At the Commission’s March meeting the FCC approved changes to the rules governing priority for new tribe-owned stations intended to serve Native American populations. Previously, priority for licenses was granted to federally-recognized Tribes seeking licenses to serve Tribal-owned lands, such as reservations. The March 3 report and order (PDF) now gives Tribes the opportunity to […]
Archive | Public Radio
NPR and the “educated elite” problem
The NPR galaxy is in shock following the resignation of its CEO, Vivian Schiller. She received a vote of no-confidence from NPR’s board following the release her development director Ron [no relation] Schiller’s off-the-cuff remarks with a conservative group pretending to be the Muslim Brotherhood. Among Schiller’s comments, that the Tea Party isn’t “just Islamaphobic, […]
Chicago user-generated station Vocalo to re-launch with more convential format
Vocalo is a rimshot station owned by Chicago Public Media‘ based in Chesterton, Indiana that went on the air in 2007 as an experiment in bringing user-generated content to broadcast radio. When it launched CPM president Torey Malatia hailed the idea with a lot of rhetoric about making radically public radio, emphasizing public affairs and […]
NPR will more closely manage website comments (hooray!)
NPR has announced the use of a new comment filtration process in an article innocently dubbed “The Right Chord With Less Discord.” Comments left by new website users will temporarily undergo review from a “community manager,” a process that NPR predicts will take less than 15 minutes: The vast, vast majority of our community members […]
Friends of KUSF File Petition to Deny with FCC Opposing Sale of KUSF
This has been a busy week for the Save KUSF crew, with a faculty-led teach-in taking place at University of San Francisco on Monday, just as paperwork opposing the proposed station sale of KUSF to Classical Public Radio Network was being filed in Washington, D.C. with the FCC. At the teach-in, faculty, students, alumni, and […]
Public radio and TV supporters worry about ‘save public media’ fatigue
As everyone concerned about this issue knows, last week the Republican controlled House of Representatives voted to eliminate federal funding for public broadcasting. The move was approved in the context of the massive spending bill HR1, “Making appropriations for the Department of Defense and the other departments and agencies of the Government for the fiscal […]
NPR and public TV create new advocacy group
It will be “a joint initiative to respond to the current federal funding crisis on behalf of public broadcasting,” explains the press release, announcing the creation of a new organization: the Public Media Association. PMA will be run by National Public Radio and the Association of Public Television Stations. “NPR is proud to join forces […]
Classical Public Radio Network’s South Bay Expansion Plans
Amid all of the changes taking place after the January 18 announcement that University of San Francisco’s college radio station KUSF would be sold to Classical Public Radio Network, was commercial classical radio station KDFC‘s move (on January 24) to KUSF’s frequency of 90.3 FM. KDFC’s owner, Entercom, opted to hand its station’s brand and […]
Fight to Save KUSF Hits Next Phase: Lawyers, Fundraising, and City Hall
The battle to save college radio station KUSF has hit a new phase this week, as the group Save KUSF begins its work to fight the University of San Francisco station’s pending sale to Classical Public Radio Network (owned by University of Southern California and Public Radio Capital) through legal channels. In order to hire […]
Unusual turnabout: Connecticut commercial station flips to public
At least it’s not just college stations going the public radio route. In an unusual turnabout the commercial adult contemporary station WQQQ in Sharon, CT is flipping formats to pick up news, talk and classical music programming from public station WSHU based at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT. WQQQ, which went on air in […]