Radio Journal:International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media - Volume 5, Issue 1, 2007

Is podcasting the future of radio? Is podcasting that missing link connecting radio and the Net that Internet radio stations were not able to establish? Is podcasting a revolutionary or a transitory cultural trend? Furthermore, is podcasting a way towards a more democratic audio media system or is it rather a new tool in the hands of the multinational recording industry? This article will explore these questions, providing an historical framework to the introduction of digital sound (from 1991 to 2007) and related social practices, distinguishing four main phases: the birth of the popular use of digital music; Web radio; Music for free; the iPod and podcasting.

This article addresses a controversy within New Zealand radio broadcasting policy. As part of its activities to ensure the promotion of New Zealand content in the media, the non-government public organisation New Zealand On Air funds music recordings, promotional videos, album promotion and radio airplay initiatives targeted at the commercial broadcasting sector within that country. Supporters of the organisation, and its music sector agent provocateur Brendan Smyth, point to the increase in New Zealand music sales, improved concert attendance and greatly enhanced representation in mainstream media and popular culture as evidence of the scheme's resounding success. In some popular music genres, New Zealand content has increased from under 2 representation on commercial radio playlists to over 20. Detractors argue that in attempting to increase the quantity of New Zealand-sourced music that is broadcast, funders have favoured to the point of exclusion music that emulates international repertoire in order to appeal to conservative radio programmers, and in so doing have decimated that which makes New Zealand popular music uniquely kiwi. The article seeks to shed light upon the conditions and decisions that led to this situation, rather than attempt to reconcile these two divergent positions. However, it also endeavours to point to some possible lessons that may be found in the case of New Zealand music radio for broadcasting policy-makers and those who would seek to promote local music through radio programming interventions. The title of this article refers to a popular traditional Maori song often used in a powhiri ceremony, greeting newcomers to the marae. An exchange of songs takes place, and Tutira Mai is the Maori language song most often learned by non-Maori speakers for the occasion. It is thus ingrained in both Maori and non-Maori New Zealand culture alike and is taken here as symbolic of a coherent bicultural New Zealand-ness, as problematic as that concept may be.

Radio stations based at universities make up only about 11 of all over-the-air stations in the United States of America, but college radio is often presented as offering an alternative in music radio to the for-profit stations that dominate the airwaves. College stations are now seen as a key means of promoting indie rock. This article traces the development of university-based radio stations in the United States, and reports on a five-year study of music programming in three stations based in Boston and New York, to examine their claim to alternativeness. The paper concludes that the stations do use different forms of music programming, that the programming extends well beyond the scope of indie rock and that the current notions of alternativeness utilised by station staff have their roots in the development of the sector from the 1920s onwards.

Media Talk: Spoken Discourse on TV and Radio, Andrew Tolson, (2005) Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 193 pp., ISBN 0 7846 1826 0 (pbk), 16.99

Radio Modernism: Literature, Ethics, and the BBC, 19221938, Todd Avery (2006) Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 158 pp., ISBN 0-7546-5517-2 (hbk), 45.00