Wouldn’t it be nice if you could plug a little widget into your playlist that allowed Spotify to pick just one tune based on its AI take on your choices? Maybe. Or maybe not.
Archive | Rough Notes
Turning Zoom into a radio channel
You too can turn your Zoom discussion into a music party! Here are two ways . . .
What did Walter Benjamin think radio was for?
“Every child recognizes that it is in the interest of radio to bring anyone before the microphone at any opportunity,” Walter Benjamin wrote in 1930 or 1931. Yet when he visited the microphone he mostly brought only himself. Why?
Podcast #237 – How Community & College Radio Can Deal with COVID-19
Community and college radio stations are unique in broadcasting because in addition to being important community services, many are also a community crossroads, hosting dozens or hundreds of people in their studios and spaces in any given week. That means the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic poses a specific challenge for these broadcasters. KPFA’s “UpFront” co-host […]
Happy International Minidisc Day – A Post-Modern Revival
As we enter our second decade of everything-digital-on-demand, the desire for tactile media only seems to grow new buds. By now the vinyl resurgence is old news, and while mainstream publications still gasp or tsk-tsk at the cassette revival, I think we can safely say the tape medium has retaken a beachhead, too. Today is […]
The 2020s will be heaven for radio anniversary history buffs
Get ready for a decade of “100 years ago today” stories about the first this that and the other thing, radio-wise.
Listening Notes: KXCJ-LP in Cave Junction, Oregon
This past weekend I accompanied my wife for a short trip to Oregon’s Illinois Valley where she facilitated a Conversation Project for Oregon Humanities. Of course I tuned around the FM dial in search of something interesting and local. Quickly I stumbled upon KXJC-LP at 105.7 FM broadcasting from Cave Junction, an eclectic and artsy […]
Rough notes: thoughts on the post-“Radio is Dead” era
“If I am alive, what am I doing here? And if I’m dead, why do I have to go to the bathroom?” – Thomas Dewey, 1948
Not All Stations (but Perhaps Too Many)
Mea culpa. When one sets out to launch an ambitious critique of community radio programming mistakes will be made, and I made them. This is a necessary aspect of testing ideas, as is coming back to revise, tweak and clarify. I am very grateful for the comments, feedback and criticism of my last two posts, […]
Preserving Audio That’s on Cassette
In my continuing quest to stay a step ahead of recording media degradation and obsolescence, I have undertaken the digitization of my remaining audiocassette collection. Last year I wrote about preserving my archive of interviews and air checks on minidisc, with the hope that the post would be informative and maybe compel some readers with […]