Leonard Bernstein’s FBI file
Over the course of his career, Leonard Bernstein was relentlessly watched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
College Radio Watch: Live Radio Survivor Show, Radio History and More News
On this week’s Radio Survivor show/podcast, we cover a number of topics, including Princeton Review’s annual “Best College Radio Stations” list. As readers may know, I’ve been analyzing these lists for over a decade. Every year I like to point out the methodology behind the survey and what it really means for college radio. With […]
Podcast #155 – Connecting Podcasting’s Future to Radio’s Past
This week Paul reflects on insights gained at this year’s Podcast Movement conference, focusing on the opportunity for more people to be served by community podcasting. Jennifer reports back from Radio Day by the Bay, which included a live radio drama performance that connects up to the present-day explosion in scripted fictional podcasts. And then […]
Happy National Radio Day 2018!
Let’s celebrate the oldest electronic medium today. Radio provides entertainment, news, information and companionship to millions of people every day in the U.S., and billions around the world. When your power goes out or your smartphone dies, you just need a couple of batteries and a radio (or just a wind-up radio) to keep in […]
College Radio Watch: On National Radio Day, a Look Back at College Radio History
Happy National Radio Day! A few days ago, I got a request for information about college radio history and it is a reminder that the story of college radio in the United States is not well documented. The truth is that college radio stretches back to the earliest days of radio in the U.S., with […]
On W.C. Fields and Cowboy Bebop
Second Inversion radio has an interesting interview with pianist Nadia Shpachenko. She has a new album that includes a composition by Peter Yates called “Epitaphs and Youngsters.” The piece requires output from a “singing pianist,” who, among other tasks, meditates on W.C. Fields’ famous comment that “On the whole, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.” Apparently Fields hoped […]
Podcast #154 – One Tape at a Time: Preserving Music Memories
There are undiscovered musical treasures potentially fading away in closets, basements and storage units around the world. Seattle radio station KEXP teamed up with local universities and media organizations to help save a little of this cultural history with the Pop-Up Music Memory Digitization Lab. For one day members of the public were invited to […]
College Radio Watch: Princeton Review, Kids, and Bank Robbers
The annual Princeton Review “Best College Radio Station” list has me in full-on analysis mode this week, as I scrutinize the list of 20 schools with “popular” radio stations. Based on surveys conducted at around 380 institutions, it reflects a microcosm (less than 10%) of the universe of more than 4,000 U.S. colleges and universities […]
Princeton Review’s “Best College Radio Stations” List for 2019
This week, colleges and college radio stations across the United States are touting appearances in the newly released Princeton Review Best 384 Colleges (2019 edition), which includes a variety of survey results, both serious and whimsical. Notable to college radio fans, the included “Best College Radio Station” list is derived from student responses to a […]
Podcast #153 Licensed and Unlicensed Low Power Radio
Two interviews that cover the state of low power radio in the United States. Stations that are on the air without a license – also known as Pirate Radio – and the low power stations that have FCC permission to broadcast due in part to the hard work of the former pirates. This episode is […]