Back in the early days of FM, when AM radio ruled the roost and an FM radio was still a rare commodity, many station owners simply simulcast their AM station’s programming on their FM stations. In the 1960s the Federal Communications Commission put the kibosh on that scheme, ordering FM stations to air different programming. […]
Archive | Policy
He may be a bigot, but at least he's for net neutrality
The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that it has busted “intermittent internet radio talk show host and blogger” Hal Turner for allegedly making murderous threats against three judges who issued a decision he didn’t like. “Let me be the first to say this plainly: These Judges deserve to be killed,” the FBI says Turner declared […]
Corporate Radio Gets a Little More Life after Michael Jackson's Death
I’ve been combing through the web trying to get a handle on how radio has responded to the death of Michael Jackson on Thursday. There’s much anecdotal evidence to suggest that radio listenership was up, as fans sought out his music and news about his death from the radio. However, as listeners turned on their […]
Radio contests get trickier as they migrate to the web
Think it’s messy to run radio contests now. It’s only going to get tougher as they migrate to the ‘Net.
Genachowski confirmed by Senate to run FCC. What is his agenda for radio?
Julius Genachowski is confirmed by the full senate as Chair of the Federal Communications Commission. What is his agenda for radio?
Hot Tip: Small Market Radio – Buy!
Sometimes you have to hand it to the financial press, there’s nothing like a little money to make them believe in old fashioned values, like localism, again. Any keen observer of the commercial radio landscape knows that right now the nation’s largest radio station owners are certainly not making money. But, as the Wall Street […]
McDowell cooling off on Fairness Doctrine war?
Everybody and their mother who watches Federal Communications Commission politics wrote up pretty much everything proposed FCC Chair Julius Genachowski said at his Senate Commerce Committee nomination hearing on Tuesday. But a lot less got written about the comments of the other nominee: Republican Robert M. McDowell, he up for a reappointment. And even less […]
Should the FCC investigate charges that radio stations censor pro-Performance Rights Act musicians?
Here’s an interesting skirmish that has already gotten lost in all the growling over the Performance Rights Act. This month the Federal Communications Commission received a Petition for Declaratory Relief (PDR) from the MusicFIRST Coalition. The charges that it levels are pretty serious. MusicFIRST says that broadcast radio stations are pressuring artists to oppose or […]
Who will get those Sirius XM minority channels?
Sirius XM radio has a tricky task ahead of it. The satellite broadcaster still has to figure out who is going to get those “qualified entity” channels that it promised to lease out to minority broadcasters when the Federal Communications Commission gave its two halves permission to marry last July. The FCC is supposed to […]
Pandora and privacy
I wish that Pandora Internet radio made it a little more obvious that you’ve got to adjust your profile options if you don’t want the whole world to know what you listen to. Somebody showed me the new people search engine Spock the other day, and so of course I looked myself up. And there […]