The case for a Spotify wild card widget
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.
Podcast #249 – Documenting & Preserving Radio at HBCUs
Scholar Jocelyn Robinson says about one-third of Historically Black Colleges and Universities have radio stations. Her mission is to survey them and help preserve their histories and recorded legacies through the HBCU Radio Station Archival Survey Project, which she directs. On this episode Robinson tells us about this project, and explains why it’s important to […]
More than 100 Community Radio Stations to Honor George Floyd on June 9
The National Association of Community Broadcasters has organized a nationwide observance of the life of George Floyd. Mr. Floyd will be laid to rest at a private ceremony on June 9 at 2 PM CDT in Houston, Texas. At that time over 100 community radio stations will play Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come.” […]
Podcast #248 – African American Preachers on Wax
On this week’s episode, scholar Lerone Martin shares with us the fascinating history of African-American preachers who distributed their sermons on 78rpm records during a time when they had limited access to the radio in the 1920s-1940s. Martin, Associate Professor in Religion and Politics at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at […]
Podcast #247 – Scene on Radio
Over the course of four seasons, the Peabody-nominated podcast “Scene on Radio,” a production of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, has earned a reputation for tackling head-on difficult topics around race, gender, justice and equity. But it didn’t start out that way. It started life as a documentary anthology that host and […]
Turning Zoom into a radio channel
You too can turn your Zoom discussion into a music party! Here are two ways . . .
Podcast #246 – Radio in the Movies
Portrayals of radio in popular culture provide an interesting glimpse at radio’s role in society. At Radio Survivor, we’ve long been fascinated by radio depictions on both the small and large screen; so it is a treat to dive into this topic with Hemrani Vyas, Programming Coordinator at Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Vyas curated an […]
Podcast #245 – Hidden Women’s Radio History in Uruguay
In 2019 we celebrated International Women’s Day by recording a fascinating interview about women’s radio history with University of Louisville Professor of History Christine Ehrick. Author of Radio and the Gendered Soundscape: Women and Broadcasting in Argentina and Uruguay, 1930-1950, Ehrick schools us on the hidden history of a pioneering women’s radio station in Uruguay. […]
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 #244 – Exploring the So-Called ‘Golden Age’ of College Radio
Some consider the late 1960s through the mid-1990s to be a “golden age” of college radio. History professor Katherine Rye Jewell, from Fitchburg State University, notes that the period begins with college stations taking to the FM dial, and concludes with the rise of the internet. During that time, college radio stations certainly at times […]