mediageek

Author: Paul

  • NYT’s Pogue Agrees: Tapeless Camcorders Not All They’re Cracked Up To Be

    Ever since DVD-R and hard drive based camcorders came on the scene I’ve been pointing out that their supposed convenience is outweighed by the difficulty of editing the video files they create. To me, being able to edit the video you shoot is the reason to have a digital camcorder. I don’t know too many…

  • Listen to mediageek radioshow live

    Mediageek’s home station WEFT in Champaign, IL, is now streaming live on the internet. So you can listen to the mediageek radioshow live Fridays at 5:30 PM Central Time no matter where you are.

  • O’Reilly Reviews New Digital Audio Recorder

    Digital audio recorders that use flash memory are finally becoming common and inexpensive enough to be good tools for independent media makers. And, it’s just in time to pick up from minidisc, which has probably gasped its last breath. At work I’ve been experimenting with the Zoom H4, which is a moderately priced (~$250) digital…

  • Media Ownership Workshops in Chicago

    Workshops on media ownership are being held in Chicago in anticipation of the FCC’s visit on Sept. 20 for hearing on the topic. Chicago has one of the lowest levels of minority media ownership amongst major markets, so the issue of diversity in ownership is a particular focus of these workshops sponsored by groups like…

  • Links from the Aug. 10 radioshow

    Listen to the show here. Non-commercial FM Radio license filing window: GetRadio.org – Instructions on how to apply for a license, including a frequency finder. National Federation of Community Broadcasters Prometheus Radio Project’s Mapping Project – The LPFM advocacy organization has also done a lot of organizing for the full-power license window, creating maps showing…

  • Minidisc in Bizzarro World, or, It’s a Wonderful Format

    CNET.uk has a feature on “Format wars: the tech that should have won,” sizing up some media and computer systems that lost out in the marketplace, despite their technical advantages. The article imagines a world where technologies like the 8-track and Betamax predominated, instead of cassettes and VHS. Two of my favorites–that I still use–are…

  • Make Noncommercial Online a Little More Like Noncommerical Broadcast

    According to Broadcasting and Cable the Association of Public TV Stations has created a Digital Rights Coalition in order to ensure that some of the same Fair Use rights they enjoy for noncommercial TV broadcasts. Some of these rights are: 1) use copyrights audio in their shows without asking permission or paying, so long as…

  • Ripping Video Streams with Real Player 11 beta

    The beta of Real Player 11 came out the other day, for Windows only, and I have installed it and fooled around a bit. I do have to report that it does what it advertises: it very easily rips online video and saves it to your hard drive. From YouTube to streams coming off our…

  • Paste Discovers Pirate Radio

    Paste magazine profiles Pirate Cat Radio’s Monkey Man, writing as if writer John Clarke Jr. alone had rediscovered pirate radio after its supposed “Pump Up the Volume” heyday in the early 90s. The article has nothing new to offer, cribbing its FCC enforcement stats from DIYmedia’s Enforcement Action Database without giving a full citation or…

  • Taking Another Stab at Restoring LPFM

    After the FCC created the low-power FM radio service in 2000, Congressional Republicans in the pocket of the NAB made a last-minute backroom maneuver to add a major restriction to the service in a budget bill. The restriction requires 100-watt LPFM stations to be spaced on the dial the same as full-power stations as large…