Last week the New York Times published a feature article on Ira Glass and This American Life. Ostensibly it covers the show’s departure from distributor Public Radio International to join the more independent-minded Public Radio Exchange. However, the piece also follows Glass’s multi-tasking forays into other endeavors, like leading an off-Broadway dance show. Relevant to […]
As This American Life’s Seth Linn explains, “NPR is the Kleenex of public radio brands.” Just like how you might ask for Kleenex, no matter what brand logo is on the tissue box, or ask for a Coke when you just want a soft drink, many listeners simply think all public radio is NPR. The […]
In this week’s podcasting news updates there are two new podcasting networks. One comes from the mainstream public radio world, while the other comes from the universe of local commercial morning shows. PRI Launches SoundWorks Public Radio International is catching up with NPR and PRX by starting its own podcast network. According to the network […]
It’s been kind of a quiet week on the podcasting news front this week. Adam Carolla continues to make the rounds in support of his Save Podcasts Legal Defense Fund and has set up a Soundcloud page with clips from shows discussing the patent troll case. The fund’s benefit event added comedian and podcaster Doug […]
This weekend Public Radio International’s Smiley and West program returned to the Chicago airwaves. Commercial progressive talk station WCPT starting airing the program Sunday, Nov. 4, and will continue airing it on Sundays at 3 PM. WVON, a commercial AM talk station focused on the African-American community, will carry the program on Saturdays at 11 […]
Chicago’s public radio station WBEZ quietly dropped the syndicated Smiley and West program from its Sunday line-up at the end of September. This stands in contrast to the station’s decision to drop Car Talk reruns from its Saturday line-up, which management communicated in an email to donor members explaining the decision and soliciting feedback (full […]
This American Life creator Ira Glass, has gone on public record in the public broadcasting journal Current declaring that stations should drop Car Talk when hosts Click and Clack retire this fall and the show goes into reruns. Or, at the very least, Glass thinks stations should push the show into late night, moving out […]
Car Talk is certainly one of the most popular, in addition to long-running, syndicated public radio programs in the US. Last week the hosts, Tom and Ray Magliozzi, announced that they will retire from the show in the fall, although the program will continue on by reairing segments combined from the 1200 episodes in the […]
Cyrus Farivar is a freelance radio journalist who files stories for programs like PRI’s the World and NPR’s Morning Edition. On his blog he recently posted a breezy and clear explanation of his process for pitching, recording and editing a radio news piece. As someone who produces an independent weekly radio program on the cheap, […]
I’m actually amazed at how noncommercial radio has become the site of so much innovation in the medium in the last decade, and how commercial radio is getting left in the dust. On the music side we have Seattle’s indie rock KEXP and New Jersey’s freeform WFMU which both have significant internet listenership along with […]
