Monday, July 6, 2009

College Radio Tidbits: Programming Changes at KUT and WUFT, WZBC's Radio Enlightenment, College Radio DJs and Free Music


A few college radio-related items to report:

Programming Changes at KUT and WUFT
Now that it's summertime, college radio news is a bit sparse. However, there's still lots of action on the public radio front. Public radio stations KUT (University of Texas) and WUFT (University of Florida) have announced some programming changes. According to Austin360.com, KUT will be reducing the hours of some locally-produced evening shows in order to make room for a new local music show starting tomorrow night (hosted by assistant music director Matt Reilly) and for the syndicated night-time show Undercurrents.

Similarly, WUFT is expanding the amount of programming that it airs from National Public Radio and will also increase its classical programming on one of its HD channels, according to an article in University of Florida News.

KMSU Gets Local "Station of the Year" Award
According to a piece on Fox 12's website, Minnesota State University radio station KMSU has

"won the 2008 'Station of the Year' by the Association of Minnesota Public Educational Radio Stations.The station earned the award for its infrastructure improvements, adding a remote portable studio in the student union, and winning the 2009 Pathfinder Award."

Radio Enlightenment on WZBC
I remember catching a bit of the WZBC (Boston College) radio show "Lucid Sounds/Expanding Awareness" as I was driving around Boston during a recent trip. It was an interesting collage of astrology reporting, Tangerine Dream-like music, and spoken word. The Musings from Boston blog seems to be posting regular updates about the long-time show (the host is a psychic and has been doing his radio gig for more than 30 years), including this plug for the most recent installment on July 4th. You can listen to archives of the show from the WZBC website too.

Perk of College Radio DJ Gig: Free Music
On her blog, musician Allison Weiss lists off all the ways that one can get her music for free. She reveals that one of the perks of being a college radio DJ or music journalist is free music and provides a press link for those with aforementioned credentials. It's kind of interesting to see how she acknowledges the challenges in getting people to pay for music. Of course there's a strategy behind that and I bet she's hoping that people will dig her honesty so much that they'll pony up and pay for a CD or two.

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