IBS 2010 Conference Recap - Guest Post by Michael Nevradakis

To wrap up Spinning Indie's coverage of the 70th annual Intercollegiate Broadcasting System's conference, I'm happy to present a guest blog post from one of the conference organizers: Michael Nevradakis. In addition to being a college radio veteran and enthusiast, he's also a graduate student in the Radio-TV-Film program at University of Texas, Austin. Thanks to Michael for giving us the inside scoop on what went down at the March conference in New York City!

IBS Conference Round-Up by Michael Nevradakis

This year, the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS) is celebrating its 70th anniversary. Since its foundation in 1940, IBS has been at the forefront of representing the interests of college and high school radio stations throughout the United States and beyond. This mission continues to this day through such efforts as the organization’s political and legal support for college radio stations and webcasters regarding copyrights and royalties, and through the guidance IBS provides to schools, colleges and universities who are looking to start their own radio station.

Not only is 2010 the 70th anniversary of the foundation of IBS, but it is also the 70th anniversary of the organization’s National College Radio & Webcasting Conference. From March 5th to 7th, over a thousand representatives from college, high school and other non-commercial and community radio outlets congregated at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City for a conference featuring over 200 speakers and panelists, including some important names in music and broadcasting, and sat in on over 115 different sessions, panels, workshops and tours.

And, most significantly, this year’s conference included the awarding of the first annual IBS College Radio Awards (click here to read Amber Wilmot’s post on the awards). Students who attended represented college radio stations from as far away as California and Hawaii.

Johnny "Juice" Rosado, Michael Nevradakis, and Chuck D

This year’s conference kickoff session featured Chuck D and Johnny "Juice" Rosado of Public Enemy, who spoke to a packed house for over an hour about their music and careers and more, and who graciously stayed for quite a while after the end of the session to speak with the students in the audience individually, answering questions, taking photos and signing autographs.

Chuck D and Johnny “Juice” Rosado were not the only famous names who spoke at this year’s conference, however. Well-known radio personalities such as Dr. Joy Browne, Broadway Bill Lee, Jonathan Clarke, Marc “The Cope” Coppola, Maria Milito, Joey Reynolds and Jimmy Fink were joined by the likes of Josh Silver (Executive Director of Free Press), Valerie Geller (author of “Creating Powerful Radio”), Alec Foege (author of “Right of the Dial: The Rise of Clear Channel and the Fall of Commercial Radio), and Larry Miller (the legendary pioneer of the “underground” FM radio movement of the 1960s).

In addition, representatives from CMJ, Democracy Now!, Sirius XM Satellite Radio, the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE), Arbitron, the Radio Research Consortium (RRC), the Digital Media Association, Pacifica Radio, the Long Island Music Hall of Fame, the Columbia Journalism Review, and vTuner, as well as numerous record labels, also spoke at the conference.

Many interesting new session topics comprised this year’s conference program. “Globalization: Virtual Study Abroad” featured the efforts of Simmons College in Boston, which has teamed up with the African University College of Communications in Ghana to develop a “virtual study abroad” program, utilizing new media platforms such as social networking sites and the internet radio stations at both schools.

“Building a Locally-Based Radio and Music Network” focused on a new effort that has been undertaken by Artists 4 Music Diversity to link local stations and venues with new and established artists, and to share artist-donated music with local stations for programming collaborations and mutual fundraising. Another new initiative, College Newsnet International, an exciting new online effort that aims to serve as the “Youtube” for college journalism students from around the world, was also introduced at this year’s conference.

Finally, Larry Miller’s session, “The 60s and the Birth of Underground Radio,” looked at the radio revolution that took place in the 1960s which led to the birth of underground radio. These sessions were accompanied by a large assortment of more practical panel discussions and workshops focusing on such topics as finding a job in a difficult economy, morning show production and preparation, the future of music and the music industry, show prep, music
licensing/copyright/royalty issues, social networking, remote broadcasts, streaming, podcasting, publicity and marketing, FCC licensing, automation, voiceovers, a résumé workshop, aircheck critiques, and more.

Students who attended this year’s conference also had the opportunity to take part in several tours of such venues as the Paley Center for Media (the former Museum of Television and Radio), the new studios of Clear Channel radio in New York City, and the broadcast facilities atop the Empire State Building. In addition to these tours, two “Backpack Journalism Excursions” were also organized, offering students the opportunity to learn to shoot great video right on the streets of New York City, and how to edit and post their work online for a worldwide audience.


Finally, students had the opportunity to win tickets to live shows featuring RJD2 and Titus Andronicus in New York City, and to take home lots of free “swag,” ranging from magazines to CDs, but perhaps most importantly of all, a plethora of new knowledge and a lot of new contacts resulting from a weekend’s worth of networking.

While the next IBS national conference will be next March 4th-6th, once again at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City, IBS coast-to-coast regional conferences are coming up this fall in Boston (Saturday, October 9th), Chicago (Saturday, October 23rd) and Los Angeles (Saturday, December 4th).

I personally would like to thank all of the speakers, panelists, and all the great and talented students and their advisers who attended the conference and who made this year’s event one of the best in the 70 year history of the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System! A special congratulations goes out as well to all the winners of this year’s IBS College Radio Awards. The IBS Board, staff and volunteers thank everyone who attended for a great conference!

IBS College Radio Awards Winners - Guest Post by Amber Wilmot

Some of the action at the 2010 IBS Conference
Photo courtesy IBS

The Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS) wrapped up their 70th annual conference in New York City two weekends ago. Although I couldn't be there to catch all of the educational sessions, radio station field trips, and schmoozing; I'm happy to be able to present some blog coverage by Simmons College student and radio DJ Amber Wilmot. Thanks so much to Amber for sending along her post about the IBS College Radio Awards winners.


IBS College Radio Awards and Winners – By Amber Wilmot


The Zurich Suite at the Hotel Pennsylvania was packed with delegates and presenters to hear the list of winners. Over 20 awards were presented to different colleges and radio talents. Winners received either a certificate or small radio trophy.

The major winner at this years conference was DePaul University from Chicago, Illinois. DePaul Radio took home nine awards ranging from Best Newscast to Most Creative Show. Congratulations to all of the IBS Radio Winners!

2010 IBS Award Winners

NEWS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS:

Best Newscast- Jason Shough, Erin Olson and Lars Weborg
Radio DePaul, DePaul University, Chicago, IL

Best News Feature Story- Anthony Costulos
WPPJ-AM, Point Park University, Pittsburgh, PA

Best Spot News- “Daley Plaza Reaction” Charles Haines, John Kristoff and Lars Weborg
Radio DePaul, DePaul University, Chicago, IL

Best Community News Coverage- "Chicago's Losing Bid," by Charles Haines and Lars Weborg Radio DePaul, DePaul University, Chicago, IL

Best Public Affairs Program- WCRX News Team
WCRX-FM, Columbia College Chicago

Best Public Affairs Series- Drew Pickering and Tyler Montgomery
WMTS-FM, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN

Best Public Service Announcement- Katie Fox
Eagle Radio, Central Methodist University, Fayette, MO

SPORTS:

Best Sports Play-by-Play
WPPJ-AM, Point Park University, Pittsburgh, PA

Best Sports Talk Program- The Sports Take
WVYC-FM, York College of Pennsylvania, York, PA

Best Sports Update- Lars Weborg
Radio DePaul, DePaul University, Chicago, IL

PRODUCTION:

Best Promo Series
All Independent Radio, New England Institute of Art, Brookline, MA

Best Station Promo- Nick Freedman
Radio DePaul, DePaul University, Chicago, IL

Best Show Promo- Andrea Tessereau
Eagle Radio, Central Methodist University, Fayette, MO

ON-AIR:

Best On-Air Personality- Matt Palumbo
WCRX-FM, Columbia College, Chicago, IL

Best Specialty Music Show- "Sounds from the Underground," Lee MD Dickman
WCRX-FM, Columbia College Chicago

Best Talk Program- Gary Young and Chris DiPizzo
WSPC Radio, St. Peter’s College, Jersey City, NJ

Most Innovative Programming- Ben Gappa and Shan Kahn
Radio DePaul, DePaul University, Chicago, IL

Most Creative Show- "The Midnight Rider," Nick Freedman
Radio DePaul, DePaul University, Chicago, IL

Best Specialty Show- "The EY Christmas Special," Tyler Montgomery
WMTS-FM, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfressboro, TN

MULTI-MEDIA:

Best Website
WVYC, York College of Pennsylvania, York PA

OVERALL:

Abraham & Borst Award for Best Radio Station in the Nation
Radio DePaul, DePaul University, Chicago, IL

A Global Look at Radio: 2009 Radio Conference Report by Nick Rubin

Main Buildings on the York Campus

I am SO disappointed to have missed a recent radio conference in Canada called The Radio Conference 2009: A Transnational Forum; but am super pleased that fellow DJ/radio scholar Nick Rubin was able to go and report back for Spinning Indie. Happening every other year (in changing locales) since 2001, this international conference brings together a wide range of radio scholars.

I met Nick (virtually) when I discovered that he had presented a paper about college radio at the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) conference in 2008 and had him send me a copy of it so that I could write about it for Spinning Indie. We've been in touch ever since, as it's a very small group of us who write about college radio from an academic perspective (or from any perspective, really).

Huge thanks to Nick for his great insights about the July conference. It sounds like lots of good geeky radio scholar fun.

Here's his recap:


The Radio Conference 2009: A Transnational Forum

Conference Report by Nick Rubin

Hey y'all. My name's Nick Rubin and I'm a PhD student at the University of Virginia, working on a dissertation on college radio during the late-seventies/early eighties. I'm also a DJ at UVA's WTJU, and have worked at a few other college/community/public stations through the years.

Thanks to Jennifer for asking me to blog the conference; I've loved reading Spinning Indie, and I'm excited to be a contributor, in whatever minimal capacity. And if anybody reading this would be willing to share experiences/impressions of college radio in the late-seventies/early eighties, please contact me at nickrubin@virginia.edu.

Thanks.

The Radio Conference: A Transnational Forum was held July 26-30 at York University, in Toronto. Actually, it was on the extreme northern edge of Toronto, and the heart of the city was visible only as a thin, distant layer of smog. York itself was ringed by parking lots and several square blocks of brand-new, mostly-empty brownstones – the area was, in a word, uninviting.

But the remote locale facilitated a close-knit meeting, with radio scholars representing all continents besides Antarctica. A substantial contingent from Australia, New Zealand, and the UK led a nightly charge to the one nearby sports bar, and Anne McLennan of York's Media and Culture department made sure the panels ran on time. She also hooked us up with lunch and dinner each day. It sort of felt like summer camp.

The Southern View from York U

I attended this biennial conference in Lincoln, UK in 2007, and was struck then by the variety of topics addressed, partly attributable to the global provenance of the inquiries. In the U.S., music, news, and talk programming have long dominated the radioscape, shrinking our expectations along with our experiences - when’s the last time you turned on commercial radio and were genuinely surprised or bewildered by what you heard?

The medium’s possibilities dwarf its present implementation in the U.S., so it was useful to hear of radio as drama, as activism, as instruction, as propaganda. The papers suggested a multitude of directions not just for college radio scholars, but for college radio. How much are college stations testing the limits of terrestrial radio as an artistic medium? I've never done a show that wasn't spinning discs, so I can't claim to be pushing any boundaries – I'm just wondering…

Social Impact of Radio

Keynote speaker Michael Keith called for the faculty members present to teach more classes on social impact, laying out a litany of instances when radio made a difference in local politics or served as a voice for underrepresented groups. This made me wonder how much one could claim a social impact through musical programming. One interesting moment came when Keith told the crowd that college students might get interested in radio if we pointed out that these days, "radio" also means internet radio, podcasting, digital radio, etc.

I've gotta say this claim has never sat well with me, because it sounds vaguely misleading and because radio as I understand it (terrestrial radio) stands to lose out if it appears on a platter with all these other media. Andrew Dubber elegantly turned around Keith's assertion, offering "maybe we should say that broadcasting is more than just radio now." Right away, this sounded more intellectually honest while maintaining terrestrial radio as a unique endeavor – particularly valuable, irreplaceable even.

HD Radio in U.S., WFMU's Real-time Chat Rooms,
and What it Means to be a Radio Listener

That said, the most interesting papers I saw on the first day weren't about radio in this specific sense. Michael Huntsberger (Linfield College, Oregon) recounted the botching of HD radio in the U.S. context, expanding his purview to consider examples of "value-added" terrestrial radio, such as WFMU's real-time internet chatrooms, where listeners discuss the music on the air or more likely, something totally unrelated. Huntsberger paraphrased WFMU Manager Ken Freedman; the chatrooms are like a party where FMU provides the site and the music, and the guests can talk about whatever they're talking about.

It made me think of the ways that we conceive of our listeners and the way we intend our shows – are they meant as background or as close listening, for solitary listeners or groups? And it made me think of the ways that changing technologies have externally affected our modes of listening to radio; i.e., the existence of music streams on the internet makes us listen differently to a radio station, whether or not the station itself has a stream. Do we subconsciously acknowledge or respond to this as DJs, and how much should we even think about it?

African-American CB Radio Culture and Relation to College Radio

Angela Blake (Ryerson University, Toronto) examined African-American CB radio culture, a welcome reminder that the Citizens' Band comprised (and still comprises) more than just the working-class white truck drivers of seventies' lore. Blake linked African-American CB culture to games like the dozens and to hip hop emceeing, which on one hand seemed to reinscribe borders of black cultural activity, but on the other hand, located it in an unexpected site, causing a reevaluation of CB.

Blake's paper made me think of radio stations at traditionally-black colleges, and the way that these stations are often implicitly erased from "college radio" because of the way that the term is so casually equated with, you know, predominantly white kids spinning tunes by predominantly white musicians for a predominantly white audience. I know that "rock" is a contested field, but would applying "college rock radio" to the scenario just described remind us that it only represents one strain of college radio?

New British Invasion and College Radio

My paper was about the "New British Invasion" in the early eighties mainstream, and college radio's relation to the phenomenon. Briefly, when the synthpop bands started breaking huge here in the States (thanks in large part to MTV), there was a backlash from many angles: synthpop wasn't real rock; it was linked to the twin evils of disco and punk; the dudes wore makeup; etc. College stations had largely supported these bands as imports, but a self-image as gatekeepers to the underground led them to turn more to regional American scenes as the English bands hit the mainstream. There's a lot to tease out, but it sparked some interesting discussion, which was pretty exciting. I'll let y'all know if I publish it some day.

Also on my panel was a paper about the rise and fall of the "Alternative/ Modern Rock" format. The speaker's background included record promotion and commercial radio, as well as record promotion, and he was concerned with reviving the format, rather than analyzing what makes modern rock modern rock, which as a music head, I would have been really interested in. In any case, our papers dovetailed nicely, and (in a reverse echo of what I said at the beginning of this post), some of the folks there said it was nice to hear papers about music formats.

Radio History: 1930s Aboriginal Recordings, 1960s Pirate Radio in New Zealand, Commercial Radio in Canada in the 1970s-1990s, Finland Radio in the 1990s, etc.

The other papers hinted at the range of possibilities for radio scholarship – one examined the ethical issues of an expedition undertaken in the 1930s to record (and broadcast) aboriginal musical activity, and more importantly, of the efforts to repatriate the recordings with the source communities. Others recounted Radio Hauraki, New Zealand's 1960s pirate radio station; the shifting policies of the Canadian government to shape commercial radio programming from 1975-1990; the narrowcasting developments in the Finnish radioscape during the 1990s; and the neoliberal social sensibilities inculcated by This American Life.

The range of approaches and topics was pretty staggering, and suggested the vast intellectual space out there for radio scholarship. At the same time, I wondered about the audience for such inquiries, as radio's social impact – while remaining considerable – seems to have been far outstripped in the present context by "new social media" outlets. Radio folks are obviously interested in radio; can we convince communications departments and publishers that others are as well? The pessimistic view is that radio – including college radio – is in crisis; it's pretty much history. But isn't the crisis worth examining? What are the social, economic, and legal forces in play? What are the cultural ramifications?

There's plenty to talk (and write) about, as the Radio Conference proved. Thanks to Jennifer for asking me to report back to y'all.

College Radio in Sin City: BEA Conference Report by Kyle Barnett

Vegas at Night
Photo by Alex Koch

One of my frustrations as a blogger is that I can't be everywhere that I want to be. Recently, I've missed a bunch of college radio and indie music-related conferences that I'm sure would have been both fun and full of fodder for Spinning Indie.

So, I'm grateful to my friend Kyle Barnett for being my eyes and ears at last month's Broadcast Education Association (BEA) conference in Las Vegas. Kyle and I met in Bowling Green, Ohio back in the late 1990s when we were both grad students and college radio DJs at WBGU. I'm always drawn to people who are not only music fans, but also enjoy theorizing about it, so we were fast friends. And now, Kyle's got one of the coolest jobs in the world. Not only is he a bona fide academic, but he's also the faculty advisor of the college radio station, Bellarmine Radio, at Bellarmine University in Kentucky.

Thanks to Kyle and his crew for sharing their tales from Sin City!

Bellarmine Radio Folks Alex and Nick and NAB
Photo by Kyle Barnett

BEA Conference Report
by Kyle Barnett

I arrived in Las Vegas from Louisville for the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) conference in late April, with two undergraduates from Bellarmine University, where I teach media studies classes and serve faculty advisor of Bellarmine Radio. With me was Nick Mattingly, the station’s incoming station manager and Alex Koch, program director. I had wanted to attend BEA for a few years; in part to expose my students to what else is happening in college radio, and in part to find out what those stations were doing on the Internet. Like many newer campus stations, Bellarmine Radio is an Internet-only operation, for now (more on that later). We started from the premise that college courses should introduce you to new ideas and that college radio should do the same. You start reading different books at college, why shouldn’t you start listening to different songs? We headed to BEA in hopes of hearing from others about their experiences with college radio, particularly those also on the Internet.

Photo by Alex Koch

The BEA conference is part of a series of events tied to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) annual convention, itself a flurry of activity, with panels and exhibitors from the around the world. For the first few days, the “NAB show” overlaps with the BEA conference. The choice of the word “show” is no accident. The event is designed to dazzle. Exhibitors entice attendees with the latest this-or-that, from radio automation software to ultra high definition television to 3D images and sounds. Students from James Madison University created this video while at the conference.

Photo by Alex Koch

The Broadcast Education Association conference, the academic wing of an otherwise big-money industry event, seems modest in comparison. Though most know Las Vegas as Sin City, it is also Conference City. Each year, Las Vegas is at or near the top of the list for cities with the greatest convention business. However, it doesn’t follow that conferences in Las Vegas are necessarily robust or vibrant. The problem at BEA – and countless other conferences, I’m sure – is that the call of the Vegas strip is too great for most people to stay put. We too hit the casinos; don’t get me wrong. But for too many the week’s recipe was: Go to your panel, give your paper, and forget the conference.

Photo by Kyle Barnett

Despite this, BEA did have its stalwarts – and interesting presentations. “The Benefits and Potential of Internet Radio” panel led to an interesting discussion, centered on varying opinions about whether web radio should retain or jettison a sense of localism (my answer is a resounding yes, which is why I find satellite radio’s lack of place so bothersome). For some on the panel they found a perceived “death of localism” as freeing, while I enjoy experiencing “local” radio from near and far, via the web. For me, localism still defines radio, even in the digital age).

Harrah's Mens Room
Photo by Kyle Barnett

At the “Convergence on a Dime: Student Media Migration to the Web” panel, there was also a lot of talk about using the Internet to promote radio stations and to aggregate content between student media forms (radio, television, print). Like many Internet college radio stations, we’ve experienced the strange fact that we have listeners from St. Louis to Shanghai but are still largely unknown in the city of Louisville. The web can potentially solve that, but we also left the conference aware that we’re just one needle in an ever-expanding haystack.

Surprisingly, there was little discussion of musical content, genres, or formats. Most of those presenting at BEA were faculty advisors, whom seemed more teaching technological skills and encouraging professionalization. I’m sure a college radio conference (preferably one where students were better represented in the conversation) would have had much more discussion on music. The topic of format rarely came up, though there were some interesting exceptions. We learned that Belmont University’s cable radio station, The Voice, only features musical content from its music students (!). What was perhaps most troubling was that when format was considered, it was often in the service of appealing to alumni, whose dollars are more important to universities than ever, in an era of dwindling federal funding and tighter purse strings.

Bellarmine Radio Folks in Las Vegas
Photo by Kyle Barnett

As for my students, they came away from BEA energized and feeling good about what we were doing. Since arriving at Bellarmine in 2006, the students and I dismantled a classic rock format inherited from my predecessor, partnered with a low-power FM station that carried our signal, and is now investigating the possibilities of our signal being carried via HD Radio – a move that other college radio stations are considering with a mix of excitement and trepidation.

We came away feeling ahead of the curve in terms of college radio on the web. On the other hand, we had a vague sense of concern, too – over growing pressures to “professionalize” college radio, to take it out of the hands of students, reducing radio to an exercise in job training or public relations. The people who understand the importance of college radio, its larger educative and democratic promise, know how much more it can be. After our trip to BEA, we left with a stronger sense that we in college radio will need to work harder at protecting what we’ve created.

Thanks Kyle for a great report!