Media Studies: Radio, Old, New & Streaming

Many of these Web sites offer RealAudio versions of their programming. If you do not already have Realplayer installed, click on this button to get it.

Audience Research Analysis - ARAnet: Research for public radio clients, NPR and affliates in particular.
See also: Radio Research Consortium (RRC online)

Antique Radio Museum: "The Bellingham Antique Radio Museum is a private collection gathered over the past 20 years by Jonathan Winter... The goal is to provide information on the history of radio, and photos with discriptions of many early radios. Many of the pictures will be of the more unusual radios of the past. We will also have sound bites of early significant radio broadcasts, and the occasional short film clip if useful."
Arbitron: The company that provides ratings data for most radio stations. They offer instructional materials on audience measurement and ratings as well as several studies on radio audiences and Internet radio in PDF format.
ARS ACUSTICA International: "...serves as a node for the exchange of radio art productions, project proposals, for the exchange of information about activities and events in the field of media-art in the different countries, for the discussion of current trends in the theory and practice of radio-art and connected fields, and for the realisation of co-productions."
Ask Dr. Science: He knows more than you do. Also the place to find the Duck's Breath Mystery Theatre.
Association of Independents in Radio (AIR): This radio freelancers organization offers a small but thoughtful selection of helpful how-to articles and a very small but valuable page of links in addition to organizational details.
Bob and Ray: Bob and Ray took radio-induced imagination to delightfully absurd heights. RealAudio listening, information about which public radio stations are airing these classics, and opportunity to order cassettes & CDs. Don't pass up the profile of tha reknown reporter Wally Ballou.
Car Talk: The Magliozzi brothers' home on the web
Harry Shearer - Le Show: From KCRW, Santa Monica this eclectic mix of music and comedy sketches by Harry Sherer can be heard via RealAudio.
Hearing Voices: A Mini-Museum of Radio Artistry: RealAudio samples from some of the best independent radio producers: Barrett Golding, Jay Allison, Kitchen Sisters, David Isay, Scott Carrier, and John Rieger.
The Jerry Lee On-Line Archive: A Visual History of Broadcasting: A representative sampling of the Library of American Broadcasting's more than 20,000 photographs of images from radio and television history. "To date, the photographs have been sorted into the following groups: Actors, Comedians, Disk Jockeys, and Announcers. As the project continues, more subjects will be added, such as: studio equipment, stations across the country, microphones, children's programs, hosts, and the radio program, Vox Pop."
Joe Frank: Even if you live in a Joe Frank deprived place you can sample his dark and marvelous radio meditations from KCRW via RealAudio.
Kunstradio: Experimental art radio by international artists, broadcast and RealAudio-cast from Austria.
Native Media Resource Center: Peggy Berryhill has been producing and organizing on behalf of Native American radio for many years. Here you will find information on American Native radio stations and programs, descriptions of media projects, links to other Native and broadcast sites and recovery resources.
New American Radio: For several years this organization was a distribution and funding umbrella for a number of independent and experimental radio artists. While it is no longer distributing radio programs you can still listen to excerpts here and read provocative critiques and musings on the nature, past and future, of radio.
Old Time Radio: If you are interested in radio programs from "radio's golden age", these are the WWW pages for you. They are filled with many entertaining and educational topics for fans of nostalgic / old-time radio shows. --Lou Genco
Old Time Radio Show Catalog: OTRCAT.com is dedicated to the preservation of the golden era of radio (old time radio). As well as hearing thousands of old time radio episodes online, visitors to
OTRCAT.com can stream or download full episodes in Mp3 format and read detailed descriptions of the performers and series broadcast between 1920 - 1959. In the 'daily downloads', there are the broadcasts of the day throughout history (from the last 50-70+ years).
PublicRadioFan.com: The best single gateway to streaming audio from Public Radio stations all over the U.S and some from other countries. Find specific radio stations or get a list of programs being broadcast during the current hour, or look up programs by name or type.
Radio 4 All: A collection of radical (left) radio initiatives -- micro radio, Free Pacifica archives and other community radio links. Of special interest: "Audio about the struggle to save community radio at Pacifica."
Radio Program Archive: The fruits of Marvin R. Bensman's 25-years of collecting radio programs resides at the Microforms Department of the McWherter Library at the University of Memphis. The catalog for a representative sampling of most series and shows from is available online here and cassette dubs of the programs can be ordered here. You can also find articles by professor Bensman on the history of radio.
Radio's Leading Indicator: From Arbitron, the radio audience research company: "Primer on audience ratings and how they impact radio revenue designed to help investors measure the financial health of radio groups and assess future revenue performance." Requires Adobe Acrobat
Seeing Ear Theatre: The Sci-Fi Channel has recently added RealAudio (3.0 or later) renderings of original, classic, and adapted science fiction stories. New stories are offered biweekly, weekly, and monthly, respectively.
Sound Portraits Productions: "A Sound Portrait is an audio profile of men and women surviving in the margins. It is a radio program that depicts the lives of Americans living in communities that are neglected or misunderstood. It is a story told with care and dignity. Often we collaborate with people living in hard-to-access corners of America, giving them tape recorders and microphones and helping them to tell their own stories."
Soundprint Media Center: Soundprint is the best documentary series on radio, produced by the finest free-lance producers in the U.S. for National Pubic Radio. At this site you will find program descriptions and the means to order cassettes, supplementary material for radio series, producer guidelines, links to other public radio sites, station lists carrying the program with local broadcast times, and more.
What Women Want: From Urban Radio: A study from Arbitron, the primary radio audience measurement company/ Requires Adobe Acrobat

Radio Networks

Pacifica Radio: Pacifica invented listener-sponsored radio in 1949. This web page starts, as Pacifica did, at station KPFA in Berkeley and takes you to radio history files, links to the national organization, and RealAudio broadcasts of the news among other things for radio fans.

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Communication Studies Resources is compiled and maintained by Karla-Tonella@uiowa.edu
Questions about the Department of Communication Studies should go to commstudies-inquiry@uiowa.edu
Copyright © 1994-2005 Karla Tonella. All rights reserved. Page updated January 6, 2008