Radio geek links

If you're a radio geek like myself, there are a few crucial links you ought to have stashed away in your special bookmarks folder titled "Nerd Alert!" It's how I stay so up-to-date on current events in the radio industry, and it's also how I got this hot ass.

First, of course, is FMQB. I first discovered this site the morning Jamie called me in a panic early one morning in February 2005 to tell me that Y-100 was going to flip formats that day and that she had been maced and drug out of the studio by Radio One riot police along with the rest of the interns. I read updates on that site for the rest of the day and have been hooked on it for industry news ever since. One of their feature articles today, FCC Opens Commenting On XM/Sirius Merger, deals with a topic we've touched on here at Open All Night a couple of times, and is worth checking out.

The second link was relayed to me by one Dany Sloan and is called Arcane Radio Trivia. It can be a bit dry at times but for the most part it's filled with interesting, uh, trivia. What did you expect?

The last link is one I found while trolling around the internet looking for dirt on a former employer that fired me some years ago (not obsessing, I swear - just bored). The search was sparked by a link Bob sent me regarding a station I've applied for work with on more than one occasion and it ultimately led me to this message board: Radio-info.com. Here is the Philadelphia sub-forum, where people call each other names, geeks with delusions of grandeur claim to have inside information, and radio snobs quietly peck at each and every change or rumored change in the #7 market. It is here that I have delightedly taken to trolling the folks that claim that the Kidd Chris show is the zenith of talk radio, or that contestant callers on Power 99 are to blame for the skyrocketing murder rate in Philadelphia. (It's pronounced "Sep-tem-BER" not "Sep-tem-BAH"! If those black folks would only talk right, we might see an end to the violence around here! )

Speaking of racism and radio, check out this commercial for WHIT - Power 102FM if you haven't already.



Link - [FMQB]
Link - [Arcane Radio Trivia]
Link - [Radio-info.com]

Show some love for Dennis Kucinich and the Fairness Doctrine

Got this tidbit from FMQB via Crooks & Liars. Bringing the Fairness Doctrine back would change the news so completely you wouldn't even recognize it anymore.

Over the weekend, the National Conference for Media Reform was held in Memphis, TN, with a number of notable speakers on hand for the event. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) made an surprise appearance at the convention to announce that he would be heading up a new House subcommittee which will focus on issues surrounding the Federal Communications Commission.

The Presidential candidate said that the committee would be holding "hearings to push media reform right at the center of Washington.” The Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the House Government Reform Committee was to be officially announced this week in Washington, D.C., but Kucinich opted to make the news public early.

In addition to media ownership, the committee is expected to focus its attention on issues such as net neutrality and major telecommunications mergers. Also in consideration is the "Fairness Doctrine," which required broadcasters to present controversial topics in a fair and honest manner. It was enforced until it was eliminated in 1987.

Kucinich said in his speech that "We know the media has become the servant of a very narrow corporate agenda" and added "we are now in a position to move a progressive agenda to where it is visible."

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps was also on hand at the conference and took broadcasters to task for their current content, speaking of "too little news, too much baloney passed off as news. Too little quality entertainment, too many people eating bugs on reality TV. Too little local and regional music, too much brain-numbing national play-lists." Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein also spoke at the event.

I'm going to see Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein hold a "Public Forum on Media Ownership" at Temple University tonight, and this smashing news ought to dominate discussion. If you're in town and want to join me, it's at 6:00PM in Gladfelter Hall.