Opinions, editorials and fun stuff.
It seems like physical media continues to have a hold on humans, even while most of us in the West engage with online, streaming and virtual media for much, if not most, of our time. Audiocassettes are like radio, in that they have been declared dead multiple times in the last three decades, yet continue […]
I bought my first CD player in 1987, using money I saved from my 16th birthday and working as a stock boy at the local Party Fair store. I could only afford to buy two discs to try out on my new purchase, owing to the fact that new CDs cost about $15.99, roughly $37 in 2021 […]
I really liked this new video about the people that make Audacity, the free open source audio editing software that is probably on a computer inside every community and college radio station in the world. I’ve been making radio for just about as long as Audacity has been available, and the thing that I love […]
Non-commercial radio stations will join together to air 24 hours of the circadian rhythm emanating from the ṮEḴTEḴSEN marsh in unceded W̱SÁNEĆ territory on Saturna Island, British Columbia this coming Earth Day, April 22. Produced by artists Brady Marks and Mark Timmings, the “Wetland Project” broadcast features a soundscape of birds, frogs, airplanes and more […]
Back in October 2019 I published a response to the breathless news reported across the tech, music and popular press that “vinyl outsold CDs” for the very first time. While true in terms of raw dollars, as I demonstrated, it wasn’t true in terms of volume. More than twice the number of CD albums were sold than vinyl […]
I’m a bit of an audiophile, because I really enjoy music that is nicely reproduced, not because I’m up for dropping five figures on an audio component. One of the most enduring debates among audiophiles is analog vs. digital. I don’t really take a position in this debate. I’ve owned a turntable since my age […]
Updated Feb. 6, 2021 Last year I was in New Zealand during the Super Bowl season. In the week before I was hiking the Milford Track on the South Island, backpacking for four days across 33 miles, away from internet and television (though I did pack a little travel radio). For the actual game I was in the […]
For the first time in a while I needed to dip into my dwindling archive of cassette tape airchecks. A couple of tapes immediately caught my eye and spurred me to restart the digitizing project I’ve been working on and off for the last five years. They took me on a fun journey back in […]
Where can you hear “Alice’s Restaurant” on Thanksgiving 2020? The Radio Survivor listening guide is here.
“The Vast of Night is a movie that takes its time, and thus serves as a wonderful reminder that every generation has its cutting edge telecom landscape, run by people who in their minds and hearts live in the future.”
