Under the provisions of the Digital Milennium Copyright Act (DMCA) there are several restrictions on streaming radio that don’t exist for terrestrial broadcast. One of the most vexing for a lot of noncommerical stations is the limitation that an online station may not play more than three songs from the same artist, album or compilation […]
There’s more sad news on the college radio front today, with the report that Rice University is selling off the 50,000 FM signal for their long-time college radio station KTRU. According to a press release issued today, University of Houston System plans to buy KTRU’s tower, frequency, and broadcast license for $9.5 million in order […]
National Public Radio’s ombudsman Alicia Shephard pondered an interesting conundrum this week. What do you do when you are covering elections in a state like Utah, where just about everybody can be classified as a “conservative”? How do you grade the distinctions in conservatism? The network’s Howard Berkes decided to roll out the term “ultra-conservative” […]
My pal John Anderson at DIYmedia.net alerts us to a new group blog written by some fellow radio survivors who intend to hold public radio’s feet to the fire, called Keeping the Public in Public Radio (KTPIPR). Featuring the contributions of public radio supporters, authors and broadcasters, the site is covering the changing landscape of […]
Continuing its series of workshops–which are more informal than hearings–on a variety of important topics, the FCC will hold one on the topic of “Public and Other Noncommercial Media in the Digital Era.” This workshop is part of the Commission’s project on the Future of Media and the Information Needs of Communities. This day-long workshop […]
“If you’re among the estimated 120,000 Apple enthusiasts who signed up to get an iPad on April 3, rest assured that you’ll be able to experience the NPR Web site in all its glory.” So promises Kinsey Wilson, Senior Vice President and General Manager, NPR Digital Media, in his latest blog post. NPR’s designers and […]
My friend and award winning documentary film maker Alan Snitow wrote to me a couple of weeks ago with a good question. How come you rarely hear anyone at National Public Radio call it “National Public Radio” anymore, just “NPR”? I went over to NPR’s web site to refresh my memory on this. By golly, […]
On Friday the FCC’s Media Bureau quietly announced that it adopted an order to allow FM stations broadcasting a digital HD signal to increase their power levels up a maximum of 10% of the power of their main analog signal. While the National Association of Broadcasting and iBiquity have been agitating for this change for […]
In the aftermath of the devastating January 12th earthquake in Haiti, radio has played an important role in terms of keeping lines of communication open. A fascinating radio story on All Things Considered yesterday profiles one Haitian radio station, Signal FM 90.5, that has continued to broadcast after the quake hit. As way of background, […]
August 13 of this year marked the fifth anniversary of podcasting. On that date in 2004 former MTV VJ Adam Curry began his Daily Source Code podcast, ushering the term into the popular consciousness. Like so many innovative ideas, podcasting is quite simple. It’s not like there weren’t online radio programs prior to 2004. The […]
