Radios in the trees, a transmitter in the pond, and a weather-driven synth. These are just some of what you’ll find on The Wave Farm, a 29-acre property in New York’s Hudson Valley dedicated to radio and transmission arts. It’s anchored by community radio station WGXC, accompanied by a cornucopia of additional tiny terrestrial and […]
Archive | Noncommercial Radio
Podcast #276 – 2020 the Year in Radio and Sound
Though there are many good reasons why one might not want to look back at the year that was, we still see some aspects worth noting. In particular, radio and podcasting proved to be resilient media, with broadcasters and podcasters rallying to meet the challenges of quarantines and social distancing brought on by the COVID-19 […]
Podcast #271: AM Radio Goes Digital as It Celebrates a Centennial
Eric, Jennifer and Paul reconvene to catch up on all that is news to us in the worlds of radio and sound. The FCC just unanimously approved all-digital operation on the AM band, while commercial radio – born on the AM band – celebrates its centennial. But keep in mind that broadcast radio is older […]
Podcast #270: Public Media for All
In the last few years a number of large and prominent public media organizations have been forced to confront the effects of sexism, racism and harassment within their own organizations that has been tolerated for too long. One clear cause is a serious lack of diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the public media system. Public […]
Podcast #269 – How To Get an FM Radio License in 2021
The Federal Communications Commission has announced that it will open two filing windows for non-commercial FM radio licenses. First up will be an opportunity to apply for a full-power non-commercial / educational (NCE) license, followed by a low-power FM opportunity. Even though the application window dates have not yet been announced, now is the time […]
Podcast #267 – Live from the Grassroots Radio Conference: Community Radio and Protests
This week, the Radio Survivor crew did its first live broadcast from a virtual conference held over Zoom. As part of the 2020 Grassroots Radio Conference, we presented a live radio show during the event, which aired over host station ARTxFM’s (WXOX-LP) FM signal in Louisville, Kentucky as well as over the internet. The topic […]
Podcast #266 – Flirt FM Celebrates 25 Years of College & Community Radio in Ireland
Flirt FM at the National University of Ireland at Galway was one of the first “community of interest” stations to go on the air in that nation. Effectively, this means it was a trailblazing college and community station, hitting the air not long after the state broadcast monopoly began to erode in 1988. Andrew Ó […]
Virtual Grassroots Radio Conference Kicks off Friday, Oct. 9
Though I’m disappointed I won’t be traveling to Louisville this year, host station ARTxFM has assembled a really impressive online Grassroots Radio Conference for 2020. None other than Public Enemy’s inimitable MC Chuck D will deliver the first keynote on Friday night, titled “And You Don’t Stop Radio.” WFMU’s stalwart station manager and streaming radio […]
Podcast #263 – Broadcasting High School Radio through Wildfires and a Pandemic
With wildfires raging up and down the west coast of the United States amid the coronavirus pandemic, many radio stations are facing different types of challenges than a year ago. Vacaville Christian Schools’ radio station KVCB-LP (aka VCS Radio) is in a community that was hit hard by a wild fire in August 2020. When […]
Podcast #261 – Remembering Lorenzo Milam
Jennifer, Eric and Paul get the gang back together to remember community radio innovator Lorenzo Milam, who passed away on July 19. We reflect on how he helped to propagate a community access model of broadcasting that departed somewhat from the model of the first Pacifica stations, and was reflective of the counter-cultural currents of […]