Arlo Guthrie’s seasonally appropriate “Alice’s Restaurant” is getting dusted off once again for radio airplay this Thanksgiving 2023.

I’ve been documenting this radio ritual for many years (even while suffering with COVID last year) and was pleased to be able to speak to THE Alice in 2020. Our Radio Survivor conversation with Alice Brock is recommended listening, as it provides perspective on how Guthrie’s song came to be and why it has resonated with so many people.

This year, I was amused to see that there’s a podcast, 108.9 The Hawk, about a fictional classic rock radio station. Apparently in prior years they have done episodes about the rock station staple, “Alice’s Restaurant,” and for 2023 they have produced a mega episode. They write, “Well, now for the very first time, experience BOTH specials – ‘Alice’s Restaurant Attacks!’ and ‘Alice’s Revenge’ combined into one blood curdling, spine chilling, family dinner ruining episode!” Sounds intriguing.

Have a wonderful 2023 Thanksgiving celebration! If catching “Alice’s Restaurant” is part of your holiday tradition, read on for my guide to listening options on your radio dial for 2023.

As always, this is an incomplete list. DO double check with your local stations to be sure that times have not shifted. Additionally, I am only including stations for which I have verified that they will be airing “Alice’s Restaurant” for 2023. However, you may want to consult my prior radio guides to identify other radio stations that tend to play the song annually.

Pre-Thanksgiving Servings of “Alice’s Restaurant” on the Radio in 2023

“Alice’s Restaurant” is also airing before Thanksgiving on some stations. On Monday, November 20, WDIY 88.1 FM (Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania) airs “Alice’s Restaurant” between 7 and 9pm on Steve Aaronson’s “Folk Classics” show, which features a Thanksgiving theme. Additionally, on Tuesday, November 21, “Alice’s Restaurant” airs on WESU 88.1 FM (Middletown, CT) at around 7pm during the Acoustic Blender show.

On Wednesday, November 22, Angelica Community Radio WRAQ 92.7 FM (Angelica, NY) broadcasts it at 9am and WTMT-FM 105.9 The Mountain (Asheville, North Carolina) will air it at 6pm.

Alice’s Restaurant on the Radio on Thanksgiving Day 2023 – November 23, 2023

Last updated on November 21, 2023 at 5:21pm PT. Note that all times are local to the area in which the station is located.

Terrestrial and Online Radio:

WAMC Northeast Public Radio 90.3 FM and 1400 AM (Albany, NY) writes of its Thanksgiving Day plans: “At 12 p.m. we’ll listen to our traditional airing of ‘Alice’s Restaurant’” followed by an interview with Arlo Guthrie at 1 p.m.”

Wyoming Public Media will air “Alice’s Restaurant” at 11am on Thanksgiving Day, as part of the Wyoming Sounds Thanksgiving special (9am to noon) “with host Grady Kirkpatrick featuring roots music, Native American, and Wyoming artists along with the Arlo Guthrie Thanksgiving classic Alice’s Restaurant beginning at 11am.”

WRUR 88.FM at University of Rochester (Rochester, New York) will air “Alice’s Restaurant” at 11:30am during Open Tunings with Scott Regan. Kane O, who has been airing this song for many years, writes on Facebook, “BIG ‘Ups’ to my Pal, Professor Scott Regan for letting me crash his show to carry on our wonderful tradition! Thankful indeed! #42.”

WDRC 102.9 FM “The Whale” (Hartford, Connecticut) writes, “Tune into 1029 The Whale on Thanksgiving at 6a, Noon and 6pm we will be playing Alice’s Restaurant in it’s entirety!”

WCSX 94.7 FM (Detroit, Michigan) is airing “Alice’s Restaurant” at 10am and 4pm on Thanksgiving.

WMGK 102.9 FM (Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania) continues its annual tradition. According to the station’s website, “Everyone can enjoy the tradition of ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ on MGK three times on Thanksgiving day in 2023. Paul Kelly will start it off by playing the Arlo Guthrie Thanksgiving classic at 8 a.m., and Danny Ocean will play it at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.”

WZOO 99.9 FM (Central North Carolina) and 700 AM (Asheboro) and 106.1 FM (Greensboro) writes on Facebook of its plans: “Are you wondering if WZOO is going to continue the tradition of playing Alice’s Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie on Thanksgiving? You bet we are! Listen at 12:05 pm, right after the news! Happy Thanksgiving from your friends at The ZOO!”

WAFX 106.9 FM The Fox (Chesapeake, Virginia) writes on Facebook, “The Thanksgiving tradition continues on Thursday at 12 noon with the airing of Arlo Guthrie’s performance of “Alice’s Restaurant” hosted by Mike Arlo!”

Rock Radio 559 (Porterville, California) posted on Facebook, “A radio tradition every Thanksgiving. Arlo Guthrie ‘Alice’s Restaurant Massacree’ 12 noon and 7pm Thanksgiving Day on rockradio559.com.”

WTMT-FM 105.9 The Mountain (Asheville, North Carolina) is airing “Alice’s Restaurant” on Thanksgiving Day and Thanksgiving Eve. On Facebook the station posted, “The Thanksgiving tradition continues! Alice’s Restaurant on 105.9 The Mountain. You’ll hear it on Wednesday night at 6pm and twice on Thanksgiving Day at Noon and 6pm.”

WTTS 92.3 FM (Indianapolis, Indiana) writes on Facebook, “Welcome to a short holiday week! We are all set to provide Thursday’s soundtrack. OverEasy Thanksgiving is back on 92-3 WTTS, with laid-back World Class Rock all day long. We’ll also play Arlo Guthrie’s Thanksgiving classic ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ four times: 8am, 12pm, 4pm and 9pm.”

WEZX Rock 107 (Scranton, Pennsylvania) plans to play “Alice’s Restaurant” according to its Facebook post, “Alice’s Restaurant has become a timeless tradition. Tune in Thanksgiving Day at 9am, noon, 3pm and 6pm You can get anything you want at Rock 107.”

WEHM 92.9 FM and 96.9 FM (Water Mill, NY) tweeted, “Thanksgiving Day, don’t miss out on Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ hosted by Lauren Stone! Special airings at 12pm, 3pm and 6pm!”

107.5 The Breeze (Portsmouth, Ohio) tweeted, “We’re celebrating a Holiday Classic: ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ by Arlo Guthrie. Follow along as the story unfolds on Thanksgiving Day. It’s always brought to you by Preston Family Funeral Home on Rt. 5 in Ashland. Hear it this Thursday at 9am, Noon and 5pm.”

KPIG 107.5FM and KPYG 94.9 FM Cayucos/SLO (Freedom, California) reports, “On Thanksgiving day, tune into the pig and hear the full version of Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ four times…at 9:00am, noon, 4:00pm, and again at 9:00pm. We hope you and yours have a safe – and healthy – Thanksgiving holiday.”

101 The Fox (Kansas City, Kansas) writes, “A Thanksgiving gift from our family to yours…This Thanksgiving day at 12:00 noon and again at 6pm. 101 The Fox presents all 18 minutes, eleven seconds of Arlo Guthrie’s epic Thanksgiving masterpiece!”

Backland Radio (online) reports that it is playing “Alice’s Restaurant” at 8am, noon, 5pm and 9pm Central Time on Thanksgiving on The Whip at Backland Radio.

92 KQRS (Minneapolis, Minnesota) reports of this year’s “Alice’s Restaurant” tradition: “Our long-standing tradition of spinning Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ on Thanksgiving continues! You have three opportunities to hear it this year: Tune in at 9am, 12pm and 5pm on Thanksgiving Day. Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at KQRS!”

KINK 101.9 FM (Portland, OR): Per its website, “It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving if we didn’t play the Arlo Guthrie classic, now would it. Listen at noon for ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ and a full second helping at 5pm!”

WTHS 89.9 FM Hope College Radio (Holland, Michigan) is playing Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon on Thanksgiving Day.

WRHQ 105.3 FM (Savannah, Georgia) writes on its website, “Tradition! That’s what Alice’s Restaurant is on the Q and you’ll hear it three times Thanksgiving Day…. 9:30 in the morning, 12:30 in the afternoon and 6:30 in the evening presented by O.C. Welch Ford in Hardeeville.  Alice and Turkey on the Q!”

KOZT 95.3 FM/95.9 FM The Coast (Ft. Bragg, CA) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at 12 noon on Thanksgiving.

WDVX 89.9 FM in Knoxville, Tennessee is playing “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon on Thanksgiving. Its website says, “WDVX serves up ‘Alice’s Restaurant Massacree’ a song by Arlo Guthrie and a long time Thanksgiving day tradition on WDVX.”

WUMB 91.9 FM (Boston, MA and environs) writes, “The Thanksgiving tradition continues with Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ airing in the 9am, 12pm, and 3pm hours.”

KSER 90.7 FM (Everett, Washington) writes, “Listen at 2pm Thursday for our annual broadcast of the Arlo Guthrie classic.”

WBJB Brookdale Public Radio 90.5 The Night (Lincroft, New Jersey): Will be playing “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon and 6pm.

KTOJ 105.7 FM (Thousand Oaks, California) airs “Alice’s Restaurant” on Thanksgiving day at 9am, noon, 3pm and 5pm.

KTYD 99.9 FM (Santa Barbara, CA) writes on Facebook: “KTYD’s Annual Thanksgiving Tradition! Listen Thursday at 6:30 and 9:30am, 12:30, 3:30 and 6:30pm.”

WXOX-LP 97.1 FM (Louisville, Kentucky) reached out to alert us that they will be playing “Alice’s” at 9:40am on Thanksgiving Day.

WWSF Seacoast Oldies 104.3 FM (Exeter, Maine) will air “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon.

WMVY 88.7 FM (Martha’s Vineyard, Cape Cod and environs) aka MVY Radio writes on Facebook: “Be sure to tune in to MVYRADIO this Thanksgiving at noon as we play Arlo Guthrie’s Thanksgiving tradition, ‘Alice’s Restaurant.’ This will be the 40th year of this turkey day tradition.”

WQUT 101.5 FM Tri-Cities Classic Rock (Tri-Cities, Tennessee) reports on Facebook, “An enduring Thanksgiving tradition continues! Arlo Guthrie’s classic, ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ will play at noon and 6:00PM on Thanksgiving on WQUT!”

WEBN 102.7 FM (Cincinnati, Ohio) carries on the tradition. DJ Nudge writes on Facebook, “I have 0 clue why we do it or why it matters to you, I just know you go LOONEY for ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ getting a spin at high noon on 102.7 WEBN every Turkey Day” and asks, “Tradition for Tradition sake, I don’t think anyone high-a-top Frog’s Mountain knows why anymore. Why do YOU love us playing the song annually and what does it mean to you?”

WABF 1480 AM (Fairhope, Alabama) writes on Facebook, “Join us for Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ Thanksgiving day at noon and 6pm.”

KWSC 91.9 FM “The Cat” (Wayne, Nebraska) at Wayne State College tweets that, “@ProfAhern brought a Thanksgiving tradition to KWSC-FM. Tune in at 12 on Thanksgiving to hear about littering, the draft and a swell Thanksgiving dinner at Alice’s Restaurant.”

WXPN 88.5 FM (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) reports that it will be continuing its tradition amongst its Thanksgiving Day special programming. According to its website, at “12 Noon: Mike V presents our annual airing of Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant‘!”

The post Alice’s Restaurant on the Radio Thanksgiving 2023 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Catch Alice’s Restaurant on the 2023 radio dial. See our latest listening guide.

Thanksgiving is nearly upon us and for radio fanatics like myself, that means another year tracking the radio stations that play Arlo Guthrie’s seasonally appropriate “Alice’s Restaurant.” Especially with the strangeness of the last few years in light of COVID, nostalgia is likely a big reason that listeners seek out the radio to hear a familiar tune in times of stress. It might be something that reminds one of the past, whether remembering “Alice’s Restaurant” from back in the 60s or 70s or tapping into memories from Thanksgiving preparations or celebrations at relatives’ homes more recently.

I’ve been documenting this radio ritual for many many years and was pleased to be able to speak to THE Alice in 2020 as part of our lead up to the muted 2020 holiday season. Be sure to listen to our Radio Survivor podcast conversation with Alice Brock, as it provides perspective on how Guthrie’s song came to be and why it has resonated with so many people.

“Alice’s Restaurant” has been an on-air tradition for decades, with fans calling up stations to confirm that it will be airing again each year. Doing my research for this year’s list, I was struck by a post from one DJ who was saddened to not be presenting the song on the radio after more than 40 consecutive years, largely due to scheduling challenges with the broadcast of a football game. Earlier this week, longtime WCMF host Dave Kane-O wrote on Facebook,

..I have received MANY an inquiry about bringing you to Alice’s Restaurant this year. I am humbled & flattered to no end, & I sincerely thank you. Alas, it does not look good for a broadcast this year, and I am sorry about that…Sooooooo, at the very least, I will post my personal greeting to you here on my Kane O FB page on Thursday about 12 Noon, and provide a link to listen to ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ for your enjoyment. I KNOW it’s not the same (what is anymore?!), and I was really hoping to be able to host it for the 42nd year in a row, but…nothing is forever. Except my sincere, ever-lovin’ appreciation for ALLA Y’all! So, you’ll have the ‘basic ingredients’ for our Thanksgiving tradition, just not in the same way you’re used to…

The P.S. to this story, is that DJ Dave Kane-O will be playing “Alice’s Restaurant” over Facebook Live instead. So, his WCMF and WRUR fans can tune in at 9am to continue their Thanksgiving listening tradition with their favorite DJ.

Here’s wishing you a wonderful 2022 Thanksgiving celebration! If you are eager to tune in to a radio station to hear “Alice’s Restaurant” this year, take a look at the following options. As always, this is an incomplete list.

Alice’s Restaurant on the Radio on Thanksgiving Day 2022 – November 24, 2022

Last updated on November 24, 2022. Note that all times are local to the area in which the station is located.

Terrestrial and Online Radio:

101 The Fox (Kansas City, Kansas) will air “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon and 6pm on Thanksgiving.

KPIG 107.5FM and KPYG 94.9 FM Cayucos/SLO (Freedom, California) will play the full version of Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” at 9:00am, noon, 4:00pm, and again at 9:00pm on Thanksgiving.

94HJY (Providence, Rhode Island) writes, “…we’ll be playing Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” as we have for the last million or so years.” Airs at noon on Thanksgiving.

Backland Radio (online) writes “Hear Arlo’s Alice’s Restaurant at 8am, noon, 5pm and 9pm CST Thanksgiving on The Whip at backlandradio.com!”

WDRC 102.9 The Whale (Hartford, Connecticut) will play Alice’s Restaurant in its entirety at 6am, Noon and 6p on Thanksgiving.

107.1 The Peak (Port Chester, New York) will be airing its “18th Annual Unplucked Thanksgiving. Complete with TWO helpings of Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ at noon and 6pm. Listen online at 1071ThePeak.com , on your smart phone via The Peak app or TuneIn Radio, and at home on your smart devices.”

94.7 FM KSHE-95 (St. Louis, Missouri) writes, “After you fill up with family and friends today, tune in at Noon for another Thanksgiving tradition, Alice’s Restaurant & Adam Sandler’s Thanksgiving Song.”

WBLM 102.9 FM (Portland, Maine) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon on Thanksgiving.

102.9 WMGK (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) writes, “Paul Kelly will spin ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ at 8am on Thursday, and Danny Ocean will play it again at 1pm and 4pm.” The station adds, ‘MGK program director Bill Weston says the song has played on the airwaves “as long as anyone can remember’ on Thanksgiving day. He recalls something that started as somewhat of a stretch because of the lack of music easily associated with Thanksgiving but ultimately became a widespread radio tradition.”

WFIT 89.5 FM (Melbourne, Florida) will air a special edition of FM Odyssey from 10am to 1pm, which will include “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon, with an introduction by the real Alice. FM Odyssey writes, “We have plenty of side dishes as well, like the Thanksgiving concert classic, ‘The Last Waltz”‘ from the Band, and John Lennon’s surprise appearance at Elton’s Madison Square Garden concert on Thanksgiving night, November 21st, 1974 (the night he and Yoko got back together!). Visual songs about November, tunes about traveling as many have done for this holiday.”

Cruisin’ 92.9 FM (Lansing, Michigan) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon on Thanksgiving.

MVY Radio (88.7 FM West Tisbury, Massachusetts) reports on Facebook, “The tradition continues! We will be playing Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ on Thanksgiving Day at noon.”

WGBG Big 107.7 FM (Delmarva, Maryland) writes, “A Thanksgiving Tradition! Thursday at noon gather the family around the radio for Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” on Big 107.7 and worldwide at Bigclassicrock.com.”

WYMG 100.5 FM (Springfield, Illinois) writes, “WYMG’s Thanksgiving Day Tradition continues. Hear Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant”, in it’s entirety, 12 noon on Thanksgiving Day. Happy Thanksgiving from Lynch, Amy Nelson, Sonja, Big Steve, and ALL of us at 100.5 WYMG!!”

92 KQRS (Minneapolis, Minnesota) reports of this year’s “Alice’s Restaurant” tradition: “You have three opportunities to hear it this year: Tune in at 9am, 12pm and 7pm on Thanksgiving Day!”

KRYZ 98.5 LPFM Mariposa Community Radio (Mariposa, California) reports: “As is our Thanksgiving Day tradition, we will be playing Arlo Guthries Alice’s Restaurant at 2 pm PST on 11-24-22. Tune in for a hilarious Thanksgiving journey with Arlo Guthrie and the Man right here on KRYZ-LPFM 98.5 and www.KRYZRadio.org.“

WCSX 94.7 FM (Detroit, Michigan) writes on Facebook: “”You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant.” Listen to WCSX Thanksgiving Day: 10am and 4pm to hear this classic rock tradition.”

WMMR 93.3 FM (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) airs Pierre Robert’s “Welcome Home” Thanksgiving Day show from 10am to 3pm on Thanksgiving Day. He writes, “I’ll be taking requests, dedications and holiday wishes for the MMR family coming together on Thanksgiving Day. And yes, I’ll serve up the traditional Alice’s Restaurant at 10am, noon and a Pierre’s vinyl cut version at 2pm.”

WXPN 88.5 FM (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) will be airing a special schedule on Thanksgiving, including Mike V presenting the station’s annual airing of Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” at 12 noon.

KINK 101.9 FM (Portland, OR): Per its website, “Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant has been a KINK Thanksgiving tradition for more than 40 years. Tune in at noon Thanksgiving Day (November 24th) for a full helping.”

WEZX Rock 107 (Scranton, Pennsylvania) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” four times on Thanksgiving Day. They write, “As you gather with your family to carve the bird, we bring you the Thanksgiving tradition of Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant. Based on a true story in Arlo’s life with a run-in with the law on Thanksgiving Day back in 1965, Alice’s Restaurant has become a timeless tradition.  Tune in Thanksgiving Day at 9am, noon, 3pm and 6pm You can get anything you want at Rock 107.”

WTHS 89.9 FM Hope College Radio (Holland, Michigan) shares on Twitter, “Twitter may be going up in flames, but WTHS remains steady in tradition of playing Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon on Thanksgiving Day. Tune in!”

107.5 The Breeze (Portsmouth, Ohio) tweeted on Wednesday, 11/23 about its Thanksgiving Day airing: “Join us tomorrow at 9:00am, Noon & 5pm for a Holiday Classic: ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ by Arlo Guthrie. Follow along as the story unfolds on Thanksgiving Day-Based on true, but slightly exaggerated events. Brought to you by Preston Family Funeral Home on Rt. 5 in Ashland.”

WRHQ 105.3 FM (Savannah, Georgia) writes on its website, “Tradition! That’s what Alice’s Restaurant is on the Q and you’ll hear it three times Thanksgiving Day…. 9:30 in the morning, 12:30 in the afternoon
and 6:30 in the evening presented by O.C. Welch Ford Lincoln in Hardeeville.”

KOZT 95.3 FM/95.9 FM The Coast (Ft. Bragg, CA) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at 12 noon on Thanksgiving.

WDVX 89.9 FM in Knoxville, Tennessee is playing “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon on Thanksgiving.

Wyoming Public Radio is playing “Alice’s Restaurant” at 11am during the Wyoming Sounds Thanksgiving Special (9am-noon) with host Grady Kirkpatrick. Program will include roots music, Native American, and Wyoming artists along with the Arlo Guthrie Thanksgiving classic Alice’s Restaurant beginning at 11am.

WDRV 97.1 FM The Drive (Chicago, IL) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at 9am and 3pm, along with other special Thanksgiving programming. I love that they are featuring “drum sticks” in honor of Thanksgiving. From noon to 1pm the station airs “The Drive Drumstick Feast,” which they describe as “an hour of the greatest classic rock drummers of all time.”

WNCW 88.7 FM (Spindale, NC) writes, “Your WNCW family has a seat at the table for you, with songs of food & gratitude all day long this Thursday. In one of our favorite annual traditions, Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” from 1967 will be served up just past Noon.”

WUMB 91.9 FM (Boston, MA and environs) writes, “Join us for a Thanksgiving tradition as we’ll play Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant multiple times on Thanksgiving Day. You can tune in to hear it in 9am, 12pm, 3pm, and 7pm hours as our Artist of the Day feature. Happy Thanksgiving!”

KSER 90.7 FM (Everett, Washington) will play it annual broadcast of “Alice’s Restaurant” at 2pm on Thanksgiving Day.

99.1 PLR (New Haven, CT) writes: “A PLR Thanksgiving Day Tradition! As you enjoy all that turkey and pie, tune in for Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ in its entirety at 6am, 12 noon and 6pm! Enjoy!”

Space 101.1 FM (Seattle, Washington): is playing “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon.

WBJB Brookdale Public Radio 90.5 The Night (Lincroft, New Jersey): Got a report that “Every year the original version airs at 12 noon. And this year there’s a ‘Second Helping’ at 6pm with the ’50th Anniversary’ version.”

The post Alice’s Restaurant on the Radio for Thanksgiving 2022 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Catch Alice’s Restaurant on the 2023 radio dial. See our latest listening guide.

As Thanksgiving approaches, my thoughts turn once again to “Alice’s Restaurant,” the epic Arlo Guthrie song that is a beloved turkey day tradition for radio stations all over the United States. I’ve been chronicling this ritual for many many years and was pleased to be able to speak to THE Alice last year as part of our lead up to a very strange 2020 holiday season. DO check out our Radio Survivor podcast conversation with Alice Brock, as it will give your some perspective on how Guthrie’s song came to be and why it has resonated with so many people.

Here’s hoping that your 2021 Thanksgiving celebrations are a bit more festive than last year and that everyone near and dear to you is healthy and happy! If you are eager to tune in to a radio station to hear “Alice’s Restaurant” this year, take a look at the following options. Check back for updates as Thanksgiving draws near.

Pre-Thanksgiving Listening Options:

Perhaps you’ve already heard “Alice’s Restaurant” over the airwaves, as many stations get into the Thanksgiving spirit early. WDIY in Lehigh Valley played it Monday night. KSRW 92.5 FM in Bishop, California played it on Monday at 11am and will also air it on Wednesday at 3pm and Friday at 8pm. KZUM 89.3 FM in Lincoln, Nebraska aired it on Tuesday at 5pm.

Alice’s Restaurant on the Radio on Thanksgiving Day 2021 – November 25, 2021

Last updated on November 24, 2021. Note that all times are local to the area in which the station is located.

Terrestrial and Online Radio:

WCSX 94.7 FM (Detroit, Michigan) writes on Facebook: “Our Thanksgiving tradition continues with Arlo Guthrie’s classic holiday story ‘Alice’s Restaurant”’ It airs first at 10am Thanksgiving Day and if you’re up for a second helping, again at 4pm!”

92 KQRS (Minneapolis, Minnesota) reports on its website, “Our long-standing tradition of spinning Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ on Thanksgiving continues! You have three opportunities to hear it this year: Tune in at 8am, 12pm and 7pm on Thanksgiving Day!”

KSRW 92.5 FM Sierra Wave (Bishop, California) is airing “Alice’s Restaurant” before and after (but not on) Thanksgiving: Monday, November 22 at 11am, Wednesday, November 24 at 3pm, and Friday, November 26 at 8pm.

WKZE 98.1 FM (Red Hook, New York) writes on Facebook: “Enjoy the ENTIRE 15 ½ minutes at 12-noon, 3pm and 6pm. If you’re traveling or want to have a listening party with absent friends, tune into our live webstream at https://981kze.com/listen-live/.”

WROI 92.1 (Rochester, Indiana) Giant FM writes on Facebook: “Our Thanksgiving Day treat for you is coming up on Thursday at noon! We will play the entire/long version of Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ on Giant fm 92.1 WROI.”

WEZX Rock 107 (Scranton, Pennsylvania) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” on Thanksgiving Day at 9am, noon, 3pm and 6pm.

WTMD 89.7 FM (Baltimore, Maryland) presents the annual airing of “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon.

WTHS 89.9 FM Hope College Radio (Holland, Michigan) shares on Twitter, “WTHS will again serve up the perfect side dish to your turkey day feast with Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant’, Thanksgiving day at noon…on WTHS, 89.9FM and streaming.”

WMMR 93.3 FM (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) tweeted, “@PierreRobert933 will play Alice’s Restaurant 3 times on Thanksgiving: 10am – original recording Noon – ‘The Massacree Revisited’ 2pm – vinyl cut.”

WXPN 88.5 FM (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at 12noon as it does every year.

101 The Fox (Kansas City, Kansas) will air “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon on Thanksgiving.

MVY Radio (88.7 FM Martha’s Vineyard, MA and 96.5 FM Newport, Rhode Island) reports on Twitter, “Plan to be listening to MVY at noon on Thanksgiving day! We will play @folkslinger‘s Alice’s Restaurant!”

TNN Country Radio writes on Twitter, “We’ll be playing Arlo Guthrie’s classic Alice’s Restaurant on Thursday at 12pm ET! Tune in for our new Thanksgiving tradition!”

107.5 The Breeze (Portsmouth, Ohio) tweets: “Join us this Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, as we play a Holiday Classic: ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ by Arlo Guthrie. Hear it at 9am, Noon and 5pm. Follow along as the story unfolds on Thanksgiving Day. It’s brought to you by Preston Family Funeral Home, Rt. 5 in Ashland”

WXPK 107.1 FM The Peak (White Plains, New York). Poughkeepsie Journal reports that the station will air “Alice’s Restaurant” five times: “It will play on the eve of the holiday, as part of the station’s 10@10 block of songs at 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. on Wednesday, at noon and 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving, and on the Weekend Replay of the 10@10 on Sunday after Thanksgiving at about 6 p.m.”

WDVX 89.9 FM in Knoxville, Tennessee is playing “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon.

Wyoming Public Radio is playing “Alice’s Restaurant” at 11am during the Wyoming Sounds Thanksgiving Special (10am-noon) with host Grady Kirkpatrick. Program will include roots music, Native American and Wyoming artists along with the Arlo Guthrie Thanksgiving classic Alice’s Restaurant beginning at 11:00 a.m. with a special introduction from the original restauranteur Alice Brock.

WDRV 97.1 FM The Drive (Chicago, IL) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at 6am, Noon, and 4pm.

KOZT 95.3 FM/95.9 FM The Coast (Ft. Bragg, CA) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at 12 noon on Thanksgiving.

WRHQ 105.3 FM (Savannah, Georgia) writes on its website, “Tradition! That’s what Alice’s Restaurant is on the Q and you’ll hear it three times Thanksgiving Day…. 9:30 in the morning, 12:30 in the afternoon
and 6:30 in the evening presented by your Vinyl Headquarters Rody’s Records“

WNCW 88.7 FM (Spindale, NC) writes that on Thanksgiving Day it will play “songs of food & gratitude all day long, with Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant Massacree’ just past Noon.”

WUMB 91.9 FM (Boston, MA and environs) writes, “Tune in on Thursday, November 25th for special programming highlights including airings of Arlo Guthrie’s classic ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ at 9 AM, noon, 3 PM, and 7 PM, as well as selections from The Band’s The Last Waltz concert that took place on Thanksgiving Day at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco in 1976.”

KINK 101.9 FM (Portland, OR): Per its website, “Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant has been a KINK Thanksgiving tradition for more than 30 years. Catch it twice on Thanksgiving Day (November 25th) this year, 12pm and 5pm.”

Backland Radio (online) writes that it will air Alice’s Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie four times at 8am, 12 noon, 5pm and 9pm Central time on The Whip.

KSER 90.7 FM 89.9 FM (Everett, Washington) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at 2pm.

KXT 91.7 FM will air “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon and 6pm.

99.1 PLR (New Haven, CT) is playing Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” in its entirety at 6am, 12 noon and 6pm.

WCMF (Rochester, NY) is playing “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon.

WXOX-LP 97.1 FM (Louisville, Kentucky) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at 10am on Thanksgiving.

The post “Alice’s Restaurant” Remains a 2021 Thanksgiving Radio Staple appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Portrayals of radio in popular culture provide an interesting glimpse at radio’s role in society. At Radio Survivor, we’ve long been fascinated by radio depictions on both the small and large screen; so it is a treat to dive into this topic with Hemrani Vyas, Programming Coordinator at Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Vyas curated an entire day of radio-themed films for the cable network, focusing on the era of 1930 to 1950. This week we talk about some of the featured films and also dig into a broader discussion about the changing images of radio in the movies.

This episode originally aired in May of 2020. To hear the longer, original version click here.

Show Notes:

• TCM website
• List of Radio Films Aired on TCM on April 10, 2020:
  • Remote Control (1930)
  • So You Want to be on the Radio (1948) – 10 minute short
  • Are You Listening? (1932)
  • Here Comes Carter (1936)
  • The Next Voice You Hear… (1950)
  • Underground (1941)
  • One Fatal Hour (1936)
  • Mr. Dodd Takes the Air (1937)
  • Genius at Work (1947)
  • The Unsuspected (1947)

• Top 5 Television Shows Depicting Radio
• DJs in Peril: Radio Horror on Film
• Ten essential radio movies for the holidays
• More radio movies for the holidays
• Podcast #86: Radio Resistance from an Alternate Universe
• Podcast #195: Telepathy and Radio Mind

The post Podcast #311 – Classic Films about Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Student DJ Anne Harris is on the microphone in the booth at WWXU Haverford College Radio. While back announcing a track by Mannequin Pussy, she looks through a sticker-covered window into the record library, where local band Androgynous is preparing to play live. Posters, stickers and flyers are plastered on the walls and there are shelves and shelves of vinyl records. Audio equipment surrounds her, including turntables and even a vintage reel-to-reel machine. Musicians Siobhan and Nathan set up their gear while their drowsy bandmate Becca reclines on a musty old couch and drummer Geoff opens a tin of edibles. The sleepy musician suddenly vomits, quickly ending any plans to perform in the cozy basement radio station. 

Although the location and scenario likely rings true for so many college radio participants, this scene was filmed on a sound stage for the HBO Max limited television series Mare of Easttown. Set in Pennsylvania, the show puts a fictionalized version of the the Philadelphia Main Line-located Haverford College radio station circa 2019 in the spotlight during a few brief segments in a couple of episodes. 

The production team chose the call letters WWXU and upgraded it to an FM station, much to the delight of this former Haverford College radio DJ and Music Director. During my era in the 1980s, the station’s call letters were WHRC and we broadcast over AM carrier current from a dining center basement studio to students during mealtime as well as to select dorms. 

I’m always excited to see college radio in television and film and it appears infrequently these days. So I was completely shocked to see my own college station showing up on a buzzed-about TV show. There were familiar details, like the wooden shelves of LPs that looked nearly identical to the record library in my days at the station. Fellow WHRC and Haverford alumni were equally amazed. At least one person was sure that the station scenes were filmed at Haverford.

Not content to merely speculate, I reached out to HBO to get the back story. Many thanks to Mare of Easttown production designer Keith Cunningham for taking the time to fill me in on how this very convincing replica of a college radio station came to be. Filming began in fall 2019 and was paused during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, before resuming in the last few months of 2020. Some concepts had to be reworked and these moments where we are introduced to both Anne and the band Androgynous (AV Club has a great piece about the making of this fictional band) at the Haverford College radio station actually “turned out to be a better idea” and safer to film than the original imaginings of Androgynous playing at a rave-like crowded party, according to Cunningham. Although filming wasn’t originally planned at Haverford College, a shoot on the nearby Bryn Mawr College campus (part of a Bi-College community with Haverford and coincidentally where DJ Anne Harris mentions seeing Androgynous play for the first time) was slated to happen and was cancelled just as the COVID-19 shutdowns were beginning.

Much care was put into the design of the fictional WWXU 101.9 FM at Haverford College, including research about the school’s actual college radio station. I was dying to know if Mare of Easttown‘s production team had looked at my WHRC photos, especially since the record library resembles the one depicted in a 1980s photograph that my dad took of me at Haverford. Additionally, the orange-colored framing of the show’s radio booth and the wooden couch are reminiscent of the 2009-era WHRC in photos that I shot during an Alumni Weekend visit. When I asked about those similarities, Cunningham confirmed my speculation, revealing that, “A lot of our show is about having this sort of generational history…and just feeling the bones of the past…so we used the Haverford pictures.” 

“We wanted it to be hip…like Anne and the Androgynous band. So obviously they use modern technology…with CDs and all the equipment you’d need, but we wanted it to…have a little history, just like everything in the show. So they had this pretty epic collection of music that you can see in the background in the studio, which was super fun. And I remember when we were looking at the research. A few of us [thought] it would be great to have all these albums,” Cunningham recounted. The set decorator, Sarah McMillan was able to make that happen and Cunningham recalled that  “boxes and boxes and boxes of these amazing albums” appeared. The approximately 5,000 rented vinyl LPs ran the gamut from big band music to Nancy Sinatra to Van Halen. 

While elements clearly drawn from the real WHRC are seen on-screen, inspiration also came from NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts space (see my tour pix), from Cunningham’s memories of visiting the basement campus radio station WPGU when he was in college at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (see my 2012 visit to the station’s newer digs), as well as college radio recollections from the show’s director Craig Zobel. Cunningham described the station as “an amalgam.”

Something that I really enjoy about visiting long-time college radio stations is that they are dripping with history, from the equipment to yellowing newspaper clippings on the walls to cupboards and file cabinets full of vintage meeting notes and playlists. It’s incredible that the creators of WWXU kept that in mind as something not only integral to the radio station, but also to the ethos of the whole show. Cunningham said that they wanted to blend history and the present and so features like the vinyl library helped to achieve that. I’d noticed that the booth had a mix of old and new equipment, including a modern mixer, a computer that looked to be running an automation program, a turntable, and a reel-to-reel player in the background. Cunningham pointed out that even the CDs in the studio were placed there for a specific reason, telling me that the fictional student DJs couldn’t bear to dispose of them or digitize them. He added to the story, saying, “Maybe they were interested in the cover art.”

Couches have become one of those things that I always look for at college radio stations, as there’s always a story behind them. Often they are cast-offs and the source of much lore. The retro WWXU couch likely looks familiar to many college students of the past. Cunningham told me that this was intentional and the idea was for it to look like “dorm-issued furniture” or something that was dragged out of a “study room.” To lend further authenticity, scenic painters and dressers worked to “rough up the fabric and ding up the wood” to make the couch feel like it came from decades ago. “There’s definitely stains from food that’s been spilled over the years,” Cunningham added.

One of the more time-consuming aspects of the set design was the flyer and sticker-covered walls and windows. Cunningham shared that graphic designer Stephanie Charbonneau spent many weeks creating imagery, including the radio station logo (look closely and you can see the WWXU sticker to the right of the couch), stickers, posters, and T-shirts depicting local bands and shows that peppered the station. After all the graphics were created, the scenic department took over. “They just went to town and just layered the place with the history,” Cunningham pointed out, adding that that they even tried to imagine the station layout, piling on more and more flyers and posters in what they presumed to be the older parts of the radio space.  

It delights me to imagine how much fun it was to create a college radio station from scratch and I was glad to hear that production designer Keith Cunningham felt that way as well. He noted that this particular set was nice to do, as it was the location for some of the more “uplifting” moments of the series, telling me, “Our show is pretty heavy for a lot of it” and “we never wanted the show to be just bleak on bleak on bleak.” 

To compare the fictional Haverford College radio station from Mare of Easttown with the real Haverford College radio station in the 2000s, take a look at my field trip posts from 2009 and 2014. I also share photos dating back to the 1920s as well as the 1940s and beyond in various pieces that I’ve written about the history of student radio at Haverford College. An even more in-depth exploration of Haverford College radio history can be found in articles that I wrote for the Haverford Magazine and for Interactions: Studies in Communication and Culture.

The post Creating Haverford College Radio on Mare of Easttown appeared first on Radio Survivor.

It seems like physical media continues to have a hold on humans, even while most of us in the West engage with online, streaming and virtual media for much, if not most, of our time. Audiocassettes are like radio, in that they have been declared dead multiple times in the last three decades, yet continue to be found, employed and enjoyed by new generations who insist on keeping them alive. Eric just completed a weekend-long cassette hacking workshop, joined by a diverse group of musicians and sound-makers of a variety of ages. He shares that experience as we discuss conjoined histories of cassettes and radio.

That leads us into a presentation Jennifer watched at this year’s virtual Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference, where she learned about a pre-VCR underground of people who recorded the audio of television shows onto cassette. It turns out some of these recordings may be the only surviving artifacts of some broadcasts that were not preserved, or have never again been seen or heard in their original form. We show how cassettes are for everyone who cares about sound in its myriad forms.

Also under discussion: the shutdown of internet radio directory service Reciva, and the perilousness of proprietary platforms.

Show Notes:

• Dogbotic’s Cassette Hacking Workshop
• Society for Cinema and Media Studies
• Broadcast Historian Nora Patterson
• Podcast #297 – Radio Studies and Soundwork
• Negativland: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
• Wobbly (Jon Leidecker)
• Wikipedia: Iannis Xenakis
• Podcast #145 – Hip-Hop Radio Archive
• Radio World: Reciva Internet Radio Platform Shutting Down
• “Electronic project kits: hands on with a vintage 160-in-1“
• Mystery Show Case #6 Kotter
• The Real World Homecoming: New York
• Billboard: ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ to Return With Fewer Music Videos Due to Licensing Constraints
• “The State” FAQ
• Podcast #141 – How Radio Isn’t Done, According To Negativland’s Don Joyce
• An Affectionate & Honest Filmic Portrait of Negativland’s Don Joyce
• Radio Garden
• Exploring Radio Garden on World Radio Day
• Radio Preservation Task Force
• Podcast #133 – Preserving Brooklyn Pirate Radio
• Soundtap’s College Radio Discovery Tool
• 82 Best Freeform College Radio Stations
• RIP: Podcast #125 – Radio Free America Is an Online Hub for Noncomm Radio
• Internet Archive
• Podcast #168 – A Time Machine for All the Radio plus Shortwave

The post Podcast #299 – Cassettes for Art, Radio and Recording TV appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Colleges and high schools are finishing up their first – and, with hope, last – full academic COVID year, and all indicators are that student radio remained on the air, as students adjusted to online classes and socially distant campuses. Jennifer Waits reports back from the Intercollegiate Broadcast System annual conference, held virtually this year, where she gauged the temperature of student broadcasters and the radio professionals who shared their advice with conference attendees. She and Paul Riismandel discuss what the long-term implications of virtual and hybrid broadcasting may have for college and community radio, taking into account that the accessibility that remote technology offers is weighed against the benefits of face-to-face interaction.

Paul shares some highlights from the 2021 Infinite Dial survey from Edison Research, delivering stats on what audio Americans are using in the car, and the growth of podcast listening. He also reminds us about the upcoming non-commercial radio license opportunity, which now has a firm date in November. Jennifer and Paul then finish things out with a look at Franken FMs, which are scheduled to leave the airwaves in July, when the FCC will require all remaining analog low-power TV stations to convert to digital.

Show Notes:

• Intercollegiate Broadcast System
• Podcast #295 – High School Podcasting with the Hosts of Rice and Shine
• High School Radio Station KMIH “The Bridge”
• HBO series “Mare of Easttown”
• Haverford on the Radio
• Haverford College’s Radio Heyday in the 1920s
• The Infinite Dial 2021
• Podcast #269 – How To Get an FM Radio License in 2021
• Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS)
• Netflix series “Daredevil“
• Leah Steuer
• Time Is Running Out for FrankenFMs – Just 4 Months Left
• The Antenna Man on YouTube: 87.7 Franken FM Radio Stations May Go Dark in July

The post Podcast #298 – College Radio at the end of the Academic COVID Year appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Catch Alice’s Restaurant on the 2023 radio dial. See our latest listening guide.

Happy Thanksgiving week 2020! Time once again for the cross-country “Alice’s Restaurant” radio listening party. As we approach our annual harvest celebration in the United States, the coronavirus is still swirling, with cases spiking across the country. Holidays have been upended due to the public health crisis and it’s strongly recommended that we not gather in groups with friends and family around the Thanksgiving table. Because of that, many of us are breaking with tradition and dispensing with some of our long-standing rituals, from cooking massive turkeys to inviting extended family into our homes.

As we adapt to a different sort of Thanksgiving this year, you can still enjoy the socially distanced custom of tuning in to “Alice’s Restaurant” on your radio dial. With so much in flux, this will be a welcome bit of nostalgia for listeners who look forward to hearing the song on Thanksgiving Day. Similarly, for those who dread forced family listening sessions, this year’s distanced holiday may be an auditory respite.

This year there’s even more reason to celebrate, as 2020 marks the 55th anniversary of the 1965 Thanksgiving day events that inspired Arlo Guthrie to pen his 18+ minute anti-Vietnam War story-song. Pressed to vinyl in 1967, it’s a seasonal staple on many rock, college, public, and community radio stations. Some stations even play it multiple times on turkey day, allowing for fans to catch it while on the road, during dinner preparations, amid the meal or while socializing. Perhaps this year, there will even be scheduled listening parties over Zoom, text strings, live chats, or twitter conversations while people listen at the same time.

If you’re lucky, you might also be able to hear a special message on your local station from the woman, Alice Brock, who plays a central role in both the title and story of “Alice’s Restaurant.” She’s our guest on this week’s Radio Survivor show and podcast, which has just been released on the evening on November 24, 2020. After penning these radio station listening guides for over a decade, it was certainly a thrill to speak with THE Alice! She’s fallen on hard times, so I’d also encourage anyone able to visit her GoFundMe campaign.

If you’re eager for more insight into “Alice’s Restaurant,” don’t miss the new video interview with Arlo Guthrie over at the Bruce Springsteen Archives. Guthrie speaks not only about the song, but also about his recent announcement that he’s retiring from touring. Also, Jon Kalish tweets that on Thanksgiving, the radio shows/podcast 1A is airing a “segment on Arlo Guthrie’s anti-war classic Alice’s Restaurant. The segment chronicles the song’s debut on Bob Fass’ late-night show on WBAI, Radio Unnameable.” He adds, “The segment leads off an hour-long special on the National Recording Registry. You’ll hear an excerpt of Guthrie’s debut of Alice’s Restaurant on Radio Unnameable, as well as Bob Fass recalling that night. Other voices: Alice Brock, folkie Cathy Fink & of course Arlo Guthrie.”

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I will continue to update this list as I learn of additional stations leading up to Thanksgiving.

Pre-Thanksgiving Listening Options:

Some stations play “Alice’s Restaurant before Thanksgiving. Catch an irreverent version on KFJC 89.7 FM (Los Altos Hills, CA) around 7:30pm on Tuesday, November 24 and then a regular version around 9:30am on Wednesday, November 25. KKUP 91.5 FM (Cupertino, CA) played “Alice’s Restaurant” at 11am on Tuesday 11/24. WYEP 91.3 in Pittsburgh, PA played it on Sunday, November 22nd at 1pm. WFVR-LP 96.5 FM Royalton Radio (South Royalton, VT) aired it at 5pm on Monday, November 24.

Risky Business Hayseed Hoot radio show from November 21, 2020 includes a 1997 live version of “Alice’s Restaurant,” airing on various affiliate stations, including KJIV 96.5 FM (Bend, OR), KJYV (The Dalles, OR), KORC 105.9 FM (Corvallis, OR), KYAC 94.9 FM (Mill City, OR), KUNR 88. 7 FM (Reno, NV), KPHT-LP 99.9 FM (Laytonville, CA), KTRT The Root 97. 5FM (Methow Valley, Washington), KGFN 89. 1FM (Goldfield, NV), KDUP 88.1 FM (Surprise Valley, CA). Check with these stations for specific air dates and times.

Alice’s Restaurant on the Radio on Thanksgiving Day 2020 – November 26, 2020

Last updated on November 26, 2020 at 9:54am PT. Note that all times are local to the area in which the station is located.

Terrestrial Radio:

WXPN 88.5 FM in Philadelphia, PA will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at 12noon as it does every year. It’s amid a day’s line-up starting at 6am that they dub “XPN Classics Thanksgiving.” Following “Alice’s Restaurant,” WXPN will play the Band’s Last Waltz at 4pm.

KPCW 91. 7 FM in Park City, Utah will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at 12noon as it has been doing since the station began in 1980! Other holiday programming on Thanksgiving Day includes “Giving Thanks” at 9am and pre-recorded cooking tips on “Turkey Confidential” at 10am.

Frosty 105.7 FM (Part 15 station in Ventura, CA) will air “Alice’s Restaurant” at 9am, 2pm, 3pm and 5pm on Thanksgiving Day, 11/26/20.

WXRT 93.1 FM in Chicago, Illinois will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon and 8pm on Thanksgiving.

Arkansas Rocks stations throughout Arkansas will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon CST on Thanksgiving.

WDVX 89.9 FM in Knoxville, Tennesee is playing “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon.

WPLR 99.1 FM in New Haven, CT will air “Alice’s Restaurant” at 6am, noon, and 6pm.

KZHP 93.3 FM K-ZAP (Sacramento, CA) writes on Twitter, “…we continue a tradition as American as friends, turkey and gravy by playing ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ on Thursday at 10a & 6p PST. Tune in for an amazing story by a legendary storyteller.”

WGXC 90.7 FM aka Wave Farm (Acra, New York) will air “Alice’s Restaurant” on the “WGXC Morning Show” between 9am to 11am. The station writes on Twitter, “Thursday tune in holiday traditions such as Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant,” Rush Limbaugh’s “The True Story of Thanksgiving,” WKRP’s “Turkey Drop,” William S. Burroughs’ “Thanksgiving Prayer,” Andy Griffith’s “What it Was, Was Football,” and more @WGXC 90.7-FM.” Later in the evening at 7pm, WGXC airs an interview with Alice Brock from a few years ago. Their full lineup of holiday programming includes shows about Thanksgiving radio traditions (2am) and rituals (11am).

WXOX 97.1 FM ARTxFM (Louisville, Kentucky) will play “Alice’s Restaurant at 10am on Thanksgiving.

WFUV 90.7 FM (Bronx, NY) is playing “Alice’s Restaurant at 12 noon as part of its Thanksgiving Feastival.

Wyoming Public Radio is playing “Alice’s Restaurant” at 11am during the Wyoming Sounds Thanksgiving Special (9am-noon). The program will include “roots music, Native American and Wyoming artists along with the Arlo Guthrie Thanksgiving classic Alice’s Restaurant beginning at 11:00 a.m. with a special introduction from the original restauranteur Alice Brock.”

KBCO 97.3 FM (Denver, Colorado) airs “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon.

WTTS 92.3 FM (Indianapolis/Bloomington, Indiana) is airing “Alice’s Restaurant” at 8am, noon and 8pm.

WDRV 97.1 FM The Drive (Chicago, IL) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at 6am, noon, and 4pm.

KOZT 95.3 FM/95.9 FM The Coast (Ft. Bragg, CA) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at 12 noon on Thanksgiving.

WAFX 106.9 The Fox (Hampton Roads, VA) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon on Thanksgiving day.

WRHQ 105.3 FM (Savannah, Georgia) plans to play “Alice’s Restaurant” on Thanksgiving Day at 9:30am, 12:30pm and 6:30pm.

WNCW 88.7 FM (Spindale, NC) will air Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” just past Noon, and again at 9pm.

WERS 88.9 FM in Boston writes that the station “continues our long tradition of playing Alice’s Restaurant Massacree, with Jersey Hal, at 11am on Thanksgiving!”

KNHS 102.3 FM/91.9 FM (Haines, Alaska) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at 3:30pm on Thanksgiving. The station has a line-up of special programming on Thursday and Friday, including “Turkey Confidential” and music appropriate to the season.

KXT 91.7FM (North Texas Public Broadcasting) reported via tweet: “It’s a KXT tradition! Tune in at noon and 6pm to KXT 91.7 FM for all 18+ minutes of Arlo Guthrie’s classic, ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ on Thanksgiving Day.”

WUMB 91.9 FM (Boston, MA and environs) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” three times on Thanksgiving this year “at the top of the 9am, 12pm and 3pm hours on Thursday!” according to its website.

KINK 101.9 FM (Portland, OR): Per its website, “Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant has been a KINK Thanksgiving tradition for over 30 years. Catch it twice on Thanksgiving Day (November 26th) this year, 12pm and 5pm.”

WLVQ 96.3 FM (Columbus, OH): Per its website, “Tune in this Thanksgiving Day around 6am, Noon, and 6pm to hear Alice’s Restaurant, a Qfm96 tradition.”

KTYD 99.9 FM (Santa Barbara, CA): The station reports on Facebook that they will play “Alice’s Restaurant” on Thanksgiving at 6am, 9am, noon, 3pm AND 6pm.

MVY Radio (88.7 FM Martha’s Vineyard, MA and 96.5 FM Newport, Rhode Island) reports on Twitter on Thanksgiving Day: “Nothing beats a holiday tradition! We will play ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ by @folkslinger at noon today! And tonight at 9PM, we will play the full ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ album! Happy Thanksgiving!”

KQRS-FM 92.5FM (Minneapolis, Minnesota) is playing the epic song at noon and 7pm on Thanksgiving.

WVNW 91.7 FM (Scranton, PA) at Marywood University is playing “Alice’s Restaurant” at 6pm.

KKSM AM 1320, Cox Digital Cable 957 (San Marcos, CA) at Palomar College is playing “Alice’s Restaurant” at 12pm and 5pm.

Online Radio Stations:

Backland Radio (online) writes on Twitter, “It’s a Whip tradition – Tune in on Thanksgiving to hear Alice’s Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie four times at 8am, 12 noon, 5pm and 9pm Central time on The Whip at http://backlandradio.com.”

The post Thanksgiving Radio Tradition withstands the Pandemic as “Alice’s Restaurant” Hits the 2020 Airwaves appeared first on Radio Survivor.

You may have watched The Vast of Night already. It has been out for about year on Amazon Studios (aka Amazon Prime). But if not and you can, it is a must see not only for Twilight Zone style sci-fi fans, but for devotees of prior broadcasting/telecom environments, in this case the 1950s. The Vast of Night tells the story of two frenetic southwestern teenage geeks who bond while on the verge of having a Close Encounter.

In the small fictional town of Cayuga, New Mexico there is a radio station, WTOW, which runs a popular Saturday night rockabilly show hosted by Everett Sloan, a cocky and confident nineeen year old. Just before getting to his job, he tries to help his alma mater, Cayuga High, with some electrical wiring problems interfering with the public address system. It is urgent, since Cayuga is hosting an important basketball game with a rival. A lengthy discussion ensues about invading chipmunks electrocuting themselves. Then Everett runs into his friend Fay Crocker, she three years his junior and hopeful that he will help her learn how to use her newly purchased Westinghouse portable reel-to-reel tape recorder.

Everett walks Fay to her job as the town telephone exchange’s night switchboard operator, which happens to be near his radio station. The two take turns saying things into the recorder. “Are you a member of the Communist Party!?” he demands in a faux congressional voice. She summarizes Popular Mechanics type articles forecasting trains that will take commuters from Manhattan to San Francisco in two hours. Everett starts his show and Fay begins her shift. But then she gets a call full of strange radio signal noises. Intrigued, she patches the audio over to Everett’s studio. He quickly decides to broadcast the noises, asking his audience if they sound familiar. Fay worries if that could get in him trouble somehow. “I don’t care,” Everett responds. “It’s good radio!” When a retired Black-American Army vet calls in to say he knows exactly what those signals are, the duo discover that they’re in for a very strange ride.

The Vast of Night is a movie that takes its time, and thus serves as a wonderful reminder that every generation has its cutting edge telecom landscape, run by people who in their minds and hearts live in the future. As I watched, memories danced in my head of my first portable tape recorder, conversations with actual telephone operators, and New Jersey radio hosts suddenly going spontaneous. I was not crazy about the film’s less-than-subtle ending. But I loved watching Everett and Fay, both charming with their thick angular 1950s eyeglasses, connect and start finish each other’s sentences, long before their first date.

The post The Vast of Night: a vast 1950s community radio/telecom fantasia appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Portrayals of radio in popular culture provide an interesting glimpse at radio’s role in society. At Radio Survivor, we’ve long been fascinated by radio depictions on both the small and large screen; so it is a treat to dive into this topic with Hemrani Vyas, Programming Coordinator at Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Vyas curated an entire day of radio-themed films for the cable network, focusing on the era of 1930 to 1950. This week we talk about some of the featured films and also dig into a broader discussion about the changing images of radio in the movies.

Show Notes:

• TCM website
• List of Radio Films Aired on TCM on April 10, 2020:
  • Remote Control (1930)
  • So You Want to be on the Radio (1948) – 10 minute short
  • Are You Listening? (1932)
  • Here Comes Carter (1936)
  • The Next Voice You Hear… (1950)
  • Underground (1941)
  • One Fatal Hour (1936)
  • Mr. Dodd Takes the Air (1937)
  • Genius at Work (1947)
  • The Unsuspected (1947)

• Top 5 Television Shows Depicting Radio
• DJs in Peril: Radio Horror on Film
• Ten essential radio movies for the holidays
• More radio movies for the holidays
• Podcast #86: Radio Resistance from an Alternate Universe
• Podcast #195: Telepathy and Radio Mind

The post Podcast #246 – Radio in the Movies appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Catch Alice’s Restaurant on the 2023 radio dial. See our latest listening guide.

In fall, 1967, Arlo Guthrie released “Alice’s Restaurant,” unintentionally launching a Thanksgiving radio tradition that persists more than 50 years later. The Thanksgiving-themed 18+ minute story-song is beloved by folkies and classic rock fans who continue to search the radio dial for it on Thanksgiving Day in order to take part in ritual listening sessions. In 2019 you can listen any time you like thanks to streaming music, but there’s nothing like tuning in to hear the same song at the same time as legions of fellow fans on one of the most American of holidays.

Guthrie has been on the tour circuit in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the film version of “Alice’s Restaurant,” with plenty more concerts scheduled through spring, 2020. For followers of his annual Thanksgiving weekend Carnegie Hall gig, this year’s event on November 30th is expected to be the last.

For a decade, I’ve been compiling a list of radio stations that air “Alice’s Restaurant” as part of their Thanksgiving schedule. I will continue to update this list as I learn of additional stations leading up to Thanksgiving.

Update as of 11/25/19:

The weekend before Thanksgiving, “Alice’s Restaurant” aired on the “Dr. Demento Show” online, on WPRB‘s (Princeton, NJ) “Music You Can’t Hear on the Radio,” and on WMUH’s (Allentown, PA) “Radio Free Hippie” show. Additionally, some stations will continue the “Alice’s Restaurant” festivities after Thanksgiving. John Furphy of Radio Free Hippie shared on Facebook that the Sunday overnight show “…will play both the original and the revisited massacree during this week and next week’s program, as has been done since 1983. There is also a very good chance one or both versions will be played between 10 AM and noon on turkey day.”

Charles Reinsch also reports, “The Rainbow Roach version of Alice’s as performed on Bob Fass’s Night Into Day can be heard anytime in the KRAB Archive: http://www.krabarchive.com/krab-programs-music-1960s.html…”

Ted Coe writes on Monday, November 25, 2019, “I’m doing an hourlong variation on this on my music-and-cultural arts show The Freak Power Ticket on KCSB-FM 91.9 in Santa Barbara, in just about an hour!” That show airs on Mondays 11am to noon Pacific time.

Update as of 11/27/19:

I also got a note from Bill Revill, who writes, “WESU (Middletown CT) airs ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ the Tuesday before Thanksgiving between 6-8pm on ‘Acoustic Blender.’  I’ve been doing that for ten years now.”

Also on Tuesday nights for the past two years, Cynthia Lombard at KFJC 89.7 FM (Los Altos Hills, CA) has been playing an atypical version of “Alice’s Restaurant” during her 7-10pm Pacific time show. This year it aired at around 8:45pm (playlist here) and program is archived for two weeks.

Alice’s Restaurant on the Radio on Thanksgiving Day 2019 – November 28, 2019

Last updated on November 27, 2019 at 3:30pm Pacific Time

Terrestrial Radio:

Wyoming Public Radio will air “Alice’s Restaurant” at 11am during the Wyoming Sounds Thanksgiving Special (9am to noon).

KBCO 97.3 FM (Denver, Colorado) airs “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon.

WAMC 1400 AM and 90.3 FM (Albany, NY) Northeast Public Radio, per tradition, will air “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon.

WTTS 92.3 FM (Indianapolis/Bloomington, Indiana) is airing “Alice’s Restaurant” at 8am, noon and 8pm.

WCLY 95.7 FM (Raleigh, NC) will air “Alice’s Restaurant” at 10am and 5pm.

KPIG 107.5 FM (Freedom, CA) and KPYG 94.9 FM (Cayucos/San Luis Obispo, CA) will air “Alice’s Restaurant” at 9am, noon, 4pm, and 8pm.

WERS 88.9 FM (Boston, MA) plans to play “Alice’s Restaurant” at 9am.

WXYG The Goat 540 AM/107.3FM (Sauk Rapids, MN) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon.

WCMF 96.5 FM (Rochester, NY) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at 11am prior to the Buffalo Bill’s game!

WMMM 105.5 FM (Madison, WI) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon and 6pm.

92 KQRS (Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” on Thanksgiving at 10am and 2pm

WDRV 97.1 FM The Drive (Chicago, IL) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at 6am, noon, and 4pm.

KOZT 95.3 FM/95.9 FM The Coast (Ft. Bragg, CA) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at 12 noon on Thanksgiving.

KRCC 91. 5 FM (Colorado Springs, CO) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at 7pm on Thanksgiving.

WRUV 90.1 FM (Burlington, VT) will air “Alice’s Restaurant” at 11am EST.

98.5 WNUW-LP (Aston, PA) at Neumann University airs “Alice’s Restaurant” every Thanksgiving at 9am, 12noon, 5pm, 8pm and 10pm.

WXOX 97.1 FM Louisville will be playing it on Thanksgiving between 10-11am on Artebella with DJ Keith Waits.

WAFX 106.9 The Fox (Hampton Roads, VA) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon on Thanksgiving day.

The Creek 100.9 FM (Macon, Georgia) will air it at noon and 5pm on Thanksgiving.

KTYD 99.9 FM (Santa Barbara, CA) posted on Facebook, “KTYD’S Thanksgiving Tradition continues! Listen for Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” Thursday at 9am, noon, 3pm, 6pm.”

Frosty 105.7 FM (Part 15 station in Ventura, CA) will air “Alice’s Restaurant” at 11am, 1pm, 3pm, 4pm (Massacree Revisited), 5pm on Thanksgiving Day, 11/28/19.

101 the Fox (Kansas City, KS) will air “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon and 6pm on Thanksgiving.

WRHQ 105.3 FM (Savannah, Georgia) plans to play “Alice’s Restaurant” on Thanksgiving Day at 6:30am, 12:30pm and 6:30pm.

WZZZ 107.5 The Breeze (Portsmouth, Ohio) posted on Twitter, “Join us this Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, as we play a Holiday Classic: ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ by Arlo Guthrie. You’ll hear it at 9am, Noon and 5pm. Follow along as the story unfolds on Thanksgiving Day–It’s brought to you by Preston Family Funeral Home, on Rt.5 in Ashland.”

WXPN 88.5 FM (Philadelphia, PA) will air its annual broadcast of “Alice’s Restaurant” at 12noon.

WXRT 93.1 FM (Chicago, IL) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon on Thanksgiving Day.

WNCW 88.7 FM (Spindale, NC) writes, “Join us from Jasmin’s ‘Mountain Mornings’ at 6am, through Joe Kendrick’s Thanksgiving music and history spotlight between 7 and 9am (in lieu of ‘Morning Edition’), and our eclectic feast of songs throughout the rest of the day. We’ll air Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant Massacree’ just past Noon, and again at 9pm.”

MVY Radio 88.7 FM (Vineyard Haven, MA) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon on Thanksgiving.

WERU 89.9 FM (East Orland, Maine) reports that, “This year Brother Al, host of Thursday’s Morning Maine show on WERU-FM will be playing it just after 8 a.m. We live stream at weru.org and via the WERU app.”

Online Radio Stations:

The Whip Radio will play “Alice’s Restaurant” four times on Thanksgiving: 8am, 12 noon, 5pm and 9pm Central time.

REC-FM will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at 11am Eastern time on Thanksgiving.

KMCJ Radio (Moorpark College in Moorpark, CA) posted on Facebook, “…tune into KMCJ on Mixlr Thursday at 10am, 1pm, 3pm and 5pm and as a bonus tune into KMCJ tomorrow Night [Tuesday, November 26, 2019) at 7:45 after our all day remote at Club M then after we air Alice’s Restaurant at 7:45 our annual Sounds of the Season begins.”

The post Alice’s Restaurant on the 2019 Thanksgiving Radio Menu appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Last week – coincident with the original Walkman’s 40th birthday – I saw all these articles reporting on this supposedly “world’s first” Bluetooth enabled portable Walkman-style cassette player/recorder, named IT’S OK (yes, the brand is in all caps). Reactions to this Kickstarter ranged from snarky to excited, but all the coverage struck me as a little too credulous.

Always hoping that someone is going to start making decent quality cassette decks or players again, every so often I search around on Amazon or Ebay to see what’s on offer. In the back of my head I thought I’d seen a cheap Bluetooth tape player before, for far less than the $75 intro price promised to Kickstarter supporters.

Turns out, my memory was correct. This Digitnow branded “cassette to MP3 converter” has been available on Amazon since August of 2018 for a price that fluctuates between $29 and $39. Over on Ebay they’re $39.99.

In addition to playing to your Bluetooth headphones, it’ll digitize your cassettes directly to a microSD card, or to your computer via USB. Two additional features missing from the IT’S OK. Now, I’ve never used the Digitnow player, so I can’t vouch for the quality of playback. But my guess is that it’s about as good as the cheap knock-off Walkman you might have bought at K-Mart in 1989, so caveat emptor. I also have serious doubts that the IT’S OK will be any better, even at nearly twice the price.

Already suspicious of the “feasibility study and first handmade prototypes” on the Kickstarter timeline, today I saw a video from YouTuber VWestlife wherein he identifies an extremely similar cassette player available on Alibaba for as little as $7 in quantity direct from China. VWestlife also points out that the IT’S OK player isn’t even in stereo, specifying “Classic Monaural Sound.”

He does note that since all the parts for the IT’S OK are readily available, the Kickstarter likely isn’t a scam. You’ll just get a flimsy mono cassette recorder/player worth maybe $20 in parts – or available from other sources at about $40 – for your $75. And you’ll have to wait until December to get it. Or you can wait until after the Kickstarter ends and get it for $88 (no kidding).

I’ll admit to being enticed when I first saw headlines about the device, but it didn’t take long for me to see that this Kickstarter is mostly hype, seizing on the Walkman’s nostalgia moment and slow news week to get some free press release journalism coverage.

I have no snark for anyone wanting a new cassette Walkman today, and wish that reputable brands like Sony and Panasonic still made them. If you’re in the market I’d first try to find a decent used one, or take a shot on any of the dozens of $20 ones scattered across online retailers and Ebay. (While you’re at it, you might as well get one with a radio.) Aside from the cognitive dissonance around the apparent anachronism of the IT’S OK player, I don’t really get the appeal of adding Bluetooth… especially in freakin’ mono.

But if you decide to bite and get one, please do let us know how it goes.

The post Don’t Waste Your Money on that Bluetooth Cassette Player Kickstarter appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Being a radio fanatic, I keep an eye out for unusual radio-themed items. With the holiday shopping season upon us, it’s as good a time as any to share some recent finds, particularly since we haven’t done any Radio Survivor gift guides in awhile.

With that, here’s my 2018 Holiday Gift Guide for those in search of quirky (and not-so-quirky) radio-themed gifts:

1. Chocolate Radio

I picked up this novelty radio at Archie McPhee in Seattle and there’s something incredibly satisfying about an item that is so unusual that you can’t find it anywhere online! It looks like a tasty chocolate bar, but sounds like a radio. It’s not the best radio. The tuner is comprised of a scan button and a reset button, so it was tough for me to locate many stations. A personal listening device, it does not have external speakers, but you can listen to it with the chocolate bean ear buds included with purchase.

Chocolate FM radio. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

2. WVKR’s Dolphin Shower Radio

After seeing the cute dolphin shaped shower radio posted on social media by WVKR (Vassar College), I was even more motivated to schedule a station visit. Lucky for me, there were still some of these promotional items on hand when I stopped by and I plopped down my donation so that I could have my very own dolphin shower radio. Although it’s tricky for me to get fantastic indoor reception on a shower radio in San Francisco, the adorable quotient makes me willing to put up with some static.

WVKR’s dolphin shower radio. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

3. The Radio Historian’s 2019 Calendar of Early Radio Remote Broadcasts

John Schneider puts together annual calendars featuring spectacular vintage photographs. The latest one includes “colorized photographs of field reporters transmitting from outside their broadcast studio.” A few older editions of the calendar are also available, with images of vintage radio buildings and studios.

Calendar and radio buffs will also enjoy Scott Fybush’s 2019 Tower Site Calendar. This will be the 18th edition of this wonderfully geeky foray into radio tower sites.

4. Haynes Retro Radio Kit

I’ve experimented with a few radio-making kits over the years, with varying levels of success. The 1970s-style radio design pictured on the box for the Haynes Retro Radio Kit piqued my interest; so I picked this up for a future radio-making foray. Unlike some of the other radios that I’ve made, that were all solely FM or AM, this one results in a combination AM/FM radio. A similar item, the Haynes Build your own FM Radio Calendar Kit is styled like an Advent calendar and features 24 daily experiments.

Haynes Retro Radio kit. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

5. Lee de Forest: King of Radio, Television, and Film

I’m in the midst of reading the Tom Lewis book Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio, which casts inventor Lee de Forest as a bit of a scallywag. The well-read tome and resulting Ken Burns documentary Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio has influenced popular perceptions of de Forest. In his extensive and well-researched biography of de Forest, Lee de Forest: King of Radio, Television, and Film, Mike Adams points that out and works to complicate the story of Lee de Forest, highlighting his profound influence on radio, television and film.

6. Freeplay Encore Buddy Self-Powered Radio

In March, the inventor of the Freeplay hand-crank radio, Trevor Baylis, died at the age of 80. In 1991 he came up with the concept for a wind-up radio. The New York Times writes, “…he saw a television program that mentioned one obstacle in the growing AIDS crisis in Africa: Reliable information was not reaching many people, because electricity was scarce or nonexistent and batteries were prohibitively expensive. A radio that ran on muscle power, Mr. Baylis reasoned, would give everyone an opportunity to hear the news, not to mention listen to music.”

His hand-crank radio Freeplay Radio has been recognized for both its function and design and is even part of the collection at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum.

7. Software-defined-Radio

On episode 168 of the Radio Survivor show/podcast, we had a fascinating discussion with Thomas Witherspoon about how one can create a radio time machine by making radio spectrum recordings using a software-defined-radio (SDR). Essentially, it’s possible to capture everything on a given radio spectrum using that tool, so that you can, for example, save a glimpse of the AM radio dial in your community on a specific point in time. I’d be hard-pressed to recommend a specific SDR, so I’ll direct you to Witherspoon’s three-part primer on SDRs on his SWLing Post site.

8. Wooden Walkman Clutch

OK. It’s not a radio, but I think of Walkman cassette players as radio-adjacent. This wooden purse is imprinted to look like an old school Sony Walkman and I think it’s just adorable. It comes in red, white, or baby blue.

9. Wooden Phone Amplifier

Again. Not a radio, but vintage-leaning audio lovers might dig this petite “wood acoustic amplifier for smartphones/mobile devices,” which features an antique phonograph horn design. At the bargain price of $15.99, this is on my Cyber Monday wish list (hint hint).

10. Portable Shortwave Radio with Built-in Recorder

Our conversation with Thomas Witherspoon on last week’s Radio Survivor show/podcast reignited my interest in exploring shortwave radio. So, it’s likely the perfect time to take a look at this cool little portable radio that my colleague Paul reviewed earlier this year: the Tivdio V-115. It not only gets AM and FM radio, but also shortwave. A serious bonus is that it also has recording capabilities so that you can capture air checks of interesting radio that you encounter. Another option that Paul mentions in a follow-up review is the Kaito KA29, which also gets a variety of radio bands and has recording capabilities.

11. Membership in a Historical Radio Society or Radio Museum

My final suggestion this year is to gift your radio enthusiast pals with a membership to an organization that is working to preserve radio history. A few ideas include the California Historical Radio Society (which is building a museum in Alameda, California), the Maritime Radio Historical Society, the Antique Wireless Association, the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting, and the Spark Museum of Electrical Invention.

For other suggestions, see the radio clubs links on the Antique Wireless Association website.

More Gift Ideas

For even more suggestions, see the previous guides that we’ve put together over the years:

5 Funky Last Minute Gifts for Radio Fanatics (2016)

2014 Holiday Gift Guide for Radio Fanatics – From Radio in a Jar to Bike Radios (2014)

Holiday Gifts for Easy and Enjoyable Radio Listening (2014)

Ten Essential Radio Movies for the Holidays (2014)

Eclectic Gifts for the Radio, Podcast and Streaming Music Fan (or Nerd) (2013)

Holiday Gift Guide for Radio-Lovin’ Fashion Mavens (2013)

Happy Holidays: Here’s an Emergency Radio (2012)

Holiday Gift Guide for Radio Listeners and Budding Podcasters (2012)

2012 Holiday Gift Guide for Radio Fans (2012)

Holiday Gifts for the Radio Survivor: Paul’s Recommended Gear (2011)

Great Radio History Books for the Holidays (2011)

2011 Holiday Gift Guide for Radio Fans (2011)

Paul’s Recommended Radios for Holiday Gifty Time (2010)

2010 Holiday Gift Guide for Radio Fans (2010)

Top Holiday Gifts for Radio Lovers (2009)

The post 2018 Holiday Guide: Quirky Radio-Themed Gifts for the Audio Obsessed appeared first on Radio Survivor.

What killed smooth jazz radio? Why aren’t there any commercial classical stations any longer? And, why do radio stations have a “format” to begin with? Matthew Lasar joins us to explore these questions about the fundamental organizing principle of most music radio.

Matthew is a co-founder of Radio Survivor and the author of three important books on radio, including Pacifica Radio: The Rise of an Alternative Network and Radio 2.0.

Show Notes:

• Top 40 Democracy: The Rival Mainstreams of American Music, by Eric Weisbard
• Matthew likes: KKUP, KZSC, Second Inversion Radio, WQXR New Sounds (formerly Q2)
• Hybrid Highbrow: New music for Paddle to the Sea + nobody told me that smooth jazz died
• Hybrid Highbrow: Somebody stop killing jazz radio please
• OMG a radio station actually keeps its classical format after protests

The post Podcast #150 – Sympathy for Kenny G appeared first on Radio Survivor.

I’ve joked about the common trope of “DJs in peril” in popular culture; with numerous films portraying radio hosts as the target of evil-doers. The tables are turned in the video game “Radio Hammer Station,” in which a crew of pirate radio DJs battle “a wide variety of villainous baddies,” including aliens, zombies and “horribly naughty perverts.”

The game’s website description calls to mind a cheery team of super hero DJs:

“A popular radio station spreading its love of groove with some of the best DJs in the world. Providing tunes to groove to throughout the day. Its true purpose is to serve as the radio station of justice, beating evil down with a ginormous hammer! To ensure peace and harmony, Radio Hammer continues to go live with style!”

Featuring nearly 100 songs, the game seems to try to mimic the flavor of an underground radio station with a mix of genres. Siliconera describes one character, DJ Numi, as “… a cool, expert DJ who’s part of Radio Hammer,” explaining that “she heads to the arcade to take out monsters who are rumored to be jumping out of arcade games.”

Although Radio Hammer Station has been around since 2015, I was only alerted to it this week when I heard news of a forthcoming release for additional platforms. Are there other video games featuring radio stations or DJs? Do reach out and let me know.

The post Radio Hammer DJs Fight Villainous Baddies appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Musician, DJ and radio artist Don Joyce passed away nearly three years ago, leaving behind a voluminous archive of his unparalelled collage radio program “Over the Edge.” The documentary “How Radio Isn’t Done” sheds light on this member of Negativland, his life and his work in recontextualizing the never-ending flow of media messages that flood everyday life.

Director Ryan Worsley joins to talk about Joyce, his hyper-focused artistic process and what she learned creating this affectionate and honest portrait of an iconoclastic figure and broadcasting legend.

Show Notes:

• “How Radio Isn’t Done” on Vimeo
• “How Radio Isn’t Done” on Amazon
• Paul’s review of the film, “An Affectionate & Honest Filmic Portrait of Negativland’s Don Joyce“
• Negativland – “The Chopping Channel”
• RIP Don Joyce: Negativland Member, Artist, KPFA DJ
• Negativland’s ‘Over The Edge’ Catalog Now Available at Internet Archive
• Radio Survivor Podcast #9: Remembering Negativland’s Don Joyce
• ABC (Australia) documentary about a long-running cassette radio show: “Cassette famous“
• Radio on Tape: from ‘Second Side Up’ to ‘The Hour of Slack’
• The Grassroots Radio Conference is happening Oct. 5 – 7 in Portland, OR. The call for proposals is now open.

The post Podcast #141 – How Radio Isn’t Done, According To Negativland’s Don Joyce appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Radio fans have a major reason to visit San Francisco this year: the SFO Museum just debuted the massive “On the Radio” exhibit in Terminal 3 of the San Francisco International Airport (SFO). Until September 30, 2018, travelers can feast their eyes on 27 cases full of historical items related to radio’s past, ranging from 1920s crystal radios to 1970s novelty radios.

A peek at the “On the Radio” exhibit at SFO Museum. Photo: J. Waits

Of particular interest to radio historians, “On the Radio,” features around 120 radios in addition to photographs, artwork from vintage radio magazine covers, advertisements, popular culture artifacts, microphones, vacuum tubes, and more. Accompanied by SFO Museum’s Assistant Curator of Exhibitions Daniel Calderon, I spent more than 90 minutes touring through the extensive exhibit; while most of the other Monday morning passersby zipped through on their way to and from flights. During my visit, a number of passengers perused the main part of the installation, reading accompanying text and chatting with friends and family members about the objects on display. Others pointed out the radio photographs and magazine covers while riding on one of the two moving walkways that bookend “On the Radio.”

Photos in the “On the Radio” exhibit alongside the people mover at SFO. Photo: J. Waits

My tour of “On the Radio” amazed me on several levels. It’s one of the most extensive radio exhibits that I’ve ever witnessed and certainly the largest that I’ve seen in a non-radio environment. With thematic display cases, “On the Radio” also provides an incredible overview of not only radio history, but also at the wide range of radios that have been created over the years.

Sentinel radio in the “On the Radio” exhibit at SFO Museum. Photo: J. Waits

Beyond that, the exhibit contextualizes radio in American popular culture in particular, with accompanying photographs portraying how real people have used radio in their everyday lives. Additionally, for design and technology fans, the exhibit draws connections between notable designers (including Charles Eames and Alexander Girard) and technical pioneers/inventors (such as Reginald Fessenden, Lee de Forest, Charles Herrold and Edwin Armstrong) and the radio landscape.

New York World’s Fair Radio in “On the Radio” exhibit at SFO Museum. Photo: J. Waits

While many travelers may only have a few minutes to devote to “On the Radio,” I would encourage radio fans and historians to build in extra time during their trips through SFO in order to spend quality time with the exhibit. For departing passengers or those approaching from other terminals, I’d recommend starting near the entrance to the people movers, where you can pick up a copy of the “On the Radio” booklet (which opens up into a beautiful poster) and read an introductory panel about the exhibit.

Entrance to “On the Radio” exhibit at SFO Museum. Photo: J. Waits

From there, I would begin with the “Early Broadcasting” display, proceeding ahead to see the exhibits on the right side of the gallery, including “Crystal Sets.” This is where you can spy one of the star pieces of the show, the “Mystic” radio bug crystal radio from 1927. Part of Steve Kushman’s collection, this crystal radio is encased inside a fantastical glazed green ceramic bug.

The “Mystic” Radio Bug and Headset in “On the Radio” exhibit. Photo Courtesy SFO Museum.

I enjoyed beginning at this side of the show in order to get a look at some of the older items. One could also take a detour on the people mover heading towards Terminal 3 gates in order to see John Schneider‘s collection of colorized historic radio studio photos on the wall to one’s right, returning on the people mover heading towards the airport exit to view illustrated Radio magazine covers from the 1920s to one’s left (displayed on the back of exhibit cases). Take a second trip on the people mover towards Terminal 3, looking to your left, to see additional magazine covers.

Radio magazine cover on display at “On the Radio” exhibit at SFO Museum. Photo: J. Waits

Other displays focus on types of radios (battery sets, cathedral radios, 1930s tabletop radios, 1930s luxury radios, mid-century plywood radios, portable radios, molded plastic radios, bakelite radios, mirrored radios, transistor radios, Remler radios, Catalin radios, coin-operated radios), programming (music on the radio, postwar radio and rock ‘n roll, radio shows, radio’s dramatic voice), technology (FM radio, tube technology, patent licensing), the radio audience, novelty radios (including a radio housed in sunglasses and an early lamp-shaped radio), and the 1939 New York World’s Fair and Golden Gate International Exposition.

Coin-operated hotel radio in “On the Radio” exhibit at SFO Museum. Photo: J. Waits

As one would expect from this type of exhibition in San Francisco, there are a number of references to San Francisco Bay Area inventors, radio manufacturers, radio networks, radio stations, and pioneering broadcasters. The “On the Radio” exhibit points out San Jose’s important role in radio history, stating, “Electrical engineering professor Charles Herrold (1875–1948) made the first scheduled radio broadcasts, transmitted from 1912 to 1917 at KQW in San Jose, California, to wireless operators and students listening in on crystal sets.” Those stopping by the exhibit can take a look at historic photos from Herrold’s station, which one could argue was the first college radio station in the San Francisco Bay Area. I was also intrigued to see a photo from the grand NBC “Radio City” studio in San Francisco (circa 1942). Now the home to tech company Reddit, the building’s original mosaic mural can still be seen today.

1942 Image of NBC “Radio City” Building in San Francisco from the “On the Radio” exhibit. Photo: J. Waits

Established in 1980, Museum SFO encompasses 25 galleries at the airport and is unique in that it “…was accredited by the American Alliance of Museums in 1999, becoming the first and only accredited museum to be located in an airport.” Although I’ve admired many of the museum’s exhibits over the years (from vintage typewriters to airplane-themed album cover art), I wasn’t fully aware of the extent of the SFO Museum, likely due to the rushed nature of my usual airport visits. Several galleries, including the Aviation Museum and Library (in the international terminal) are located in pre-security areas and are open to the public. At the time of my visit, there were around 18 different exhibits throughout the airport and that is in addition to more than 80 pieces of public art that is also on display.

Promotional pieces for SFO Museum in the international terminal at San Francisco Airport. Photo: J. Waits

Although SFO Museum displays some of its own collections in the Aviation Museum and Library, the majority of the items on view in airport galleries are on loan from collectors and other museums. “On the Radio” includes materials from numerous private collectors as well as from the California Historical Radio Society, History San Jose, and the Museum of American Heritage (which is going to have a series of workshops on how to build a crystal radio, by the way!).

Novelty radios in the “On the Radio” exhibit at SFO Museum. Photo: J. Waits

With around 50 million travelers coming through SFO every year, it’s staggering to think about the potential audience for the museum’s exhibits and it delights me to imagine the vast number of people who will catch at least a glimpse of radio history during the run of “On the Radio.”

The post ‘On the Radio’ Exhibit at San Francisco Airport Celebrates Radio History appeared first on Radio Survivor.

I’m delighted to keep stumbling upon video artifacts of pirate radio, like the 1970s Portland public access footage and 1990 shortwave pirate documentary I recently shared. Next up I’ve found a more contemporary documentary from 2014 looking at London’s pirate radio scene.

The city has long been a hotbed of unlicensed radio activity, such that the scene birthed and nurtured new music genres like jungle and grime in the 1990s and early 2000s. The film “Drowned City” (available for free on Vimeo) takes a survey of current and former pirate broadcasters in East London, featuring a remarkable degree of access that’s facilitated by hiding the identities of many players.

Towards the start of the film, a former pirate named Jay drives director Faith Millin and her crew around East London pointing out broadcast aerials mounted on top of residential tower blocks (similar to public housing complexes in the U.S.). He notes that many of them are affixed to legitimate antenna masts used for purposes like two-way taxi radio. Even with the density of unlicensed broadcasters in places like Brooklyn and South Florida, I doubt there’s anywhere in the States where such an “aerial tour” would be so easy.

We also follow current broadcasters who have metal parts fabricated for their own home-brew security devices to stop both the authorities and competing stations from tampering with or seizing their equipment. Due to the size of the scene, as well as the heated cat-and-mouse game with Ofcom, the UK radio regulator, and police, pirates keep their transmitters cited away from studios, linking them via internet streams. This helps protect DJs, though it also means transmission gear is left unattended and vulnerable.

Though more sophisticated and mature than in many other cities, the pirate radio scene in London is born from the same seeds as elsewhere: people and communities without access to their own media taking the means to broadcast into their own hands. The success of pirate stations playing hip-hop, R&B, soul and reggae music unheard elsewhere on the radio prompted the BBC to launch 1Xtra, which focuses on urban music and has DJs who are former pirates.

While this may have taken some wind out of the pirate sails, a broadcaster in “Drowned City” notes that stations serving immigrant diasporas from Turkey and Africa have filled in some of the gaps. Again, this is similar to unlicensed broadcasters in the U.S. serving cultural and language minorities otherwise unheard on the dial.

Some of the DJs in the film have been caught and fined, and others are less sanguine about the future of pirate radio in the face of the internet. Yet, others press on, despite the risks and competition for listeners’ ears. “Drowned City” is a fascinating hour-long journey into one of the most iconic broadcast communities in the world.

The post Tour East London’s Pirate Radio Scene in “Drowned City” appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Catch Alice’s Restaurant on the 2023 radio dial. See our latest listening guide.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, the wind up to the holiday season, which means that the annual ritual of tuning in to hear “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” on the radio is just around the corner. As I’ve been chronicling year after year and as we discussed on this week’s podcast, the classic 18 minute + Arlo Guthrie story-song has become a much-loved Thanksgiving listening tradition for many American families. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the release of the Alice’s Restaurant album and as part of a long-standing gig, Guthrie will perform this weekend at Carnegie Hall (also a 50th anniversary affair). To familiarize yourself with the history of the piece, take a look at Smithsonian Magazine’s recent article about the epic track.

Many more fans will commune with Guthrie over the radio, though. I was amused to see this tweet from @savannahbagwell: “i think im most excited for the annual playing of ‘alice’s restaurant massacre’ than actual thanksgiving.” Others are getting an early start. @hey_pono tweets “Half day before the long weekend. So I’m playing Alice’s Restaurant on loop to annoy my coworkers… ”

If your turkey-day tunes steer clear of Guthrie, you might dig this Thanksgiving-themed playlist penned by college radio station Radio 1190’s Music Director. And, if you want to get all 2017, fire up this collection of Thanksgving-themed podcasts (“Alice’s Restaurant” even gets the nod) recommended by the New York Times.

To assist in your planning, here’s a run-down of some of the radio stations that plan to air the song this year. If you know of others, please let me know in the comments. I will also continue to update this list.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Alice’s Restaurant on the Radio on Thanksgiving Day 2017 – November 23, 2017

WXPN 88.5 FM (Philadelphia, PA) will air “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon, following Sleepy Hollow Thanksgiving.

WFUV 90.7 FM (Bronx, NY) has a full schedule of live music programming, dubbed the WFUV Feastival, with Alice’s Restaurant running at noon on Thanksgiving.

WNCW 88.7 FM (Spindale, NC) will run “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon and 9pm.

Wyoming Public Media plans to air “Alice’s Restaurant” at 11am, amid a variety of Thanksgiving-themed programming.

WDVR 89.7 FM (Sergeantsville, NJ) will air the classic song a little after 8am. WDVR posted, “This Thanksgiving, Ted Lyons, host of the Honky Tonk Roadhouse on WDVR, will present ‘Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,’ the iconic 1967 recording by singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie. This will be the 24th year for the airing of ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ by Lyons…”

WMVY aka Mvyradio (Martha’s Vineyard and the Cape) will air “Alice’s Restaurant” at noon and will also run an archival Newport Folk Festival set by Arlo Guthrie at 9pm.

Eagle 102.3 Augusta’s Classic Rock (Augusta, GA) will air the song at noon and 6pm. Cliff Dyches writes on Facebook, “Since I started radio almost 25 years ago, I have ALWAYS played Alice’s Restaurant on Thanksgiving. It’s a tradition!!!”

107.5 The Breeze (Portsmouth, OH) will air the track at 9am, noon, and 5pm. Added bonus, the station tweets, “Follow along as the story unfolds based on true but slightly exaggerated events. And listen for your chance to WIN a copy of the CD.”

WNRN 91.9FM (Charlottesville, VA) plans to air “Alice’s Restaurant” at 9am, noon and 5pm.

WYEP 91.3 FM (Pittsburgh, PA) will air the song at 6pm.

DC101 (Washington, D.C.) will play “Alice’s Restaurant” at 7am.

The Wagon and Moon Grove in Second Life will be airing the track at nine and noon for you Second Life denizens. DJ Holocluck Henly is behind the turntables.

KBCO 97.3 FM (Boulder, CO) will play the song at noon and 6pm.

KRCC 91.5 FM (Colorado Springs, CO) is playing “Alice’s Restaurant” at 7pm.

95.9 The Fox (Stamford/Norwalk, CT) will play the track at 12:30pm.

102.9 The Whale (Hartford, CT) plays “Alice’s Restaurant” at 9am.

92 KQRS (Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN) will play the track at noon and 6pm.

The post Alice’s Restaurant and more 2017 Thanksgiving Radio Broadcasts appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Over the weekend I stumbled across Resistance Radio and was immediately obsessed with the nostalgic music, rebellious DJs and the geeky radio details. The website reads,

The year is 1962. America stands divided and controlled by the Greater Nazi Reich in the East and the Japanese Pacific States in the West. Seventeen years after the Allied Powers lost World War II, people in this America are living in fear and oppression. But between these opposing political parties lies a lawless “neutral zone,” where a fledgling “Resistance” movement struggles to fight back.

Hijacking the airwaves, a secret network of DJs broadcast messages of hope to keep the memory of a former America alive. Using music to hearten the spirits of the hopeless, they play bootleg songs that are performed and played in makeshift studios with obsolete equipment.

Being on-air is dangerous, yet the desire to reach the resigned is somethings these DJs can’t resist.”

When I tuned in on my laptop, I heard a loop of staticky broadcasts, featuring DJs and music. However, it’s even more fun when accessing the site on mobile, as you can spin the dial of a transistor radio in order to tune in to DJs on four different stations. Between the stations, listen carefully for creepy numbers stations (perhaps with secret codes for the resistance) and for a station transmitting a message in Morse Code.

Ostensibly it’s part of a much larger advertising campaign for the Amazon television show The Man in the High Castle, but it lives on its own as a collection of fictional pirate radio broadcasts.

DJs speak from their secret bunkers, describing a warn-torn dystopian America, ruled by Japan in the west and by the Nazis in the east. In this alternate depiction of 1962, religious assembly has been outlawed by the Nazis and a swastika is draped on the Statue of Liberty. One DJ opines, “always subversive, rarely lucrative, Resistance Radio” and another describes, “this rotting carcass of what used to be the United States.”

Between the banter there’s 1960s-style music done by contemporary artists, some of whom performed at SXSW in Austin this week as part of the promotional blitz for the series and for the accompanying album. I was super jealous of those who were able to pop by Resistance Radio HQ at SXSW, as there was a faux radio station on site, complete with on-air sign and vintage equipment and ephemera (see some pix on Instagram). Trolling around some more, I was doubly jealous of the lucky folks who were sent Resistance Radio promotional items, including a vinyl record and a DIY record player.

Okaaaay @AmazonVideo. Pretty cool record player & narrative extension (record) for @HighCastleTV #ResistanceRadio! I love it! Thanks! pic.twitter.com/YhTlbqj4gA

— Candice Patton (@candicekp) March 8, 2017

In an odd twist, some folks who have come upon the #ResistanceRadio hashtag on social media, erroneously thought that it was a real radio station. Even more bizarre, some people perceive it to be a direct attack on Donald Trump, even though the site and broadcasts are clearly fictional, set in another era (1962) and are protesting a Nazi regime. A message on the website’s audio loop also describes it as being part of the Amazon series.

I’m not sure if radio nerds were specifically targeted for this campaign, but I’m all in and it definitely makes me more intrigued about Man in the High Castle, particularly if they have some pirate radio stations as part of the story line.

The post Resistance Radio: Mesmerizing Dystopian Pirate Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Happy World Radio Day! In honor of this annual celebration, I’m exploring Radio.Garden and listening to stations from all over the world. Launched just two months ago on December 13, 2016, Radio Garden is a website where one can navigate to streams from different stations by mousing over a globe. It reminds me a bit of my childhood exploration of far away stations on my family’s vintage radio (complete with static!) and is also the logical successor to Zoomout’s wonderful college radio map (now Soundtap). Luckily for us radio geeks, Radio Garden’s globe spinning interface is even more satisfying.

In the past 24 hours, I’ve listened to stations on most continents, including some from Mexico, Greenland, Australia, Brazil, Ukraine, Poland, Senegal, Oman, Russia, Philippines, Madagascar, India (where I heard a metal station of all things), Sri Lanka, Egypt, Bulgaria, Iceland, Turkey, Cuba, Canada, Uganda, New Zealand, Romania, Colombia, Namibia, Hong Kong, Belarus, and Moldova. I love hearing music from different regions, particularly from the Middle East and Asia, as I feel like I’m being transported to far away lands. As I scan through, it’s also unnerving to hear familiar-sounding Western music and even cliched American-style radio jingles and station identification on the radio dial in far-flung locations as well.

According to Alec Badenoch, one of the folks behind Radio Garden,  “Radio.Garden allows listeners to explore processes of broadcasting and hearing identities across the entire globe. From its very beginning, radio signals have crossed borders. Radio makers and listeners have imagined both connecting with distant cultures, as well as re-connecting with people from ‘home’ from thousands of miles away – or using local community radio to make and enrich new homes.  Four different layers of the interactive globe allow listeners to dive into radio’s border-crossing…”

Radio Garden is a bit addictive, particular for a radio nerd like me. In addition to all of the radio streams, one can also scan the globe for radio stories, radio history and jingles. There’s even a great story about those creepy numbers stations that were used by spies. It’s an ever-growing project, so I will continue to check back for more radio treats.

The post Exploring Radio Garden on World Radio Day appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Although it’s been a few years since we’ve put together our Radio Survivor Holiday gift guides, listing off radio gifts that we love, I’m always thinking about these lists. Whenever I run across an intriguing radio gift idea, I make a mental note and sometimes I race out to pick something up for myself. In light of the holiday shopping season, here are a few unusual suggestions for the radio fan that has seemingly everything:

Toilet Paper Holder Radio

Many of us remember shower radios, which were so amazing for those of us who enjoy listening to the radio while bathing. Well, here’s another bathroom radio option: a radio that’s incorporated into a toilet paper roll holder. I’m particularly partial to the salmon pink version that is pictured on A Life Less Ordinary and here’s a demo of a bright yellow version of a Windsor AM radio. I’ve also seen some similar toilet paper holder radios that include FM radio and even a telephone. Get your toilet paper holder radio if you spot one, as I can’t find too many that are currently up for sale.

Haunted Radio

Thanks to the haunted radio, every day is Halloween in my house. Ostensibly a seasonal item, the plastic “radio” plays a number of spooky messages with the turn of a dial or though a motion sensor. I love the vintage radio look and the old-time sounds that emanate through its speaker.

Novelty Vintage Radio with Secret Hiding Space

You’ve probably seen faux books with hollow centers that can be used as secret hiding places, well, here’s a radio version of that. This working radio has a hidden compartment where you can store your valuables. Oddly enough, this version also comes with a mustache nail file and key chain.

Antique Radio Mouse Pad

For my entire life I’ve enjoyed the juxtaposition of modern technology with antiques and this mouusepad perfectly exemplifies that aesthetic, with its image of an antique radio.

Darth Vader Alarm Clock

Star Wars fan can wake up every morning to this Darth Vader Clock Radio that utters messages from the villainous character and plays both AM and FM radio.

The post 5 Funky Last Minute Gifts for Radio Fanatics appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Catch Alice’s Restaurant on the 2023 radio dial. See our latest listening guide.

Happy early Thanksgiving! After a particularly contentious Presidential election, many families are anxious about upcoming holiday gatherings. Some are banning political conversations, whereas others are setting ground rules for polite discourse. Perhaps the long-standing radio tradition of listening to Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant on Thanksgiving can serve as a welcome distraction, bringing families together to enjoy the epic, 18-minute track. For years, the song has been a Thanksgiving Day staple on not only rock radio stations, but also some college, community and public radio stations all over the United States.

I just ran across a fascinating radio piece on BBC Radio 4 focusing on the “people and the places” of Alice’s Restaurant and it’s pretty interesting to hear a British radio take on the American Thanksgiving tradition. It features not only the history of the song, but also lots of interviews with people associated with the story that inspired the song, including a chat with Alice herself. It’s well-worth a listen and also contains snippets of the song as well as a darling clip of young children singing Alice’s Restaurant.

This year, I was pleased to learn about a man in Waco, Texas who found inspiration in the song and has now committed to doing an annual trash pick-up. Eureka Times Standard writes,

Bruce Huff, of Waco, Texas, wants to start a movement: The Group W Bench. His idea is based on a folk/rock tune by Arlo Guthrie. On Thanksgiving 1965, Guthrie visited friend Alice Brock and her husband at their home, a church in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and did them a favor by taking out their garbage. The dump was closed that day so Guthrie dropped the garbage off a nearby cliff where other locals had previously dumped trash. He was arrested and fined the following day (the Group W Bench was where Guthrie and other ‘hardened criminals’ were placed). The crime of littering made him ineligible for the draft and kept him out of Vietnam. This incident became the catalyst for a song he wrote several years later called ‘Alice’s Restaurant.’ The melody is satirical, infectiously catchy, and contains spot-on social commentary about the ’60s and what people did to avoid serving in Vietnam…

Huff enjoyed ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ so much he decided to recreate the story. On the last Thursday of each November he goes out and ‘picks up the garbage.’ His goal is to make Waco a model city. City council members are on board. This Thanksgiving… they will provide him with gloves, bags, trash sticks, and a truck. Bruce would like other towns and cities to follow suit and become trash-free. He wants Americans to take pride in their communities and hopes the Group W Bench movement will grow until it encompasses the nation.”

Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the events that inspired the song, so there was much hullabaloo, including a series of anniversary concerts. This year is a bit quieter and so far I’ve only been able to compile a short list of stations that have announced that they plan to air Alice’s Restaurant this year. If you know of others, please add them in the comments.

Additionally, some stations are playing Alice’s Restaurant before Thanksgiving, including WEVL 89.9 FM (Memphis, TN), which will air it on Wednesday morning between 8am and 10am Central time. WESU (Middletown, CT) aired it the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving, which is a long-standing tradition there. WCBE played it on Wednesday at 2:30pm.

Alice’s Restaurant on the Radio on Thanksgiving Day 2016 – November 24, 2016

KBCO 97.3 FM (Boulder, CO): Is playing “Alice’s Restaurant” twice on Thanksgiving: at noon and 6pm.

KPIG 107.5 FM (Freedom/Santa Cruz, CA) and 94.9 FM (San Luis Obispo, CA) : Will play Alice’s Restaurant at 9am, noon, 4pm and 9pm on Thanksgiving.

KRNN 102.7 FM (Juneau, AK): Will play Alice’s Restaurant at 9am.

KSHE 94.7 FM (St. Louis, MO): Plays Alice’s Restaurant every Thanksgiving at noon.

KSUT (Ignacio, CO): Will play Alice’s Restaurant at 9am. The station will also air additional Thanksgiving-themed programming, including a segment on Native American cuisine.

KNBA 90.3 FM (Anchorage, AK) : Will play Alice’s Restaurant at 5pm on Thanksgiving.

KKFM 98.1 FM (Colorado Springs, CO): Will air at noon and 6pm.

KFMH 99 Plus (Iowa City, IA): Will air it three times on Thanksgiving, however the times aren’t given.

WFUV 90.7 FM (Bronx, NY ): The epic will air at noon on Thanksgiving Day and will be surrounded by broadcasts of recordings of a variety of live concerts throughout the day.

WCMF 96.5 FM (Rochester, NY): Will air at noon and 4:30pm on Thanksgiving Day. This tradition has been going on for at least 36 years there!

WTTS 92.3 FM (Bloomington, IN): Alice’s Restaurant will air at 6am, noon, and 6pm as part of a day of mellow rock music.

WXPN 88.5 FM (Philadelphia, PA): Will air it at 12noon.

WEXT 97.7 FM (Albany, NY): Airing at 6am, 9am and noon on Thanksgiving.

WJCT 89.9 FM (Jacksonville, FL) : Will play on Thanksgiving night at 9pm, as part of a long-standing tradition on the station. The station is also airing other holiday programming this week, including Orson Welles’ radio version of “A Christmas Carol.”

Boss Boss Radio: Plans to play the track at noon Pacific time and noon Eastern time.

Wyoming Public Radio (various channels throughout Wyoming): As part of its special programming on Thanksgiving Day, Wyoming Public Radio will air Alice’s Restaurant at 11am during the Morning Music show.

MVY Radio (88.7 FM Martha’s Vineyard, MA and 96.5 FM Newport, RI): Will play at noon on Thanksgiving.

WUMB (91.9 FM Boston, MA): Will air Alice’s Restaurant at 9am, noon and 3pm.

KGSR 93.3 FM (Austin, TX): Will air Alice’s Restaurant at 12noon Central Time on Radio Austin.

WXTL 105.9 FM The Rebel (Syracuse, NY): Plans to air the song at 10am and 5pm on Thanksgiving Day.

WKLC 105.1 FM (St. Albans, WV) : Will air Alice’s Restaurant at 9am on Thanksgiving.

WYEP 91.3 FM (Pittsburgh, PA): Will air Alice’s Restaurant at 6pm on Thanksgiving.

KXT 91.7 FM (Dallas, TX): Will play the song at noon and 6pm on Thanksgiving.

WTJU 91.1 FM (Charlottesville, VA): Will play it three times on Thanksgiving.

104.7 FM The Bear (Wichita Falls, TX): Is airing Alice’s Restaurant at noon on Thanksgiving.

WXRT 93.1 FM (Chicago, IL): Is playing the track at 11am and 6pm.

KRSH 95.9 FM (Healdsburg, CA ): Will play the song four times on Thanksgiving: at 9am, noon, 3pm and 6pm.

WORT 89.9 FM (Madison, WI): Will play it on Thanksgiving at 11am. According to WORT, “Host Bob Kaspar will also play other food-themed comical music and spoken word between 9 am and noon that day.”

KKGL The Eagle 96.9 FM (Boise, ID): The Eagle is playing Alice’s Restaurant five times on Thanksgiving. Tune in at 10am, noon, 3pm, 5pm and 9pm.

KQRS 92.5 FM (Minneapolis, MN): Will play Alice’s Restaurant at 9am and 5pm.

WAAL 99.1 The Whale (Binghamton, NY): Is playing Alice’s Restaurant at around 7:15am, 12:15pm and 6:15pm on Thanksgiving.

WZLX 100.7 FM (Boston, MA): Will be airing Alice’s Restaurant at 12pm and 4pm.

WKIO 107. 9 FM (Arcola, IL): Another station that is playing the song five times! Tune in at 12 midnight, 6am, 10am, 4pm and 9pm.

WMTY 98.3 FM (Sweetwater, TN): Will be airing Alice’s Restaurant at 11am and 3pm.

WFIV 105.3 FM (Knoxville, TN): Is playing the song at 10am and 2pm.

WIXV 95.5 FM (Savannah, GA): Is playing Alice’s Restaurant at 12noon and 6pm.

WCSQ-LP 105.9 FM (Cobleskill, NY): New low power FM station Radio Cobleskill has not officially launched, but it will be airing Alice’s Restaurant at 8am, noon and 5pm.

This list is just the beginning and includes only the stations that I’ve been able to confirm for 2016. I will continue to update this list up until Thanksgiving. If you know others that plan to air “Alice’s Restaurant” this year, please add them in the comments. Also, take a look at my “Alice’s Restaurant” posts from 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2010 to see some of the stations that have played it in the past and to learn more about the tradition.

The post Tuning in to Alice’s Restaurant on the Radio on Thanksgiving 2016 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

I’ve been spending a lot of time reflecting on my radio station tours as I prepare for my 100th tour report this week. During that process, I asked my daughter if she could list off for me some of the interesting and/or weird things that she’s seen when accompanying me on radio station tours. She’s been to maybe ten radio stations in her ten years of life and it’s interesting to see what she tends to notice. With that, here’s Miss B’s list of things spotted at radio stations. Number ten is a pretty epic moment from her toddler years that she only remembers through photos:

1. Naked mannequins

Mannequins at CHIRP Radio. Photo: J. Waits

2. Record Room that Looks Like a Jail Cell

Record storage at college radio station KAOS at Evergreen State University. Photo: J. Waits

3. Doughnuts

Voodoo Doughnut box at college radio station KWVA at University of Oregon. Photo: J. Waits

4. Matching Cat on Fire Tattoos

Cat tattoos and mural at X-Ray. Photo: J. Waits

5. Zombie Survival Room

Zombie Survival Room sign at college radio station WRBB at Northeastern University. Photo: J. Waits

6. Bones

Bones at X-Ray.fm. Photo: J. Waits

7. Bad Words

File Your Records sign at Harvard’s college radio station WHRB. Photo: J. Waits

8. Posters and Writing on the Walls

Graffiti policy at Tufts University’s college radio station WMFO. Photo: J. Waits

9. Old Candy

Chocolate kisses at ARTxFM (probably NOT old). Photo: J. Waits

10. Couches

Two-year-old Miss B crashed out on college radio station couch at WVFI at Notre Dame. Photo: J. Waits

The post 10 Weird Things Spotted by a Kid during Radio Station Tours appeared first on Radio Survivor.

A year ago I rhapsodized about my love of televised yule logs and gave my report on some of the examples that aired during the 2014 Christmas holiday. Well, Christmas 2015 also brought with it many opportunities to view yule logs on TV and I ended up catching a few that I’d never seen before. Now that I finally have better access to on-demand viewing, I also could have sampled many more yule logs (there are even on-demand yule logs with no music soundtrack so that you can enjoy the simplicity of the crackling fire sounds). Instead, I stuck with the ones that aired over live television or could be recorded on my DVR. Here’s a quick look at what 2015 had to offer:

Outlander Yule Log

I recorded this 16 minute yule log on Christmas morning on Starz HD. The show description promised, “The Fraser family home in Lallybroch is the scene of a roaring Scottish hearth and traditional holiday music.” The unusual thing about this yule log showing is that it depicts a wider view of a fire, with two dogs sleeping on a large rug in front of it. Occasionally the dogs wake up and adjust positions, while Scottish-sounding music plays. At one point the large dog walks off, leaving the little one alone in front of the fire. A longer version of the video can be seen here. The yule log was used as promotion for the Outlander series marathon that aired on Christmas.

Outlander Yule Log 2015. Photo: J. Waits

SEC Yule Log

This 4-hour yule log presentation aired on the SEC ESPN Network (the “official” network of the Southeastern Conference, which airs a multitude of college sports) beginning at 3am Christmas morning. A tight close up of a burning log was accompanied by crackling fire sounds in addition to a cheesy soundtrack made up of Christmas music and fight songs. If this were a radio station, listeners would point out that the transitions between the Christmas music and the fight songs were often quite clunky, making for sort of a chaotic listen. Many of the Christmas pieces were hokey country-ish versions of classic songs. Adding to the mood, sports scores scrolled across the bottom of the screen throughout the presentation. Visually, it’s a boring scene without much change in the logs of the fire. It doesn’t look like anything is actually burning.

SEC Yule Log 2015. Photo: J. Waits

A Very Happy Yule Log

Recorded on Christmas Eve beginning at 2pm, this 3-hour yule log was presented by the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries channel. Like the Outlander yule log, this one also depicts a larger scene in front of a roaring fireplace. A cat and a dog lounge about on cushions and a Christmas tree, presents, and a heavily decorated fireplace mantle are shown (complete with stockings). From time to time we see different shots, including a close up of presents and another of poinsettias. There are several jumps between scenes and there are even dog and cat-free portions. The dog and cat wander off and watching their antics is more interesting than the fire, which was probably edited in. Atop the screen, the message “Merry Christams from Happy the Cat and Happy the Dog. HappyisHappy.com” appears occasionally. Familiar Christmas songs make up the soundtrack, including Christmas carols as well as rock and pop oldies like “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.” The Hallmark Channel actually has several versions of the yule log, including a Thanksgiving one with different decor and a cat-only version. Here’s a link to the Christmas yule log that I watched.

Hallmark Channel’s Yule Log 2015. Photo: J. Waits

Plus Some Old Favorites

I also viewed several yule log presentations that I had seen previously, including Disney XD’s animated yule log and two yule logs on San Francisco Bay Area stations KRON and KOFY. Once again, my favorite is the one aired by KOFY. The logs in the fire actually burn, the music is tolerable, making for a very enjoyable experience as a viewer. How about you, did you run across any good yule logs over the Christmas holidays?

The post Reviewing the 2015 Yule Logs: They’ve Gone to the Dogs appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Back when I’d only just taken on official library duties, I found this little gem floating around the Rock vinyl. Was this a soundtrack of some kind…? Some sort of fan tribute album? What am I even looking at?

What we have here is Freddy’s Greatest Hits by the Elm Street Group.

This is new wave bubblegum with a tie-in twist. It’s got that ethereal sexiness of a mid-eighties dance floor, coupled with the occasional gravelly vocals of Freddy, delivering the title of whatever song you happen to be enjoying. Delightfully, or perhaps disconcertingly, the Freddy on the record is none other than Robert Englund, the Johnny Depp-murdering, dream-destroying original.

The target audience is vague at best. Elm Street fans that felt obsessed enough to consume any and all merchandise? Up-and-coming serial killers?  People who buy records for the weird art? It’s quite unclear. Wikipedia doesn’t even bother to list it on its page concerning franchise products, while counterintuitively its Discogs market value averages around $90.00. Overpriced and extremely obscure; everything a record collector could hope for in a release.

This terrifyingly poppy little number is only the tip of the weirdo iceberg. As the elected Librarian of KZSC Santa Cruz 88.1 FM, it’s more or less my job to have a cursory knowledge of everything on the shelves. Be sure to check back in weekly to learn more about the other tasty treats and revolting rarities that lay dormant in our massive collection.

The post Freddy’s Not Dead (treasure and trash from the KZSC record library #1) appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Zahra Noorbakhsh and Tanzila ‘Taz’ Ahmed launched their podcast #GoodMuslimBadMuslim in January 2015, and they hit the ground running. Their first radio interview about their show, for PRI’s Global Nation, was recorded before the first episode of their podcast was up online, but that didn’t seem to hurt their launch as far as they can tell. According to Zahra, by their second episode they were featured in Mother Jones, and by their 5th episode they were on the BBC weekend round up.

How does a new podcast, like #GoodMuslimBadMuslim find success and find an audience? That’s the $20,000 question. For Zahra and Taz it started as a Twitter joke between friends, mocking the innate Islamophobia of so much of the main stream conversations about Muslims in America and it grew from there. It probably didn’t hurt that they were both already public figures who had appeared on panels and in anthologies.

Zahra says that whenever they would meet up to talk privately with one another they both felt a strong urge to share their personal conversations with the world. “I wish that the conversations that we have are the kinds of conversations I would hear more of,” Zahra told me in our interview for Radio Survivor, reflecting on why they began work on their show. “We should have those conversations, because people want it. There’s really a need for it.”

They did research to find a model for their idea for this podcast, looking for personal takes on what is was like to be a Muslim these days, and as far as they could tell no one in podcast-land was talking about the things they cared about. So they launched their show to fill that void.

Zahra Noorbakhsh’s advice for anyone who is planning (or fantasizing) about starting an online radio show of their own: “For new podcasters, really identifying what it is that is driving you to do it… if there is something out there that you want to hear that you are not hearing, I think that’s a great starting point.”

You can hear more in our podcast interview with Zahra from episode #21 of Radio Survivor.

The post Good Advice: Make The Podcast You Wish You Could Hear appeared first on Radio Survivor.

When Don Joyce of the band Negativland passed away in July we learned that the group is in the process of archiving the 34-year catalog of its Over The Edge radio show, anchored by Joyce since the very beginning. Now the first stage of the project is public, with 941 episodes of the program available at the Internet Archive.

A live freeform collage show that’s been on KPFA in Berkeley, CA since 1981, Over The Edge is hard to describe to anyone who hasn’t heard it. It’s best to quote a description penned by Joyce himself:

“OTE’s weekly themed mixes are made live and spontaneously on the air from a variety of formats and equipment used to do live sound cut ups and collage while mixing, including the frequent use of the now long dead analog technology of radio broadcast cart machines. On each themed episode of OTE there is a plan and there is no plan. Existing within the parallel universe of the Universal Media Netweb, the OTE mix consists of found sounds of many kinds from many sources put together on the run as the continuous audio collage progresses, along with live electronics (often from our Boopers), live sound processing, and all sorts of recurring themes and characters.”

A Negativland fan since college in the early 90s, I had heard of Over The Edge and for years pined away to actually hear the show. A few years after graduation I borrowed from a fellow community radio DJ a few air check cassettes of the show that the band sold by mail-order and learned the wait was worth it. I was also jealous of Bay Area radio listeners who could just tune in their radios every Thursday at midnight to experience and partake in (they take live callers, with the instruction “don’t say ‘hello’” because when your phone stops ringing you’re on the air) the sonic chaos.

When KPFA started its first live stream in the mid–90s I tied up my phone line on the occasional early Friday morning at 2 AM (I lived in Central Time) to tap into the barely AM-quality stream that I could siphon through my dial-up connection. I’m sure I sometimes fell asleep before my ISP would dump my multi-hour connection.

Negativland then started releasing edited Over The Edge CD compilations that let me get my dose with comparative ease. One of my absolute favorites remains Dick Vaughn’s Moribund Music of the 70s, an all-too-skewed-but-accurate send-up of classic top 40 radio culled from shows in which they also staged a put-on for unsuspecting listeners by playing soft rock moldy oldies like “Bill, Don’t Be a Hero.” That disc only gets better every time I listen to it.

The very medium of radio is frequent fodder for Negativland, as easily heard in the archive. My podcast co-host Eric Klein has heartily recommended shows in the occasional series “How Radio Was Done” (there are 106!). There is also the mirror series, “How Radio Isn’t Done” (only 22 episodes). Starting with the first episodes in these series are probably as good a place as any for the uninitiated to get their start with Over The Edge.

Frankly, it’s nearly impossible to overstate the influence of Negativland and this show on our post-modern media environment. Over The Edge was really the site of some of the first mash-ups and mass broadcast of remix culture. Millions of YouTubers and DJs owe a debt of gratitude, whether they know it or not.

My enormous gratitude goes to the members of Negativland for taking on the herculean task of sourcing, digitizing, cataloging and uploading these 941 shows. As I continue to slog through my own comparatively minuscule archive my respect for their accomplishment only grows. Big thanks also go to the Internet Archive for hosting the Over The Edge archive, along with millions-upon-millions of other audio programs, videos, documents and other content that otherwise might be forever lost, but is now accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

The post Negativland’s ‘Over The Edge’ Catalog Now Available at Internet Archive appeared first on Radio Survivor.

For quite a few years I’ve been intrigued by and obsessed with the handmade 3-dimensional radio station call letter signs that I’ve seen at numerous college and community radio stations all over the United States. One of the signs is posted at KFJC, where I volunteer and DJ, so I see it every week. I probably first started to notice that other stations had similar signs as soon as I started doing radio station tours back in 2008.

Leo Blais sign at KFJC in 2014. Photo: J. Waits

After a few years, it became a goal of mine to seek out these signs whenever I toured a station. If I don’t immediately see a sign, I now make a point to ask, “do you have a hand made call letter sign?” Sometimes people are confused by the question, whereas other times, I’m immediately led to the sign. I’ve seen the signs prominently displayed in station lobbies (at Northeastern University and at Pomona College), in on-air studios (at North Central College), in back hallways (KBOO), and in offices (KEXP). Most of the time, DJs and station staffers have no idea where the signs came from. Some people have told me that they were made by a fan.

I even saw some of these iconic signs in a photo accompanying a newspaper article about NPR’s “Tiny Desk Concert” series. When I did the public NPR tour last year I made a point to mention my interest in the signs and managed to talk my way into a special stop at Bob Boilen’s desk, where a collection of these signs (reading: Bob Boilen, NPR, All Songs Considered, and Robin Hilton) is prominently displayed atop his shelving unit. I’m sure the tour guide thought that I was insane when I started talking about my obsession with 3-D radio station signs, but Bob Boilen was welcoming and let me take photos galore.

Leo Blais Signs at NPR. Photo: J. Waits

Back in 2013, I finally found out the identity of the sign maker. Of course I’d had clues all along, as each sign contains a short handwritten message signed by “your friend Leo,” but it wasn’t until a commenter provided me a link, that I knew for sure that the signs were made by musician Leo Blais. It turns out that the Leo Blais sign project is much bigger than just the radio station call letter pieces. He also made album artwork using the same method, so some signs depict lengthy song titles. They are all crafted out of cardboard and are painted white/gray.

Leo Blais note on WMBR sign. Photo: J. Waits

I’ve seen the signs at college radio stations, community radio stations, and public radio stations, including: KFJC, KCSB, KSPC, KZSC, KBOO, KDUP, NPR headquarters, WONC, WRFL, KEXP (I only saw a sign featuring a DJ name), WLOY, WRBB, WMBR, WFMU, KUCI, KUSF, WPGU, SCAD Atlanta Radio, and KDVS.

It’s funny, now that my Leo sign scavenger hunt is in full swing, scouts have begun sending me pictures of signs that they’ve seen in their travels. Sharon Scott of ARTxFM texted me a great photo of one at St. Louis community radio station KDHX. Although the picture makes it look like this sign is gigantic and installed in a gallery, it’s actually the same size as the others.

KDHX sign crafted by Leo Blais. Photo: Sharon Scott

After some recent correspondence, Leo Blais agreed to answer all of my burning questions about his ambitious project. After sending off my query to Leo, I had some twinges of regret, as it’s been kind of fun to wildly speculate about these signs for all of these years and keep the mystery alive…

In part one of my interview with Leo Blais, he gives some back story about the signs. In a future post, we’ll delve into more details about the scope of the project.

Radio Survivor: When did you start making radio station call letter signs?

Leo Blais: The first signs were made around the time the ‘Slow Drivin’ maxi-single was released in 2008. I started sending them out as a way to thank the stations for playing the records. Also the letters represented the actual artwork that went into each album. People would send me photos they found on the internet with the signs being spotted in the background or on the stations walls. It was really nice to know how happy it made the people who received them. The signs had this magic behind them. I remember my manager Steve Theo telling me he got a call from Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton at ‘All songs Considered’ asking about me and the project. It was wild. Suddenly these signs were opening doors of conversation with people I really never dreamed possible.

Radio Survivor: Do you remember which station you sent a sign to first?

Leo Blais: I believe the first station was probably 92.5 WXRV, but I could be completely off on that. I had made a sign for each of the DJs too. They have given independent artists great support over the years. I think they were one of the first stations, if not the first, but then again I’d have to check with UPS on that one.

Radio Survivor: How many signs did you make and during what time period were they sent out?

Leo Blais: I must have made hundreds of them during the time of the releases. I would try to send out around 5-10 each week, but some weeks it’d be more or less depending on what I was working on. I really wish I had an accurate tally of how many were done. I hope to have time do it again someday, but maybe not so many. You would have certainly gotten a surprise one in the mail Jennifer! I believe they were sent out during 2008-2011/12. I think there are still a few boxes I have yet to send that are in storage. I guess I never got to send them before moving to New York.

Leo Blais “Cheryl” sign at KEXP. Photo: J. Waits

Radio Survivor: How long does it take you to make each sign?

Leo Blais: It all depended on how big each sign was really. There were song titles that took a week to construct. The radio station call letter signs didn’t take as long, but could take 2-3 hours of total work time. I never really timed myself though. There were a few steps that went into preparing to do them. Before I’d leave work I’d cut out 1 1/”2 inch strips of cardboard to be used for the gray 3D sides. Then I’d use a metal sheet shear so they’d be accurate when cutting them. It made them easier to photograph, but also allowed them be hung flat on a wall if that was to be their new home. Then I’d steal all of the cardboard I could find around the drill shop to use them for the station call letters front panel. I’d draw them out with a sharpie and then each one was cut out with an X-acto blade that eventually led to a permanent callous on my writing finger. Then it was rolls and rolls of 3/4″ tape and lots of paint. The process was really laborious, but it was really just because of the scope of it all. It got a little out of control.

Thanks so much to Leo Blais for talking to me about his radio station call letter sign project. I hope to post part two of my interview in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here’s a video from Leo’s website, which shows the sign-creation process.

The post Solving the Mystery of the Ubiquitous Radio Station Call Letter Signs: The Leo Blais Interview appeared first on Radio Survivor.

[liveblog]

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This week I finally got caught up on my radio station tour reports from 2013 and posted a piece about my visit to San Francisco Art Institute’s streaming radio station The Tower. Although it’s in a tiny space, the station presents an inspiring array of programming that’s often linked to the adventurous artistic endeavors of its student and faculty DJs.

Touring College Radio Stations in Kentucky

I’m always excited to visit college radio stations and last week I had the opportunity to visit three in Kentucky. Despite inclement weather and snow closures, I was able to take in the sights and sounds of University of Kentucky’s WRFL in Lexington, Georgetown College’s WRVG, and Bellarmine Radio at Bellarmine College in Louisville. Each station had its own unique characteristics and I look forward to sharing more details in my field trip report series in the weeks to come.

Art x FM and the Film History of WXOX

In addition to visiting these college radio stations, I also visited Art x FM in Louisville. Currently a streaming community radio station, Art x FM holds a construction permit to build a new low power FM (LFPM) radio station with call letters WXOX-LP.

Art x FM has college radio roots, as its founder and General Manager Sharon Scott played a big role in the fight to save Vanderbilt College radio station WRVU-FM after students lost access to its terrestrial signal. Inspired by her time in college radio, she started Art x FM and applied for its LPFM license.

“A Matter of Degrees” sticker on sticker-covered door at college radio station WRFL. Photo: J. Waits

In a very strange coincidence, while touring WRFL with Scott (we’re friends and took a road trip to Lexington together), we spotted a WXOX sticker on the wall. It was not for Art x FM, however. Scott did some sleuthing and found out that the sticker was an old promotional item for the 1990 film A Matter of Degrees. A description attached to the film’s trailer on YouTube states, “A college student living in a commune decides that he doesn’t want to go on to law school. When a corporation takes over the campus radio station, he decides to disrupt the graduation ceremonies.” The cast is full of an interesting mix of characters, with the station’s founder played by musician John Doe (of X fame).

Considering that the GM of the new WXOX was also involved with a fight to save a campus radio station, this is an eerie coincidence, indeed! The movie was filmed in Providence, Rhode Island, with much of it shot at Brown University. The plot was apparently inspired by changes made at Brown station WBRU (read a bit about the station here and here). An article in the Brown Alumni Magazine about Brown alumnus and famed Hollywood music supervisor Randall Poster states, “Inspired by WBRU’s changeover from free-form to commercial formats, Poster and Jack Mason ’85 cowrote the movie A Matter of Degrees after graduation.”

I would LOVE to see this film!

mtvU Announces College Radio Woodie Finalists

After an online nomination period, mtvU announced a list of ten finalists for its College Radio Woodie award. Online voting is now open. The finalists include three stations that I’ve visited! Here are the ten stations in the running:

• Arizona State University (KASC)
• Boston University (WTBU)
• Eastern Illinois University (WEIU)
• Hofstra University (WRHU)
• James Madison University (WXJM)
• Loyola University Chicago (WLUW)
• Marywood University (WVMW)
• St. Edward’s University (Topper Radio)
• University of California, Berkeley (KALX)
• University of Pittsburg (WPTS)

Wolf Pack Radio Comes to FM

Through a partnership with new community radio station KXNV, University of Nevada, Reno’s student-run radio station Wolf Pack Radio will gain access to the FM airwaves.

Belfast Station Allowed to Continue Broadcasting

Radio regulations are very different in the United Kingdom (UK), as evidenced by a recent turn of events at student radio station Blast 106 in Belfast. According to the Belfast Telegraph, “Blast first launched legal proceedings after it was found to be in breach of its community radio licence. According to Ofcom it had failed to meet key commitments on speech and music content.” Initially, “Failures were identified in key commitments to provide local student news and politics, promote debate and discussion, produce documentaries and include a varied music output.” After Blast’s lawyers appealed the Broadcasting Licensing Committee’s decision to not renew the station’s license, a judge ruled in favor of the station’s license renewal.

Other News

Also in the news…

Sussex County Community College To Launch Student Radio Station

The End of Radio Free Kokomo?

Former WDCB Engineer Busted for Bilking Funds from College Radio Station

We cover the culture of college radio every Friday in our College Radio Watch feature. If you have college radio news to share, please drop us a note at EDITORS at RADIOSURVIVOR dot COM.

The post College Radio Survivor: Remembering Film “A Matter of Degrees” and More News appeared first on Radio Survivor.

I’ve been absent in light of schoolwork, and it’s felt good catching up on WTNV. That vaguely promised book has been officially announced, so that’s pretty exciting. I’d gotten pretty behind (by my standards, anyway), so I’m going to be glossing over The List, Monolith, and Antiques.

Perhaps the most endearing thing for me about WTNV, even more than the prevailing weirdness, is its dedication to continuity. My point is demonstrated most clearly by The List, an episode based entirely around a one-off joke from two years ago. The Night Vale Secret Police issued a list of words to be recited in order upon the arrival of a vague but imminent catastrophe. Night Valians (Night Valites?) are apparently quite studious, as everyone survived. It was only a drill, but everyone surviving even a drill in Night Vale is a miracle in and of itself.

The police then dispersed the crowd listening to the drill announcement (including Cecil) with tear gas, through which Cecil boldly finished his broadcast. His apparent resilience to obstacles like tear gas add an extra meaning to what he’s reported on in the field. Considering the horrific circumstances he’s been in, the mind boggles at how he may have been professionally weathering all matter of suffering in past broadcasts.

The drawbridge, one of my favorite Night Vale plot lines, came up again as well in Monolith. The city council held opening ceremonies, twelve years ahead of schedule no less, having completely spent the $12 million budget. On what the budget was spent remains undisclosed. Along with the glow cloud, which hasn’t been seen in awhile, and Carlos, who’s still in another dimension and has no desire to return, the drawbridge is one of the earliest story arcs in the series. I’d almost go far enough to say that it’s a high water mark in Night Vale absurdity. After all, there’s not even any rivers in Night Vale!

Another few interesting revelations caught my ear. Christmas materialism has apparently been banned in Night Vale for several years. The Monolith, after suddenly appearing on top of city hall, cracked in half and rained down gifts. Its spew of presents were rounded up and thrown into the landfill, preceding a speech from the city council about the true meaning of Christmas. It’s about being a happy family and loving the police state, it turns out.

In a delightful reversion from previous developments, Carlos is acting like a scientist again. I’d complained awhile back about Carlos and his science background being the butt of jokes. Fortunately, this trend is being undone. While Night Vale cowered in fear of a roving pack of antiques, Carlos called in to the show to discuss all the work he’d been doing analyzing and understanding the strange world he’s “trapped” in. I’ve never been a part of the rabid Cecil/Carlos fanbase, but I am glad the only confirmed person of color in Night Vale is no longer being portrayed as amusingly incompetent.

Overall, Night Vale continues to excel in surprising and delighting, and the writing has remained as strong as ever in my absence. The hardest classes of my school career are behind me, and you, dear reader, can expect me to be posting again regularly.

The post A Night Vale Holiday Recap appeared first on Radio Survivor.

I was lucky to be able to visit quite a few college radio stations in 2014 and have shared some of those field trips on Radio Survivor and Spinning Indie. Next week I’ll write up a comprehensive “2014 year in review” post about the state of college radio, but as I reflect back on the year, I wanted to highlight some of my favorite moments from my radio station tours.

I also hereby vow to continue visiting radio stations and hope to do my best to post my field trips in a more timely manner (I still have a back log of trips from October to write up!) in 2015. With that, here are some of the more unusual items that I spotted while touring college radio stations in 2014:

1. Vintage 16″ Records at Swarthmore College radio station WSRN (read more about my visit here)

Vintage 16″ Record at College Radio Station WSRN (Photo: J. Waits)

2. Two-Story Record Library at University of Maryland’s WMUC (read more about my visit here)

Record Library at WMUC. Photo: J. Waits

3. AM Transmission Equipment at WHRC from Haverford College’s Carrier Current Days (see more here)

AM carrier current transmission equipment at WHRC at Haverford College. Photo: J. Waits

4. Swear Jar at University of Washington-Bothell’s radio station U-Wave (field trip post coming soon…)

Swear Jar at U-Wave Radio at University of Washington, Bothell. Photo: J. Waits

5. Neon Sign at Northeastern’s WRBB (read more here)

Neon sign at WRBB at Northeastern University. Photo: J. Waits

6. Album cover on the ceiling at WHRB at Harvard University (read more about my visit here)

Album cover on the ceiling of one of the lounges at WHRB. Photo: J. Waits

7. Framed Needlepoint at WMBR at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (see my complete visit report here)

Ohm Sweet Ohm needlepoint at WMBR at MIT. Photo: J. Waits

8. Bathroom Graffiti at WMFO at Tufts University (read more about my field trip here)

Graffiti in the WMFO bathroom at Tufts University. Photo: J. Waits

9. ‘N Sync Bobbleheads at WLOY at Loyola University, Maryland (read more here)

‘N Sync bobbleheads at WLOY at Loyola University, Maryland. Photo: J. Waits

10. This Amazing Red Telephone at KXSU at Seattle University (field trip post coming soon…)

Phone in studio at KXSU at Seattle University. Photo: J. Waits

We cover the culture of college radio every Friday in our College Radio Survivor feature. If you have college radio news to share, please drop us a note at EDITORS at RADIOSURVIVOR dot COM.

The post 10 Fascinating Things Spotted at College Radio Stations in 2014 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

I love televised yule logs. I’m drawn to them not only out of nostalgia (the original aired on WPIX in New York beginning in 1966), but also for the minimalist delight. As I stare at the image of a burning log for hours on end, the smallest details and changes in the scene are emphasized. In our fast-paced world, there’s inherent charm in the blandness of it all. And, reminiscent of an early Warhol film like Empire (where we fixate on a shot of the Empire State Building for hours), close examination of the yule log allows us find great pleasure in unexpected moments like someone in a Santa Suit adding wood to the fire or a piece of wood burning to embers before our eyes.

Every year I set my DVR to record all of the different iterations of yule logs being broadcast on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It’s become a family tradition to open presents while the yule log crackles on the television, accompanied by holiday music. I also save the recordings to view again on New Year’s Eve. This year I watched the five different yule logs that aired over local and satellite TV in San Francisco. In some cases stations piped in music from local and national radio stations (KOIT and K-LOVE) and in other instances, the source of the music playlist was uncredited.

I was bummed that the My Little Pony Yule Log was a one-time thing on the Hub Network in 2013, as that was an entirely new take on the tradition. In all its animated glory, the program featured flying My Little Ponies and other Hub Network characters coming in and out of the scene. It was probably the most surreal yule log that I’ve ever seen, although this year’s “Disney XD’s Yule Log” comes close.

Disney XD’s Yule Log (photo: J. Waits)

Disney XD aired a 15-minute animated yule log this year on December 22nd (you can view an hour-long version online). Punctuated by fast-paced electronic holiday music in the style of video game music, the frenetic program zoomed in and out of a close up of an animated fireplace to show snippets of the surrounding scene. A slot machine motif featured dreidels (when all three line up, a stream of gold-covered chocolate coins spew out), a dinosaur and other characters. At one point the logs walk out of the fireplace to form a robot. We also see a hand reach out with a remote control, changing the channel, which turns the fireplace surrounding the yule log into a spaceship, igloo, cake, sphinx, pumpkin, and fish bowl. A turkey on a spit is also added to the fireplace. A latke gets thrown into the fire and someone yells “Happy Hanukkah!” Covering all the bases, we also see an animated Santa climbing up the chimney, with the burning yule log below.

Up’s 2014 Yule Log (photo: J. Waits)

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the Up Network (which bills itself as airing “Uplifting Entertainment”) devoted 24 hours to its yule log. Music was provided by the Christian music network K-LOVE, with song titles and artists posted on the screen. This was the only yule log that invited viewers to tweet, as one corner of the screen included the hashtag #YuleLog. In keeping with its K-LOVE affiliation, this log had the most religious vibe, with its holiday tunes by contemporary Christian artists like Chris August, Sidewalk Prophets, Mandisa, and Big Daddy Weave. The 8-hour broadcast that I recorded began with “Jingle Bell Rock” performed by the Newsboys. Although I didn’t watch the entire 8 hours that I recorded, as I scanned through it seemed that many of the artists were repeated, so the complete playlist may have been pretty short. Up’s online yule log has a different soundtrack than the one that aired on TV.

KICU’s 2014  Holiday Log (photo: J. Waits)

San Jose television station KICU on channel 36 also used a radio station soundtrack for its Holiday Log. The one-hour episode that I recorded on Christmas morning (it ran for 6 hours total, in one-hour increments) started at 6am with the sounds of a fire crackling and then launched into “Here Comes Santa Claus.” The close-up footage of logs burning in a fireplace featured music from local radio station KOIT and included classic Christmas songs as well as more modern takes on them by artists like Paul McCartney. The sounds of the crackling fire could be heard throughout and I also spotted Santa stoking the fire. This footage is most likely the same that’s been airing for years on KICU and was reportedly shot at a home in San Jose.

KRON’s 2014 Yule Log (photo: J. Waits)

KRON channel 4 (San Francisco) presented its yule log early Christmas morning, starting at 4am. The vintage yule log footage (I’m pretty sure it’s the old WPIX yule log as it shows a fireplace with a doll hanging in the center, surrounded by stockings in the opening shot) ran for about 30 minutes and was repeated several times during the 2 hour broadcast. While a range of Christmas songs play (from Frank Sinatra to Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, to music from the Nutcracker), ads for a furniture store, appliance store, motorcycle dealer, personal injury lawyer, and bail bonds outfit were included on a graphic on the bottom of the screen.

KOFY’s 2014 Yule Log (photo: J. Waits)

Of all the classic yule logs that I viewed in 2014, my favorite has to be KOFY channel 20’s (also in San Francisco) version. I recorded an episode that aired for two hours beginning at midnight on Christmas Eve. The program began with a wide shot of a living room fireplace with two poinsettias on the hearth (if it’s the same TV20 footage from years gone by, then it was filmed at the home of Paul from the Diamond Center) and started with the rousing “Joy to the World.” Featuring a wide range of music, from rockabilly to country-tinged, to the Beach Boys, to boy bands, to jazzier tracks, to old favorites from decades ago, the soundtrack had something for everyone. Probably even more interesting, though, was the visual treatment of this log. The natural-looking fire included cut pieces of wood that were clearly burning in the fireplace over an elapsed period of time. Occasionally we’d see Santa stoking the fire or view a flannel shirt-attired man adding logs. Towards the end an object was thrown into the fire, followed by another object. Upon close inspection, it appeared to be wadded up balls of newspaper. The program ended with the Hawaiian-themed Christmas song Mele Kalikimaka. With many of the other yule logs airing pretty short loops of footage (the original log looped a 17 second snippet), the TV 20 log had much more variety to it and kept my attention until the bitter end.

In addition to the yule logs that appeared on my television (I get programming via DirecTV satellite), I know that there were many more all over the country, including some that could be found on-demand. Did you have a favorite this year?

The post Reviewing the 2014 Yule Logs: It’s Like Radio with Pictures appeared first on Radio Survivor.

It’s getting down to the wire for holiday gift purchases and to ease your shopping stress, here’s the full list of this year’s Radio Survivor gift guides. As an added bonus, when you shop through Radio Survivor’s Amazon links, we get a little bit of cash, which helps us to keep the site up and running.

2014 Holiday Gift Guide for Radio Fanatics – From Radio in a Jar to Bike Radios

My annual list includes books, radios, fashion accessories, and more

Holiday Gifts for Easy and Enjoyable Radio Listening

Paul gives the run-down on some cool radios, speakers, and Internet listening tools.

Ten Essential Radio Movies for the Holidays

Matthew’s recommendations on great radio-themed movies for the film-o-phile on your list.

We’ve been writing up gift guides for several years now, so if you need additional ideas, take a look at our holiday gift guide archives.

The post The 2014 Radio Survivor Holiday Gift Guides appeared first on Radio Survivor.

I love movies about radio. Here are some classics to give to your friends for the holidays.

Pirate Radio (2009). The fictionalized story of Radio Caroline, “the boat that rocked” the British Isles from offshore in the 1960s. Fabulous performances by Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Bill Nighy. My favorite Nighy line from the film: “Carl? – Yes. My favourite godson. – Have we met before? – I don’t think so. No. There was a lost decade, so I always have to check.”

Pump Up the Volume. The 1999 film about a teenage unlicensed operator (Christian Slater) who pretty much takes over Arizona with his wild and crazy monologues.

Do the Right Thing (1989). Spike Lee’s classic about a black Brooklyn neighborhood facing gentrification. Radio plays a crucial role in this very relevant movie, with stellar performances by Samuel L. Jackson as community radio deejay “Mr. Senor Love Daddy” and Bill Nunn as “Radio Raheem.”

The Fisher King (1991). Jeff Bridges plays a down on his luck talk radio host who rescues himself by helping a homeless man (Robin Williams).

Good Morning Vietnam (1987). Robin William plays an outrageous host for US Armed Services Radio: “Hello, campers,” he declares. “Remember, Monday is malaria day. That’s right. Time to take that big orange pill and get ready for the Ho Chi Minh two-step.”

Talk Radio (1988). Based on “Talked to Death: The Life and Murder of Alan Berg,” a talk radio host discovers that his nasty, abrasive tone is very contagious.

Born in Flames (1983). Radio plays a crucial role in this lively futuristic movie about two feminist insurgencies who present their grievances on pirate radio stations.

Private Parts (1997). The life and works of that great, great man: Howard Stern.

Dead Air (2009). Talk radio host meets The Zombies.

Talk to Me (2007). The career of legendary Washington, D.C. radio host Ralph Waldo (“Petey”) Greene, whose on air summary of Berry Gordy is worth the price of admission: “Mr. Gordy’s a very important man, and he’s done a great deal. And I love the way he takes the little brothers and sisters, broke-down runaways, the downtrodden from the projects, and he gets them off the streets. Then he puts a few dollars in their pockets, teaches them how to talk and how to walk, then sends them right back out there to bring him a whole lot of money. So I’m sorry if in any way I made him out to be a pimp.”

I’m sure I’ve left lots of movies out. Please put your faves in the comments section.

The post Ten essential radio movies for the holidays appeared first on Radio Survivor.

There’s a chill in the air, the Thanksgiving leftovers are nearly gone, and thoughts are turning to holiday shopping. For me, scoping out interesting radio-themed gifts is a highlight of the season, as there’s always something new that piques my interest. If you have a radio fan in your life or if you are searching for some items to put on your own wish list, take a look at some of my latest finds. Also be sure to scroll down to see more gift ideas from some of our prior gift guides.

1. Radio in a Jar

This single-station radio is actually on the top of my list. Although it won’t arrive in time for the winter holidays, you can pre-order for delivery in May, 2015. Dubbed the “Public Radio,” the single station FM radio, had a very successful Kickstarter campaign this fall, bringing in more than $88,000 in order to fund production of these radios built into small Mason Jars.

2. Huffy Radio Bike + Other Bike Radios

What could be cooler than a bicycle with a built-in radio? The Huffy Radio Bike first appeared in 1955, and included a built-in radio. Read more about the bike here on Dial a Ride. It turns out that earlier bicycle radios appeared in the 1930s and a more recent detachable bicycle radio was marketed in the 1990s. These are all probably pretty hard to find, but as an alternative, there are also some portable radios that can be attached to an existing bicycle, including the Barbie Bike FM Radioand the Evo Sync AM/FM Handlebar Radio, With LED And Horn.

3. Radio Making Kit

This is the year that I’m going to build my own radio and this Wonderology Snap Plug and Play radio kit seems like the perfect, simple first-time radio-making project. The pieces snap together and according to the product description, it’s appropriate for ages 5 and up. There are plenty of other radio-making kits out there, including an Elenco FM Radio Kit, theElenco Short Wave Radio Kit, theBuild Your Own Working Crystal Radio Lab Kit, and the Tecsun AM Radio Receiver Kit.

4. Wooden Phone Dock that Looks Like a Radio

There are a whole range of products out there that look retro, but are actually brand new and are designed to connect with modern devices like iPhones. The Areaware Decorative Radio Dock looks like a funky wooden radio, but it’s actually a dock for one’s iPhone.

5. Circa 1928 Speakers

I fell in love with the look of these “vintage” speakers that I spotted in the Restoration Hardware catalog (take a look at their website for more retro audio pieces plus numerous other vintage-inspired items, including some that are seemingly pulled from a steam punker’s dreams). According to the catalog copy, “Inspired by a speaker from 1928, the dawn of radio’s golden age,” the cast-metal speakers can be connected via wireless to your phone or mp3 player. Although not nearly as glamorous, there are some other vintage-looking radios and speakers out there that will also connect with your phone, including the Philips Charging Speaker Dock for iPod/iPhone and the Wolverine Retro Table Top Bluetooth Speaker and AM/FM Radio.

6. New Radio Books on Walter Benjamin and Top 40

If you are looking to pick up some scholarly radio tomes, there are two new books that I’m eager to read. Radio Benjamin compiles radio transcripts from scholar Walter Benjamin, who hosted a radio show in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Additionally, Eric Weisbard’s new book, Top 40 Democracy: The Rival Mainstreams of American Music, is worth checking out for its analysis of popular radio genres and their intersections with mainstream music in America. I hope to review both books in the weeks to come. UPDATE (12/17/14): To get more scoop on Eric Weisbard’s book, see my Q&A with him.

7. Betsey Johnson Radio Purse

Last year I found a bunch of radio purses and am adding to that list with this cute hand bag by designer Betsey Johnson.It actually has functional speakers that can plug into your phone or mp3 player so that you can effectively play music out of your purse! Another option is this Vintage Retro Radio Messenger Bag.

8. Antique Radios Curated by the New York Times

In another example of the celebration of all things vintage, the New York Times Store has an entire section devoted to antique radios. These aren’t your standard cast-offs, with some of them priced for thousands of dollars.

9. Space Heater with Built-In Radio

Every year I find a totally random radio item that serves a dual purpose (like the radio toaster and the radio cooler). For 2014, the bizarre appliance, the JNH Lifestyles Infrared Space Heater, Radio and Media Playercombines a space heater with a functioning radio.

10. Countdown to Christmas Radio

This Hallmark decoration from 2013, the North Pole Countdown Radio Tabletop Decoration, looks like a vintage radio, but when you turn the dial you can hear recorded messages that count down to Christmas. It can also be connected to an mp3 player.

11. 2015 Tower Site Calendar

Last, but not least, is Scott Fybush’s annual Tower Site Calendar. The 2015 edition features color photographs of radio towers from all over the United States. Signed and numbered copies are also available.

The post 2014 Holiday Gift Guide for Radio Fanatics: From Radio in a Jar to Bike Radios appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Happy Halloween! It’s the time of year when we think about ghosts, goblins, and the afterlife on both All Hallow’s Eve and on Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Day). Whether you are planning a spooky costume to scare Trick-or-Treaters or are crafting an altar to honor your deceased ancestors for Day of the Dead, it’s possible that thoughts are turning to hauntings.

This week’s Radio Stuff Podcast tackled the topic of “Haunted Radio Stations” and features interviews with several people who encountered ghosts at their radio stations. Also, blogger David Lloyd recounts a list of ghostly occurrences in the UK in a post this week.

Luckily I don’t get the sense that the station that I call home (KFJC-FM) is permanently haunted, however there was one night when I wasn’t so sure. I was sitting in the KFJC lobby one evening when the front door knob started rattling for no reason. I have no idea if it was a ghost, but it happened soon after one of our DJs died tragically, so I assumed that it was him (Ken “Spiderman” Hamilton) making his presence known.

Here’s are some more tales about haunted radio stations (as well as a haunted radio) for your consideration:

Haunted Radio Stations (Arcane Radio Trivia)

The Curious Case of WDIE-AM

The Haunted Radio Station – My First Encounter with a Ghost (and it happened during a graveyard shift!)

Haunted Oregon Radio Station Still Restless

Radio Ghost Mystery at Former RAF Station

The Haunted Radio Station Has a Ghost

The post Radio Station Hauntings appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Before we get to the subject at hand, WTNV is going to do a live recording of The Librarian, which I saw and had my mind blown at last January. If you’re in New York, I’d suggest investigating the matter. And now, onto Episode 56: Homecoming.

This week, Night Vale High School geared up for its homecoming game. This is significant because apparently, during the half-time, the dead temporarily return to reunite with living family, and Cecil is banking on talking to his mother about those weird cassettes he found last year. Also, childhood friend, former scoutmaster/supernatural abductee, and Tourniquet sous chef Earl Harlan came onto the show to teach all of us an extremely questionable tiramisu recipe. Unfortunately for Cecil, the homecoming game is cancelled as runningback Maliq Hererra is discovered to technically not exist. Ultimately, Cecil finds relief as he comforts the young Hererra, who doesn’t even want to be a football player anyway, but is forced to remain on the team since that’s the only way Night Vale’s citizens are willing to imagine him. Also the Weather went on for five days. So that happened.

As they like to do, fans collectively swooned as Cecil and Earl, voiced by Wil Wheaton (yes, that one) discussed how they were “very close friends.” I, in turn, would like to just go ahead and poop on that particular parade, as I have heard it claimed that they really are, in canon, just friends. In a hypocritical second turn, I like to think that Cecil is above cheating, no matter how lonely he gets.

There’s something very revealing about the collective psyche of Night Vale revealed here, though. As one helpful tumblr user pointed out, the fact that people can regularly commune with their dead relatives really takes the edge off of death. I have a friend that lives in England who I will see once a year (if I’m lucky), and I’d imagine that this odd occurrence probably makes the shirking off of one’s mortal coil a fairly similar circumstance.

The post Dead and Present: Does Anyone Really Die In Night Vale? appeared first on Radio Survivor.

This week, Joseph Fink announced that Welcome To Night Vale will finally be taking its first break in November. About time. They’ve been at it for two and a half straight years. Then again, I usually don’t (read: shouldn’t) get projects very far past the “Whoa, [terrible idea] would be so cool!” stage, so I’m probably not the best judge of that kind of thing.

You know what else is usually not a good idea? Intentionally travelling to Night Vale. This week (Episode 55: The University of What It Is), a woman named Sylvia Kayali from the University of What It Is has been searching for their old science professor, Carlos. In an apparently decades-long search, Kayali and her staff are relieved to have finally tracked Carlos down, but the end of their mystery is the beginning of Cecil’s and, as always, of ours.

While Cecil is plagued by what Carlos has not told him of his past, I myself am trapped in the quandary of the world Night Vale inhabits. These faculty members seem just as strange and odd-mannered as any Night Valian (Night Valerite? Valese?), and from the sound of things, they come from an equally strange place, the University of What It Is boasting a single science professor teaching a single science class. Maybe they just had some really brutal budget cuts.

Before, I had made the assumption that the strangeness was a curse of the desert, since disturbing happenings also occur in neighboring Desert Bluffs and the ghost town of Pine Cliff (Episode 54). When I saw Welcome To Night Vale live in San Francisco earlier this year, Carlos had let slip that librarians at his Alma Mater were only marginally better than the ones in Night Vale. I’d written off this, as well as various jokes at Carlos’ expense, as irritating fan service, as the audience whooped and cheered in response. It felt like cheap shots, taking one of the few popular representations of an intelligent and professional person of color down a few pegs.

In light of this new knowledge however, I’m forced to reconsider the entire world in which Welcome To Night Vale takes place. Perhaps all the world is this mysteriously cursed and isolated, with no interactions not dictated in advance by supernatural forces. Maybe every place thinks that it is normal, while living in fear or hatred of neighbors that are suffering extremely similar fates, like so many West Virginia hollars. Maybe there are just little pockets of horror dotting America, or even the whole world, disappearing people like black holes out of our understanding of space and time. Until more is revealed, who knows?

Considering the increasingly unreliable narrator upon which we rely, the mystery will certainly have no problem being maintained. In this episode, Cecil once again demonstrates his isolation from popular thought and opinion by reporting on Khoshekh and subsequently passing up on any other local news. Regardless, Dr. Kayali and her entourage have moved on. Even if Night Vale’s Carlos is the one they are searching for, he is still trapped in another dimension, and seems in no great hurry to return. Perhaps this blast from his past will help motivate his return.

The post New Weird Order: Night Vale May Not Be Alone appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The carnival has come to Night Vale. Is this just as bad as it sounds? More on that in a moment. But first: any Welcome to Night Vale fans in the EU that haven’t need to get around to purchasing tickets for the European tour. The western countries are sold out (except one overflow show in London), but there’s still tickets in Germany. But anyway, onward to Episode 54: A Carnival Comes to Town. As always, brace for spoilers.

To answer my previous question, no. A regular old carnival came to Night Vale offering merriment and good times, and the good people showed the carnival exactly what happens to people like that in Night Vale. Although this episode felt thin in its writing, being starved of any traffic or community health tips or horoscopes or even sponsors, it still thrives in the spirit that makes Welcome to Night Vale strong. Night Vale accepted a perceived challenge and conquered it, in this case through mob violence, fending off their perceptions of the weird and unknown. My early predictions for a Night Vale/Juggalo Dark Carnival showdown went unsatisfied, but the canon is probably better off without juggalos anyway.

Night Vale also is continuing its proud tradition of bending its own rules, as intern Maureen has returned after being carried away by a mighty wind generated by Pamela Winchell’s retirement shenanigans, frustratedly thwarting the curse of death that looms over almost all Night Vale Community Radio interns. Bitter, perhaps from being denied the escape of death, she does not rejoice at the repelling of the carnival. Also Old Woman Josie is single-handedly rebuilding the old operahouse, much to the terror of Night Vale citizens, all of whom do not know what opera is with the exception of Old Woman Josie. Despite his doubts, Cecil defends this intellectual oligarchy, since apparently the last time too much knowledge got out (two copies of Pride And Prejudice), riots broke out all over town.

It’s been suggested that the people of Night Vale (or maybe just Cecil, our unreliable narrator) are like cats, losing all composure after being startled by something huge and inexplicable, like street cleaning day, or a carnival. I get more pleased with the idea the more I ruminate on it, but that may just be a primal sense of satisfaction earned as my brain eliminates a tiny bit of the unknown. Were Night Vale a real place, the idea that the citizenry were all as smart as cats and reacting appropriately is more comforting than the terror of the unknowable and inescapable supernatural.

Also Cecil got another voicemail from Carlos, and the fandom reacted as they tend to. Some fans are feeling bitter over Carlos’ “betrayal”, now that he’s claimed the strange parallel desert dimension he is trapped in is more scientifically interesting than Night Vale. My misanthropic cynicism gratified, I will smugly observe that it’s hardly out of character for Carlos to cheat with his first love, science. Keeping up with their theme of inclusion and realistic representation, the writers (Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, for those that don’t know) show that no relationship is perfect, not even a gay, potentially interracial relationship that has survived masked armies, corporate totalitarianism, and even concentration camps. No, long distance relationships suck for everyone.

I have to say though; even a bad episode of Night Vale is still a good one.

The post A Carnival Comes to Night Vale appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Where even to start. It’s been awhile since an episode of Welcome to Night Vale has absolutely blindsided me like that and, if you’re anything like me, those of you that have heard it probably share my exhilaration. Released on Labor Day, Episode 53: The September Monologues provides a new and daunting depth to an already developed world by putting the narration in the hands of the citizens of Night Vale. Cecil leads us into this haze of monologues, telling us only that the season is growing more malicious, and leaving us alone to absorb the words of a few select residents. As always, there are spoilers throughout the next few paragraphs.

The first of the three vignettes is told by The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home, and could almost be understood as a sort of breakup letter. Expressing her grievances to Chad, the man who’s home she’s been secretly living in (though she technically secretly lives in everyone’s home), she simultaneously complains of his mundane beer drinking and TV watching, and how it can’t be rectified in her mind with his occult rituals and channeling of unearthly languages. She reluctantly feels no other choice than to leave. Adding to the permeating terror of the town, it seems that there are some things in Night Vale beyond even the knowledge of the supernatural.

In a moment close to my heart, the next voice we hear is from Michelle, an employee at Dark Owl Records. A hopeless addict to record stores, I couldn’t stop smiling as I listened to the bitter, elitist musical tastes of Dark Owl’s hipster clerk. If it’s popular, it’s terrible. If you’ve never heard her favorite album, she wants it to stay that way. You’d just ruin it for her, anyway. Also, if you want a 3:1 scale model of Woodie Guthrie, they’re 70% off. But you shouldn’t buy them. Like, who is even into folk music these days anyway? Whatever.

Finally, and damningly, we finally hear from town conspiracy theorist Steve Carlsberg. Cecil’s favorite target of ridicule and malign, Steve offers us his perceptions of the world, raw and unfiltered. As it turns out, Steve can see the answers to the world in circles, dotted lines, and pointing arrows in the sky. He can understand everything, including the failure of those around him to perceive what he does, the inner workings of Night Vale, the ire of his brother-in-law Cecil, and even the hate he may one day garner from his wife and daughter in his refusal to back down from his ideas about the truth.

After years of his role as a comedic punching bag, the reason for every bitter Scorpio horoscope, the target of derision at every PTA meeting, Steve gives us our first look into understanding how he could have possibly incurred the hatred of Cecil. At his wedding to Cecil’s sister years ago, while making small talk, the topic turned to the agents from the Vague Yet Menacing Government Agency. Only it wasn’t vague to Steve. With forbidden knowledge from the sky, Steve explained what branch of the government they were from, who they reported to, everything. Cecil, a community mouthpiece for only what Night Vale is allowed to know, despises him instantly, and even objects to the wedding. There is no weather. There is no break or relief. There is only the well of pity that floods inside us as Steve explains himself.

For years, we have only been receiving information from Cecil, an openly unreliable narrator that we seem to trust anyway. Cecil has been reeducated numerous times, has openly acknowledged his function as a pawn for powers beyond him, and yet, perhaps due to his rich, comforting voice, we trust him all the same. We have seen for a second a glimpse of Cecil the person, rather than Cecil the Personality, and it is a dark vision.

But, on the bright side, at least we are getting some good art out of this.

The post Revelations: Night Vale Shows Us A Darker Side appeared first on Radio Survivor.

It’s always sad to learn about another great talent who left this world too early. As you probably know, comedian and actor Robin Williams died on Monday. So many of his performances are permanently etched on my psyche, from watching Mork and Mindy during my 80s childhood, to memorable performances in The World According to Garp, Dead Poets Society and The Fisher King.

For radio-heads his performance as irreverent Armed Forces Radio Service DJ Adrian Cronauer in Good Morning Vietnam is utterly unforgettable. In Williams’ potrayal an entire generation of wannabe broadcasters found a prototype for the raucous–and hilarious–power of the Rock N Roll DJ, standing up to the stodgy forces of reactionary censorship on air.

Here’s a compilation of Williams’ highlights in the film:

Williams played another radio DJ in the 2006 psychological thriller The Night Listener, in which he played a popular gay radio host in New York City, Gabriel Noone, who develops a telephone relationship with a young teenager, diagnosed with AIDS, who wrote a memoir recounting the years of abuse he suffered at the hands of his parents.

I have to admit I haven’t seen the film, and only learned about it when searching through Williams’ other movie roles today. The trailer is on YouTube.

Goodbye Robin, you’ll be missed. NaNu NaNu.

The post Remembering Robin Williams as Irreverent DJ Adrian Cronauer in Good Morning Vietnam appeared first on Radio Survivor.

An 8tracks Night Vale playlist by ofalldimensions.

Welcome To Night Vale, soon to embark on their first European tour, has just released their fifty-first episode, “Rumbling”. After a drawn out corporate conflict, a mayoral “election”, and some reconstruction, the little desert burb of Night Vale has finally returned to a state we could dubiously call normal. Indeed, many facets of the show seem to have shifted back to their former, pre-Strexcorp states. After almost twenty episodes with consecutive themes of Strexcorp attempting to conquer Night Vale politically, economically, and supernaturally, the return to the one-odd-crisis-per-episode format is a welcome relapse for listeners (such as myself) that had been chomping at the bit waiting for the dramatic conclusion that finally came last month.

The latest episode, perhaps in a deliberate nod to the need for relief to fans that had been hyped up by such a long plot arc, was a cute, easy-to-digest Cecil and Carlos episode. Carlos, circumstances having forced him to wander the alternate dimension desert that preserves phone battery and reception, has been spending much of his exile exploring and trying to understand the still-unexplained parallel phenomenon and its constant rumbling. This comes much to the pain of Cecil, whose only connection to Carlos is the rare phone call, and the couple struggles to manage what now seems to be a long-distance relationship. Cecil has also become concerned with (if not outright jealous of) Doug, a masked warrior that is helping Carlos survive in the mysterious desert.

Creators Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor have stated on various occasions that they take the writing of the relationship seriously. For those of us that have had to cope with long distance relationships, the realistic blend of paranoia, optimism, fear, and faith is much appreciated. Then again, many fans also seem to be holding out for phone sex, so perhaps I’m getting too cerebral about all of this.

As is to be expected, WTNV fanblogs have reacted with extreme excitement and enthusiasm, Cecil and Carlos still holding its position as Night Vale’s most popular subplot. Somewhat less concern seems given to Dana Cardinal, former Night Vale Community Radio intern and newly elected mayor, whose short-lived platform of change found itself extinguished by the City Council. After calling for an open dog park, Mayor Cardinal had a “talk” with the City Council, and then began warning citizens and their dogs to continue staying out of and not thinking about the dog park.

Although many fans seem upset and surprised, the political cynic in me can’t help but feel smugly satisfied in my own pessimistic predictions having come to fruition. After all, Night Vale just spent months fighting change tooth and nail, starting an outright rebellion against a new order. Night Vale mayors also have a long history of being executed for attempting to exercise any sort of executive authority (Episode 24), so, if anything, merely brainwashing Mayor Cardinal could be considered progressive, in a very morose sort of way.

Overall, the old adage “the more things change, the more they stay the same” keeps coming back to me as the proverbial dust after the battle with Strexcorp begins to settle. Pretentious wordplay aside, I as a fan am ultimately pleased by the turn for the same Night Vale is taking. Even though I enjoy long and involved stories (I’m a fan of Dune and Homestuck, if that tells you anything), the Strexcorp arc was beginning to feel arduous, even tedious in a few places, and I am eager for more episodes that are similarly slowed down. The next episode is due August 15th. I’ll be waiting.

The post Welcome To Night Vale Returns To “Normal” appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Filmmaker Spike Lee has revived his iconic cinematic radio figure “Radio Raheem” in protest of the death of Eric Garner. The Staten Island, New York resident perished last Thursday after three police surrounded and locked him in a choke hold. Garner, 43, had five children. Lee took the section of his movie “Do the Right Thing” in which Raheem is killed by police and spliced it into a video clip taken of Garner’s death. Both the street video and Lee’s mashup have since gone viral.

This is the 25th anniversary of “Do the Right Thing,” a movie that often references radio. A community radio deejay played by Samuel L. Jackson (“Mr. Senor Love Daddy”) narrates the film, while Radio Raheem periodically comes in and out of the story. Portrayed by Bill Nunn, Raheem wanders through the streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn with one apparent desire: to play the song “Fight the Power” on his boom box.

Although some residents find him threatening, he can also be read as a kind of Buddha figure, with his declarations of “peace y’all” to neighbors. When Raheem approaches a gaggle of local kids playing around an unlocked fire hydrant, they hold the water so he can walk by with his machine.

At the conclusion of the film, an upheaval ensues when a pizza parlor owner (Danny Aiello) smashes up Raheem’s receiver during an argument. It is almost as if the balance of the neighborhood is unhinged along with its destruction. Shortly after that Raheem dies, strangled by police. The film, preoccupied with gentrification, is also referential to the Walkman/boom box wars of the 1980s. Now of course it presages Garner’s tragic death.

Lee has posted the Raheem/Garner piece to his YouTube channel with the title “Radio Raheem and the Gentle Giant.” The video is disturbing, so think twice before you play it.

The post Spike Lee’s ‘Radio Raheem’ returns to protest Staten Island man’s death appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Broadcasting legend Casey Kasem passed away Sunday at the age of 82. For those who grew up in the 70s and 80s Kasem is an icon of classic pop radio. His passing is sad, but causes me to reflect on how a single weekly broadcast so neatly encapsulated American music culture for a time, and how that time is also passed.

I listened to America’s Top 40 pretty religiously as a kid in the 1980s. In many ways it was a show perfectly designed for a slightly nerdy 10 year-old glued to his radio much of the time. Whether it was disco from the Bee Gees and Donna Summer, or hard rock from Cheap Trick and Loverboy, Kasem always sounded equally interested, as he relayed bits of trivia about the bands’ origins, their album names or their background.

I listened most often in AT40’s second decade, before the internet, but already a time when commercial radio was splintering into ever-narrower formats programmed by research, surveys and charts rather than passionate and knowledgeable DJs. While Kasem’s show truly shot down the center of the American mainstream, you could depend on hearing a diversity of genres and styles. When everything you’d want to know about Mister Mister, Duran Duran or the Thompson Twins is just a Wikipedia search away, it’s difficult to recapture the wonder of hearing Kasem fill you in on tidbits about the most popular bands that you just didn’t hear from the average minimum-wage local jock.

Oh, and the suspense! Certainly, by the time I turned 15 I was hip to how the Billboard charts failed to represent too much good music. But 4 years earlier I was utterly susceptible to the anticipation of finding out if last week’s number 1 would hold onto it spot, or tumble back to 2, 4 or, god forbid, somewhere south of the top 10. Kasem made it sound so meaningful, like a weekly World Series for young music nerds.

By the end of the 80s Kasem had–as a result of a contract dispute–moved on from America’s Top 40, and so had I. By then I was a much more cynical and world-weary college radio DJ, and a franchise like AT40 represented everything that was bloated and corrupt in the hegemony of the mainstream music and broadcast industry. Yet, for me at least, my disdain for the charts didn’t rub off onto Kasem himself.

That didn’t stop me from finding an enormous and perverse pleasure when Negativland’s infamous U2 single arrived at my station in 1991. Featuring samples of Kasem outtakes, it was utterly delightful to hear him excoriate producers with colorful explectives for having him talk about a dead dog named “Snuggles,” after coming out of an uptempo record. Much of the humor stemmed from the discord between his unflappable and wholesome persona and the frustrated and profane wordsmith these bootleg tapes revealed.

For me it humanized Kasem. Of course it’s absurd to have to do a long-distance dedication about a dead dog after a happy, uptempo song. No doubt, it gets monotonous to have to plug local stations and their unoriginal and stupid tag lines, week after week. I’d be frothing at the mouth with f-bombs, too. But put to the beat of an off-kilter U2 cover, it’s even more hilarious.

My love for Kasem is rooted in nostalgia for a time that isn’t coming back. Sure, there’s still a Billboard Hot 100 chart, but there isn’t anything we can legitimately call Top 40 radio anymore. Whether it’s the result of cynical radio industry or the increasingly individualized taste of a fickle audience–or some combination of the two–nobody’s clamoring for that kind of countdown. That includes me. While I enjoy occasionally stumbling upon classic re-runs of AT40s from the 70s and 80s, I must admit I’m not particularly interested in hearing a countdown from June 2014. I’m as guilty as anyone else.

But it’s not a pathetic kind of nostalgia. Believe me, I’m not wishing for it to be 1981 again. And I don’t get the sense that Kasem was ever desperately holding on to the past, either. Sure, he made a series of comebacks after first taking leaving of AT40 in 1989. At the same time he seemed ever-adaptable, willing to take different charts as his reference and refine the playlist to be more adult contemporary than teenage pop.

One might say that was a sell-out, but I would heartily disagree. Kasem was a broadcaster and an entertainer. That he left you believing he really cared about “these guys from England,” was evidence of his talent and craft. His audience aged, he aged, and there’s no evidence he tried to fight it.

AT40 manifested the best aspects of American hit radio, warts and all. It really was the bridge from the brief but oft-mythologized days of freeform FM in the late 60s and early 70s to the strictly formatted playlists that took over by the early 1990s. And it was sort of paradox in that regard, representing both diversity and homogenization. It was utterly national and non-local, and yet might be the only show playing some tracks on a given station. In that way it managed to be familiar, and just a little exotic, like the first taste of this strange new chipotle sauce at Applebees. So, it was also American, through and through.

Thank you, Casey, for giving this 80s kid a reason to stay glued to his radio weekend after weekend, and inspiring countless other radio nerds to try out their own voices on the broadcast mic.

The post So Long, Casey Kasem, and Thanks for All the Hits appeared first on Radio Survivor.

April 1st is a day when you must not turn off your critical faculties if you’re planning on turning on the radio or TV, surfing the internet, or even leaving the house. Luckily, most pranks are fun and harmless. Also, the FCC is watching broadcasters, who won’t be off the hook if a hoax results in trouble. Maybe that’s one reason why maybe there aren’t as many pranks on US radio as in other countries. But there were some choice April Fool’s pranks elsewhere in the English-speaking world.

In Australia, Sydney radio hosts Fitzy and Wippa fooled their own bosses by staging a fake on-air argument over Fitzy’s resignation. They rigged in-station speakers so that it only sounded like the explective-laden tiff was being broadcast. In fact it was only being heard on premises, and they videoed management scrambling to the studio to intervene.

Montreal’s hard rock CHOM and top 40 Virgin Radio swapped programming for April Fool’s today. CHOM listeners expecting the likes of Metallica were treated to Lady Gaga, while Virgin Radio listeners got a little AC/DC. According to Broadcaster Magazine,

Virgin listener Marie said: “I thought my car radio was broken!” CHOM listener Steven called to say that he “nearly gagged in his own mouth” upon hearing Lady Gaga on CHOM!

Irish morning DJ Andrew Morissey caused a bit of row this morning when he announced that teeny bopper phenomenon One Direction is breaking up. He told Radio Today,

“As you can imagine all hell broke loose on the phones and texts. So much so that even as I type this we’re still dealing with angry parents and listeners whose children still believe it to be true. Whoops :)”

Although not broadcast, some radio-associated groups pulled off their own April Fool’s pranks.

Perhaps replacing Click and Clack with Woof and Bark, the Public Radio Exchange announced a new show called “Dog Talk.” Reportedly funded by a $600 grant from the Ivan G. and Ekaterina V. Sputnik Foundation, it is a show by and for dogs. This is the first episode:

The WFMU-directed Free Music Archive announced today that it is rebranding as the Paid Music Archive. The new PMA “is not just free music; it’s music that costs money now.”

Finally, the Radio and Internet Newsletter reported that “Putin annexes Pandora.” A “highly-placed” source told RAIN, “this is a man who likes to hunt down individual songs and coerce them onto customized playlists.”

In 2010 Jennifer reviewed some of the best radio April Fool’s jokes of all time.

Did you hear about a great radio April Fool’s prank today? Let us know in the comments.

The post Format Swap, One Direction Hoax & More April Fool’s on the Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

There’s been a lot of great energy in recent years surrounding the field of sound studies, in which scholars are increasingly looking at the importance of the auditory aspects of media culture. Within the world of sound studies, a growing group of radio scholars is working hard to ensure that an academic lens is focused on the myriad ways that radio touches society. This week’s Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) conference in Seattle (continuing through Sunday, March 23) is chock full of radio and podcasting-themed papers as well as a meet-up for academics with a scholarly interest in radio on Saturday at 9am. Bill Kirkpatrick put together a great list of all of the sound studies papers (nearly 150 of them!) at the conference for the Sounding Out blog. In analyzing the radio papers this year, Kirkpatrick writes,

Thematically, there remains a troubling ‘donut hole’ in radio scholarship that I hope more scholars will address:  we have lots of work on early radio (into the 1950s), and lots of work on contemporary radio and podcasting, but that leaves a half-century gap that doesn’t receive nearly enough scholarly attention.  In other words, radio studies is far from exhausted…

As I read through Kirkpatrick’s list of the radio and podcasting panels at this year’s SCMS conference, I saw plenty of intriguing papers. The wide range of topics include radio in 1970s China, early Japanese radio drama, Radio Islam, the “Mental Illness Happy Hour Podcast,” Caribbean radio, Black podcasters responses to the George Zimmerman verdict, Spanish language radio, the BBC 1930-1955, radio sponsorship and Jack Benny in the 1940s, radio westerns, independent music and satellite radio, public radio, Wisconsin radio, Internet radio, and more. I wish I was there to take it all in!

The post Radio and Podcasting Events at 2014 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Every week in our Radio Survivor Bulletin email newsletter we count down the top 5 stories of the week, along with alerting readers to other important radio stories. Now, here are our top 10 stories for February, as ranked by unique hits:

1. My Chromecast Is an Internet Radio
2. Remembering Philip Seymour Hoffman in Pirate Radio
3. Veteran Shock Jock Tom Leykis Bets on Internet Radio for a Third Year
4. Soundcloud’s Progress: Explore, Messaging and Visual
5. What Is Pandora? A Narrow Majority Call It Radio
6. Welcome to Night Vale: The 8Tracks Playlists
7. LPFM Watch: The First LPFM
8. Has the Jazz Blogger Supplanted the Old School Jazz DeeJay?
9. Radio Shack’s Super Bowl Ad Tickles and Teases Radio Nerds
10. FCC Upholds Fine for Pirate Cat Founder as Station Re-emerges in Berlin

The post Chromecast as Radio, PSH & Pirate Cat – Our Top 10 Most Popular Stories in February appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Even though fans attending the Super Bowl received a free radio from Westwood One so they could listen to the game at the stadium, I discovered that the Super Bowl broadcast was indeed blacked out from stations’ internet streams yesterday. So I settled down in front of the television to watch the Broncos get utterly pounded by the Seahawks.

Of course, one big advantage tuning in the TV broadcast has over listening on the radio is watching the hyped-up commercials. Without a doubt, for radio nerds, last night Radio Shack’s self-effacing spot delivered some of the strongest nostalgia pangs wrapped in knowing chuckles.

The ad begins at the front counter in a Radio Shack that looks straight out of my 80s youth, with boom boxes prominently displayed in the background. One clerk, adorned in a bright red Radio Shack polo shirt, takes a call from which he reports, “The 80s called, they want their store back.”

That’s the first, slightly painful pang of nostalgia for me. Because that’s the version of Radio Shack I remember as the place where I would stare longingly at shelf after shelf of actual radios–AM, FM, portable, stereo, shortwave, police scanners. Even if I had to settle for just buying batteries and RCA cables most of the time, for this nerdy kid a trip to “Rat Shack” was like a mini vacation to Disneyland.

Cue four beats of the cowbell, and the unmistakeable opening riff of Loverboy’s “Working for the Weekend” brings in a crowd of 1980s pop culture icons, from Cheers’ Cliff Clavin to Olympian gymnast Mary Lou Retton, who clear out the store’s dated merchandise. Even the California Raisins knock over a shelf of radios with their grapevine dance. Yikes!

It’s too bad that Radio Shack–despite its bumbling attempt to rebrand itself “The Shack”–is inexorably tied to time that has passed, when a radio was still something a kid would hope to find under the tree. Nevertheless, the commercial is a riot to watch, seizing pop culture’s 80s retro revivalism as seen in shows like The Goldbergs.

At least the store is keeping “Radio” in its name. And, the last time I checked, you can still buy a radio there… tucked away behind smartphones and bluetooth speakers.

Here’s the ad:

The post Radio Shack’s Super Bowl ad tickles and teases radio nerds appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Like many folks, I’m still shocked and saddened about the death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman yesterday. He left us too soon.

Writers across the web have been paying tribute by taking a look at some of his most iconic film roles. But as a long-time observer of the clandestine art of unlicensed radio, I cannot forget Hoffman’s turn as “The Count,” an American DJ aboard a 1960s British pirate radio ship in “Pirate Radio” (known as “The Boat that Rocked” outside the US).

To me the character represents both the romantic place the Rock N Roll DJ once held in our culture, as well as the less-romantic reality of a personality whose off-mic qualities don’t quite measure up to the world he creates on air. Hoffman believably captured both The Count’s bravado-filled showmanship in the broadcast booth and more reclusive–though still randy–side in his cabin.

As he discussed in this interview clip, Hoffman observes how The Count, who saw himself as the world’s greatest DJ delivering Rock N Roll “medicine,” was good at showing up to a happening at just the right time, even though he tended otherwise to keep to himself in the pirate ship’s close quarters.

In this clip Hoffman, as The Count, threatens to challenge the time-honored broadcast ban on the “f-word,” casually comparing its lack of effect to the more devastating consequences of shooting a bullet or dropping a bomb (the language is, obviously, NSFW, unless you work on a pirate radio ship).

Hoffman leaves behind one of the greatest acting legacies of his generation, and an absence that cannot be filled.

The post Remembering Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Pirate Radio” appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Every year I love the challenge of tracking down unique radio-themed gifts. This time around, my first gift guide of the year has a fashion focus. Even if the people on your gift list aren’t radio diehards like you are, no doubt they’d appreciate the way that radio is incorporated into these stylish items.

1. Radio Purse: I picked up my retro-looking radio purse at a cute boutique in Dublin, Ireland. Even though this particular purse might be tough to track down, there are plenty of other options out there. I’m tempted by the similar-looking Vintage Look Stereo Radio Laptop Bag Purse. Another large bag, the PU Leather Antique shoulder bag, which looks like a transistor radio, is pretty sweet. If you have more cash on hand, the top-of-the-line Kate Spade New York Radio Samira Clutch is worth tracking down. For kids, there’s also this super cute CM Star Super Baby Radio Crossbody Bag for Girls.

2. Laptop Case with a Radio Design: Why not share your love for radio with this sleek laptop sleeve?

3. Radio Iron-On Patch: What could be more economical and DIY than an iron-on patch? This Radio Tower Patch Logo would make a nice style statement when ironed on a cool tote bag or cap or plain white T-shirt. There’s also a funky pink 50s Retro Radio- Logo Patch.

4. Boombox Skirt: Although this isn’t purely a radio design, since the boombox image features a prominent cassette deck, radio fanatics might be tickled by the whimsy of this audio homage on a women’s skirt.

5. Radio Label Pin: For ham radio fans, there’s this suave Masonic Ham Radio Lapel Pin.

6. Radio Necklace: I like this cute Sterling Silver Old Fashioned Radio Charm for its simplicity. There’s also the super classy Sterling Silver Microphone Charm and the more hip hop-oriented Wooden BoomBox Radio Pendant.

KFJC’s 2013 Girlie T-shirt

7. Radio T-shirts: I’ve got a huge assortment of KFJC T-shirts (see the latest girlie shirt on the right), since I’ve been volunteering there for years. I’ve also picked up a number of shirts from other radio stations during my travels. Often non-commercial radio stations (particularly college radio stations) make an extra effort to design funky T-shirts that reflect their stations’ more underground orientation.

Do some searching to find out how to grab your own shirts (or sweatshirts, tote bags, caps, etc.) from your favorite station. As an added bonus, station gear is typically available as a “thank you gift” for donations, so you can feel good about your money being well-spent and get a tax deduction for a portion of your purchase.

8. Radio Tower Tie: Oooo.. these are some swank ties from Cyberoptix. Featuring the image of a radio tower on ties in an array of hues and in both 100% silk and microfiber options, these ties are hand silk-screened and can even be packaged in a deluxe wooden box.

9. Man Bag: Ted Baker makes a few radio-themed accessories, including a transistor radio utility bag (perfect for stashing one’s phone, wallet and iPod) and a radio cables and clobber bag with zippered compartments and a waterproof lining.

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