” “Based on what I know, yes,” new Chair Julius Genachowski quickly replied. “Yes,” responded new […]
The Dreaded On-Air Fundraiser
Fundraiser season is in full force on the San Francisco airwaves with no fewer than 3 non-commercial radio stations pitching for dollars this week. Although on-air fundraisers seem to be a necessity, I find the majority of them to be unlistenable. In a few weeks I’ll have to start doing my own on-air cash pleas […]
mtvU's College Radio "Woodie" Award Voting Has Begun
Whenever a list is produced of the BEST of anything there will be nay-sayers; whether the list comes from “experts” or is the result of popular vote. For that reason, I’m suspicious of every list that I’ve seen of the most popular/best college radio stations. Now with the latest contest underway, mtvU’s (MTV’s college-oriented network) […]