Cory Doctorow:
A Nepali radio station that has been banned under the new, post-coup
regime has gone back on the air. Every night, a commentator stands on
the roof of his now-useless radio-station and reads the news over a
megaphone to an audience of hundreds.
Every evening, about 300 people gather on a roadside in Biratnagar,
500 kilometers (310 miles) east of Katmandu to listen to Keshav
Bhattarai read out the news from an open air studio on the roof of a
narrow, three-story building.
As well as spreading the news, the service stands for a free media,
Bhattarai tells his audience, a motley collection of politicians,
teachers, students, traders and anyone who just happens to be passing.
A while ago I read a tip somewhere about how to make a few smart
playlists work with each other to make a mix of music for a smaller
iPod. After thinking for a short time I realized I could make a
perfect little ever-changing radio station out of iTunes with a
similar methodology. Start by considering what makes a good radio
station (I know, it's been a while...):
Your favorite music.
A balance of new and old music.
A moderate variety. You want to hear some songs repeatedly, but
not at close intervals.
New old music. Don't just play the same old songs, cycle them in
and out.
Old new music. If a newer song is really good, keep it in
rotation as an old song.
iTunes has a way to handle all of this. The core here is that
you're going to have to rate all of your music for this to
work. Unrated music will not make it into rotation. It doesn't have
to be accurate right now. You can go find a favorite artist and mark
all the tracks as fives or find all your audio books and mark them
twos or something. Just get some ratings in. As your ratings change,
so will the station.
just another internet radio station
just another internet radio station01/09/2004 09:57 PM Boombastic Radio While
I sit here at work listening to it, I realize other people would
appreciate this site. They play all sorts of good music 24/7, with
no commercials. Last few artists I've heard: Marvin Gaye, Barrington
Levy, Roland Kirk, King Kooba, Black Star and on and on and on. Yeah,
just another free online radio station, but I know some of you will
appreciate it a lot.
UK radio station to give away 50 iPods
UK radio station to give away 50 iPods11/14/2003 08:00 AM MacMinute reader Lee Noble let us know that XFM, a UK-based radio
station, is giving away ten iPods per day for five days starting next
week on Christian OConnells Breakfast Show...
Anyone can run a rouge radio station (with limited range) with a
little work and some ingenuity. Engadget has a nice little article and
with a bit of searching around the net you can come up with a radio
station with significant range. [Engadget]
SliMP3 Successor; Radio Station in a Box
SliMP3 Successor; Radio Station in a Box11/18/2003 04:24 PM XDG writes "Slim Devices just updated their website and announced The
Squeezebox, the Wi-Fi successor to the SliMP3 player. The new hardware
adds digital ...
It looks like I got a birthday gift and didn't even know it. A
fellow going by "sticktron" posted a nifty infographic detailing my
previous Do-It-Yourself Smart Radio Station post. It's
certainly a bit easier to understand when you look at it this way.
Note that the playlist detailed in the screenshot is unworkable due to
them all being in one window, but the criteria are valid when used as
detailed on the right.
This approach is based on the idea of a master playlist,
which feeds off of several pools of potential songs. Each pool is
created by a dynamic playlist–called Smart Playlists in
iTunes/iPod–and updates itself constantly.As your songs
get listened to, rated, weeded out, given priority, etc., you will
be continually upgrading the mix. It is TRULY
your own personal Radio Station experience.
The Sumitronics SP-103 MP3 Docking Station is a $300 FM
radio designed to capture 'the latest Top-40 music hits' and copy them
automatically to your USB Host-capable MP3 player. I can only presume
by 'latest Top-40 music hits' they mean 'whatever happens to be
playing on the radio at any given time,' but until the unit is
officially unveiled this week at CES, it's anybody's guess.
After playing around with the new iTrip mini, the FM
broadcasting accessory for the iPod our little minds got working on
some ideas. We thought we might be able to make the range of Griffin
s iTrip mini a little better if took it apart and exposed the
antenna, turns out we could. And then we thought, hey- we could use a
couple iPods to broadcast something we wanted to get out there,
perhaps not “should” that is, but could. So that was our
motivation, and here’s the How To.
Jordanian net-radio station gets state OK for FM broadcast
Jordanian net-radio station gets state OK for FM broadcast01/03/2005 12:14 PM Xeni Jardin:
Five years ago, Palestinian journalist Daoud
Kuttab launched an internet-only radio station in Jordan called
Ammannet. The group has finally received approval from the state to
request an FM license. With that move, Jordan enters the age of
independent radio broadcasting.
The license for AmmanNet doesn't include news reporting, but the
stations founder and owner feels that it has enough municipal issues,
cultural, social, and economical and sports programming to satisfy the
culturally hungry Jordanian public. "Since the new Audio Visual Law
was enacted, all the stations that have been licensed have broadcast
only music. We are sure that the public is interested in a more
holistic approach to broadcasting in the form of a community radio
rather than just entertainment radio."
Kuttab expects the new FM station to be operating by the spring.
Established in October 2000 under the auspices of UNESCO and the
Greater Amman Municipality, AmmanNet has since grown to become a
leading liberal voice, exercising a wider degree of freedom than most
Jordanian media operations. Among its programs on the Net is a unique
monitoring program of the Parliament and the Municipality, eye on the
media, school radio, sportsnet, IT in Arabic, book reviews, legal
awareness programs
(HAQI) and various cultural and artistic programs.
Link to Ammannet home page, and Link
to background on the project via UNESCO. Congratulations, Daoud.
From FM To Internet: Radio Station Survives Online
MSN Music hijacking radio station playlists?09/07/2004 07:53 PM So far, feedback for Microsoft's newly launched MSN Music has been pretty positive. Until now. SFGate.com is
reporting that more than 900 radio stations have complained after
Microsoft nabbed effective copies of their playlists.
Although some members might remember the old adage that to be copied
means one is admired, Radio station owners don't seem to be seeing it
this way. When they broadcast on-air, they have adverts; Microsoft are
broadcasting online without the adverts, and without the stations DJs.
Rob Bennett, senior director for MSN Entertainment commented "It
results in a more pleasant experience because you don't have the ads
or the DJs." How kind.
Not surprisingly, radio stations across the nation see this as
Microsoft piggy-backing their hard work, and an unfair way to compete
in the market. MSN Radio is part of MSN Music, and was largely over
looked when MSN Music launched. One of it's features is the 'localised
radio', offering content from 1,200 radio stations.
The current situation is arguably quite confusing. Microsoft label
sites with "like XY.Z FM" and then list what Microsoft
describe as a factual piece of information - the name - rather than a
trademark. One can't but wonder, if the tables were turned, would
there be trademark cease and desist letters being sealed?
Turn your iPod into a pirate radio station06/15/2004 10:12 AM Engadget has posted a HOWTO for hacking the iTrip wireless iPod
transmitter to increase its output and so turn your iPod into a pirate
radio station.
Link
My Very Own Radio Station Has Transformed My Listening Habits
David Byrne launches internet radio station03/28/2005 11:27 PM Xeni Jardin:
Musician and artist David Byrne,
known most widely as co-founder of the Talking Heads, has just
launched an internet
radio station that streams the music he digs. I spoke with Mr.
Byrne earlier today about the project for NPR's "Day
to Day." Part of the interview will be included in a segment
airing on the show tomorrow about filesharing and cultural change --
but here are more details about the radio project.
XJ: How do you feel about the fact that some
of your fans are downloading your music for free?
David Byrne: It's a mixed bag. Sure, I
would love to have compensation for that. But the argument of record
companies standing up for artists rights is such a load of hooey. Most
artists see nothing from record sales -- it's not an evil conspiracy,
it's just the way the accounting works. That's the way major record
labels are set up, from a purely pragmatic point of view. So as far as
the artist goes -- who cares? I don't see much money from record sales
anway, so I don't really care how people are getting it.
XJ: You've said that from an artist's
perspective, one creative challenge of a cultural shift towards
downloading individual songs is that when we're choosing what to
download -- whether for free, or from fee-based services -- we tend to
pick tunes we already know we like. Can you explain what you mean?
DB: I notice that the work of mine that
tends to be downloaded most is the typical stuff, the hit singles,
older Talking Heads material. From a creative point of view, the
downside of that is that it becomes a kind of lowest common
denominator -- you might not have as much of an opportunity to hear
the full range of an artist's work as when you're buying an album.
There's value in being exposed to things you didn't know you want.
When you walk down the street, you have experiences that are unplanned
and accidental that may expose you to new ideas, new things... it
isn't just a matter of running an errand, or acheiving a specific
goal. It's about the accidental things that happen to you along the
way.
XJ: So online radio is one way to invite
that sort of pleasant accident?
DB: I think so.
XJ: How tough was it to put the radio
project together?
DB: I was surprised at how easy it was.
There were legal issues to consider, licensing fees to be paid. But
there are a couple of companies out there who will do licensing for
you, and the fees weren't too prohibitive. Probably a larger fee than
an individual would be happy paying. The fee range means it's not like
everyone will be happy to put the contents of their ipods online any
time soon -- legally, anyway.
XJ: How do you find the music you like?
DB: Often, I buy CDs online. I like to
listen to a sample, see if it lives up to what I've heard. Usually
word of mouth or a review sends me looking. I've also downloaded -- I
guess you could say, illegally downloaded some songs, not that I do
this all the time -- to get an idea of how something sounds,
particularly if it's hard to find a decent sample at an online store.
XJ: What will we hear on Radio David Byrne?
DB: Basically, whatever I'm listening
to. I'll update it every couple of weeks. People sometimes ask me what
I'm listening to, and I'll reel off a list of records. About halfway
through the list, their eyes usually glaze over, and it's apparent
they've never heard of the artists. So I thought -- well, let's make
this easy. If people have any curiosity, let's make that stuff
available, let people see for themselves what they think.
Birth of a label-sanctioned pirate radio station05/02/2004 05:43 AM In the 1960s radio sucked badly; even worse than it does today. There
were no rock stations. The only rock and roll was played on the AM pop
station, and sparingly, at that. FM was relatively new, and the FM
stations only played easy listening, Jazz, etc. My dad listened to FM
95, which played Herb Alpert and the like; almost jazz, "easy
listening," boring music. There were two pop stations in town, one
of which lost its license around 1963 for a fraudulent on-air contest
that had people digging holes all over St. Louis, trespassing, etc,
and it turned out that the prize didn't exist. The station went dark,
and came back with new ownership and a country western format. This
left one bad pop station in the entire large metropolitan area. One
evening my dad wasn't home, so I turned on the stereo, a large
furniture-like thing, and was amazed that there was rock and roll
playing. Real rock and roll, unlike the schmaltz they played on the
pop station. What's more, it was in stereo!
Display real-time radio station info using Quicksilver
Display real-time radio station info using Quicksilver04/05/2005 11:49 AM I routinely listen to KEXP while studying, and listening to hear the
name of a song I like is a pain. Luckily, KEXP puts up real-time song
info for every track played. Going to the site, or even keeping it
open, is too much w...
"How-To Tuesday: Make your own Pirate Radio Station with an iPod - Engadget"
Radio Station Rapped for Anti-Sikh Insults (Reuters)
Radio Station Rapped for Anti-Sikh Insults (Reuters)03/31/2005 09:00 AM Reuters - A Canadian radio station was formally
reprimanded Wednesday after one of its presenters insulted
immigrants to Canada and then said the Sikhs of northern India
were "a gang of bozos."
iCompositions.com launches world's first Internet Radio Station for GarageBand
Radio Station Rapped for Muslim Terror Jibe (Reuters)
Radio Station Rapped for Muslim Terror Jibe (Reuters)01/27/2004 12:37 PM Reuters - A Canadian radio station was reprimanded
on Tuesday for saying Muslims only traveled to the holy city of
Mecca because they wanted to fund suicide attacks such as the
one that hit New York on Sept. 11, 2001.
Country and Bluegrass Internet Radio Station Nominated for Awards by Live365
heh. Google has this ad for their text-based Adsense system
that uses rich-media streaming flash with sound and movies (read: like
the annoying ads they created text ads to replace). Also, I wonder if
there was an internal Google company contest to find the employee that
most resembled cuter-than-cute dimpled Janie
Porche from the Apple Switch ads. [via david g]]
How-To Tuesday: Make your own Pirate Radio Station with an iPod - Engadget - www.engadget.com
boingboing.net/2005/03/28/david_byrne_launches.html track this
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Rover Transmits 'Spectacular' Mars Photos
Rover Transmits 'Spectacular' Mars Photos01/27/2004 03:59 PM A photograph showed a thin, layered bedrock that a NASA scientist said
was "something that we've never seen on Mars before."
Genetic Code Transmits Medical Records, Personalized Medicine
Genetic Code Transmits Medical Records, Personalized Medicine09/13/2004 04:11 PM If DNA code can hold the information for making an entire person,
surely it can do the same for an integrated medical record? Such is
the reasoning of the developers of the GMS (Genomic Messaging System).
Nepali media crackdown thwarted by bl0ggers
Nepali media crackdown thwarted by bl0ggers03/27/2005 06:18 PM Cory Doctorow:
Sage, of the International Nepal Solidarity Network sez, "The King of
Nepal closed all communications on February 1, and for 5 days Nepal
had no access to internet or phones. Since then there's been strict
censorship of the press."
Link
(Thanks, Sage!)
Nepali Reporters Take Democracy Fight to Cyberspace (Reuters)
Nepali Reporters Take Democracy Fight to Cyberspace (Reuters)03/23/2005 01:55 AM Reuters - Journalists in Nepal, one of the
world's poorest and most backward nations, are going hi-tech to
sidestep tight censorship imposed after last month's royal
coup. Grok Description matches for Banned Nepali radio station transmits via megaphone GrokA matches for Banned Nepali radio station transmits via megaphone
Banned Nepali radio station transmits via megaphone
The following phrases have been identified by the grok system as matching this entry:
View: 
XJ: How do you feel about the fact that some
of your fans are downloading your music for free?