DIY Media on the Rise

Viacom owned San Francisco AM radio station KYCY (1550 AM) is switching from talk and "Young Country" to K-YOU and becoming an "open source" station and has begun accepting files in all the usual formats (MP3, QuickTime and WMA [Windows Media Audio File]).

Joel Hollander, the CEO of Infinity (which is part of the Viacom Inc. (VIAB) media conglomerate that also owns CBS and MTV), said the station would run material submitted by listeners but screened to make sure it conforms with federal broadcasting standards for decency, adding that the change in formats is something of an "experiment," and the company had not decided how long it would try it before deciding whether to keep it. He

The station won't charge or pay for the podcasts contributed by listeners.

So far the only response from Clear Channel Communications Inc. (CCU) is to try and lure listeners back in by reducing the amount of commercials.

Al Gore's Current.TV channel, which consists of citizen-produced video, seems to be taking a similar approach on the television side of things. Current.tv should begin broadcasting to almost 20 million homes later this year.