See our most recent update to this story: FM in Norway Isn’t Dead, Says Norwegian Local Radio Association Last Thursday Norway’s Ministry of Culture announced the national transition from analog FM to digital DAB radio beginning on January 11, 2017. This move, akin to the digital television transition the US made in 2009, has been […]
The FCC issued another nineteen construction permits for new low-power FM radio stations in the last week, brining the grand total to 1821. Ten of these went to organizations in four cities that will have to abide involuntary time-shares. In each city there was an MX group of two or more applicants competing for a […]
The biggest news in digital and online radio in the last week was the US Patent and Trademark Office invaliding one of the key “podcast patents” which the company Personal Audio had used to sue podcaster Adam Carolla along with larger broadcast companies that also release podcasts. You can read my full report for more […]
Federal Communications Commission Chair Tom Wheeler is at the National Association of Broadcasters NAB show in Las Vegas and just gave a talk at which he told the suits that although the FCC wants to streamline its field office system, that doesn’t mean the agency won’t crack down on unlicensed broadcasters when necessary. Indeed, “flying teams” […]
Should radio stations have to upload their public files to a publicly accessible database? These days if you want to read the public files of television stations, it’s no problem. Just go the Federal Communications Commission’s public and political file web interface and type in a TV station’s call letters and there you are: a […]
Despite years of enforcement action and the establishment of low-power FM, unlicensed pirate radio has not gone away, though it hardly qualifies as a runaway problem or nationwide epidemic. True, there are some hotspots with a high density of communities underserved by local broadcasters–such as Brooklyn, NY and South Florida–where unlicensed broadcasting is arguably more […]
The FCC just released its quarterly list of the total number of licensed broadcast stations and the total number of radio stations in the United States remains about the same as it has for the past few quarters, with a grand total of 15,442 licensed full power radio stations. (more…)
Just under eleven months ago pioneering internet radio station East Village Radio shut down after eleven years of operation. Station CEO Frank Prisinzano cited the costs of royalty payments and internet service as making it difficult for East Village Radio to even break even. Now, the station is poised for a comeback, promising a return […]
Seven new low-power FM construction permits granted in the last week bring the grand total up to 1792. One goes to third largest media market in the US, Chicago, where the Legend Media Network Group will serve the Ghanaian and broader African community of the city’s far north side at 98.3 FM. Ninety miles to […]
Since the FCC passed its new Open Internet rules, reclassifying internet service as a telecommunications utility, I’ve fielded some questions–occasionally hushed, others less so–about if there might be another edge to this sword. Concerns seem to be sparked by the Commission’s recent decision to throw the book at a Roanoke, VA television station for the […]
