Radio Survivor Podcast

Pamela Klassen, Professor of the Study of Religion, Faculty of Arts & Science, University of Toronto joins us on the podcast to chat about her book The Story of Radio Mind: A Missionary’s Journey on Indigenous Land. She shares the tale of Anglican Archbishop Frederick Du Vernet, who claims to have invented “radio mind,” in […] The post Podcast #195: Telepathy and Radio Mind a...

First conceived in the 1930s, there is a type of tiny radio station that anyone can operate legally, without a license. Bill DeFelice of HobbyBroadcaster.net joins the show to tell us about how you can get on the air today, to broadcast around your house, or even your neighborhood with a so-called ‘Part 15’ radio […] The post Podcast #194: Build Your Own Tiny Radio Station appear...

Wave Farm Executive Director Galen Joseph-Hunter joins us to talk about transmission arts at Wave Farm and beyond. We discuss Wave Farm’s recently co-presented Reveil, SoundCamp’s live 24-hour broadcast of the sounds of daybreak, sourced from open microphones from around the world. Additionally, Joseph-Hunter gives us the scoop on the new Radio Artist Fellowship at […] The post P...

Radio Preservation Task Force’s Director Josh Shepperd and Conference Director Neil Verma are our guests for a discussion about the work of the Library of Congress initiative. They explain the significance of 2020 for radio history, share some of the accomplishments of the Task Force, and preview the next Radio Preservation Conference Task Force Conference, […] The post Podcast #192: S...

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 post P...

Amanda Dawn Christie is an artist enamored with radios and radio waves. The Assistant Professor, Studio Arts at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada) joins us on the show to discuss her most recent transmission art project, Ghosts in the Airglow, in which she created work at the HAARP facility in Alaska. Christie also shares with us […] The post Podcast #190: Radio Spectrum and Transmissio...

Jennifer, Eric and Paul sit down to review the latest research on podcasts from the Infinite Dial and Podcast Consumer reports, which leads to consideration of the transition between analog and digital media, inspired by Vinylthon. From 78s to CDs, and music memories to smooth jazz, just how great is this episode? Ask Dr. Science. […] The post Podcast #189: No Locked Grooves for Podcasts app...

The Hip-Hop Radio Archive aims to digitize, preserve, share, and contextualize recordings of hip-hop radio from the 1980s and 1990s from commercial, college, community, and pirate stations of all sizes, telling the stories of the shows and the people that made them. Our guest is founder of the archive, Ryan MacMichael. This is a rebroadcast […] The post Podcast #188 – Hip-Hop Radio Arc...

This week our guest is Brian DeShazor, an independent radio researcher and founder of the Queer Radio Research Project. Formerly the Director of the Pacifica Radio Archives, DeShazor has taken a special interest in uncovering and highlighting the LGBTQ voices that have graced the community radio airwaves. On the episode, we discuss the history of […] The post Podcast #187 – Archiving L...

On this week’s episode, scholar Lerone Martin shares with us the fascinating history of African-American preachers who distributed their sermons on 78rpm records during a time when they had limited access to the radio in the 1920s-1940s. Martin, Associate Professor in Religion and Politics at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at […] The post Podcast #186 – Afri...

A change in Ontario university funding rules threatens more than a dozen campus community stations in Canada. Barry Rooke, executive director of the National Campus and Community Radio Association is our guest to help explain the situation. He explains how the structure of Canadian community and college radio stations differs from those in the U.S. […] The post Podcast #185 – Funding C...

We celebrated International Women’s Day by recording a fascinating interview about women’s radio history with University of Louisville Professor of History Christine Ehrick. Author of Radio and the Gendered Soundscape: Women and Broadcasting in Argentina and Uruguay, 1930-1950, Ehrick schools us on the hidden history of a pioneering women’s radio station in Uruguay. Founded in [&...

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the “Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement Act,” but does it actually have a chance at putting a dent in unlicensed broadcasting? We review the provisions of the the bill – called the PIRATE Act for short – and wonder if an uptick in the war on pirates […] The post Podcast #183 – Can Congress Stop Pirate Radio?...

Inspired by an episode of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, we travel all the way to Antarctica to learn about mysterious community radio station, Ice Radio. Sadly, we learned of Anthony Bourdain’s death on the day that we recorded this episode. Ice Radio is the latest iteration of a radio station that began more than 50 […] The post Podcast #182 – Volunteer Radio in Antarctica (rebroad...

Julia Thomas visited over a dozen community radio stations over the course of a year. Stations in Nepal, India, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Ecuador “Often times by talking to community media makers,” Julia Thomas told Radio Survivor, “you’re meeting some of the most passionate, involved community members who have seen so much, who are so […] The post Podcast #181 – Visiting Commun...

The Federal Communications Commission was back in court on Feb. 1, called on to defend its decision to overturn the 2015 Open Internet Order in December 2017. It seems like the FCC lawyers didn’t have the best day in front of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, and Prof. Christopher Terry from the University of […] The post Podcast #180 – Net Neutrality Back in Court Again appeared...

This episode is dedicated to the compact disc. Paul recently published an article outlining 10 reasons why CDs are awesome, and it seems to have hit a nerve, turning out to be one of our most popular. So we dive into these reasons, and even talk to a Millennial, Jacob Choplin, who also loves CDs […] The post Podcast #179 – Don’t Throw Your CDs Away in 2019 appeared first on Radio...

For about a decade, ending in 1988, pirate stations dominated the Irish radio bands, exploiting a loophole in the law that made punishments for unlicensed broadcasting on par with a speeding ticket. Now the sounds and artifacts of this cultural movement are being preserved online in the Irish Pirate Radio Archive. Archive co-founders Brian Greene […] The post Podcast #178 – Irish Pirat...

In addition to co-hosting the show, Eric Klein edits most episodes, and is a professional freelance audio editor. He put some of his philosophies of editing radio and podcasts in writing for last year’s Grassroots Radio Conference, and for a recent post at Radio Survivor. On this episode Eric elaborates on his advice to “know […] The post Podcast #177 – Philosophies of Podc...

From the “Classical Radio Era” to today’s hottest podcasts, we’re here for the love of radio drama and fictional sound-art. Our guest is Neil Verma, author of a book and teacher of classes on the subject, although as he tells us on today’s episode, the class became a lot more popular with students after he […] The post Podcast #176 – Audio Fiction’s very long hi...

What can a careful study of sound teach us about our listening? Listening to the media we choose as well as listening to the place where we live and the people who’s voices we encounter? Prof. Jennifer Stoever thinks about these questions, a lot. And so do a growing number of scholars working in a […] The post Podcast #175 – Awakening to Sound plus a tour of KDVS appeared first o...

There are more unlicensed pirate radio stations in New York City than licensed stations. The borough of Brooklyn is a particular hotspot. Producer and journalist David Goren has been researching and recording these stations so that their ephemeral nature isn’t lost to history. To help preserve this legacy and make it accessible to a wider […] The post Podcast #174 – Preserving Br...

Zach Poff put a radio station inside a pond. Poff is a media artist, educator and maker-of-things, and he explains that project and talks about making art with radio technology and listening to sound art. This is a re-broadcast of our episode from April, 2018. Show Notes Zach Poff’s Pond Station is broadcasting live during […] The post Podcast #137 – Zach Poff Built a Radio Stati...

As 2018 draws to a close the FCC is poised to throw another death blow at radio, proposing to allow complete ownership monopolies in hundreds of radio markets. At the same time the Commission has to defend its decimation of network neutrality in court, even after the DC Court of Appeals ruled the earlier open […] The post Podcast #172 – The FCC at the End of 2018, with Prof. Christophe...

At the end of 2018 all indicators are that radio is thriving. From community radio to podcasting, internet radio to college radio, we’re seeing new stations, new listeners and new ideas. It’s all more evidence that we’re in the post-‘radio is dead’ era. All four Radio Survivors join together to dig deeply into the year […] The post Podcast #171 – It’...