The first official response from the Federal Communications Commission regarding its troubling foray into defining what journalism is has arrived.
In a May 2 letter to Congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI), Karen Onyeije, the Chief of Staff of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, says the agency will not reconsider its determination that Workers Independent News is not news. Continue reading “FCC to Workers Independent News: Drop Dead”
Month: May 2014
Library of Congress to Expand Radio Archives
I was recently invited to join a new national project devoted to archiving local radio history. It’s tentatively called the Radio Preservation Task Force, and it’s working under the purview of the Library of Congress’ National Recording Preservation Board (NPRB), in conjunction with the National Archives and several major broadcast museums.
The task force’s primary goal is "to develop strategies and tools to collect and preserve historical broadcast content"—more specifically, content from "public, educational, local, and regional radio" stations and organizations. In simple terms, ample archives exist of national radio and television broadcasts, particularly at the network level and on the commercial side of the dial. But there’s been no coherent preservation strategy beyond this, and that needs to be rectified. Continue reading “Library of Congress to Expand Radio Archives”
Early-Internet Pirate Radio Sites Resurrected
Those of us who predate the Internet remember GeoCities with some fondness. It was one of the first portals on the World Wide Web to allow you to build your own web page. The business model was pretty simple: give folks some space and rudimentary tools to put content online and sell ads around it.
Launched in 1994, GeoCities became a vibrant space where people shared their passions and knowledge; this is how we did it before there were blogs and social networks. By 1999, it was the third most popular destination online, and Yahoo! scarfed it up during the first dot-com bubble for a whopping $3.6 billion. Ultimately, blogs and social networks eclipsed GeoCities, and its plug was pulled (everywhere but Japan) in 2009. Continue reading “Early-Internet Pirate Radio Sites Resurrected”
Hanging Out With Radio Survivor
Last week I had the honor of being Radio Survivor‘s inaugural guest on their first Google Hangout. Radio Survivor’s Paul Riismandel and I have known each other for more than a decade; I was a frequent guest on his Mediageek radio show, so in many respects for me it was like traveling back in time to simpler days.
That said, our 90-minute conversation went deep into two major projects: my ongoing tribulations with the Federal Communications Commission regarding its crazy foray into defining journalism, and my new book, Radio’s Digital Dilemma. Continue reading “Hanging Out With Radio Survivor”