A nice piece in the Saugerties Times about the continuing popularity of ham radio in that upstate New York town. The article profiled the activities of the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club, which offers a variety of public safety and emergency communications services to the area, especially during the Kingston Classic running marathon. The group […]
Archive | Fun Stuff
New Mexico “ghost town reborn” gets Low Power FM station
The Prometheus Radio Project has a blog post about its efforts on behalf of a fledgling Low Power FM radio station serving the hallowed town of Madrid, New Mexico. The LPFM station in question is KMRD, 96.9-LP, aka “Madrid Community Radio.” I am intrigued by the KMRD website description of Madrid’s environs, situated on the Turquoise […]
The BBC Radio 1 School of YouTube
Before we get to YouTube issues, Radio Survivor contributor Ann Alquist has stirred up quite a discussion here with her post titled Why community radio stations don’t need News Directors. Bottom line: there are lots of digital partnership strategies for producing news and public affairs that don’t require your station to invest in some kind […]
Ain’t No Pirate Ship: Tugboat Produces Radio from Willamette River
There’s a new radio studio docked on the shores of the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon’s St. John’s neighborhood, but this ain’t no pirate ship. A 1940s steam-powered tugboat is the new home of Steam Radio Syndicate, which made its debut broadcast on community station KBOO last Friday night. As Oregon Live reported, The show […]
Maybe Think Of Me Once in a While… WKRP Reunion This Wednesday
Funnily enough, just last night I was channel surfing and settled in to a WKRP in Cincinnati rerun (the program is one of Jennifer’s top 5 TV shows depicting radio). This one tackled the very serious issue of payola, wherein a new morning DJ is gifted some cocaine from a record promoter, and has to […]
Bloomberg upgrades radio to cockroach status
Cockroaches have been around for about 280 million years, a longevity record that has inspired Bloomberg to compare radio to the species. “Radio has survived everything,” this Bloomberg news video notes, “from eight tracks to iTunes, and so far, an onslaught of streaming music startups.” The piece cites industry claims that 92 percent of Americans […]
Minnesota Public Radio Station “The Current” Launches a Beer
Back in 2011, Radio Survivor’s Paul Riismandel asked the question, “Does Your Radio Station Have Its Own Beer?” After discovering a vintage co-branded beer can, he wondered why a community station today didn’t team up with a local craft brewery. Flash forward to 2014 and Minnesota Public Radio station “The Current” has announced that it […]
Format Swap, One Direction Hoax & More April Fool’s on the Radio
April 1st is a day when you must not turn off your critical faculties if you’re planning on turning on the radio or TV, surfing the internet, or even leaving the house. Luckily, most pranks are fun and harmless. Also, the FCC is watching broadcasters, who won’t be off the hook if a hoax results […]
At last, audio clip goes viral (and of course it’s about a cat)
Late last month Paul Riismandel wondered why audio so rarely goes viral, especially in comparison to videos. “Will audio ever go viral like a cat video, and what would it take?” he asked Radio Survivor readers. Well, Paul’s answer has arrived. Here is a recording of a Portland, Oregon family calling 911 in fear of […]
Is YouTube The Soup of Radio?
I don’t know about you, but the cable show The Soup has long been one of my top five guilty pleasures. Judge me as you will, but I simply must know what Honey Boo Boo, Gary Busey, and/or Justin Bieber did or said over the last 72 hours. Thus I keep my eyes peeled to […]