Radio Station Visit #150: Portland Radio Project
On a drizzly Columbus Day morning, I arrived at the Day Theater in Portland, Oregon to visit community radio station Portland Radio Project. The welcoming message on the marquee read: “PORTLAND RADIO PROJECT 99,1 A LOCAL BAND EVERY 15 MINUTES,” proudly proclaiming the presence of the low power FM radio station that was housed within. The […]
Unsilent Nights: where to find one; what to do
The holiday season approaches, and as has been the case since 1992, revelers will soon gather in a host of cities and perform Phil Kline’s composition Unsilent Night. They will each download one of four parts of the piece and play it on some mobile device as they stroll down evening streets. Anything from a iPod […]
College Radio Watch: #MeToo, Noise, Metal, and Anniversary Festivities
During this year’s College Broadcasters Inc. (CBI) conference in Seattle, vital conversations about women in college radio took place during the “Supporting Female Broadcasters Through the #MeToo Movement” session. While many stations have thoughtful and enlightened staffs; participants sadly recounted plenty of stories of sexist and racist behavior. With that as backdrop, it’s disappointing (but […]
Podcast #170.5 – Bonus: São Paulo FM Bandscan
Paul shares a few more details of his trip to Brazil, and then he and Eric listen to a bandscan of the FM dial recorded on a Sunday night in São Paulo, the country’s largest city. Christian radio? Check. Bad 80s pop music? Yep. One takeaway is that commercial radio everywhere kinda sucks, in general. […]
Podcast #170 – Community Radio in Brazil
Álvaro Burns is a community radio broadcaster in São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, where he hosts a local sports show on Rádio Paraty FM and he produces the podcast “A Hora do Cafezinho.” Álvaro is a long-time friend of the show, and Paul recently traveled to Brazil and was able to meet up with him […]
College Radio Watch: Internet Radio Pioneers, College Radio in the 1920s and More News
On episode 167 of the Radio Survivor show/podcast, our guest Andrew Bottomley digs into the roots of podcasting and internet radio. The story includes some college radio pioneers, namely the college radio stations that debuted simultaneous internet radio streams concurrent with their FM broadcasts. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill’s WXYC and Georgia Institute of […]
Podcast #169 – The Free Music Archive is Dead, Long Live the Free Music Archive
The Free Music Archive is shutting down. A website attached to the listener-sponsored radio station WFMU, the FMA expanded the role community radio played in the online space. It was a library of a huge and always growing amount of free mp3’s that spanned every genre of music. Cheyenne Hohman is our guest. Radio Survivor […]
2018 Holiday Guide: Quirky Radio-Themed Gifts for the Audio Obsessed
Being a radio fanatic, I keep an eye out for unusual radio-themed items. With the holiday shopping season upon us, it’s as good a time as any to share some recent finds, particularly since we haven’t done any Radio Survivor gift guides in awhile. With that, here’s my 2018 Holiday Gift Guide for those in […]
There’s a place for us (and it includes Jewish music + oldies)
I am increasingly confident that there is a place for everyone, especially on the radio. The other day in response to Jennifer’s annual Alice’s Restaurant survey we received a response from Al Gordon of WJPR in New Jersey. The station broadcasts a hybrid format: “Jewish all day and oldies all night.”
Podcast #168 – A Time Machine for All the Radio plus Shortwave
Perhaps you are like me and you have wished that you could go back in time and spin a radio dial and just listen to and browse the full radio spectrum from another time and place. Our guest on the show, Radio Anthropologist Thomas Witherspoon, is building a website for just such a thing. It’s […]