It’s been several joyous months since Xray.fm’s official launch this spring—expanding our terrestrial radio horizons but, more importantly, marking a restoration of sorts for Portland’s only local progressive radio talker, Carl Wolfson. Wolfson, you may recall, was lamentably booted in 2012 from his old job at ClearChannel’s KPOJ, along with nearly everyone else who worked […]
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R.I.P.: Car Talk‘s Tom Magliozzi
I don’t really like talking about cars, but Car Talk—the call-in advice show that’s been on NPR since 1987, though it’s been two years since they recorded—is a welcome part of the weekend routine, thanks to the charm of brothers and hosts Tom and Ray Magliozzi, from their obsessive interest in callers’ names and towns, […]
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Facebook Fails to Explain Its Discriminatory and Dangerous ‘Real Names’ Policy
1000WORDS/Shutterstock It may feel like home, but it’s actually the McDonalds of the internet. It’s a hubbub that’s been bubbling to the surface over the past couple of months: In accordance with the company’s guidelines, Facebook is quixotically enforcing its “real names” policy, with the primary targets for enforcement thus far being drag queens, burlesque […]
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XRAY in the Park: The Community Radio Station Celebrates Power Boost, and You’re Invited
Today marks a huge milestone for XRAY.fm, having officially taken over the dial at 107.10, getting a huge boost in broadcast range (it’s also still going at 91.1, in case you’re one of the rare souls who can get it there). To mark the start of their new era, XRAY is rounding up a bunch […]
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Jimmy Fallon’s Got Some Good News… and Some Good News!
Due to the horrific landslide of terrible news we’ve been getting over the last couple of weeks, Jimmy Fallon has developed a new segment for his show called “Good News… and Good News” where he gets news anchors from all over the country to read positive, upbeat (but not necessarily true) news stories. (The one […]
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The NYT‘s Unwitting Oregon Troll Baiting
nytimes.com I wonder if the New York Times has any notion of the indignant throat clearing this interesting feature will cause here. The paper used census data to find the percentages of each state’s population by place of birth, since 1900. Less than half of Oregonians were born here, a far smaller proportion than many […]
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UPDATED: XRAY.fm’s KZME Merger/Takeover Is Official
Back in June start-up radio station XRAY.fm announced they were entering talks about a merger with KZME, and according to XRAY’s Musical Director Aaron Hall, that deal is now official as of last night: We signed the contract to take over KZME’s transmitter at 107.1fm. This is a game changer for XRAY as it will […]
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Jezebel: “We Have a Rape Gif Problem and Gawker Media Won’t Do Anything About It”
The staff at Jezebel—the feminist wing of the Gawker Media empire—posts an open letter: For months, an individual or individuals has been using anonymous, untraceable burner accounts to post gifs of violent pornography in the discussion section of stories on Jezebel. The images arrive in a barrage, and the only way to get rid of […]
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Anna Paquin Explains Bisexuality to Larry King… Very… Slowly
Anna Paquin of HBO’s True Blood came out as bisexual years ago, and while more and more Americans are getting more and more okay with gay people, bisexuals still seem to have certain people flummoxed. Such as Larry King. In an interview with the aging TV personality, Paquin did her best to explain to Larry […]
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Should We Change the Portland Mercury‘s Name?
On occasion, longtime Mercury commenter Todd Mecklem writes in with some constructive criticism regarding how we can continue to improve the Portland Mercury. This is one of those occasions. Todd writes: Steve, I came across this very real historical newspaper (see attached scan) during a search of the Library of Congress database. I must request…nay, […]
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The Low-Down, Dirty History of TMZ
For those interested in the machinations of the gossip industry, take a few minutes and read Anne Helen Peterson’s lengthy Buzzfeed story about the birth of sleaze mongering site TMZ and how it became a powerhouse that has built an empire on terrorizing celebrities with little regard for journalistic integrity. (Though in some regards they […]
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Israel Invades Gaza
The Israeli ground invasion has started on Gaza Strip, here the borders of Gaza. #GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/ny7sEjhar0— Jehad Saftawi (@Jehadsaftawi) July 17, 2014 Disgracefully, award-winning correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin will not be on the ground to cover it. When Israel invaded Gaza in 2008, Al Jazeera’s Mohedin and Sherine Tadros were the only English-language correspondents on the […]