Radio Station Visit #134 – College Radio Station WHIP at Temple University
On a Friday evening in October, I traveled to Temple University in Philadelphia to see college radio station WHIP (pronounced W-H-I-P). As I approached its TECH Center building home, buses in the area were idling nearby, collecting passengers for a Temple football game that night. When I arrived at the station, WHIP’s General Manager Ed […]
A Sad Goodbye to Free Speech Radio News
The long-running independent community radio news program Free Speech Radio News announced this week that its last edition will be broadcast on April 28. In a press release, the collective cites a decline in distribution and inability to find a “firm financial footing,” as causes for the closure. Born from the labor of freelance reporters […]
College Radio Watch: Wrapping up Virginia Radio Tours, Vinylthon, Festivals and More News
I’ve finished writing up all of my Virginia radio station tours and when I reflect back on the visits, it’s amazing to see the variety of college radio stations. I was able to see a brand new low power FM station, a 70-year-old student-run commercial radio station, online-only stations and FM non-commercial stations. Some have […]
Radio Station Visit #133 – College Radio Station WDCE at University of Richmond
It was after dark when I arrived on the University of Richmond campus on Wednesday, March 15, 2017. Although I had a general idea of where college radio station WDCE was located, I had to circle the building before eventually spotting the station’s sign above the stairs leading down to the entrance to its basement […]
Freeform Music, House Shows, and Art: Touring College Radio Station WXTJ-LP at University of Virginia
There’s a lot of radio going on at University of Virginia and the newest station is WXTJ-LP, a student-run low power FM (LPFM) college radio station. Although its studio is in the same facility as WTJU (see my tour #129 here), WXTJ-LP has its own identity and air sound. Frustrated by the lack of student […]
Prometheus to FCC: Protect LPFMs from AM Translators
In January FCC moved to allow AM stations to acquire and geographically locate FM translator repeater stations a little further away from their main AM transmitter than previously permitted—within either 25 miles of their station, or within their daytime broadcast area, whichever is larger. Before this ruling those translators were limited to being located within […]
Podcast #88 – From Color Bar Radio to WRIR
WRIR is a community radio station born from the first wave of low-power FM in the early 2000s. Yet the station has roots in the rich history of independent media in Richmond, VA. Intrepid radio tourist Jennifer Waits shares her tour of the station, uncovering obscure cable radio history along with some unexpected facts about […]
MacBird! live at KPFK, 1967, and perchance the only online performance?
I teach a course at UC Santa Cruz on conspiracies and conspiracy theories, and I’ve been rummaging around for a digital performance of MacBird! for quite some time. As far as I can tell, the only online rendition of the show can be found on the Internet Archive. It is an air check via KPFK-FM […]
Country Music and a 70-year Commercial College Radio Legacy: Visiting WUVA at University of Virginia
While making plans for my trip to Charlottesville, Virginia for the College Radio: Then, Now and Next symposium, I was looking forward to seeing all three radio stations that have an affiliation with the University of Virginia: WTJU (see my tour report #129), WXTJ and WUVA. Each has a distinct personality. WTJU is a non-commercial […]
College Radio Watch: Station Tours, CBI Invites Production Award Submissions and More News
I can’t believe how many radio stations I visited in the last month. Thanks to the confluence of Spring Break, radio conferences, and other random business trips, I managed to see stations in Virginia, New York, and California in the past 30 days. And, yes, I’m tired. Unfortunately, it also means that my back log […]