Radio Station Visit #167: College Radio Station WRPI at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
College radio stations are generally very welcoming spaces, so much so that I often have to tear myself away at the end of a visit. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s WRPI 91.5 FM in Troy, New York had that effect on me. It had it all: comfy couches, the requisite Leo Blais sign, shelves of vinyl records, […]
Podcast #330: Wetland Project and Slow Radio
The Radio Survivors return with a new podcast episode! On this edition of the show, we discuss soundscapes and the concept of slow radio. Our guests, artists Brady Marks and Mark Timmings are the creators and producers of the 7th annual Wetland Project slow radio broadcast, taking place on Earth Day on April 22, 2023. […]
Flashback to Princeton Review’s “Great College Radio Station” 2022 List
What are the best college radio stations? I’ve enjoyed scrutinizing these sorts of lists for years, in particular Princeton Review’s “best college radio station” rankings in its yearly college guides. Based on student surveys, these lists attempt to rank the popularity of college radio on the campuses which participate in the Princeton Review surveys. The […]
Radio Station Visit #166: College Radio Station WCDB at University at Albany
As I wandered through a labyrinth-like campus center building looking for college radio station WCDB after a long day of cross-country travel, it felt like the olden days before 2020, when I used to regularly take field trips to radio stations, often mapping out ridiculously ambitious schedules for myself in order to see as many […]
Podcast #329: New York College Radio Tours
The Radio Survivors return with a new podcast episode! Jennifer reports on her visits to four college radio stations in New York state in November, 2022. Part of a longtime project to document radio station field trips, these recent tours are her first since 2019. As COVID-19 restrictions have loosened, stations are largely back to […]
Alice’s Restaurant on the Radio for Thanksgiving 2022
Catch Alice’s Restaurant on the 2023 radio dial. See our latest listening guide. Thanksgiving is nearly upon us and for radio fanatics like myself, that means another year tracking the radio stations that play Arlo Guthrie’s seasonally appropriate “Alice’s Restaurant.” Especially with the strangeness of the last few years in light of COVID, nostalgia is […]
Podcast #328: Media Archaeology and Other Networks
The Radio Survivors return with a new episode! For this edition, recorded in July, 2022, our guest is Lori Emerson, Founding Director of the Media Archaeology Lab (the MAL). She’s also an Associate Professor in the English Department and Director of the Intermedia Arts, Writing, and Performance Program at University of Colorado at Boulder. Lori […]
FCC’s Proposal to Legitimize FrankenFMs Proves It Isn’t in the Business of Taking Stations off the Air
The FCC is not in the business of taking licensed radio stations off the air. This is something I’ve been telling community and college radio folks for well over a decade, especially when they get themselves tied up in knots of anxiety trying to read certain regulations like literary theory, worried that a fine over […]
Podcast #327: Industrial Music Systems and Workplace Broadcasts
On this week’s program, we turn our attention to the history of industrial music – not the noisy music genre – but music played in industrial settings for workers. A variety of services offered (and still offer) background music for workplaces. Muzak and the RCA Plant Broadcasting System are just a few of the products […]
Podcast #326: The State of Listening and Broadcast Radio in 2022
The annual Infinite Dial survey from Edison Research was recently released, showing what people in the US are listening to, and where. It even includes social media platforms like TikTok, which Eric observes young people often use like radio, playing in the background as they go about daily activities. We review the stats, and also […]