Radio Survivor's Top Radio Shows – Jennifer's #4: Dr. Demento Show
Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, the Dr. Demento show began in 1970 on Los Angeles freeform station KPPC as a “rarities” show. By 1974 the popular radio program, which specializes in a mix of music and comedy, moved into syndication all over the country. Hosted by former college radio DJ (at the Reed College […]
Radio as Hero in Post-Quake Haiti
In the aftermath of the devastating January 12th earthquake in Haiti, radio has played an important role in terms of keeping lines of communication open. A fascinating radio story on All Things Considered yesterday profiles one Haitian radio station, Signal FM 90.5, that has continued to broadcast after the quake hit. As way of background, […]
RadioSurvivor’s Top Radio Shows – Paul’s #4: Sound Opinions
As a proud thirty-eight year-old member of Generation X, I have become just a little disturbed by a trend I’ve noticed in the last few years. One might call this trend the “indie-rockification” of public radio. As my fellow grunge-survivors and I, raised on the so-called “first wave” of alternative rock and derided by boomers […]
Radio Survivor's Top Radio Shows – Matthew's #4: Onion Radio News
Amazon.com Widgets I need a good laugh about once every twenty minutes, especially these days. So I listen to Onion Radio News. “A giant 6-year old devastates a local ant community!” announces ORN’s hard nosed reporter, Doyle Redland. “Ant-hill scouts reported today that a mammalian destructo-beast some ten thousand ant-links in height smashed a nearby […]
Radio Survivor’s top radio shows – Matthew’s #5: Joe Frank, Work-in-Progress
I forget when I first started listening to Joe Frank. The other problem is that his half-hour to hour long programs are so weird that one can’t trust one’s memory about them. I mean, I think I remember an episode about a hysterical waiter who, after a long tirade, vomits on his patrons, a furious […]
RadioSuvivor's Top Radio Shows – Paul's #5: Little Steven's Underground Garage
For as much as I love radio I have to admit that there’s very few programs that I might consider appointment listening. Sure, I tune in to NPR daily to catch up on the news with Morning Edition and All Things Considered, but they’re pretty interchangeable to me. If, for some reason, the BBC News […]
Radio Survivor's Top Radio Shows – Jennifer's #5: The Shadow
Amazon.com Widgets In sharing my list of my 5 favorite radio programs, I’m going to be mixing it up a bit by offering up some selections from both my past and present. So, I thought I’d begin with some of the earliest radio that I remember listening to. I’m pretty much a non-commercial radio loyalist […]
The Death of Air America: It's the Ownership, Stupid!
Conservative commentators may be cackling about the failure of Air America radio, trying to make it into an indicator for both the inherent weakness of liberal-leaning radio and liberal politics. But any reasoned analysis of the radio industry demonstrates that neither is the case. Rush Limbaugh, in particular, and the rest of the nation’s most […]
Conservatives celebrate fall of Air America Radio
Blaming its demise on a decline in radio industry ad revenue for ten consecutive quarters, Air America Media has decided to file under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code, effectively ending its six-year broadcasting run as of 9PM EST tomorrow. Created as a liberal / progressive radio response to conservative talk show hosts like Rush […]
Introducing the Radio Survivor Monthly Top 5s
I think I can speak for my fellow Radio Survivors when I say that we really enjoyed putting together our run-down of the fourteen most important radio trends of the last decade. And yet, we’ve barely scratched the surface of the many aspects of radio that we really love. So, beginning this month each of […]