History Archives - Radio Survivor

While the work of radio stations using terrestrial transmitters is a typical discussion topic on Radio Survivor, for this episode we find ourselves examining music and talk beamed down from satellites orbiting the earth. Satellite radio as we know it began in the 1990s, with its major players launching satellite radio services in the early 2000s. Brian Fauteux, Associate Professor of Popular Music and Media Studies at University of Alberta joins us on the show to discuss the fascinating history and relevance of satellite radio to both radio culture and the music industry. Brian is the author of the new book, “Music in Orbit: Satellite Radio in the Streaming Space Age,” released in 2025.

The post Podcast #344 – Music in Orbit: Satellite Radio in the Streaming Space Age appeared first on Radio Survivor.

We travel back to the 1980s, when the show, The Famous Computer Cafe, initially launched over the radio in southern California. With a focus on home computers, computer news, and more, the program had a fascinating roster of guests, including Timothy Leary, Donny Osmond, Bill Gates, and so many others. Although it was assumed that all the recordings of the show were lost; recently 53 episodes were found and digitized. Computer historian and archivist Kay Savetz spearheaded this project and joins us on Radio Survivor, alongside one of the creators and hosts of The Famous Computer Cafe, Ellen Fields.

The post Podcast #342 – The Famous Computer Cafe appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Williams College student Josh Picoult arrived on campus with a fascination for both history and radio. Four years later, he’s about to graduate after completing his undergraduate thesis on the history of college radio station WCFM, where he’s also the general manager. On this edition of Radio Survivor, we are joined by Josh, who talks us through some of the big ideas from his thesis: Gas Pipes, Gigahertz, and Grunge: Broadcasting at Williams College, 1940-1998. Josh also shares details about the current state of radio on campus.

The post Podcast #340 – College Radio History at Williams College appeared first on Radio Survivor.

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

The post Podcast #336 – Educational Radio and the Beginnings of Public Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

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

Jennifer recounts stories from more than 100 years ago, pointing out the incredible contributions that students have made to radio history. Along the way, we hear tales about early student radio practitioners at places like Haverford College, Union College, Harvard University, and Columbia University. Jennifer also asks for listeners to share details that they may have about very early college radio (1920s and earlier) at other schools.

The post Podcast #334 – College Radio’s Hidden Early History appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The Radio Survivors return with a new episode! For this edition, recorded in July, 2022, our guest is Lori Emerson, Founding Director of the Media Archaeology Lab (the MAL). She’s also an Associate Professor in the English Department and Director of the Intermedia Arts, Writing, and Performance Program at University of Colorado at Boulder.

Lori joins us to chat about her current research into “other networks” and her work at the Media Archaeology Lab, which she started in 2009. Full of media from the past (computers, phones, radios, recording devices, books and more), the MAL “is a place for cross-disciplinary, experimental research, teaching, and creative practice using one of the largest collections in the world of still functioning media.” In our discussion, we also explore technology history, talk about Lori’s recent broadcasting experiments, and learn about the ways that experimental poetry is connected with vintage computers.

• Lori Emerson‘s website
• Other Networks exploration on Lori’s website
• Media Archaeology Lab website
• Lori Emerson’s Twitter
• Sarah Grant, “Plant Nodes” 
• Danja Vasiliev, “Netless“
• Emulated versions of bpNichol’s “First Screening” (1982-83, written in Apple Basic for Apple IIe)
• One Laptop Per Child Mesh Network Wiki
• libi striegl and Lori Emerson article “Anarchive as technique in the Media Archaeology Lab | building a one Laptop Per Child mesh network” (PDF download, requires Academia.edu registration)

• This episode was produced by Jennifer Waits
• Hosted by Jennifer Waits and Paul Riismandel
• Edited by Eric Klein

The post Podcast #328: Media Archaeology and Other Networks appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On this week’s program, we turn our attention to the history of industrial music – not the noisy music genre – but music played in industrial settings for workers. A variety of services offered (and still offer) background music for workplaces. Muzak and the RCA Plant Broadcasting System are just a few of the products that were sold to companies in the hopes of increasing morale and/or efficiency. Our guest, Alix Hui is associate professor of History at Mississippi State University and has been studying the history of industrial music systems, as well as background music generally.

• Alexandra Hui profile at Mississippi State University website
• Alix’s paper at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference: “Laboring Sound: Industrial Music Systems, Worker Morale, and Pan-Aural Listening”
• Walter Van Dyke Bingham, industrial psychologist (Wikipedia)
• Muzak history (Wikipedia)
• Mood Media website
• Attention K-Mart Shoppers: K-Mart radio/audio collection on Archive.org
• Muzak to Get Mutated To: E-Z Listening with DEVO (article on Dangerous Minds)
• Scholar Emily Thompson

The post Podcast #327: Industrial Music Systems and Workplace Broadcasts appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On the show this week, we explore one of our favorite topics: college radio history. Our guest, Andreas Preuss, just completed a multi-faceted project about student radio station WRAS at Georgia State University in Atlanta for his master’s thesis: Left of the Dial: Right on the Music: 50 Years of Georgia State FM Radio. We dig into various aspects of the station’s past, as well as Preuss’ interesting path to this project, having worked in college radio in the past as well as in commercial media for decades.

• College radio station WRAS-FM at Georgia State University
• Left of the Dial: Right on the Music: 50 Years of Georgia State FM Radio (MA thesis)
• From R.E.M. to GPB, A Student Documents the Bittersweet History of College Radio Powerhouse WRAS (Saporta Report)
• Radio Survivor coverage of WRAS/GPB programming takeover and protests circa 2014-2015
• Tulane University radio station WTUL-FM in New Orleans
• Shortwave radio station WRNO (Wikipedia)
• WRNO Worldwide website
• Vanderbilt University’s college radio station WRVU
• Katherine Rye Jewell website
• Podcast #244: Exploring the So-Called ‘Golden Age’ of College Radio (with guest Katherine Jewell)
• Podcast #164: College Radio and the Culture Wars (with guest Katherine Jewell)
• WPRB-FM at Princeton University
• College Radio Watch: WPRB Launches History Site
• Jennifer Waits’ 2012 field trip report from visit to WRAS-FM
• Jennifer Waits’ 2016 field trip report from visit to WRPB-FM

The post Podcast #322 – College Radio History at WRAS appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On this week’s show, we return to the topic of hip-hop on the radio. While on Radio Survivor, we typically focus on non-commercial radio, like college and community stations; in this episode we look at why certain types of commercial radio stations were important to the growth in popularity of hip-hop music. Our guest, Amy Coddington, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Music at Amherst College and is writing a book about the history of hip-hop on commercial radio.

• Amy Coddington’s website
• Podcast #145: Hip-Hop Radio Archive with guest Ryan MacMichael
• Podcast #152: The Longest Running Hip-Hop Radio Show in the World? with guest DJ A-L
• Community radio station KGNU is home to The Eclipse Show
• Racial Formation in the United States by Michael Omi and Howard Winant
• Backstory on “Walk this Way” from the Atlantic: “How Aerosmith and Run-DMC Begrudgingly Made a Masterpiece”
• Power 106 Los Angeles radio station
• Jason Tanz wrote the book: Other People’s Property: A Shadow History of Hip-Hop in White America
• Public Enemy’s “Rebel without a Pause” in the HipHop Archive and Research Institute
• Chuck D
• Paula Abdul’s Opposites Attract
• Amber Ruffin on rap lyrics being cut from radio edits of songs
• Snoop Dog
• Hot 97 radio station in New York
• Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight (1979)
• Blondie’s Rapture (1980)
• Wham’s Wham! Rap (1982)
• Influential DJ Frankie Crocker of radio station WBLS
• The Pharcyde

The post Podcast # 320 – How Hip-Hop Made it to Top 40 Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On the show this week we explore a pivotal period for radio news in the 1930s and learn why the Lindbergh kidnapping changed everything. Travel back in time with us. It’s March 1932 and a horrible crime has just occurred, the kidnapping of the 20-month-old son of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Imagine that you were living in the United States in 1932 and wanted to follow breaking news about this story. If it were 2021, the answer might be Twitter or the internet. But in the early 1930s, it was obviously a very different media landscape, largely consisting of print journalism, news reels, and radio. Our guest, Thomas Doherty joins us to provide historical context and shed light on radio’s role in the media frenzy surrounding the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby and subsequent trial and why it was a turning point for how breaking news was covered. Thomas Doherty, Professor of American Studies at Brandeis, is the author of Little Lindy is Kidnapped: How the Media Covered the Crime of the Century.

• Thomas Doherty faculty page at Brandeis University
• Little Lindy is Kidnapped: How the Media Covered the Crime of the Century
• Lindbergh Kidnapping (FBI website)
• Wikipedia entry for journalist and writer Adela Rogers St. Johns
• Women Film Pioneers Project article about Adela Rogers St. Johns
• Canon 35: Cameras, Courts and Confusion
• The March of Time radio program (Wikipedia)
• Testimony of Anne Morrow Lindberg
• 25 Years after O.J Simpson’s Chase, L.A. is Still Obsessed with Police Pursuits (New York Times)

The post Podcast #314 – Radio and the Lindbergh Kidnapping appeared first on Radio Survivor.