Click here to download or play an audio version of this report.

Emma Rodero, a communication and psychology professor at Pompeu Fabra University in Spain, released a study in 2015 called, “Influence of Speech Rate and Information Density on Recognition: The Moderate Dynamic Mechanism,” that, “may have significant repercussions for newscasters and radio stations.” Students tested in the study considered 150 words per minute to be a slow pace for someone talking. A speed of 170 to 190 words per minute was rated as “normal” and a speech rate of 210 words per minute was considered fast. At below 150 words per minute, or above 210 words per minute, students had the trouble with information density, producing “cognitive overload.” So here is this report again, first played at 140 words per minute, then 160, then 180, then 210 words per minute.

Gabi Schaffner‎ installation for transmitter, bird house (or similar) and radio. Two texts, one poem one prose, one English one German, one synthetic voice one human.



Jason Martin "Dog Mind" from 2016 LP "Power Animal System Methods" featuring Power Animal System. Record release show April 16 at Low Beat in Albany.



Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith, "Passages" from "A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke" (ECM)



Noveller, "Glacial Wave." Noveller is part of the 24-hour Drone show at Basilica Hudson Apr. 23-24 broadcast live on WGXC and Wave Farm Radio.



Psychic Ills, "I Don't Mind" (with Hope Sandoval) from "Inner Journey Out"



Kid Cudi, "The Frequency" Produced by Mike Dean, Plain Pat, and Kid Cudi.



Jake Meginsky, from Western Massachusetts aka Vapor Gourds, "Seven Psychotropic Sinewave Palindromes" (excerpt from NNATapes)



The Body, "Shelter Is Illusory" from "No One Deserves Happiness" (Thrill Jockey Records)

Programming changes at WGXC this week:

• "Off The Hook," the hacking show from the 2600 collective, moves at 8 a.m. Saturdays. It airs first at 7 p.m. Wednesdays on WBAI in New York City, and is repeated on WGXC.

• "Unpacking Faith," from Reverend Michelle Lewis, is a weekly interfaith broadcast Sundays from 6-8 a.m.

Last week George Carlin's 1972 album "Class Clown," his fourth, was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry due to its "cultural, historic, or artistic significance." Recorded on May 27, 1972 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California, and released in September, "Class Clown," dedicated to Lenny Bruce, contains the "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television."

Click here to play or download an audio version of this report.

More reactions to the Justice Department's decision to drop its lawsuit with Apple over breaking into an iPhone belonging to one of the alleged San Bernardino shooters, after they found a way to hack it themselves. The FBI, several observers note, still want Apple to unlock other iPhones of other alleged criminals. Here are a few reactions:

• Alex Abdo, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, said, “This case was never about just one phone. It was about an unprecedented power-grab by the government that was a threat to everyone’s security and privacy. Unfortunately, this news appears to be just a delay of an inevitable fight over whether the FBI can force Apple to undermine the security of its own products. We would all be more secure if the government ended this reckless effort.”

• The New York Times wrote, "Yet law enforcement’s ability to unlock an iPhone through an alternative method raises new questions, including about the strength of Apple’s security on its devices."

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote, "This new method of accessing the phone raises questions about the government’s apparent use of security vulnerabilities in iOS and whether it will inform Apple about these vulnerabilities. As a panel of experts hand-picked by the White House recognized, any decision to withhold a security vulnerability for intelligence or law enforcement purposes leaves ordinary users at risk from malicious third parties who also may use the vulnerability."

Click here to play or download an audio version of this report.

Wired and others reported that the Justice Department dropped its lawsuit with Apple over breaking into an iPhone belonging to one of the alleged San Bernardino shooters, after they found a way to hack it themselves. The Justice Department asked a California court March 28 to vacate its previous order commanding Apple to create a software tool to help authorities break into the phone. “The government has asked a United States Magistrate Judge in Riverside, California to vacate her order compelling Apple to assist the FBI in unlocking the iPhone,” United States Attorney Eileen M. Decker said in a statement. “Our decision to conclude the litigation was based solely on the fact that, with the recent assistance of a third party, we are now able to unlock that iPhone without compromising any information on the phone…. Although this step in the investigation is now complete, we will continue to explore every lead, and seek any appropriate legal process, to ensure our investigation collects all of the evidence related to this terrorist attack.” The same day The Washington Post reported about a study that shows government surveillance causes people to self-censor their dissenting opinions online. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly published the study that showed that the majority of participants reacted by suppressing opinions that they perceived to be in the minority, when they were aware of government surveillance. How did the study work: "Participants in the study were first surveyed about their political beliefs, personality traits and online activity, to create a psychological profile for each person. A random sample group was then subtly reminded of government surveillance, followed by everyone in the study being shown a neutral, fictional headline stating that U.S. airstrikes had targeted the Islamic State in Iraq. Subjects were then asked a series of questions about their attitudes toward the hypothetical news event, such as how they think most Americans would feel about it and whether they would publicly voice their opinion on the topic," the Post reported. Elizabeth Stoycheff, lead researcher of the study and assistant professor at Wayne State University, said, “So many people I've talked with say they don't care about online surveillance because they don't break any laws and don't have anything to hide. And I find these rationales deeply troubling,” she said. “The fact that the 'nothing to hide' individuals experience a significant chilling effect speaks to how online privacy is much bigger than the mere lawfulness of one's actions. It's about a fundamental human right to have control over one's self-presentation and image, in private, and now, in search histories and metadata,” she said.

The Associated Press reports that the first radio-controlled drone delivered bottled water, food, and a first-aid kit to a residential location in a small Nevada town March 10, in what the drone manufacturer and Nevada Governor call the first drone home delivery in the U.S. A six-rotor drone flew a half-mile pre-programmed GPS route and lowered the package outside a vacant residence southeast of Reno. Regular drone delivery may be the future, but currently NASA is working with the drone industry and the Federal Aviation Administration to create a low-altitude air traffic control system, largely to regulate drones.

Michael Mizrahi, "Harpsichords" on "Currents" (New Amsterdam)


Bob Mould "The End of Things" from "Patch the Sky" (Merge)

Several new changes to the WGXC Program Schedule. On Saturdays, the early morning lineup is all news about radio. 6 a.m.: "CounterSpin" 6:30 a.m.: "ARRL Audio News" (no show this week) 6:45 a.m.: "The RAIN Report" 7 a.m.: "Amateur Radio Newsline" 7:30 a.m.: "Glenn Hauser's World of Radio" 9:30-10:30 a.m.: "This Week in Radio News" And "Off The Hook," previously rebroadcast from WBAI at 7 a.m. Saturdays, has moved to 6 p.m.

During the rest of the week there are other changes. "The Neon and the Rain" has moved from Mondays at 7 p.m. to Sundays from 2 to 4 p.m. for the first, third and fifth weeks of the month. "Crossroads in Rhythm" is now only on the first, third, and fifth weeks of the month on Thursdays at noon after the news. News shows from Pacifica Radio, "Law and Disorder" now airs Mondays at 10 a.m., and "Peace Talks Radio" airs Mondays at 6:30 p.m. and "Behind the News" airs the first, second, third and fifth weeks on Thursdays at 10 a.m.

Conservative talk radio host Glenn Beck, on a hot mic this week, said he would like to kill the leading presidential candidate of a major political party, and is somehow not in jail, but some are predicting this election cycle may be the last hurrah for conservative talk radio. Radio, on the whole, is predicted to take about 7.2 percent of the predicted $16 billion campaign cash in 2016. That's down from 8.3 percent market share in 2012, and 7.9 percent in 2008, according to research firm Borrell Associations. Others are discussing the decline of conservative talk radio in the same breadth as the demise of the Republican party, as almost all major conservative talk radio figures such as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Mark Levin began backing Texas Senator Ted Cruz early on during the primary campaign. Limbaugh, at least, is amenable to Trump, saying March 6 on “Fox News Sunday,” “I think with the case of Trump, there’s a much bigger upside than downside.” Now former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey, after leaving the tea party-aligned group FreedomWorks, is explaining that some of conservative talk radio industry is a money scheme, as he says his group received “too little value” for their investment in conservative broadcasters such as Beck and Limbaugh. Armey said that Beck got $1 million annually for positive mentions. “The arrangement was simply FreedomWorks paid Glenn Beck money and Glenn Beck said nice things about FreedomWorks on the air,” Armey, the former House majority leader, told Media Matters March 18. “I put it down now as basically as paid advertising for FreedomWorks by Beck,” said Armey. “If Limbaugh and Beck, if we were using those resources to recruit activists and inform activists and to encourage and enthuse activists, that’s one thing,” Armey explained. “If we are using these things to raise money; one, it’s a damned expensive way to raise money; and two, it makes raising money an end on to itself not an instrumental activity to support the foundation work that our organization does.”

This month's tough approach to pirate radio at the Federal Communications Commission is a sharply worded letter. The letter, co-signed by all five Commissioners, was sent to organizations such as the National Association of Residential Property Managers, the National Association of Realtors, the National Property Management Association, and the Rental Property Owners Association. Basically, it told them that potential tenants who run pirate radio stations are bad people, and should not be tolerated. It was also sent to some advertising groups, in hopes of cutting into pirate radio revenues from ad sales. The letter says, “Pirate radio operators seek support from landlords or advertisers, including nightclubs, concert promoters, and local merchants. Providing support for such illegal activity could not only damage the reputation of such businesses, but could expose them to FCC enforcement or other legal actions. FCC rules require licensed broadcast stations to identify themselves each hour using their FCC-assigned call signs, as close to the hour as possible. If the station does not identify with a call sign, it may be a pirate operation. If it does identify with a call sign, you can look up the station using the call sign on the FCC’s Consolidated Database System.”

Jennifer Saba in The New York Times, and others, reported last week that CBS was considering selling its 117-station radio network, the last of the original radio networks. In 1987, the NBC radio networks sold for $50 million. Now, CBS may get up to $1.9 billion, according to Jefferies, the investment bank. That is if there is a market for 117 radio stations, with streaming service Pandora also reportedly for sale. Last year, the Times notes, radio ad sales dropped two percent, while newspaper revenues rose seven percent, according to Standard Media Index. The Times writer speculates that iHeartMedia and Cumulus Media, both "mired in debt," might be buyers for CBS radio stations.

M.I.A., "Ola Foreign Friend"


Scanner, "No Point Talking"
Award-winning sci-fi writer Geoff Ryman's was commissioned to write a new story for the BBC, investigating the portrayal of gender in utopian science fiction, as part of BBC Radio 4's Utopia season. Scanner scored the new work and a separate documentary exploring the subject. This is an instrumental excerpt from the score.


Anna Meredith, "Taken" from debut album "Varmints"


Matt Valentine, "Black Peter" from "Songs to Fill the Air," a compilation of artists covering songs performed by the Grateful Dead curated by Jeff Conklin, host of WFMU's "The Avant Ghetto."

Acra, NY— Wave Farm announced today eight recipients of the 2016 Media Arts Assistance Fund for artists: Annie Berman, Brenda Ann Kenneally, Eli Keszler, Joseph McKay, John Morton, Erik Moskowitz and Amanda Trager, Margo Pelletier, and Sue C Perlgut.

The Media Arts Assistance Fund (MAAF) supports electronic media and film organizations, as well as individual artists, in all regions of New York State. The Fund provides unique and critical support with a focus on sustainability and public engagement. Grants to media artists support the distribution and exhibition of works in all genres of time-based and moving image media, including emergent technology. Funding assists artists in making recently completed works available to public audiences. Wave Farm’s Media Arts Assistance Fund is a Regrant Partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), Electronic Media and Film Program.

NYSCA Electronic Media & Film Program Director, Karen Helmerson, said “The NYSCA Regrant program managed by Wave Farm benefits our community in many important ways. This investment of public funds in New York State for art, culture, and heritage activities create opportunities for public engagement in the media arts, development of new technologies, and support for artists’ work, including their significant contribution to the creative economy.”

Wave Farm Executive Director Galen Joseph-Hunter said, “Wave Farm is delighted to be able to support these eight outstanding projects, that represent the diversity of the media arts landscape in New York State.” The Media Arts Assistance Fund for Artists opportunity is in January, annually. Grantees are selected through a competitive panel process. Detailed information about the 2016 MAAF projects is included on the following pages of this release.

The New York State Council on the Arts is dedicated to preserving and expanding the rich and diverse cultural resources that are and will become the heritage of New York's citizens. The Council believes in artistic excellence and the creative freedom of artists without censure, and the rights of all New Yorkers to access and experience the power of the arts and culture, and the vital contribution the arts make to the quality of life in New York communities. http://arts.ny.gov

Wave Farm is a non-profit arts organization that celebrates creative and community use of media and the airwaves. Our programs provide access to transmission technologies and support artists and organizations that engage with media as an art form. For more information, visit http://wavefarm.org

The Media Arts Assistance Fund for Artists 2016 Grantees and Project Descriptions

Annie Berman—Utopia 1.0: Post-Neo-Futurist-Capitalism in 3D!
Utopia 1.0: Post-Neo-Futurist-Capitalism in 3D! is a first-person cinematic expedition to Second Life, the once thriving virtual 3D online world, in search of what remains. Writes Berman, “Our guide navigates this strange, abandoned landscape seeking to understand the socio-economic desires of its residents, who, together, built this community-generated 3D world. Given the invitation to come build anything imaginable, what is it that we chose to create? Is it possible to imagine a new world; or, are we destined to replicate our existing world?” MAAF funding will support the distribution of the piece for VR.

Brenda Ann Kenneally—Upstate Girls: Unraveling Collar City
A traveling transmedia history of one block in North Central Troy, Upstate Girls: Unraveling Collar City will be exhibited inside a 20-foot U-Haul truck on the block it documents in Fall 2016. The exhibition is part of a larger more permanent collection, The North Troy Peoples History Museum, opening at the same time, in partnership with The Sanctuary for Independent Media and residents of the neighborhood. Both projects aim to expand the conversation about daily life in a specific and local community. In addition, Upstate Girls: Unraveling Collar City will travel to schools through out upstate New York, in connection with the publication of the forthcoming book “Upstate Girls: Unraveling Collar City” (Regan Arts: New York, Fall 2016/Spring 2017).

Eli Keszler—Rake Receiver
Rake Receiver is a work that draws from a wide range of digital archives--from 24/7 streaming remote environments, government broadcasts, to radio transmissions from around the world. The piece is encased in a small metal and plastic enclosure appearing somewhere between music box, speaker, radio, and a discrete minimalist enclosed technology. It is both a record and a new hybrid broadcasting device, as well as a composition that morphs the complexities of digital media into units of musical information. The work will be manufactured and distributed as an edition of 500.

Joseph McKay—Omega Mouse and Four Mice
McKay’s Omega Mouse is a simple 6-player video game. Four Mice is a two-player game where each player uses two mice to play. Both are fun and addictive games, but also belong in an art gallery context where fun addictive games are not the norm. Four Mice is currently on display in The Bret Llewellyn Art Gallery at Alfred State College, and Omega Mouse debuted at Postmasters Gallery in New York, December 2015. Both exhibitions to date have relied on borrowed equipment. With MAAF support, McKay will acquire the hardware elements needed to secure additional exhibition opportunities, and reach new audiences.

John Morton—Sound Bridge
Sound Bridge is an interactive sound installation exhibited on a pedestrian bridge in downtown Yonkers. Four sensors are placed along the railing of the bridge, and visitors are invited to activate and manipulate the sounds (made of field recordings of industrial activities, environmental sounds, and oral histories from Yonkers) and to musically respond to other visitors and to the environment. Initially designed as a two-year installation, MAAF funds will enable Sound Bridge to be winterized and remain installed long-term, as well as create a web presence for the work, linking the live sonic output of the installation with the addition of a "play at home" version.

Erik Moskowitz and Amanda Trager—TWO RUSSIANS IN THE FREE WORLD
Write Moskowitz and Trager, “A billionaire who doesn't collect art. An artist who doesn’t make art. In this manner of non-action/non-productivity, Manni and Sasha are introduced.” TWO RUSSIANS IN THE FREE WORLD maps connections between artistic inspiration, love, and the marketplace. The work exists as a video installation and a single-channel film. A final manifestation of the project is a series of eight webisodes that will be self-distributed on a web portal that allows for moderated public discourse and editorial commentary. Inspired by popular episodics, the narrative features suspense, humor, and densely-packed dialogue—devices that are put forward within the webisodic, web-portal format.

Margo Pelletier—Thirsty
Directed by Margo Pelletier, THIRSTY is a post-queer, musical film based on the life of Scott Townsend a.k.a., Thirsty Burlington, Provincetown, Massachusetts’ #1 Cher impersonator. Presented within a wild and entertaining framework, the film explores important issues surrounding: gender, bullying, persecution, acceptance, the power of self-invention and self-realization. THIRSTY was filmed in New York’s Hudson Valley and Capitol regions and is currently being submitted to film festivals, which will determine where it will have its world premiere.

Sue C Perlgut—Connie Cook: A Documentary
New York Republican Assemblywoman Constance Cook was one of only three women in the Assembly when she was elected in 1962. In 1970, she passed a bill in Albany that decriminalized abortion; three years later Roe v. Wade was based on her legislation. Connie Cook: A Documentary shows that she was a visionary advocating for women’s rights in health, government, education, and religious institutions. MAAF support will assist Perlgut in self-distributing the film to teens, college age women, women’s groups, and health clinics across the country.

For more information about the Media Arts Assistance Fund please visit http://wavefarm.org/mag

Lady Moon & The Eclipse, "Rollercoaster" from the forthcoming debut EP "Believe."


Mary Lattimore, "Jimmy V" from "At The Dam" (Ghostly)


Becky Pine, who graduated from Cairo High School, "Starting Over." Her "Perfect Timing" EP was released this week.


ANOHNI, "Drone Bomb Me."

Explosions In the Sky, "Logic of a Dream" from The Wilderness.


Rangda, "To Melt The Moon" from "The Heretic's Bargain" (Drag City)


Dust Bowl Faeries, "Hudson River Shanty" from "Dust Bowl Faeries" album.


Bonobo, "Ghomrassen" made from all "Star Wars" samples from Hollywood Records.


Cate Le Bon, "Wonderful" from "Crab Day" (Drag City).


Heron Oblivion, "Oriar" from "Heron Oblivion" (Sub Pop)


Glitterbust, "The Highline," Kim Gordon's new band, on Burger Records.

March 3 House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade meeting, chaired by Rep. Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX), on a review of wearable technology: Internet-connected devices or apparel physically worn by the user. This will air at 3 a.m. March 5 on Wave Farm Radio and WGXC (90.7-FM).

Jim O'Rourke, "Steamroom 25"



Justin Lombardi played Kanye West's new "Waves" backwards.



The Simpsons' "The Debateful Eight"

In the winter of 2013, Greg Fox was invited by master jazz drummer and holistic healer, Milford Graves to visit his basement lab in Queens, NY. It was there that Mr. Graves had spent years developing technology to generate music from the natural rhythms of the human heart. This music, according to Milford, could be used both as a diagnostic tool for human health and as means for musicians to find and follow their own natural rhythms. A willing subject of Milford’s experiments, Greg Fox was fitted with specialized bio-sensing machinery connected to a computer programmed with custom software that allowed him, for the first time, to hear the the music of his own body. The elaborate score resulting from this visit was then used as the basis for the compositions found on Mitral Transmission. Much like his drumming in the bands Liturgy and Guardian Alien, this work can be unflinchingly explosive, fluttering and merciless in one instance, poised and withholding in the next – seeming only to channel what is vital and in the moment. The sampled instrumentation is deliberately minimal yet richly nuanced – brought to life by the rhythmic and tonal complexities Greg’s body. A clear progression from his recent work with Zs Mitral Transmission is a lucid and masterfully dynamic exploration in the tradition of biofeedback and generative music.

SWANS from Marco Barotti on Vimeo.

Ars Technica reports that a Jan. 26 Federal Communications Commission letter gets Google's dream of a fleet of balloons-as-cell-towers closer to reality. The FCC recently wrote that, "Google’s proposed testing does not pose health or environmental risks," and "Google will avoid harmful interference to other users of the E-band." The plan, which has been referred to as Project Loon, is a "nationwide testing of airborne and terrestrial transmitters in the 71-76 and 81-86 GHz bands (collectively, the E-band)." On the ground, Google customers would point their antennae toward the sky at balloons across the country to get LTE service, if the tests are successful. Google is trying to keep things secret, with a "two-year nationwide test." Ars Technica explains that these frequencies now are, "often deployed as a wireless backhaul option for network providers." Current E-Band applications often use highly directional antennas for multi-gigabit speeds over a mile or two, and Google says since the antennae would be pointed in different directions -- horizontal for current uses, and vertical for the balloons -- there would be little interference. Google says there is "no factual basis" that the RF energy from the balloons would or could harm people or animals. Google needs the FCC and Federal Aviation Authority to complete signing off on their two-year test. For now, the company has permission to test the balloons in California and Nevada.