This past Sunday, February 13, was World Radio Day. I’m a few days late in recognizing it, but still have something good to share. Like last year, the BBC tapped radio journalist David Goren to produce a documentary highlighting community radio around the globe. “World Wide Waves ’22” profiles four stations: Koori Radio is the […]
Archive | Noncommercial Radio
Rough Notes: Antarctic Radio Revisited & Jamming Soviet-Era Numbers
A belated happy New Year and welcome to 2022. It’s not quite a New Year’s resolution, but I want to return to regular blogging here at Radio Survivor, at least covering interesting radio stories of note, along with other radiophonic observations. With the Super Bowl coming in just under three weeks you can look forward […]
Podcast #322 – College Radio History at WRAS
On the show this week, we explore one of our favorite topics: college radio history. Our guest, Andreas Preuss, just completed a multi-faceted project about student radio station WRAS at Georgia State University in Atlanta for his master’s thesis: Left of the Dial: Right on the Music: 50 Years of Georgia State FM Radio. We […]
Podcast #317 – How Radio Survived 18 Months of Pandemic (and Keeps Going)
A year-and-a-half ago high school, college and community radio stations shut their studio doors in response to safety measures to prevent the spread of COVID. They quickly scrambled to find ways to stay on air, broadcasting archived programming, allowing DJs to pre-record or even broadcast live from home. We’ve dedicated several episodes to learning how […]
Campaign on to preserve Mae Brussell’s library
Efforts are underway to preserve the records of community radio personality Mae Brussell. Brussell hosted several discussion shows in the 1970s and 1980s at community stations in Carmel and Pacific Grove, California. “Dialogue Conspiracy” and “World Watchers International” focused on a variety of subjects, most notably the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and Watergate. […]
Podcast #306 – Radio Coincidences, from Easttown to Sutherlin
What are the odds that a popular television series would feature your college radio station as a backdrop for two episodes? That’s exactly what Jennifer found, when HBO’s “Mare of Easttown” employed a set that accurately recreates Haverford College’s station as a location for the limited-run drama. Jennifer talked with the show’s production designer to […]
Creating Haverford College Radio on Mare of Easttown
Student DJ Anne Harris is on the microphone in the booth at WWXU Haverford College Radio. While back announcing a track by Mannequin Pussy, she looks through a sticker-covered window into the record library, where local band Androgynous is preparing to play live. Posters, stickers and flyers are plastered on the walls and there are […]
Podcast #304 – Lesbian Radio History in Canada
As we wrap up Pride Month, our podcast discussion turns to queer spaces and queer community on the radio and in podcasting, specifically lesbian broadcasters in Canada. Our guest, Stacey Copeland is a media producer and Ph.D. candidate at Simon Fraser University’s School of Communication in Vancouver, Canada. Stacey has been researching the history of […]
Podcast #302 – Feminista Frequencies
This week, we take a close look at the history of an influential Spanish language community radio station: KDNA. Located in Washington State, the station launched in 1979 and serves a rural community which includes farm workers and immigrants. Our guest, Monica De La Torre, is Assistant Professor at the School of Transborder Studies at […]
Podcast #300 – How to Get a Noncomm FM License in 2021 (Replay)
The Federal Communications Commission recently announced that November 2, 2021 will mark the opening of the next licensing window for full-power non-commercial / educational (NCE) FM radio stations. The Commission first hinted at this chance back in fall of 2020. Given how often our listeners ask how and when they can get a radio license, […]