Sylvia Thomas spent a year touring and researching community radio stations in South America, Asia and Africa. She learned community radio history that might be surprising to many in the United States, and witnessed first-hand different ways of organizing stations and creating radio that are instructive to stations everywhere. Sylvia explains how growing up listening […]
Listeners located in the U.K. who enjoy Ireland’s RTÉ 252 radio service are breathing a sign of relief. The planned 2017 closure of this longwave station has now been put on indefinite hold, according to Independent.ie. I first reported on RTÉ 252 two years ago, when news of its shutdown–originally set for January 2015–put longwave […]
This week’s College Radio Survivor will cover some recent college radio news and new college radio LPFM application grants, but first I wanted to share a link to an incredible documentary about a long-time college radio station in Slovenia. Non-commercial, independent radio station Radio Student was founded in 1969 by the Association of Students of […]
Producing a daily, grassroots and nonprofit with an international scope is not an easy business. Free Speech Radio News has been pulling it off for more than a dozen years, since Pacifica Reporters Against Censorship went on strike from the Pacifica Network and turned their efforts to an independent, collectively run newscast. While FSRN is […]
Although many of us are fixated on radio crises in the United States, from stations getting shut down to favored radio hosts being fired, to college radio stations getting sold off; it’s rare that we talk about the important role that radio can play in keeping citizens informed and engaged. As I wrote in my […]
As we reported last week, radio stations in Somalia have been pressured to cease playing music by militant Islamist groups. Under threat of violence, these stations opted to replace music with all-talk formats, punctuated by sounds of animals, nature, and machinery. On Tuesday the government of Somalia actually ordered four Mogadishu radio stations to play […]
There are growing concerns about the control that militant groups are wielding over citizens and media outlets after music was banned from Somali radio on Tuesday and school bells were outlawed from a Somali town on Thursday. Today’s New York Times reports that, “Insurgent groups in Somalia have increasingly alienated the population by imposing a […]
The recent earthquakes in Chile and Haiti are a strong reminder about the importance of radio as a communications tool, especially in times of disaster. Haitian radio stations have served to help with rescue efforts and shortwave radio operators in Chile were also instrumental in transmitting tsunami updates and emergency communications. Along these lines, the […]
Those of us who call ourselves radio fans are increasingly a small and devoted lot and the same can be said of radio scholars. It’s for that reason that I was super excited to find out about the international radio conference known simply as The Radio Conference. This year’s event, The Radio Conference 2009: A […]
Along with my obsession for radio I also have a special place in my heart for wax museums; so imagine my glee when I discovered the bounty to be found in Ireland at Cork’s Radio Museum. One of my first stops during my vacation to Ireland last month, the Radio Museum Experience is located in […]
