Matthew Lasar talks with Brian Edwards-Tiekert, host of KPFA’s Upfront to commemorate the Birthday of Pacifica Radio. The post Podcast #339- 75 Years of Listener Supported Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor ..read more

The Radio Survivor team returns for a new episode, during which Jennifer, Eric and Paul recap some of the latest radio news. Topics this week including LPFM, college radio history, radio documentaries, expanding and returning radio stations, and a slow radio broadcast for Earth Day. Jennifer talks about her new gig working on a college radio history collection that is part of the Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC) on the Internet Archive. Additionally, we cover some updates to the radio landscape, including details about the most recent low-power FM licensing window ..read more

On this edition of the show, we explore public radio history, specifically the origins of public radio in the United States, including the important role played by college and university-based stations. Josh Shepperd joins to talk about his new book, Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting, which examines the intersections between the media reform movement, public broadcasting, educational technology and communications policy and research. Josh is an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and is Director of the Radio Preservation Task For ..read more

On this week’s show, we peek behind the scenes of The Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC). A project of the Internet Archive, the DLARC collection includes a range of amateur radio-related materials, including magazines, ham radio newsletters, podcasts and even discussion forums. Within the expansive library are items generally categorized as non-commercial radio, including pirate radio, shortwave, numbers stations, experimental radio, and “radio weirdness.” Additionally, every episode of the Radio Survivor Podcast was recently added to DLARC, which is how we learned a ..read more

The phrase “The neighbors complain,” circles around what appears to be a black WPIR pirate flag. This imagery on the website for college radio station WPIR Pratt Radio alludes to rumors and half-truths about student radio’s legacy and mysterious history on the Brooklyn, New York campus of the Pratt Institute. As is the case at many college radio stations, the concept of history is largely focused on the past few years. And with the COVID disruption, even that institutional memory has mostly been erased. WPIR logo on the window of the college radio station at Pratt Institute. Photo: J. Waits W ..read more

With killer views from the 7th floor of a building in the heart of New York City, it’s no surprise that DJs at The School of Visual Arts’ (SVA) college radio station WSVA joke about wanting to live at the station. “I would love to have this as my apartment,” said Michelle Mullin, WSVA’s Manager of Operations. Similarly, alumnus Jacob Gardner, who uses they/he pronouns, admitted to napping at the station, especially since their apartment was in another borough. Beyond WSVA being a lovely space physically, the station also feels welcoming to its participants. “There’s actual life in this place ..read more

Happy World College Radio Day! October 6, 2023 marks the 13th annual College Radio Day. As part of the festivities at Radio Survivor, we did a special episode of the podcast/radio show: College Radio’s Hidden Early History. On the show, I talk about the role that radio clubs played in germinating some of the first student-run college radio stations. One such club, at my alma mater Haverford College, launched broadcast AM radio station WABQ in 1923. On October 9, 1923, a couple of months before WABQ hit the airwaves, a headline in Haverford’s student newspaper announced, “Broadcasting Station ..read more

A casual comment during a college orientation session in 2020 was the spark that led to the revival of college radio station WHRC at Haverford College. Although Haverford had one of the earliest student-led radio stations in the 1920s (WABQ, whose first broadcast was 100 years ago in 1923!) and a very active AM carrier current station starting in the early 1940s (WHAV and then WHRC); the 2000s have seen the death and rebirth of many different iterations of radio on the small liberal arts school campus just outside of Philadelphia. It seemed that WHRC had disappeared for good circa 2017, but I ..read more

World College Radio Day takes place on October 6, 2023 and in honor of that, we dig into the early history of college radio on our latest episode of the show. Jennifer Waits walks us through her research about college radio in the 1920s and earlier, sharing details from a paper that she presented this past spring at the Radio Preservation Task Force Conference at the Library of Congress. In that paper, she argues that we should be broadening our definitions of what college radio is, pointing out examples of radio clubs, radio experiments, and amateur radio activities that mirror the activitie ..read more

The 13th annual World College Radio Day takes place on Friday, October 6, 2023. Conceived of by Rob Quicke as a celebration of student radio, College Radio Day has grown over the years to include an international mix of stations, all honoring the day in their own unique ways. The event also includes a global marathon, featuring a variety of college radio stations. This year, the marathon begins on Friday, October 6 at midnight Eastern time with the Vox Populi out of Fiji. Every 30 to 60 minutes, a different station will pass the baton. Participants will be far flung, including stations from A ..read more