Community Radio to Provide Soundtrack for Films on Coit Tower
Just when people think that radio is dead, there are signs of it continuing to reinvent itself in interesting ways. The morning news today (on both KTVU’s “Mornings on Two” television broadcast and in the pages of the San Francisco Chronicle) brought word of an innovative art installation taking place over the Thanksgiving holiday at […]
Losing the Magic of Radio?
I spend a lot of time thinking about how changes in technology are affecting radio. I worry that the “kids” (college radio DJs as well as everyday folks) are getting lazier and lazier, bypassing physical music for digital, thinking that it’s easier to find and play. I also worry that the pleasure of enjoying an […]
Top 5 Television Shows Depicting Radio
Being both a television and a radio fanatic; I present to you my personal “top 5” list for TV shows with some sort of radio theme. Some series focus more on radio than others; but in my mind they all showcase the medium and represent a range of radio stations. I was hoping to do […]
Low Power FM bills moving forward with Senate action soon
Hmm. It seems like there’s a fair chance that a law opening up new possibilities for Low Power FM might actually get to prez Obama’s desk this or next year. I’ve been skeptical up until now, but Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington’s Local Community Radio Act S 592 is scheduled for markup and committee vote […]
Andrea Lewis of KPFA has died
It was a hard thing for me to learn today that Andrea Lewis, long time public affairs programmer at KPFA-FM in Berkeley, is dead. The statement from KPFA’s Amelia Gonzalez (see below) says that it may have been a heart attack. Whatever did her in, it’s a huge tragedy. She was 52 years young. Andrea […]
Pirate Radio: why is the best radio always in the movies?
Watching Richard Curtis’ new movie Pirate Radio this evening, I was struck by how little one actually has to do to make a crowd pleasing film out of this subject. There’s really not that much to the flick. It’s the historically grounded story of a pop music pirate station broadcasting to the British Isles from […]
And the Internet radio winners are . . .
Ando Media has published its list of the top-performing Internet audio stations. Here are the top ten for 6 am through midnight in September: The fields are “Station,” “Average Active Sessions,” “Session Starts,” and “Average Time Listening.” Asterisks presumably mean no data. 1 CBS Radio Inc. 175,261 75,410,863 1.29 2 Pandora Corporate 150,011 82,623,100 1.13 […]
Pirate Radio Opens Tomorrow
It’s always fun for me to see how radio gets portrayed in popular culture and I often revel in all of the inaccuracies. David Silver as a high school, college, and commercial radio DJ on the original Beverly Hills, 90210 was always a treat to watch and make fun of. DJ David Silver would rap […]
Big radio revenues drop, again
Down down down. Clear Channel and Cumulus’ third quarter earnings dropped 19 and 18.5 percent respectively compared to Q3 of 2008. Clear Channel reported revenues of $660.6 million in the third quarter of 2009 and $813.4 million for the same in 2008. Cumulus’ net revenues sank from $80.0 million last year to $65.1 million this […]
Pirates on 87.9FM at Greater Risk?
I was disappointed but unsurprised to learn about the end of Pirate Cat Radio’s unlicensed FM broadcast resulting from the FCC issuing a notice of apparent liability (NAL) to Pirate Cat’s operator Monkey Man a/k/a Daniel K. Roberts. However, I am surprised at how long Pirate Cat was able to make a go of it […]