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Home » blogs » Bess Kargman's blog

Open Source Radio is A Sound Salvation

by Bess Kargman on February 2, 2007 - 11:30am.

Radio is a sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
They say you better listen to the voice of reason
But they don’t give you any choice
‘cause they think that it’s treason.
So you had better do as you are told.
You better listen to the radio.

-Elvis Costello, “Radio Radio”

——-

If you’ve never seen Elvis Costello’s legendary SNL performance of “Radio Radio” from 1977, you can watch it here.

The song sharply criticizes the commercialization of mainstream radio (“They’re saying things that I can hardly believe”) and one can only imagine the shock NBC executives experienced that night considering their radio station was the very sort Costello condemned. Performing “Radio Radio” without warning at SNL got Costello banned from the show for 12 years.

Not all that much has changed in the world of terrestrial radio since then. Just look at the long list of radio stations Clear Channel owns.

But new media and technology is finally reversing the trend of putting “the radio in the hands of such a lot of fools tryin’ to anaesthetize the way that you feel,” as Costello would put it.

“I don’t see a single future for radio, as things seem to be splitting and recombining in interesting ways. When mobile operators are offering access to services like Rhapsody over 3G, satellite services like XM and Sirius are offering recording functions for their receivers, discovery services like Last.fm and Pandora are making it easier to find and listen to new music, and when community broadcasters are starting to regularly broadcast via the Web, I’m not sure there is a capital-R Radio any more, said Douglas Arellanes, Head of Research and Development at Campcaster. (See Full Intreview Here).

Campcaster is new open source software, launched by the Media Development Loan Fund, that essentially allows you to run your own station. It’s a bit like Pandora.com, where you can architect your own musical program and share it with others, but it comes with additional tools for audio broadcasting. Last month NewAssignment.Net wrote about Chicago Public Radio’s Secret Radio Project, which plans to air mostly user-generated content via a new format at a different frequency. Well, Campcaster essentially allows you to run your own station.

Best of all, Campcasting is free and on an open source platform, which means that anyone who knows code can make any changes to the software.

This means the media is being democratized on two levels. Everyone has a chance to get their voice heard “and the unsung heroes in broadcasting - the engineers - get something with its workings transparent and open for improvement; as opposed to commercial products, Campcaster is not a “black box” and has been specifically designed to encourage technical innovation,” said Arellanes. (See Full Intreview Here).

———

Bess Kargman, like most Amherst College graduates, is a hard-core Red Sox and Patriots fan. She is currently completing a graduate degree in Journalism at Columbia University, where she is concentrating in New Media and Radio. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post and she interns for the business radio show, “Marketplace” on National Public Radio.


Opensource

Submitted by magman on December 4, 2008 - 3:15pm.

Well, maybe we’re not quite there yet but this is good for everyone except the executives of commercial radio stations and record labels. saol kanka thanks you
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The process of moving to

Submitted by Anzela on December 3, 2008 - 12:40am.

The process of moving to digital terrestrial broadcasting theoretically could open up possibilities for small broadcasters, but I’m sure the process is going to be rife with politicking, as large broadcasters will seek to defend their interests (i.e. big stations should have stronger signals, but it all becomes irrelevant on a digital transmitter because they’re all on the same multiplex, and here in Europe at least they’re frequently on the same broadcast tower).online movies


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What I would be excited

Submitted by Anzela on November 27, 2008 - 12:00am.

What I would be excited about on this topic is that many of the restrictions get lifted or lessened on radio waves. Allow the home user to have a larger transmitter, then some one can sell kits that would be able to broadcast to a wider audience then to everyone in your apartment building.
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Open Souce

Submitted by software informatie (not verified) on December 13, 2007 - 11:02am.

Yes what about those if it is the freedom of speech and information why not free phone service and internet after all we would be dead without communication


Open Source Radio

Submitted by maureen o (not verified) on February 3, 2007 - 8:41am.

Yeah, there was a time when “the airwaves belonged to the people” — anyone remember that? Sounds like this is a step in the right direction.

Most of what’s commercially broadcast today is really not worth listening to. I used to be a huge fan of radio.

Conceptually, I love radio’s immediacy, and intimacy. That air of mystery is also very intriguing to me.
peace out.


At last

Submitted by ajr (not verified) on February 3, 2007 - 5:34am.

Well, maybe we’re not quite there yet but this is good for everyone except the executives of commercial radio stations and record labels.

What’s been missing is the ability to choose something you like, not just from what’s on air at the time. Podcasting has been a great thing to happen to my day-to-day life because it provides more choices and the chance to not have to choose one thing over another. In addition it opens the door to new content that doesn’t follow the typical radio concept.

One of the key aspects of the digital revolution is removing the gatekeepers. Imagine if radio eventually became about what people wanted to hear instead of selling.

Open Source everything please.


Not quite in the hands of everyone yet.

Submitted by ben hengst (not verified) on February 3, 2007 - 5:12am.

As great as these step are they are not a complete tearing down of the system. The software that can run a station can be free, even the station can let everyone in the door, but we still have an access problem. Radio towers and transmitters are still under governmental control. Not that is a completely bad thing, I truly think that some regulation is needed, but because of that I can not start my own broadcast station that can complete with any of the commercial channels here in town.

What I would be excited about on this topic is that many of the restrictions get lifted or lessened on radio waves. Allow the home user to have a larger transmitter, then some one can sell kits that would be able to broadcast to a wider audience then to everyone in your apartment building.

Thanks for reporting on the topic anyway, any news on forward movement on the topic is a good thing.


Re: Not quite in the hands of everyone yet.

Submitted by Douglas Arellanes (not verified) on February 4, 2007 - 11:19pm.

Ben, I couldn’t agree with you more. Our solution is primarily aimed at organizations that already have a license, or have decided to bypass the licensing process and go straight to streaming.

However, I wanted to point out that the next decade will see a very important change in the way the spectrum is handled; moving to digital TV is already underway, but I expect to see a move to terrestrial digital radio in the next few years as well. And if you have to buy a whole bunch of new equipment (imagine replacing all the radios in your house, for example), it might be more economical to just buy a wi-fi radio instead, or just to skip the process altogether and listen to ‘radio’ through your mobile phone.

The process of moving to digital terrestrial broadcasting theoretically could open up possibilities for small broadcasters, but I’m sure the process is going to be rife with politicking, as large broadcasters will seek to defend their interests (i.e. big stations should have stronger signals, but it all becomes irrelevant on a digital transmitter because they’re all on the same multiplex, and here in Europe at least they’re frequently on the same broadcast tower).

If authorities aren’t careful, small - and even medium - broadcasters might just walk away from terrestrial radio altogether in favor of other distribution methods like streaming over 3G mobile, satellite or even streaming over community wi-fi.

It will also open up an interesting scenario when all these FM radios and TVs will sit around unused because there’s nothing available on them. That might open up interesting opportunities for ‘pirate’ broadcasters, but it will also mean more dead media lying around the house.


Opensource

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on February 3, 2007 - 4:33am.

What about open source phone service? Or internet service?