Radio
How radio station formats are built and maintained
A station's format is its promise to listeners — here's how programmers pick one, defend it, and bend it for the specialty shows that keep things interesting.
Radio
Community stations, specialist shows and internet streams: who is broadcasting, what they play, and how a live hour is assembled and held together.
Radio
Why college radio still breaks artists first
No playlist algorithm, no corporate gatekeeper — just a rotating staff of students with taste and nothing to lose, charting on their own paper.
Radio
How does a song get added to college radio rotation?
From a volunteer music director's inbox to a weekly national chart report, here's the actual mechanism behind a college radio add.
Radio
How radio audience measurement actually works
Diaries, portable meters, and surveys — the unglamorous machinery that decides who gets advertisers, who gets a license renewal, and what you hear.
Radio
The strange culture of the late-night radio host
Overnight radio has its own rituals, its own legends, and its own intimacy — a broadcast tradition built for the hours when almost everyone else is asleep.
Radio
Who preserves decades of radio broadcasts, and why it matters
Most of radio history was broadcast once and erased — the institutions racing to save what remains are libraries, national archives, and volunteers.