Funferal

The future of college radio

As I mentioned in my piece on podcasting, I gave a talk to the Radio Society in Galway while I was home, looking at the future of college radio. I include my notes below. They’re in rather abbreviated form, but should give an idea of what I covered.

1. The past
   • Brief history of college radio in Ireland / USA / elsewhere
     • How Flirt FM is funded (student fee). Mention that this was not always the case, and may not always continue.
   • The two models of community radio in Ireland
     

     [Note: The features listed below are examples, preliminary, and somewhat simplistic. I hope to work on better defining the categories at a later point, and that talk/paper should be available at/through funferal.org, or by request by email]

     • The community development model
       • Providing quality programming to target audience is the priority
       • In college radio, give students the programming they should be listening to
       • Linked to public service model of broadcasting
       • Communities are improved through access to a ‘full’ range of programming about them, such as documentaries and feature interviews, and localised versions of standard types and topics.
     • The radical inclusive model (the Flirt FM model [I may retitle this the Galway model, given that one of the best known examples internationally is Margaretta D’Arcy’s Radio Pirate Woman])
       • Equal access to airtime for everyone as the priority.
       • Role of station is to facilitate people in creating themselves through their broadcasting
       • Communities create and define themselves through expressing themselves on air.
   • Innovations in the past (where college radio has been ahead of others)
     • SMSs
     • Programme styles
     • Website, email address
2. Perennial issues for college radio
   • Inclusivity vs expertisation – models of community radio. Positioning oneself in the debate. An ongoing struggle. Not necessarily binary.
   • Volunteerism
   • Finance. Refer back to Flirt FM funding
   • Space of resistance? Politicization?
3. What stays the same
   • People, stories and interviews
     • Lorelei Harris, Dreaming of Fat Men
     • TG4 interview with man in his 80s, about his life and thoughts. Nothing remarkable, just drawing him out and getting him to express himself.
   • Identification and selection of cultural items
     • Music, a/v, fashion
     • not just critics and DJs
   • College/Student news service
4. Main challenges/opportunities of the future
   • Digital Radio. DAB.
   • File-sharing, iPod as 21st century walkman
     • And MS’s ‘Radio without DJ chatter’ service
     • how does this speak to how radio is understood, and what its role will become?
   • Webcasting [Drawing in large part on the paper by David Park at AoIR 2004 here]
     • re-envisioning the audience
     • Good and bad impact for localism and dynamism of station
       • Alumns continue to listen. Want station to stay the same. Help prevent pressue to standardise (this is more an American issue, I think) as otherwise they might as well listen to a station where they now are
       • But unique thing about college radio is rapid cultural change, as personnel change every 2.5-3 years. Former students and volunteers shouldn’t have too much sway, or they can cause calcification, and cause station to stay as they had it, not move with student body.
       • Reference increasing Dance music on Flirt FM over time.
     • Funding from Paypal donations – change in who is supporting the station
     • Even more pressure from the ‘always-on’ model
     • Is it OK not to use this outlet?
     • Are there other innovative technologies that can be adopted?
   • WiFi, alternative outlets
     • Change from broadcast model? Multi-directional/2-directional?
     • Change from limited number of outlets to lots of outlets?
     • Multi-media (opportunity and challenge)