This week’s Radio Survivor Podcast is particularly inspiring for college radio, as we look more closely at how KUNV was able to remain under university control, largely due to its increased commitment to students. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas public radio station sought advice from Fordham University’s WFUV about engaging students as vital members […]
Apple Music raised the hackles of musicians–especially independent artists and those signed to independent labels–this week. That conflict highlights the brewing storm over the future of free music–that is, music that listeners don’t have to pay for directly to hear. As nearly all players struggle to make money from music, I argue that independent non-commercial […]
This piece originally appeared in our free weekly email newsletter, the Radio Survivor Bulletin. Sign up now to get a digest of important and insightful links and commentary about the future of radio. I’ve been giving some thought to the relationship between musicians and radio. In particular, I’m interested in independent artists and labels and […]
As a solid Generation Xer from the college radio cohort I remember quite clearly the alternative rock craze of the 1990s. In the wake of Nirvana’s breakthrough on the top 40, followed by fellow Seattle bands like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, major labels went on a signing spree looking for any band with a smidge […]
I–along with many other online radio fans–was surprised to learn this morning that online indie rock station WOXY abruptly shut down its live stream this morning. The only explanation was a short blurb on their website blaming “current economic realities and the lack of ongoing funding” for the closure. The situation was all the more […]
As a proud thirty-eight year-old member of Generation X, I have become just a little disturbed by a trend I’ve noticed in the last few years. One might call this trend the “indie-rockification” of public radio. As my fellow grunge-survivors and I, raised on the so-called “first wave” of alternative rock and derided by boomers […]
I first heard about the Chicago Independent Radio Project (CHIRP) when I moved to Chicago in the spring of 2008. For all intents and purposes the project grew out of the former incarnation of Loyola University’s WLUW-FM which operated as a community radio station from 1997 to June 2008. In 2001 Loyola announced that it […]
Before we got married, in the late 90s my wife lived for two years in Dayton, OH. I would drive four hours across Indiana from my Champaign, IL home to see her. I knew that I had exited the radio desert of the Hoosier State when I could just barely tune in WOXY out of […]
