Every weekday an all-volunteer reporting staff produces an hour of original, hyper-local news for WOOC-LP’s “Hudson Mohawk Magazine,” serving the Troy, NY area. A focus on mission and a concentration of resources on journalism helps the station accomplish this daily feat. Steve Pierce is the Executive Director of Media Alliance, which operates WOOC inside the […]
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 […]
It’s been too long since we’ve checked in with Free Speech Radio News. First things first: since returning to regular production a year ago, FSRN now creates daily news segments that are posted online and aired by community radio affiliate stations, and added a half-hour weekly edition last May. This is a good thing for […]
When I first attended the National Federation of Community Broadcasters conference in 2002, I was struck by stations who considered our station – KFAI Radio in Minneapolis – a leader because we had a full time News Director (which happened to be me). It’s a goal for many stations to have the financial stability to […]
A little more than four months after ending production, the independent and non-profit daily Free Speech Radio News program is launching the first phase of its reboot with a new website and fresh updates on February 11. Administrative Coordinator Nell Abram said that the new site will feature daily updates, including audio segments ranging from […]
Clear Channel has discovered the podcast, apparently, but wants to rename it the “audiosode.” Rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? But don’t be fooled by the nincompoop neologism, this is a very serious move by the nation’s biggest radio broadcast company to dominate internet radio. Those “audiosodes” are part of the iHeartRadio Talk beta that […]
Listeners to Free Speech Radio News may not realize that only two of the producers are in the same location. The rest of the staff–not just reporters and correspondents–are geographically dispersed and work together over the phone and internet. This is due to the grassroots nature of FSRN, but also because the organization’s tight finances […]
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 […]
A big programming shake-up took place at San Francisco radio station KGO this week. The commercial AM radio station launched an all news format yesterday, much to the chagrin of fans of its talk shows. Word initially came out last Thursday that new station owner Cumulus would be eliminating KGO’s talk shows. According to a […]
Right now there are strong indications that the Libyan government of Muammar Qaddafi may be pulling back. There are reports from Benghazi that government forces have withdrawn and Libyan ambassadors to countries like China and India resigning. The BBC’s Five Live radio service seems to be providing some of the best up-to-the-minute English-language coverage of […]
