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 […]
Podcast #243 – A Radio Survivor First
A common theme on Radio Survivor is that claims of being first should be viewed skeptically. From purported first college radio station to first internet simulcast, we’ve learned that there’s always another challenger to the prize. This time around, however, we can say this is definitively the first ever episode of Radio Survivor broadcast, and […]
College Radio Watch: WMHD Relaunch, KSLC Goes Classical, WNUW Coronacasts and More News
More than a month into serious social-distancing measures across the United States, college radio continues to readjust to broadcasting during a pandemic. I shared a flurry of posts during that first week of shelter-in-place in my neck of the woods here in San Francisco as many stations moved to automated programming and also brainstormed creative […]
Podcast #242 – Radio on the TV with James Cridland
Did you know that a lot of folks in Europe listen to radio on their televisions? Neither did we, until we talked with James Cridland, editor of the daily Podnews email newsletter and radio futurologist. He explains that outside of North America much of radio is enjoyed on more platforms, from digital DAB to, yes, […]
Online Panel on the History of Internet Radio Is Part of the World Audio Day Virtual Conference on April 21
This Tuesday, April 21, at 12 PM EDT I’ll be participating in an online panel on the “History of Internet Radio,” as part of the first World Audio Day virtual conference. I’m really excited to be in the company of excellent co-panelists: Dom Robinson is UK-based writer and technologist who has written about the 25th […]
The Wetland Project Is Slow Radio for Earth Day
Soothing environmental sounds may be just the thing to help quell pandemic-induced anxiety. Multimedia artists Mark Timmings and Brady Marks present 24 hours of this kind of “slow radio” on Earth Day, April 22. Though not expressly designed for the times of “shelter in place,” when many public parks, beaches and natural spaces are closed […]
Podcast #241 – WBCN and the American Revolution
WBCN in Boston, MA is one of the storied freeform FM stations in American commercial radio history. We’re talking about it because there’s a recent documentary film, entitled “WBCN and the American Revolution,” that dives into its history, and how WBCN’s early days in the late 60s and early 70s are intertwined with the counter […]
Podcast #240 – WFMU is Still On the Air During the Pandemic
Ken Freedman is the General Manager and the Program Director of WFMU, a free form community radio station in Jersey City, New Jersey that prides itself on it’s live, in studio sound from every one of it’s DJ’s. So this particular crisis, the Pandemic and the Lock Down, is a unique challenge. “This disaster is […]
Podcast #239 – Hunkering Down with Raven Radio in Sitka, Alaska
Raven Radio, KCAW-FM, serves Sitka and the remote communities of Southeast Alaska with public radio content, local news and volunteer-produced programming. Like “shelter in place” elsewhere in the lower 48, Sitka is on what they call a “hunker down” advisory. We talk with KCAW General Manager and friend of the show, Becky Meiers about how […]