College Radio Watch: WFUV tour, 1980s College Radio Nostalgia and More News
This week I shared my report from my visit to public radio station WFUV in the Bronx. Based at Fordham University, the station airs a music-oriented format, with primarily local, professional show hosts. Celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, WFUV began as a student-focused college radio station, becoming a public station by the late 1980s. […]
Hybrid Highbrow podcast #2: Arabesques from Debussy to Willie “the Lion” Smith
By popular demand I have produced my second Hybrid Highbrow podcast. It’s all about jazz and classical pieces that conform to the “arabesque” format. Arabesques are often but not always written for the piano. Robert Schumann and Claude Debussy composed the most famous arabesques. But I also hear the arabesque spirit in the the work […]
Radio Station Visit #139 – WFUV at Fordham University
No two radio station tours are alike. More often than not I’m solo, trekking into hidden corners of campuses from early in the morning to late at night. Occasionally family, friends or radio colleagues will join me, sometimes tag teaming with me as I interview station personnel. My visit to Fordham University’s music-focused NPR-affiliated public […]
Podcast #98 – Celebrating ‘Small’ Podcasts
With so much of the online discussion in podcasting seeming to focus on growing audiences and getting big, we thought it necessary to explore and celebrate “small” podcasting, shows that don’t break onto the charts, but have dedicated audiences. If we celebrate small business and small craft breweries, why not celebrate small podcasts? Eric talks […]
College Radio Watch: WUMD Leaves FM, WUSB’s 40th Anniversary, and More News
On Monday I caught a bit of the final moments of WUMD over FM. The community-focused college radio station at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth is moving to an online-only format after its FM license was sold to Rhode Island Public Radio. To mark the occasion, WUMD aired special programming and shared video from the studio […]
Interference Conflict Between Unlicensed Stations in New Zealand
From Wellington, New Zealand comes news that a commercial radio group is planning a new station that threatens one run by an elementary school, MaranuiFM. The commercial radio group Mediaworks plans to run its popular “Polly and Grant” morning show on a 24-hour loop at 106.7 FM, the same frequency as the school station. Typically […]
In which I launch the Hybrid Highbrow podcast . . .
Hybrid Highbrow podcast #1 is out! Ta daaaaa! The maiden episode focuses on the similarities between two early 20th-century “talking machine” singers: blues shouter Mamie Smith and opera star Enrico Caruso. Both sang in the middle ranges, alto and tenor, rather than the high or low registers. This made them perfect for acoustic recording. Both […]
Podcast #97: PhillyCAM’s LPFM in the City of Brotherly Love
Intrepid radio tourist Jennifer Waits reports back from her journey to PhillyCAM radio in the City of Brotherly Love, adding a low-power FM station, WPPM-LP, to an established public access TV operation. Following up on episode #96 we catch up on the latest smart speaker research and Jennifer shares news about two college stations sold […]
College Radio Watch: Weber State to Sell KWCR License to EMF, WUMD’s final days of FM and More News
I was interested to learn that public radio station WGBH has launched a radio show focused on higher education. According to WGBH, the June 18 pilot episode of “On Campus Radio” discusses “the nature of free speech on campus.” One story digs into examples from Wellesley, “where conservative professors are trying to burst the liberal […]
LPFM Stations Get a Boost
For the first time, the FCC just granted booster stations to two LPFMs in California. Like the name implies, a booster helps a station to fill in parts of its broadcast area where geographic impediments–like hills or mountains–prevent the signal from being received well where it otherwise should be heard. Unlike a translator repeater station, […]