nick
banner
nickbenevenia.com
nick
@nickbenevenia.com
📻 radio and audio producer in boston | host 'Rat Fever' on WZBC 90.3
Reposted by nick
Someone on the @wfmu.bsky.social comments board just called attn to this article about AI and college radio, in which the author suggests WFMU is a college radio station based at ... Fordham? Did AI write the article?
College Radio Keeps Its Cool
www.nytimes.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:29 PM
reject algorithms, embrace passive aggressive handwritten comments on CD labels!

also WZBC mentioned 📻
College radio stations are seeing a surge in student interest.

Stations that once struggled to fill airtime are now overflowing with student DJs. 

I spoke to 7 college radio stations across the U.S. to understand what is driving the revival:

emwhitenoise.substack.com/p/gen-zs-col...
October 5, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by nick
% of US men under 30 who say legal sports betting is a *bad thing* for society

22% in 2022
47% in 2025

No other demographic group has seen a bigger increase.
Americans increasingly see legal sports betting as a bad thing for society and sports
Today, 43% of U.S. adults say the fact that sports betting is now legal in much of the country is a bad thing for society, up from 34% in 2022.
www.pewresearch.org
October 2, 2025 at 4:19 PM
at church on a Tuesday night (Viagra Boys)
September 24, 2025 at 1:08 AM
Reposted by nick
Is it news...or is it "pink slime"? Junk, AI-generated news sites have come to the Boston area, aiming to manipulate you and make money on ads: www.wgbh.org/news/local/2...
Local editors worry ‘pink slime’ journalism poses real danger
Local newspaper editors and journalism experts worry that flimsy news sites that rely almost exclusively on artificial intelligence, known as “pink slime” journalism are making it harder for readers t...
www.wgbh.org
August 5, 2025 at 5:36 PM
are you telling me I can't do shots at the club with Crazy Frog?
Crazy Frog’s debut album came out 20 years ago today.

What’s your favorite track?

www.stereogum.com/2316652/craz...
July 25, 2025 at 8:39 PM
utility companies keep increasing delivery costs and booking record profits, but at least we get a Dominoes Pizza Tracker for outages
July 15, 2025 at 8:40 PM
shouting this to every exec in earshot
Media outlets can't pivot to AI to save themselves. It's not a business strategy and it's not going to work. The only path forward is for journalists to lean into their humanity, to do things AI can't, and to make clear they are writing for people, not algorithms:

www.404media.co/the-medias-p...
The Media's Pivot to AI Is Not Real and Not Going to Work
AI is not going to save media companies, and forcing journalists to use AI is not a business model.
www.404media.co
July 14, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Audacy owned the streaming platform RADIO DOT COM and still managed to fumble the bag against iHeart.

www.businesswire.com/news/home/20...
iHeartMedia and Audacy Announce Content Distribution Partnership
iHeartMedia, the #1 audio company in the U.S., and Audacy, a leading audio content and entertainment company, today announced that Audacy will expand the rea...
www.businesswire.com
June 30, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by nick
Fear of the New York City subway is a mark of low moral character.
www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/the-subway...
The Subway Is Not Scary
Fear of the subway is a mark of low moral character.
www.hamiltonnolan.com
June 19, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Reposted by nick
Wrote about why there will never be another podcast quite like "WTF with Marc Maron."

Gift link so everyone can read it!
There Will Never Be Another "WTF With Marc Maron" | Defector
I heard Marc Maron announce he was ending his podcast the way that I imagine he’d’ve wanted me to—while walking through my neighborhood in Los Angeles, through wired headphones, just a little too hopp...
defector.com
June 10, 2025 at 3:31 PM
we are not going back.
The Chainsmokers will release a remix of “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan tomorrow.
April 24, 2025 at 4:28 PM
The algorithm flattens all music into "vibes." It's boring, creepy, and inhuman.

Music taste is irrational, which is what makes human-curated playlists (and radio!) so engaging, albeit challenging at times.

www.theguardian.com/music/2025/a...
‘One minute it’s “would you like to listen to Galaxie 500?”, the next humanity’s enslaved’: can anyone escape Spotify?
As a new book skewers Spotify’s effect on music, two Guardian music writers spent a week assessing the limits of living with and without it
www.theguardian.com
April 17, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Reposted by nick
icymi I wrote an essay about the trumpist campaign against empathy and why it’s so disturbing. featuring elon musk, gad saad, rank misogyny, that priest who did a nazi/elon salute, and a podcaster who wrote five pages about her deliberations over posting a black square for black lives on instagram
Loathe thy neighbor: Elon Musk and the Christian right are waging war on empathy
Trump’s actions are irreconcilable with Christian compassion. But an unholy alliance seeks to cast empathy as a parasitic plague
www.theguardian.com
April 11, 2025 at 7:10 PM
similar to "centrist," terms like "impartial" carry politically loaded connotations for audiences.

important read for news orgs as they navigate fractured audiences in the current media landscape
April 9, 2025 at 7:44 PM
hey college radio, blogs, public stations, anyone on the internet...bring back sessions!
March 28, 2025 at 12:51 AM
Reposted by nick
For my latest edition of @bloomberg.com Buying Power, I wrote about the enormous economic and societal risks that come along with this week’s news that the richest 10% of Americans now do fully half of the country’s consumer spending. Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Rich People Are Firing a Cash Cannon at the US Economy—But at What Cost?
Industries get recalibrated, economic signals get crossed and the social fabric begins to fray.
www.bloomberg.com
February 28, 2025 at 12:45 PM
great read! imo the whole point of social media is to discover new people, places, and things that interest you

I first got online to escape the suburban jock scene. I found a Gaslight Anthem message board and it quite literally changed my life
In @damemagazine.bsky.social this month I wrote about echo chambers and what social media is FOR in the first place: "There’s no obligation to stay where you find nothing useful or interesting, and there’s no homework assignment that requires you to allow people to ruin your experience."
Are We Self-Segregating on Social Media? - Dame Magazine
If you went to a local restaurant expecting wait staff to bring you food and drinks, and instead a monkey screamed at you and threw its own poop, you would leave. That’s what thousands of people have ...
www.damemagazine.com
February 19, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Reposted by nick
Five employees at the JFK Library in Boston were laid off today in connection with a Trump administration overhaul of federal workers.

"Without them, we are unable to stay open," a source tells @gbhnews.bsky.social. "It has been chaotic and we are seeking clarity."
February 18, 2025 at 9:23 PM
man, this is so bleak.

first, outsourcing the description of an Oscar Winning masterpiece to a chatbot.

then, censoring the reason "a man takes hostages at a bank" because it involved the word gay or trans.
Oh damn Prime actually published their failed chatgpt prompt in the description
February 18, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by nick
Oh damn Prime actually published their failed chatgpt prompt in the description
February 18, 2025 at 6:39 AM
a small movie theater in Roslindale Village would go crazy!
#Roslindale Square gets official city plan calling for more housing, possible realignment of key roads and a movie theater
www.universalhub.com/2025/roslind...
#Boston #housing #SquaresAndStreets
February 15, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Reposted by nick
“We are broadcasting from the glaciers of Greenland, to the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, to the snowy slopes of Denali, we are KEXP, you’re not alone.”

- KEXP DJ

Live DJs make a difference.
February 13, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Reposted by nick
New Microsoft study finds that using generative AI at work makes employees' critical thinking skills "atrophied and unprepared"

www.404media.co/microsoft-st...
Microsoft Study Finds AI Makes Human Cognition “Atrophied and Unprepared”
Researchers find that the more people use AI at their job, the less critical thinking they use.
www.404media.co
February 10, 2025 at 4:00 PM