ABC Radio Networks and Radiolicious have signed an agreement for streaming over smartphones. RadioInk

Corgan testisfies for Performance Rights Act SunTimes

An iPod So Small Its Controls Are Found on the Cord NYTimes

SLACKER LAUNCHES SXSW CHANNEL

Connect to the WiFi while you're @ SXSW

Sound designers and sound artists are often asked to create realistic sonic environments for places that they've never experienced. This requires some serious shapeshifting and mindbending skills. For this month's Giant Ear))) we would like to celebrate these skills by requesting the truly fantastical. Please send in: (Option 1) A piece composed for a place that you may never be able to go to physically as a person. Altering the sound to convince listeners of the place is encouraged. Or (Option 2) Send in a recording/composition of yourself actually in an actual fantastic place. Fantastic! Please send your field-recording based work as an MP3 (via e-mail, FTP or www.sendspace.com) to Andrea Williams at lemurz66@yahoo.com By April 2, 2009. "Fantastic Places," hosted by Andrea Williams and Edmund Mooney, will be webcast on free103point9 Online Radio 7-9 p.m. in April on Sunday (date TBA). Giant Ear))) is the New York Society for Acoustic Ecology's weekly, two-hour radio show webcasting recordings of the NYC soundscape, (wo)man-on-the-street public interest interviews, live on-site sound explorations, special guests, and more. New show updated each month, show airs weekly Sundays at 7 p.m.

The radio stunt with the worst outcome since the staff at WKRP tossed turkeys out the window to celebrate Thanksgiving in Cincinnati:

From Carol Slezak in the Chicago Sun-Times:

The goal was for ESPN 1000 to help Hawthorne Race Course celebrate 100 years of Carey family ownership. Nothing wrong with that. But then two hosts of the station's ''Afternoon Saloon'' show agreed to act like jockeys and race thoroughbreds. Bad idea. After falling from his horse twice Friday, one of the hosts spent the weekend in an intensive-care unit with bleeding on his brain. Talk about a promotional stunt gone wrong.

''I'm banged up, bruised and dizzy,'' Harry Teinowitz said Monday. ''My short-term memory is shot, and I have a crappy week [of healing] ahead of me. But I consider myself lucky.''

The first time Teinowitz fell, he was still in the paddock. The guy who was helping him mount the horse noticed that he was a tad heftier than your average jockey and overcompensated, throwing him over the horse. Teinowitz landed flat on his face.

At that point he probably should have backed out of the stunt. Instead, he remounted and proceeded to race his radio partner John Jurkovic in a one-sixteenth-mile sprint. (Carmen DeFalco, the show's other host, had the good sense to decline the offer to race.) Teinowitz beat Jurkovic, but after crossing the finish line, he couldn't get his horse to slow down.

''I kept yelling, 'Stop, stop, stop,''' Teinowitz said. ''But he wasn't listening. Then he started going straight into a fence. I thought he was going to throw me onto Laramie Avenue, so I started to get off him. The next thing I remember, a medic was shining a light in my face. How dumb am I?''

Harry Fox To Deliver Payments May 15 (beware radio "archivers") Billboard

Podcast Listeners Outperform Students Who Attend The Lecture

Communities are the radio stars in the UK Ofcom.com

Music can take the pain away, study finds nowpublic.com

Facebook Sending More Traffic Than Google to Some Sites Adage

Police Bust Alleged Gang-Promoting Radio Station MSNBC

David Byrne's Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists — and Megastars Wired

Big Music Will Surrender, But Not Until At Least 2011 TechCrunch

Nielsen: Social Nets Overtake E-mail Billboard

Major Nokia Music Announcement Wednesday

I am surprised Boing Boing and other media outlets are taking the police at their word, when they have lied so many times in the past about stories like this. Where is the link to the station's web site? Where is proof of any kind?

From Mark Frauenfelder in Boing Boing:
On Saturday the Federal Communications Commission and the Orange County Sheriff's department raided a pirate radio station called "Street Heat" that ran ads for gangs and provided information on where to get drugs and prostitutes.

Police said 20-year-old Balthazard Senat's pirate radio station had illegally tapped into 91.3 FM. DJs behind the microphone had their own rules and regulations as they broadcasted from a bedroom at a home on 30th Street off South Orange Blossom Trail. The radio station's "Street Heat" broadcast could be heard anywhere in Orange County. Police said Senat had been cursing and using derogatory language on the air for about three months.

Soundwalkers from Raquel Castro on Vimeo.
This film by Raquel Castro includes interviews with free103point9 transmission artists Michelle Nagai and Tom Roe, as well as Executive Director Galen Joseph-Hunter, and many other terrific sound artists. The description:

There are some fundamental principles regarding the construction of an acoustically healthy society, one where we can exist within the sounds of life. Respect towards voice and words, sonic awareness, the awakening of the sense of hearing. To preserve the sounds that tend to fade out, while remaining open to the sounds that spring out of each technological stride. To build an aural idiom that interprets its own symbolism. To accept the silence, enforcing it in the due moments. And, above all else, to listen.

Beleaguered Radio Industry Faces Rocky Path Ahead Billboard

Pitchfork.tv Teams Up With NPR Music Pitchfork

Free Wi-Fi Won't Kill Sirius XM Fool.com

The Music Industry's New Internet Problem Businessweek.com

Clearwire Confirms Launch of Additional Markets Wimax.com

The Distribution Grant for New York State Artists is available from free103point9 through a regrant from New York State Council on the Arts' Electronic Media and Film Program. Grant awards assist artists in making film, video, sound, new-media, and media-installation works available to public audiences. New to the Distribution Grant this year, successful grantees are also awarded the opportunity to work with a project mentor. Twelve projects were selected from a total of 105 proposals by a peer panel review process.

2009 Grantees:

Melis Birder, The Visitors

Melis Birder’s documentary video “The Visitors” chronicles the experience of families of the incarcerated as they travel by bus from NYC to upstate New York every weekend to visit prisoners. The Distribution Grant award will be used to organize and moderate special interest screenings of the film for this and similar communities.

Jim Finn, The Juche Idea

Jim Finn’s experimental narrative film “The Juche Idea” examines the relationship between communism and filmmaking with humor and irony. The Distribution Grant award will aid in the production of promotional materials, DVDs, and an HD screening copy of the film.

David Galbraith, lgOpre

David Galbraith’s sound and digital animation installation “lgOpre” uses algorithms to control abstract visual patterns and vinyl record samples. The Distribution Grant award will be used to produce a new edition of the work, a high-quality documentation of the installation, and a press kit to aid in further exhibitions.

Tamara Gubernat, Rezoning Harlem

Tamara Gubernat’s documentary “Rezoning Harlem” follows residents of Harlem as they attempt to prevent real estate investors from displacing vital places and people in the community. The Distribution Grant award will be used toward website development, community screenings, and educational outreach to promote the activist message of the film.

Japanther, Japanther in (3-D)

Japanther’s book and DVD project “Japanther in (3-D)” documents the noise band’s interactive rock opera, a PERFORMA 07 Commission, which creates a multi-sensory experience designed to initiate social and political change. The Distribution Grant award will be used to design and produce materials for the book and accompanying DVD as a record of the event.

Sawako Kato, Nijika

Sawako Kato's video, sound, and light installation "Nijika" creates an immersive environment that combines urban and natural phenomena to create a contemplative space. The Distribution Grant award will support a Booklet and DVD documenting the installation.

LoVid, Wirefull Interventions

LoVid’s audio/video installation and participatory performance “Wirefull Interventions” explores the relationships between biological, environmental, and electric signals with artist-designed synthesizers. The Distribution Grant award will aid in the production of a distribution document containing schematics relevant to the piece and in the creation of an exhibition version of the installation.

Erik Moskowitz and Amanda Trager, Cloud Cuckoo Land

Erik Moskowitz and Amanda Trager’s video installation “Cloud Cuckoo Land” portrays a family’s problematic move to a contemporary commune. The Distribution Grant award will be used to produce promotional materials and a catalog that includes a preview DVD covering the project in various incarnations to help secure future exhibitions of the piece.

Yoruba Richen, Promised Land

Yoruba Richen’s documentary video “Promised Land” explores land reform and the rebuilding of post-apartheid South Africa. The Distribution Grant award will aid in the development of a related website, and to create educational and outreach materials for a screening and forum to be held at the Iziko SA Museum in Cape Town.

Todd Rohal, The Guatemalan Handshake

Todd Rohal’s feature narrative film “The Guatemalan Handshake” follows the surreal series of events resulting from the disappearance of demolition derby driver Donald Turnipseed (portrayed by Will Oldham). The Distribution Grant award will be used toward the film’s website and to produce and distribute DVDs of the film.

Amie Siegel, DDR/DDR

Amie Siegel's film "DDR/DDR" is a portrait of East Germany as a contested site of memory, history and identity. The Distribution Grant award will aid in the distribution of the film, including the creation of DVDs and promotional materials

Landon Van Soest, Good Fortune

Landon Van Soest’s documentary “Good Fortune” explores the impact of foreign aid in developing countries via intimate portraits of three individuals in Kenya. The Distribution Grant award will aid in the development of a website to provide users information about the film, similar cases, and ways to get involved.


2009 Review Panelists:

Kathleen Forde (Curator, Time Based Arts at EMPAC)
Mark Elijah Rosenberg (Founder and Artistic Director of Rooftop Films)
Shannon Sindelar (Managing and Programming Director Ontological Theater, member of 31 Down Radio Theater)
Helen Thorington (Co-director Turbulence, a project of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. aka Ether-Ore)


Special thanks and acknowledgement are expressed to Penny Duff for her work as Distribution Grant Assistant throughout the 2009 application period.


More Information Contact:
Galen Joseph-Hunter
Executive Director
free103point9
gjh@free103point9.org

The pirates' view of pirate radio BBC

What's Next After Skittles.com? AdAge

Amazon to Sell E-Books for Apple Devices NYTimes

Embrace of technology could help break cycle of warfare MSNBC

Winamp Ready For Relaunch Billboard

Start-up offers alternative to subscription TV CNET

free103point9's community radio station for Greene and Columbia Counties in New York has a name: WGXC. It stands for Greene and Columbia, or the x is for transmitting, or it can mean what you want. Read more about the project here.

Pirate radio 'puts lives at risk' BBC

Half a billion mobile TV subscribers predicted by 2013 Brodcast Engineering

iTunes To Roll Out Indie Exclusives from Touch and Go, Stone's Throw, Nettwerk, and Barsuk Billboard

Spotify Claims 1 Million Users in 2 weeks Billboard

Twitter and iPhone help find lost skier cnet

By Sam Churchill at Daily Wireless

A number of market researchers and industry organizations are crunching the 2008 industry numbers this week and guessing what the broadband wireless market will look like in 2009 (and beyond). Wireless broadband technology will be able to withstand the current economic downturn says the WiMAX Forum. They estimate at least 100 more operators will launch commercial services this year. The Forum says WiMAX now covers 430 million people (POPS), globally and are on a path to nearly double to 800 million people by end of 2010 and explode to 18 million by 2012. In-Stat forecasts LTE will have 23 million subscribers by 2013, but nearly 82 million mobile PCs with WiMax will ship in 2013. The forum expects for WiMAX to continue to capitalize on its head start on LTE. Still, Dr. Mohammad Shakouri, the forum’s VP of marketing, said, “Due to the financial situation, the growth rate of deployments will slow down. Everyone is watching their cash.”

Shakouri questions the willingness of companies to invest in LTE because of the current economic downturn, reports RCR Wireless. He said WiMAX does not face this issue because investments have already been made in the technology. Shakouri is hopeful that money set aside for broadband deployments in the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act can help jump start WiMAX operators. Congress has set aside $7.2 billion for telecom-related programs, with $6.39 billion to be doled out in grants and loans to promote broadband in rural areas that don’t have access to the technology or are underserved. So far, Mobile WiMAX is being offered in just two cities, Baltimore and Portland, Ore. On March 5th, Clearwire will announce which cities will be added next in the United States. Another nine cities are expected to roll out this year. According to research firm In-Stat, WiMAX will continue to outpace LTE over the next few years and the technologies will take different paths. Verizon Wireless is expected to launch LTE commercially sometime next year but most operators will wait until 2011 or 2012.

Make ISPs, wireless carriers pay for broadcasting rights: Sirius (Canadians Rule!) from CBC

Virgin Megstore Union Square (and San Francisco), RIP from Brooklyn Vegan

Labels size up Web 2.0 music services from Cnet

LinkedIn Skyrockets as Job Losses Mount from Ad Age

How NPR Stays on Air as Sun Blanks Sat Transmission from Wired

The call for entries for the third edition of the Filmer la Musique is open. It is a music/film festival in Paris, with a strong focus on independent and innovative productions. The festival will take place at the Point Ephemere - an independant art center and music venue and in a new international production center Le CentQuatre, from June 9 to 14, 2009. Documentaries, fictions, raw rushes, phone films, indie videos, and live footage are all applicable. There are no restrictions regarding shooting format, length, or year of production. Deadline for the call for entries is March 15, 2009. Info, rules and submission form on http://www.filmerlamusique.com.

The Cyprus University of Technology and the ECREA Radio Research Section invite the submission of abstracts for their forthcoming conference, "Radio Content in the Digital Age" in Limassol, Cyprus, October 14-16. Over the past decade, developments in technology have dramatically broadened the range of options for programming audio. The revolution began in the mid-1990s with a newfound ability to listen to audio being streamed over the Internet. Since then, digital radio has continued to expand with the advent of podcasting, offering radio programming on demand, and the rollout of different digital transmission systems, which provide superior sound quality and additional stations on and outside the traditional FM and AM wavebands. What are the main characteristics of today's radio content? How does radio programming differ around Europe and in other countries? How is radio content, both programming and genre, changing through new and emerging technology? Deadlines:
Abstract submissions: 31 March 2009
Final answers: 15 May 2009
To submit papers: http://sections.ecrea.eu/RR/index.html
Contact person: Angeliki Gazi, Vice Chair Radio Research Section, ECREA, angeliki.gazi@cut.ac.cy

By Gabriel Voiles from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting:

Lamenting the fact that "commercial radio stations everywhere have been swallowed up by a handful of giant corporations, playlists have shrunk and local and independent acts have been drowned out," Free Press activist Timothy Karr (MediaCitizen, 2/26/09) also lets us know that

the good news is that your rescue is at hand. On Tuesday, Reps. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) and Lee Terry (R-Neb.) introduced a bipartisan bill (the Local Community Radio Act of 2009) that would pry open our radio airwaves for thousands of new stations, bringing independent acts...to the audiences they deserve....

The Local Community Radio Act would unleash the potential of new music for millions of listeners across the country. The bill tasks Washington with licensing thousands of Low Power FM radio stations....

There are about 800 low-power stations already on the air. They're run out of college campuses, garages, backyard shacks and local churches, and aimed specifically at listeners in their surrounding neighborhood.

Beyond saving listeners from corporate stations' "mind-numbing concoction of saccharine and aspartame," some LPFM broadcasters "are providing local news and information that in more extreme cases has kept people alive." Use the Free Press action page to demand your congressmember "help restore much needed diversity to our airwaves, bringing forth new voices and viewpoints that are often overlooked by large commercial broadcasters."

From Kim Andrew Elliott:

Radio Free Asia vice president Dan Southerland interviews Russian historian Andrei Lankov, an expert on North Korea and RFA commentator: "Q: It seems to me there is still a role for radio. Defectors I have spoken with recently say that people in the elite are listening to Radio Free Asia. A: Radio is widely used, and it is very important that short-wave radios with free [instead of fixed] tuning are being smuggled. Radios are used largely by the elite—not by people who want fresh entertainment, but by people who want information about what’s going on outside of the country. So most listeners are intellectuals or officials or people who are serious about getting out of the country. Five or six stations broadcast into North Korea right now, and these stations are mostly listened to by these people. They are clearly a minority, but politically they are very significant … A person who has been making a bit of money by selling pancakes on the market may buy a DVD player and watch romances. But radio is for, say, a secret police captain who knows that the system is in trouble and wants to figure out what’s going on and how to save his skin. Radio broadcasting provides him with the intelligence he needs to do this. Q: We had some independent research last year showing that some of these border traders, some of these smugglers and so forth—they call themselves 'businesspeople' — are also listening to radio. It’s quite a significant percentage in a rather limited survey. A: If you look at people who are in China, you will see that radio listeners are overrepresented among this group when compared to the general population. Because if you go to China, you have to listen. Most of these people want to know the current trends." Radio Free Asia, 23 February 2009.

From MIT Technology Review:

Internet radio lets listeners find or create stations that play just the music they like. A dashboard stereo from miRoamer and Blaupunkt brings that kind of control into the car. The stereo connects wirelessly, via Bluetooth, to the driver's phone, which streams music over the cell network. Users can preprogram their favorite stations and create song playlists online. The system has a built-in microphone, so that users can make and receive phone calls by pressing a button on the radio. Cost=$300-400.

From Future of Music blog:

It was only a matter of time before the new Congress saw the re-introduction of a pro-Low Power FM bill. If passed, this legislation would create opportunities for hundreds more community radio stations in cities, towns and suburbs across the United States. The House of Representative's new Local Community Radio Act represents a strong step forward towards this goal.

FMC has long advocated for LPFM (and non-commercial, community radio in general) as an alternative to the homogenized playlists often heard on hyper-consolidated corporate radio. LPFM in more areas would be a tremendous boon to local and independent artists who typically find themselves shut out from area commercial stations. We figure that if more people had the chance to hear the talent in their own backyards, it might even have a positive effect on local economies.

But LPFM isn't just good for musicians — new low-power licenses would make radio station ownership possible for schools, churches, labor unions, local governments, emergency providers and other nonprofit groups, who could use the public airwaves to directly communicate with their local community.

The bipartisan Local Community Radio Act will be sponsored by Reps. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) and Lee Terry (R-Neb.). The last time LPFM legislation was introduced, it won nearly 100 co-sponsors in the House. The Senate version of the bill, sponsored by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) and co-sponsored by then-Senator Barack Obama, unanimously passed out of the Commerce Committee. The Senate is expected to reintroduce a new version of the bill in the near future.