LISNews: Librarian News

It is my pleasure to announce that the LISNews Netcast Network is finally offering pieces for licensing via Public Radio Exchange. This is a very unique opportunity for the crew. Public Radio Exchange ("PRX") is the main means by which we can offer content to National Public Radio affiliates for licensing. Others, such as a couple Canadian Broadcasting Corporation programs and Audible, are also set up to license through that system.

What does this mean to the average LISNews user? Probably not a whole lot. You can go about your merry way and not worry about this, if you so choose.

If you want to get LIS-related content out on NPR affiliates and others, this opens up a new avenue for you. If you want early paid access to some of the content we record, this opens up a new avenue for you. If you think that the Great Western Dragon/Faceless Historian should really be on the radio instead of restricted to just podcasts, this opens up a new avenue for you.

Most content through the PRX is not available for free. This heavily relates to insuring that rights holders for music are in fact compensated for their toils as there is a deal worked out to bypass much of the bureaucratic nastiness found in music use outside PRX. In part it also ensures that content creators get fair compensation within the confines of the present copyright regime in the United States. This is the sort of deal that helps generate a revenue stream to allow parts of the network to cover equipment and telecommunications costs, for example.

What can you do to make this happen? On the network's end, we've been increasing our visibility as of late. While that is a good thing itself, it is not a complete action. If you want us on the radio airwaves, you have to contact your local NPR stations to tell them. The program directors at the stations are the folks you want to talk to. Unless they feel there is any demand for programming in this area, all the efforts at raising visibility frankly are worth nothing.

Most stations using PRX are found in the United States. Stations outside the United States can license content but have to set up as an outside licensor. That matter is for PRX to resolve, not us.

You can find the LISNews Netcast Network profile online at: http://www.prx.org/group/lisnewsnetcasts.

Good News by Stephen Michael Kellat is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at lisnews.org.

Simply put, this week is an info dump. Quite a lot of material about hardware is covered this week. From computers to microphones to mixers, we provide an overview of these matters. There are not necessarily philosophical matters to consider but instead nuts and bolts logistics.

Related links to learn more about some of the products mentioned are provided below. Next week, we'll be looking at audio, copyrights and legalities, and planning ahead versus fixing it in post-production.

In support of this episode, we offer this look at part of the recording space:

Related links:
Tapco Mixers
Rode Microphones
MXL Microphones
Audio-Technica Microphones
Mackie Mixers
Yamaha Mixers
CAD Microphones
Behringer Mixers
Shure Microphones
Contact e-mail address if you have questions

This week's program talks about show structure. In the program we delve into component parts to think about in making a show. Many examples are given as other programs out there are referenced as examples. A list of links to those programs is given later in this post. Audio Snake Oil will return as part of the program next week.

Towards the end of the program we feature a number from the U.S. Army Field Band's Jazz Ambassadors, The Army Goes Rolling Along. You can find more downloads from the band as well as learn more about them at their website. On the web, they can be found at http://www.army.mil/fieldband/pages/listening/downloads.html.

Shows referenced:
TWiT Live
TV Squad Daily With Brigitte (now defunct)
Buzz Out Loud
the404
CNET News Daily Podcast
Writer's Almanac
Uncontrolled Vocabulary (on hiatus)
tech5
Food Science with Dr. Kiki (presently defunct)
GeekBriefTV
This Week in Science
This Week in Tech
FLOSS Weekly
CNET's Podcast Central

Welcome to the first week of the Tech for Techies class! To learn about where we are going we have to look at where we have been. This week we look at the history of broadcasting that preceded podcasting. We also take a moment to look at a bit of "audio snake oil" when it comes to the physics of cabling.

There is no homework for next week with the class. That won't always be the case, though.

Related links:
Worldcat.org reference to a history text on very early radio history in North America
New World Encyclopeda on conductivity
Jamestown Distributions on conductivity
Matthey SA on structure of copper
Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia on Electrical Conductivity (licensed content, requires access permissions)
MatWeb on alloying copper
IEEE publication abstract on copper properties
Lycos Retriever on Electrical Conductivity