Happy Winter Solstice! A number of college radio stations are doing seasonal on-air celebrations, including multiple marathon broadcasts. Jon Solomon’s 30-Hour WPRB Christmas Marathon The penultimate Christmas experience might be WPRB DJ Jon Solomon’s 30-hour on-air marathon that extends across Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Celebrating his 30th year of lengthy Christmas Eve shows over […]
It was after ten o’clock on a Friday night when I headed to community radio station Freeform Portland‘s studio in Portland, Oregon for a visit. Board President Becky Meiers had invited me and Paul Riismandel to join her on her final show before she embarked for Alaska and I couldn’t refuse. The co-host of a […]
Jon Solomon is counting down the days until his annual Christmas marathon broadcast of music, comedy, and stories on Princeton University’s college radio station WPRB 103.3 FM (location of my 100th station tour). Celebrating his 30th year of Christmas Eve/Christmas Day specials, he’s marking the occasion by signing up for a 30-hour stint on the […]
As 2018 draws to a close the FCC is poised to throw another death blow at radio, proposing to allow complete ownership monopolies in hundreds of radio markets. At the same time the Commission has to defend its decimation of network neutrality in court, even after the DC Court of Appeals ruled the earlier open […]
My October radio adventures in the Pacific Northwest for college radio and community radio conferences are still on my mind as I continue to process the events and my numerous station visits. Earlier this week I published my tour of Portland Radio Project, one of the many new low power FM (LPFM) radio stations that […]
In part two of his history of internet radio, Dom Robinson covers RealAudio, the technology that pushed streaming internet audio into the mainstream, years ahead of video. He talks with Dave Mallinson, an early employee at Progressive Networks – which would become RealNetworks – who discusses the delicate balance between getting good enough sound quality […]
At the end of 2018 all indicators are that radio is thriving. From community radio to podcasting, internet radio to college radio, we’re seeing new stations, new listeners and new ideas. It’s all more evidence that we’re in the post-‘radio is dead’ era. All four Radio Survivors join together to dig deeply into the year […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
