The magic of college radio lies not just in the sounds that are transmitted over the airwaves, but also emanates from the spaces from which stations operate. Often these are in obscure locales, tucked away in basements or on the edge of a campus. And sometimes the buildings themselves have their own unusual story, like the former student bank that houses CJSR 88.5 FM at University of Alberta. Seizing on the opportunity to embrace a funky feature of the space, the campus and community radio station built its on-air studio out of the old vault. DJs enter through the thick, heavy red door to do their shows. And because of its weight, the door is always kept ajar, even though this means that sound from the studio wafts into the record library and vice versa.

While I love the story of the bank vault, I was also enamored with so much more at CJSR. My first visit to a station in Canada, the tour took place during a break while I was attending the SpokenWeb Symposium and Institute on the campus in Edmonton in May, 2023. Two long-time CJSR staff members, Program Director Chad Brunet and Music Librarian/Production Coordinator Matthew Gooding, showed me around the station’s basement digs in the Students’ Union building at University of Alberta.

In our wide-ranging conversation, we touched on everything from weird station traditions to the challenges of coming back after COVID to the maximalist office decor to some of the gems that have passed through the station’s treasure chest full of freebies. It was another one of those visits for me where it was difficult to leave, as I furiously tried to capture every last detail about the surroundings.

History of CJSR-FM

Launched over FM in 1984, CJSR has deep ties with its home institution, but is run by the not-for-profit First Alberta Campus Radio Association (FACRA), which holds its broadcast license. More than a third of the station’s budget comes from the University of Alberta Students’ Union. Dedicated fees from membership in the Students’ Union help fund not only the radio station, but also a student newspaper, campus food bank, health service, and more. With a very small staff, CJSR relies on its nearly 300 volunteers to keep the radio station running.

University of Alberta Radio Dates Back to the 1920s

Although CJSR’s FM signal debuted in 1984, campus radio at University of Alberta began with broadcasts over Edmonton radio station CJCA in 1925. Two years later, the school bought local radio station CFCK, changed the call letters to CKUA and ran the station as an educational broadcaster over AM beginning in 1927. CKUA’s studios were moved off campus in 1955 and its license was transferred to Alberta Educational Communications Corporation (ACCESS Alberta) in 1974. Additional license transfers took place over the years, with CKUA-AM and FM now run as a public radio station by the CKUA Radio Foundation.

By the mid-1940s, CKUA was funded by groups outside of the university, leaving an opportunity for another radio station to emerge of campus. In 1946, the University of Alberta Student Radio Directorate was formed and built a radio studio, from which it created and sent programming to CKUA. Changing its name to the Alberta Student Radio Society in 1948, this group began to originate campus-only broadcasts via a closed-circuit public address system and eventually shifted to AM carrier current transmissions (under the call letters CKSR for CKUA “Student Radio”) to various campus buildings and dorms. An FM cable signal was added in 1976 and the station changed its call letters to CJSR in 1978, as it moved it carrier current frequency to 1580 kHz. When it obtained its FM license in 1983, CJSR turned back its license for its AM carrier current transmissions.

Wide Mix of Spoken Word and Music on CJSR Today

Today, CJSR prides itself on the breadth of music and talk programming on its airwaves. Shows range from syndicated news (BBC World Service, Democracy Now) to locally-produced spoken word programs and music shows focused on metal, the history of punk, hardcore, hip-hop, classical, pop, blues, jazz, electronic, Caribbean music, film music, and music from Canada. The environmental news show “Terra Informa” is a lauded CJSR program running since 2003, which is now carried by other radio stations.

Rachel, the on-air DJ during my visit, was playing metal, which it turns out is one of the more popular genres at CJSR. Several CJSR shows are geared toward heavy sounds and metal programming is “hugely popular,” according to Program Director Chad Brunet. As he pointed to various shows on the schedule, which was craftily posted to his office wall using push pins and rectangular slips of paper, he reflected back on the challenges of the prior three years. Sadly, some long-time programs didn’t survive the COVID pandemic and the whole experience “messed up the volunteer make-up,” after classes and station operations went fully remote.

CJSR was doing all live programming (with the exception of syndicated shows) prior to 2020. A newly acquired automation system was just getting rolled out around that time and it proved useful when they had to evacuate the studios. Eventually programmers began to record shows at home and the station became a “ghost town.” Fifty-five percent of the prior schedule was lost and it was “difficult to maintain enthusiasm.” Thankfully at the time of my May 2023 visit, CJSR was on an upswing, as things shifted in fall 2022 with an influx of participants again. Students and alumni comprised about 50% of volunteers.

CJSR Traditions

As we wandered about the radio station, it was fun to hear about various CJSR traditions. One is linked to DIY sport coats and another to a shiny sign on the wall. The jackets, an early 2000s CJSR street team uniform, are adorned with the words “Guerrilla Laser Force” on the back and “Rock is Dead” on the inside. Brunet reluctantly slipped on a coat, saying “it’s just awful,” and that “we don’t force people to wear these anymore.” The outerwear is kept around as a station relic “for laughs.”

A long-time tradition that evokes more station pride is a metal CJSR sign in the lobby. Covered with signatures from notable visitors, the inked names include a Canadian astronaut, musician Frank Black, and broadcaster Amy Goodman amongst others.

Archives within the Station Walls at CJSR

Although Brunet articulated that CJSR wasn’t that great at capturing its history and archiving materials, the station was full of lovingly preserved items. Projects were underway to digitize CDs and reel-to-reels and one recent find was a 1986 episode of “Gay Wire,” a show devoted to LGBTQ issues that was assumed to have debuted later than the tape would suggest. Additionally, the station’s record library is filled with vinyl records, CDs, and cassettes.

The oldest records have flaking spines, showing the wear-and-tear expected at a decades-old radio station. At last count (over a decade ago), it was estimated that the collection held between 75,000 and 85,000 records. Amongst the vinyl are a range of genres, including “country AND western,” plus some uncatalogued records from an old show, “Chinese Connection” that left its records behind. Some of the intriguing albums from that program include a worker-themed record with “Spring Comes Early to the Commune” on its back cover.

As I wrapped up my tour of CJSR, Gooding and Brunet offered me various promotional items. Tote bags, T-shirts and decals adorned with adorable artwork were hard to pass up. The station also crafts CD compilations and some unique items like branded belt buckets, a wallet, patches, and earplugs. I accepted a few tchotchkes (it’s always hard to refuse) and said my farewells as I headed back to immerse myself in the SpokenWeb sound studies conference once again.

Thanks to CJSR + Full List of Station Tours

Thanks to Chad Brunet and Matthew Gooding for a really fun visit to CJSR! This is my 178th radio station tour report and my 120th college radio station tour. Please take a look at the entire collection of my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives.

The post Radio Station Visit #178: CJSR-FM at University of Alberta appeared first on Radio Survivor.

It was a surreal experience to return to one of my college radio alma maters, WBGU 88.1 FM at Bowling Green State University (BGSU), and encounter an unrecognizable radio station and campus. Granted it had been nearly 30 years since I’d left northwest Ohio, but I was still surprised by just how much can change. The building that housed WBGU when I was a grad student was torn down in 2017. And the historic house built from a Sears catalog kit that was the headquarters of my graduate department (Popular Culture), was demolished in 2012.

Both spaces hold incredible memories for me of an influential two-year period of my life. I don’t think I’d ever worked harder. I studied, wrote, taught undergraduates, graded papers, DJ’d, saw tons of live music in Ohio and Michigan, and stayed up into the wee hours tallying WBGU playlists to compile charts for weekly submission to CMJ. It was a magical time where I started to truly understand the importance of and power of college radio. MTV News even came to town and interviewed a few of us college radio participants at a local record shop, as they tried to capture a glimpse of the 1990s indie music scene in small town America.

Flashback to WBGU-FM circa 1995-1997

During my stint as a DJ and assistant music director at WBGU-FM, the station was a 1000 watt music-focused non-commercial station with an emphasis on rock, metal, jazz, and hip-hop. In fall 1995, my first semester at the station, evening shows included hip-hop (“Power 88”) several nights a week and metal shows (“Metal Storm”) from midnight to 2am most days. Jazz (“Jazz Unlimited”), reggae, and country shows populated the morning drive time. The rest of the schedule was a mix of mostly rock, with some shows dedicated to punk, hardcore, freeform, techno, world music, folk, womyn in music, sports talk, and more. Live sports coverage also aired on WBGU, sometimes breaking into scheduled music shows.

In the 1990s, the WBGU-FM space in 120 West Hall (on the first floor) included the on-air studio, news/interview booth, a small record library with vinyl and CDs, and an office area. Adjacent to WBGU was a studio for our sister station WFAL-AM (pronounced “waffle”), which was a commercial station broadcasting to the campus dorms using carrier current. My perception at the time was that WBGU functioned like a student club, whereas WFAL had more of a pre-professional orientation. I assumed that WFAL was operated in conjunction with telecommunications classes since WFAL tended to have more news, sports, and mainstream music programming. Digging into the archives, It turns out that some of my assumptions were wrong. WBGU and WFAL both had student leaders. And WFAL’s programming mix was more diverse than I’d realized.

History of College Radio at Bowling Green State University

While a student at Bowling Green, I was completely unaware of the long radio history on campus. The first radio class (“Radio Workshop”) was introduced in 1939 and by 1947, a basketball game was broadcast using a closed-circuit set-up over a public address system. In 1948, campus-only carrier current station WRSM launched at 600 kilocycles, with help from both students and a speech professor. A 1974 piece about Bowling Green radio’s history explains that the call letters were specifically selected by the professor as sort of a voice and diction exercise, as he considered them to be “a tough combination of sounds” for many with mid-western accents.

WRSM’s schedule included music, news, and sports. In January 1949, just a year after its launch, it had a staff of 75 and a music library with more than 900 records. By 1951, an application was filed for an FM license, with WBGU launching that year over 88.1 FM as initially a 10 watt station. Power was increased to 1350 watts in 1959. By the late 1960s, student leadership at WBGU was replaced by “three full-time employees and two graduate assistants in broadcasting.”

WFAL-AM Launches in 1970 as “Alternative Voice”

Because of this change in management at WBGU, campus-only carrier current station WFAL began broadcasts in 1970 as “an alternative voice” for students. While serving as an alternative, it was also designed to be a place where “broadcasting students” could obtain experience in “contemporary, commercial radio.” WFAL initially played primarily Top 40 and progressive music, with specialty shows devoted to oldies, jazz, and comedy. By the 1980s its focus was more pop/rock. And during the 1990s, the schedule also included techno, hip-hop, reggae and more. By 2009, 50% of WFAL’s schedule was hip-hop programming. WFAL dropped its AM carrier current signal in 2008 to broadcast primarily online and eventually stopped using the call letters. The station now goes by the name Falcon Radio.

WBGU-FM’s Shifts in Programming in the 1970s and 1980s

Over the years, programming had many shifts on both WBGU and WFAL. In the 1970s, WBGU-FM had more of community-focus, airing National Public Radio programming, while also broadcasting student-oriented rock music at night. By 1976, the station had lost its NPR affiliation and in the 1980s and 1990s the station seemed to have shifted back to alternative programming led by students. In 1982, WBGU’s program director described the station’s music mix in a letter to the editor of the BG News, saying “WBGU’s prime goal is to serve the community through its programming of alternative music. This also includes jazz, soul, tex mex, country, reggae, plus more.” There were still debates about who the station served. A 1985 letter to editor of the BG News complained that WBGU played music found on commercial radio and was more focused on the community than on students.

By the 1990s, WBGU branded itself as Shark Radio and in addition to its alternative programming, it also produced regular live sports broadcasts. In 1996, WBGU killed off the shark and embraced the mole as its new mascot, describing its kinship with the station’s programming since moles live “underground.” By the early 2000s, WBGU had added a website, which expanded to include not only a webstream, but also a message board in 2002, where fans could chat and obtain news about the station. Shifting to a new URL in 2003, the station maintained its own website at wbgufm.com until fall 2017.

WBGU-FM and Falcon Radio Today

Today, WBGU-FM and Falcon Radio operate under the umbrella of Bowling Green Falcon Media, which also includes BG News (print and web journalism) and BG 24 (video content). The two radio stations now share a website and are located adjacent to each other in the Michael and Sara Kuhlin Center, which opened in Fall 2016. In addition to on-air studios, the space also has production studios. A recording studio in the same building features a control room that connects to the radio station to enable broadcasts of live performances.

Although there weren’t too many students around campus when I visited WBGU-FM on a Wednesday evening in July in 2023; I was able to see radio in action as I sat in on my friend’s show. Rob Sloane, WBGU’s Music Director, is a faculty member and has been an off-and-on WBGU DJ since the 1990s. We met when we were both grad students/DJs at Bowling Green.

As I sat with Rob during his show, he played some old favorites, including staples of our time at WBGU in the 1990s. After popping discs from Yo La Tengo, Guided by Voices, Bis, and Stereolab into the CD player, he jotted down his playlist for his personal archive. Multiple times throughout the show, he gave full weather reports and announced events happening in town. It took me back to my WBGU days, when we had to monitor a weather radio in case we needed to announce alerts and warnings for tornadoes in particular. As a California native, I was terrified of thunderstorms and any hint of a tornado; so having to be a calm voice on the radio in those circumstances was challenging.

The current WBGU studio is light-filled, spacious and modern, surrounded by windows. The ground-floor station overlooks the campus one one side, Falcon Radio’s studio on another, and a hallway with seating on another, allowing visitors to peek into the booth. The lovely view of lush lawns and leafy mature trees felt like it captured not only an iconic collegiate scene, but also a snapshot of a quiet, warm summer night in the mid-west.

After Rob’s show, he gave me a quick tour of WBGU outside of the studio. A lobby opens into the studio space, as well as to several small production booths. A sticker-covered door from the old station is propped along the wall of the lobby and a bulletin board is covered with clippings and flyers. Charming children’s artwork, including a colorful drawing of tulips and music notes, promotes WBGU’s “Family Radio” show. Down the hall, there is also a closet-like record library, with shelves packed with boxes of CDs.

Affixed to the wall of the record library is the “WBGU Vault Indie CD Sign-Out Sheet,” which DJs are asked to fill out if they are checking out CDs to preview for their shows. While the library contains mostly labeled boxes of CDs, there’s also a small collection of vinyl. It’s a greatly reduced library since the station’s days in West Hall and many of the old CDs were sold off for $5 a bag back in 2016 as WBGU was downsizing its collection before the move to the new building.

With community, faculty and student DJs, the current WBGU-FM schedule includes shows devoted to world music, children’s programming, jazz, reggae, blues, polka, folk, punk, new music and more. The Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce runs the “Morning Show,” a weekday morning program that highlights local news, events, sports, community members and organizations.

Thanks to WBGU + Radio Station Tour Archive

Thanks so much to my friend Rob Sloane for the WBGU tour and for allowing me to be a fly on the wall during his show. It was so nostalgic for me to be back on campus. This is my 177th radio station tour report and my 119th college radio station recap. You can peruse all my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives.

The post Radio Station Visit #177: WBGU-FM at Bowling Green State University appeared first on Radio Survivor.

One version of my radio nerd dream vacation includes a cross-country road trip, with numerous stops at college radio stations along the way. With family in tow, it’s a tough sell; however over the years I’ve been able to convince them to indulge me in my obsessive quest to tick off more spots on my mental list of must-see radio stations. In summer 2023, with my kid settled in at a summer program in Manhattan, my husband and I sought adventure on the open road, trekking from the Big Apple to Chicago. Of course there were countless college radio stations on our route, but I exhibited restraint and only booked two tours.

Close to the beginning of our journey, we started our day in the Catskills. After a very stormy night, we took a beautiful hike to a waterfall and then wandered about the small town that we were staying in. We poked around a vintage car show, then hit the road to Oneonta to see WONY 90.9 FM at the State University of New York, Oneonta, about 80 miles west of Albany. Unsurprisingly, campus was quiet on the Saturday in mid-July that we visited. Just about to head out on vacation himself, WONY faculty adviser Andrew Bottomley happily met up with us to give the grand tour.

WONY’s New Digs Retain Touches of College Radio Station’s Past

An interesting aspect of WONY is that it’s housed in a relatively new location with the latest audio equipment and technology, yet it retains some of the charm of its most recent long-time home. When Bottomley began working as faculty adviser in 2016, plans were already underway for the station to move. As he got more involved with the process, he took a lot of care to listen to both students and alumni who expressed concerns about losing the visible expressions of the station’s personality – from physical media like records and CDs to vintage equipment to sticker-covered doors.

A creative example of this effort is the student-painted dragon mural that greets visitors as they step into WONY. A photographic reproduction of a mural from the wall of the old station, it’s one way that alumni can feel welcomed back into a familiar-feeling space. Traditionally, alumni sign that wall during station reunion weekends every year; so the new wallpaper-style mural allows for both new and old autographs to remain. The dragon is a nod to the Red Dragon mascot for SUNY Oneonta; however that mascot is not used exclusively at WONY, which also added a cute blue whale (Wally) as a station mascot perhaps a decade or so ago.

With a 60+ year history dating back to 1961, WONY has an active and engaged crew of alums, many of whom had “trepidation” about the latest station move. Bottomley said that those fears have largely dissipated, in part because former station members can see things at the new WONY that “connect to the old space,” including a decades-old console displayed on a wall next to award plaques and framed certificates.

Physical Music is Prioritized in WONY’s Revamped CD Library

Additionally, as part of an independent study project, a student organized and cataloged the WONY CD library in a way that both shows pride in the collection; but that also makes it easier for DJs to access and utilize the discs. With around 10,000 CDs from mostly the late 1980s to around 2004, WONY’s music library was in the process of being digitized at the time of my visit. Bottomley was pleased that with a CD revival happening, many students at WONY are “starting to discover CDs in the way that students were discovering vinyl in the past.”

Unfortunately, not much vinyl is left at WONY following a mysterious vinyl sell-off circa 2008, which was rumored to have financed the purchase of a conference table. That series of events angered alumni and as a result Bottomley wanted to protect the CDs and ensure that the sense of betrayal that many felt regarding the lost vinyl would not be repeated. He said that alumni would get teary-eyed as they spoke about the records that were disposed of and remarked that, “I’m not going to let that happen to the CD library.”

Completed during the height of COVID in the 2020-2021 academic year, the current home for WONY is centrally located in the basement of Hunt Union, next to a theater. The station space includes two broadcast studios, two podcast booths, a production office and an administration office. Now in its 4th location on campus, WONY’s previous digs were in Alumni Hall, which was slated for renovation.

WONY History: 1962 Launch as AM Carrier Current Station

Launching as an AM carrier current station (at 620 AM) in 1962, by the late 1960s, WONY had added an FM signal through a partnership with the local cable television network. Bottomley told me that this was one of the first cable television networks in the United States and WONY’s inclusion on it made it one of the early college radio participants. This expanded the station’s reach to the town of Oneonta, as residents could tune in through video cable at 93.6 FM when it launched in March 1968 and later on a series of other spots on the dial, including 89.0 in December 1968 and at 106.3 in 1972.

Cable FM and Expanded Programming for WONY in Early 1970s

During this period, WONY’s General Manager Roger Smith worked to get more attention for the station, writing to IBS’ Journal of College Radio imploring the publication to highlight smaller stations in its “Station of the Month” feature. In his April 1971 pitch for WONY (published as a “letter to the editor”), Smith asks, “What about the little guy who might be running a pretty good ship, without anyone being paid, operating on a minimal budget, without speech department backing or even the active help of an advisor? He rarely receives recognition or even a pat on the back from The Journal.” He goes on to describe WONY as “just a small, average college radio station” and included photos and details about WONY’s operations that were published as a stand-alone article titled “Bigger and Better” in the same issue. The station had expanded into new studios the year before and WONY was on the air with live programs 21 hours a day. Some highlights of the station’s programming in 1971 included remote basketball game broadcasts and a weekly coffee house show.

WONY-FM Launches in 1976

Although the 1971 Journal of College Radio article didn’t include mention of WONY’s cable FM endeavors, a few months later in its February 1972 issue, the publication reported on this as a trend in broadcasting. The piece describes cable FM as a “new method of college broadcasting” that had been “growing substantially in the last few years.” They cited seven known stations in operation, including WONY, which was on cable FM through at least 1974. Within a few years, WONY’s reach expanded even further after it acquired an FM license from the FCC. In 1976, WONY-FM officially launched over 90.9 FM with 10 watts of power. Eventually, the station’s power increased to its current 180 watts over the same frequency.

WONY Programming and Events in 2025

A student-operated and student-funded organization, WONY is active both on and off the air. To participate in station activities, one must be either a SUNY Oneonta student or faculty member. The station airs both music and talk shows, including some shows that blend the two, like Ball & Beats, which is described on the schedule as “a show about sports and other fun topics while listening to Hip-Hop hits.” On Saturday nights, “What’s for Dinner” is a show “dedicated to thinking about, talking about, and planning what’s for dinner,” with each episode tackling “a new food topic” while also playing music. Other programs focus on alternative rock, music from vinyl records, 1970s-1990s music, pop, indie, and “themed music” (a recent edition was about music from the British Invasion).

Additionally, all members and DJs at WONY are required to join a station department (music, production, PR or events). Each year, WONY puts on two big concert events: HalloWONY in the fall and WONY Island in the spring. The most recent WONY Island was a Sunday afternoon show featuring 10 local bands playing sets in the Fine Arts building on April 6, 2025. The station will also participate in Vinylthon this year, playing 24 hours of music from vinyl records starting on April 12 at 8pm.

Thanks to WONY and Full Roster of Station Tours

Thanks to my friend Andrew Bottomley for taking the time out of his summer back in 2023 to show me around WONY!

This is my 176th radio station tour report and my 118th college radio station recap. You can peruse all my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives.

The post Radio Station Visit #176: WONY at SUNY Oneonta appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On a Sunday morning, when most college students were likely asleep, KUCR Music Director Diya Anantharaman cheerfully greeted me at University of California, Riverside’s college radio station. Off-the-beaten path, KUCR 88.3 FM occupies a couple of low-slung aging buildings that are adjacent to residence halls and apartments near the northern edge of campus.

A visit to KUCR is like a step back in time (in the best possible way), with tidbits of station history dotting the walls and studios. Vintage embossed labels meticulously describe the location and functionality of decades-old audio equipment and retro signage communicates station rules as well as what’s behind various office doors (including “restroom/storage”). While these indicators of KUCR’s long run as a station (broadcasts began from this very building in 1966) ooze with nostalgic charm; the station continues to have a vibrant presence in 2025.

Third year student Anantharaman was so enthusiastic about college radio, that they applied to be at KUCR before even starting school at UC Riverside. Having made playlists since high school, they began as a KUCR DJ as a first-year student and took on the role of music director as a sophomore. Describing KUCR is “one of my favorite places to be,” Anantharaman added that a benefit of the “very welcoming” college radio station is that it serves as an “art space” on campus.

As one might expect from a college radio music director, Anantharaman’s own show is quite experimental and often features artist interviews and a mix of poetry, electronic music, harsh noise, metal, Bollywood music, and much more. They said that sometimes the weather influences their playlist, with one goal of the show to be “perceptive” to what’s going on around them.

Anantharaman characterized most DJs at KUCR as being diverse in terms of their music selections and said that there aren’t too many restrictions as far as what you can and cannot do on your show. Hosts include students, alumni, and even some UC Riverside professors. While most of KUCR’s new music adds are digital, they also add some CDs and the station’s library includes a portion of their vinyl library. A mail tub of FCC-friendly CDs sits in the main studio, in close reach in case of technology emergencies during which DJs might not have access to the mostly-played digital music files.

Snapshot of College Radio Station KUCR’s Early Days

KUCR’s emphasis on diversity in music and news was in place from the very beginning. The station’s original sign-on script when it launched on 88.1 FM in October 1966 reads in part that KUCR planned to “present a wide variety of music,” with a particular focus on music “geared to the college community” and “which is not readily available from other local radio stations.”

KUCR alumnus and former station manager Bob Stubenrauch’s remembrances of the early years of the college radio station offer a fascinating glimpse at how quickly students were able to ramp up their operations and reach listeners across the country during the Vietnam War. By the 1968-1969 academic year, KUCR was on the air 24 hours a day and had a staff of 120, with 75 on-air DJs. The station was also part of the UC Radio News Network, which “bloomed in the 68-69 year as student unrest & protests continued to spread & grow,” according to Stubenrauch. He explains that the network began doing a combined news show three times a week featuring content from various University of California-based student radio stations. This eventually led to the production of daily live reports from throughout the network, as the pace of demonstrations and protests increased on all the campuses.

By 1970, KUCR was regularly sharing and receiving campus news and protest coverage with college radio stations from all over the United States. According to Stubenrauch, “…we began calling college radio stations all over the nation, asking them to tell us what was going on at their schools. We became a primary news gathering & dissemination source for campus radio stations all over the country. Harvard, Yale, New York University, University of Chicago & many other were onboard to give & receive news clips to & from KUCR.”

KUCR Schedule Offers a Mix of Radio Programming

As was the case in its early days, the current KUCR schedule features a broad mix of news and music programming. Locally-produced and syndicated news and public affairs shows airing on KUCR include “Children’s Hour,” “Autotalk,” “Philosophy Talk,” “Big Picture Science,” “Alternative Radio” and more. A long-time highlight of the schedule is Radio Aztlan, a Chicano/Latino alternative program that has been on the air for 35+ years and features a mix of music, interviews, and a community calendar.

KUCR’s music shows cover a range of genres including jazz, reggae, folk, classical, R&B, soul, rock, electronic, blues, and more. Whimsical names like “Sonic Bloom,” “Vibe Check,” “Outsider Roundup,” “Radio Prosthesis,” “Musick 4 Riots” and “Hippie Love Turbo” hint at the often hard-to-pin-down mix of sounds.

A recent promotional flyer for DJ Amos Figueroa’s Monday afternoon show “Biodigital Dreams” is indicative of that music breadth. The show “features 90’s and 2000’s music that evokes feelings of nostalgia and sentimentality.” While it’s not uncommon for DJs to create artwork to promote their radio shows, it was nice to see that KUCR also makes an effort to publicize their DJs. During my tour around KUCR in early February 2025, one of the first things to catch my eye were clippings from the school newspaper, The Highlander, featuring profiles of KUCR DJs, that were ads run by the station.

Promoting KUCR + An Extra Special Leo Blais Sign

In addition to getting the word out about KUCR through the UC Riverside newspaper, the station also regularly tables on campus, provides DJs for local events, collaborated with local music festival Mucho Gusto, and recently hosted a karaoke night. I was also glad to see that KUCR was on the radar of musician Leo Blais, who sent the station TWO copies of personalized KUCR signs.

While I’ve seen his creations in college radio stations from coast to coast, this is the first time that I’ve spotted an identical duo of Leo Blais signs in one station. One is perched next to a teddy bear high on a shelf in KUCR’s lobby, while another sits in the KUCR interview room stacked on top of a receiver and CD player.

Thanks to KUCR + Station Tour Archive

Thanks to Diya Anantharaman for the wonderful tour of KUCR. It was great to finally get the opportunity to visit and add to my nearly complete roster of visits to stations on University of California campuses. Other UC radio tours include UC Berkeley’s KALX, UC Davis’ KDVS, UC Santa Cruz’s KZSC, UC Santa Barbara’s KCSB, UC Irvine’s KUCI, and UC San Diego’s KSDT.

This is my 175th radio station tour report and my 117th college radio station recap. View all my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives.

The post Radio Station Visit #175: KUCR at UC Riverside appeared first on Radio Survivor.

As we chatted over lunch in the dining hall at Bowdoin College on a late August afternoon, Mason Daugherty, one of the Station Managers of college radio station WBOR-FM, said quick “hellos” to friends who he hadn’t seen in months. The verdant campus in Brunswick, Maine was coming to life, as students were beginning to arrive for orientation training and athletic activities. Daugherty had been there all summer, working at a job nearby and tending to the radio station at the small liberal arts college. Time was of the essence for my visit, as this fall is WBOR’s final semester in its home in the Dudley Coe basement.

WBOR’s Cozy Basement Home in Dudley Coe

Tucked away in the back of Dudley Coe, WBOR is accessed by descending a short set of concrete steps. As the front door opens, a soft glow emanates from a variety of sources, including string lighting, a shaded swing arm lamp, a pink neon sign, audio equipment, and a red, yellow, and green traffic light perched on a shelf. The typical college-issued harsh overhead fluorescent bulbs have been turned off and the subdued lighting sets the tone as both an inviting and relaxing space. A lounge area is outfitted with comfy chairs, an area rug, coffee table, and customized throw pillows with a cassette tape-themed WBOR logo.

The station walls are covered with posters, flyers, stickers, and handwritten notes and drawings from DJs past and present. While some of these musings were clearly scribbled for shock value (“I love boobs”), others hint at the intellectual pursuits of their authors. From existential crises (“You can send me to college, but you can’t make me think”) to short stories-in-the-making (“I feel like my mom doing heroin in the 90s”), to bittersweet love notes memorializing Bowdoin and WBOR (“Goodbye WBOR I mean Dudley Coe the only non sterile space on campus here’s to everything that has disappeared but meant everything at a time”); the prose on all the station spaces would take hours to fully document.

Music and Ephemera at WBOR

Decorative beads hang from a doorway that leads from the lounge into a room bordered by music. Vinyl records and CDs are stashed in shelves and drawers throughout the station, while fake flowers, plastic figurines, a lava lap, and other ephemera add to the funky atmosphere. There’s an Apples in Stereo painting by prolific artist Steve Keene (a college radio staple!) in one of the studios and a metal cabinet in the bathroom is like a 1990s (and earlier) time capsule, covered with a faded Del Rubio Triplets album cover and stickers from Buffalo Daughter, Komeda, Superchunk, Spiritualized and other bands of the era.

Modern Technology in the College Radio Station Studio

The large broadcast studio has a vintage “on-air” light hanging over the entrance and I was told by Mason that it is an antique from the station’s early days. Inside the studio are modern additions, including an interface that Mason had designed, allowing DJs to easily play through a series of station announcements. Computer monitors display station information, text messages from listeners, and playlist details. An LED sign perched behind the mixing board shows the date and time, but can also be configured to show details from EAS tests and alerts. While doing their live programs from this studio, DJs can play music from turntables, CD players and digital sources.

Evidence of the Past in Funky WBOR Space

Adding to the funkiness of the WBOR space is the building’s back story. Dudley Coe used to be the home of the Bowdoin infirmary and there are still remnants and reminders of those days, including a metal circuit breaker box with the word X-Ray stenciled on it in black ink. Apparently there’s also dumb waiter running through the building and claw foot bathtubs. Most of the organizations that were more recently housed in Dudley Coe have moved out, leaving WBOR alone in the basement.

Books and other items from the long-gone print shop are scattered throughout the adjoining rooms, alongside dust and cobwebs. When leaving the coziness of WBOR’s corner of the basement, the unoccupied rooms feel creepy in comparison and lend credence to rumors that the building is haunted. In spite of that, a handful of professors are using the upstairs rooms as temporary offices before the building gets demolished.

WBOR’s Impending Move

When January comes, the station’s operations are scheduled to be moved across campus to Coles Tower, once the tallest building in Maine. WBOR’s antenna is already atop the 16-story residence hall. The new first-floor space is radically smaller than the existing WBOR digs. Carved out of a former TV studio (which also operated as an interview room) the new WBOR will have only a few distinct rooms. A long entryway leads to an open area with wooden shelving for vinyl records on one wall and there’s already a copy of the 12″ of Prince and the Revolution’s “Another Lonely Christmas” sitting on the largely empty shelf. A window and doorway occupy the opposite wall, which leads to the studio. There are also a few small nooks, but the full layout is very much TBD. Mason anticipated not bringing much from the old space, telling me that they would likely digitize the CDs and then store them off-site.

Work to Save Radio History and Capture WBOR’s Past and Present

In anticipation of the move, WBOR has already started bringing historical items, like paperwork, zines, program guides, and posters, to Bowdoin College’s Special Collections so that this material will be preserved. The challenge, as Mason pointed out, is documenting everything scrawled on the walls and ceilings throughout WBOR. One idea is to do a 3D capture, so that people could potential walk through the station virtually in the future. Some short videos have already been shot, including a TikTok shot by Mason that went viral, garnering over a million views.

While I’m saddened by WBOR’s impending move, it’s encouraging that WBOR and Bowdoin College are working to save station materials. This was apparent to me during my visit to the library’s Special Collections and Archives, where I spent an afternoon combing through boxes and files full of radio station-related goodies. Carefully stored in archival boxes were WBOR ‘zines, playlists, DJ log books, posters, manuals, memos, FCC paperwork, stickers, flyers, reels, carts, and more — all capturing a history dating back to the 1950s for WBOR and back to the 1940s for broadcast radio activities on campus.

Storied History of College Radio at Bowdoin

Originally, students and faculty led radio projects under the banner of BOTA, for Bowdoin on the Air. While productions were recorded on campus, the broadcasts aired on other local stations. By 1950, Bowdoin was testing out its own AM signal, officially launching WBOA (for “Bowdoin-on-air”) in May, 1951 over 820 AM. A few months before launch, WBOA sent delegates to a regional college radio conference hosted by the Smith College Radio station WCSR. This event brought together station representatives from the east coast and was a sign of the growing number of collaborative endeavors by college radio stations in the 1940s and 1950s.

An FM frequency was added in 1956 and that marks the beginning of WBOR (for “Bowdoin-on-radio”) 91.1 FM. According to WBOR’s history timeline, “Most Bowdoin students didn’t own an FM radios during this period, so station management built and installed illegal Heathkit FM tuners and miniature AM transmitters in each campus dorm and fraternity house. The station transmitted on 640 kHz, which was then a CONELRAD frequency (used to broadcast emergency warning information in the event of a nuclear attack on the US).”

WBOR in 2024: Active and Thriving Radio Station

Today, WBOR is a very active group at Bowdoin, with around 200 participants, which is more than 10% of the student body. During the academic year, the makeup of WBOR is around 85% students, with community members (including faculty and staff – even deans!) comprising the remainder. The station has a freeform programming philosophy and it’s possible to tune in and hear shows that play wildly different music genres back to back. Some of the programs in spring 2024 included “Unspoken Guitar Heroes,” “Pink Finger: Riot Grrl Radio,” Your Dad’s CDs,” “PopRocks,” “La Bruja Azul,” “Coastal Classical,” “If It Sounds Country, That’s What it Is,” and more. Other shows were devoted to The Pixies, jazz, and other more esoteric themes, including one that sought inspiration from an episode of the Simpsons.

Getting ready to begin senior year, Mason remained upbeat about the station’s move, reasoning that it would be impossible to take everything with them, while also pointing out some of the benefits of the new space, including greater accessibility (no stairs) and more windows. Less hidden from view, it will be located in a building that houses dorm rooms and meeting spaces.

Thanks to WBOR + More Radio Station Tours

Thanks to Mason Daugherty for the wonderful tour of WBOR. And many thanks to everyone in Bowdoin College Library’s George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives for all of their help before, during and after my visit to their reading room.

This is my 174th radio station tour report and my 116th college radio station recap. View all my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives.

The post Radio Station Visit #174: WBOR at Bowdoin College appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The phrase “The neighbors complain,” circles around what appears to be a black WPIR pirate flag. This imagery on the website for college radio station WPIR Pratt Radio alludes to rumors and half-truths about student radio’s legacy and mysterious history on the Brooklyn, New York campus of the Pratt Institute. As is the case at many college radio stations, the concept of history is largely focused on the past few years. And with the COVID disruption, even that institutional memory has mostly been erased.

WPIR Pratt Radio in 2023

However, the 2022-2023 academic year shaped up to be a pivotal moment, with in-person classes happening once again and mask mandates loosening. After a few shaky years, WPIR Pratt Radio is back in action, broadcasting online from a spiffy new studio (as of February, 2023) in the recently renovated Chapel Hall. In spring, 2023, WPIR had 28 shows airing on its internet stream, as well as over speakers in the Student Union building.

Flyers, posters, 45rpm records, and other ephemera from the old station space (which was just down the hall and was WPIR’s home circa 2006-2023) adorn the walls of the two-room studio and a basket is filled with Polaroid photos of station members from the past. Formerly home to an interfaith lounge, the new WPIR space is divided in half by a window. The furthest room functions as a radio booth, where show hosts sit to do their programs.

WPIR’s Whimsical Communication System During Live Shows

The front room is where a “runner” sits, transmitting each live show to the internet stream. Initially station board members played that role, but now every show host is required to also “run” another program. A large collection of colorful, hand-drawn, whimsical signs featuring tips and inspirational messages sits on the counter. These signs are used as props by the show runner, as a way to communicate words of encouragement to the DJ or host. Messages include suggestions like, “The mic isn’t picking up your voice. Speak closer,” as well as praise, such as “This song slaps.”

At the time of my visit, DJs at WPIR only played digital music. However, inside a metal cabinet is a small collection of CDs, cassettes, LPs and 7″ inch records, along with cables and miscellaneous audio equipment. A stack of cover-less vintage records also sits in the studio. While these items hint at a longer station history, it’s difficult to discern the station’s precise trajectory over the past few decades.

WPIR Pratt’s Early College Radio Days over AM Carrier Current

Originally an AM carrier current station dating back to 1966, WPIR broadcast nightly at 600kc on AM from the first floor of the Willoughby dorm at Pratt, according to a 1971 residence hall handbook. These transmissions could eventually be heard across multiple dorms on campus. Although it was unlicensed carrier current, WPIR was seen as an important communications tool. A letter in student newspaper The Prattler, following student activism efforts and turmoil in 1969, states, “The utilization of radio, WPIR, posters and flyers through quantity and quality, can also aid in securing an informal, involved student body.”

1970s Scene at WPIR Pratt Radio

By the 1970s, WPIR DJs were spinning records on a variety of music shows. One such show was a late night rhythm and blues program hosted by future music industry professional Karen L. Glover, who post-graduation was editor of Black Beat magazine and a music supervisor for films. Other examples of music genres being played in this era can be found in a list of stolen WPIR records during the 1974-1975 academic year. A 1975 article in Drum, a publication by the Black Students Union of Pratt, digs into “PIR Piracy: The Missing Black Records at WPIR,” and mentions that 37 records (mostly featuring Black artists) went missing between September and April. On the list were albums from jazz musician Ramsey Lewis, soul singer Minnie Riperton, funk rock band Labelle, comedian Franklin Ajaye, and artist Carl Douglas (specifically, his disco release “Kung Fu Fighting”).

1980s Equipment Theft and Revival

WPIR continued as a campus-only broadcaster into the 1980s. According to a 1991 article in The Prattler, “in the early 80’s WPIR was a ‘pirate’ station, broadcasting without the schools [sic] or the FCC’s permission. Then all the equipment was stolen.” The article states that in 1984 a freshman, Janell Genovese, “started it back up from scratch,” overseeing WPIR until 1989, when she passed the job on to Daniel Fries.

WPIR’s Foray into Unlicensed FM Broadcasts

Fries was very interested in taking WPIR to the FM airwaves over very low power. After finding a frequency, he began broadcasts on the far left side of the dial (he thinks 87.9 FM) in November, 1990. Several months later, on April 1, 1991, the FCC sent a letter to higher ups at Pratt, asking that WPIR cease their FM transmissions or risk a $100,000 fine.

At the time, Fries told The Prattler that he was surprised because he had “counseled” with “representatives” who had “deemed the broadcast of WPIR, if low power, unlicensable.” I reached out to Fries and he made some clarifications, explaining that he’d spoken with a consultant as well as with engineers on campus. “We determined that at a very low power we could limit the range pretty easily…I was counseled that under a certain power output it was considered legal without a license,” he said, adding that the plan was to operate legal low power unlicensed broadcasts, complying with FCC’s Part 15 rules. These same regulations under Part 15 are what allow for legal, unlicensed campus-only AM carrier current broadcasts.

A former WPIR staffer wrote a more colorful account some years later on the station’s website, saying that, “…the short-lived glory days were perhaps 3-4 months, where we were heard all over the 5 boroughs. We had a great time anyhow, promoting shows – including bands like Fishbone, They Might Be Giants (Pratt alumni themselves), Swirlies, 24-7 Spies, and so on.” However, Fries maintains that those FM broadcasts were much more limited, with “maybe a mile radius” from Pratt’s Brooklyn campus.

WPIR’s Return to AM

After shutting down its low power FM broadcasts, WPIR planned to go back to AM carrier current and increase awareness of the station on campus. The Prattler noted, “Not many people at Pratt know that this institute has a radio station. Even less know its recent history.”

A former staffer spoke of efforts to continue broadcasting after this setback, writing about this history on the WPIR website (circa 2007), “My wife (the then GM) and I tried to resurrect the station as a campus-only ‘leaky cable’ system, which uses a low-power signal that radiates perhaps 100 feet max from the cable – so it’d be run around campus, down hallways, up elevator shafts, and so on. Never worked out too well, as I couldn’t get the damned cable across Willoughby Avenue! Some sort of hoo-ha permitting that sort of thing, so we gave up.” A 1994 yearbook mentions a return to AM following the whole FCC debacle.

WPIR Transitions Online in the 2000s

The station’s pirate radio past is immortalized in some of the station’s branding, as evidenced by a pirate flag with WPIR call letters hanging in the current studio. With its forays into AM and FM broadcasting behind them, Pratt Radio shifted to internet streaming somewhere between 2001 and 2004 and even introduced podcasts as early as 2006.

WPIR Pratt Radio’s Post-COVID Revival

To current students (as was the case decades ago!), the history of Pratt Radio is very murky. And in the shadow of COVID, just getting WPIR up and running again has been the main focus of their attention. When I met up with four WPIR board members in late March, 2023 they spoke of their work to bring the station back to life. All sophomores at the time (a fifth board member was a senior), they had not experienced Pratt Radio pre-COVID, so much of what they knew about the station came from conversations with upperclassmen and their advisor as well as from digging into past postings on Instagram.

2020 WPIR Frozen in Time

Since WPIR was inactive for a bit, current station participants also had to do some sleuthing in order to get back on social media. However, the station’s wonderfully designed tumblr site remains inaccessible and is frozen in time. One page shows the Spring 2020 schedule, packed with 53 shows, hosted by students, faculty/staff, and alumni. It’s easy to imagine the enthusiasm that everyone had when that schedule was posted at the start of 2020, but of course everything changed that March of 2020. By fall, 2020 shows were being done remotely, with some hosts recording programs using the voice memo app on their phones.

Bringing WPIR Pratt Radio Back in 2022-2023 School Year

As we chatted in the quiet studio (except for a constant hum of construction and periodic banging noises from a sculpture class upstairs) in March, 2023 during a mid-day break in programming, I learned more about what brought this group of people together to help bring back college radio on campus. Lili Leoung Tat described the situation at WPIR in the 2021-2022 school year, telling me that “it was kind of dead” and that “there wasn’t really anyone running it.” In fall 2022, she was part of the group that brought the station back from the “ground up.” Around 45 people signed up to be part of WPIR that semester, with 21 shows making it to “air.” By the spring, the number of shows had increased to 28.

The Allure of College Radio for WPIR’s Student Leaders

Amazingly, this small group of students, new to radio, quickly revived the dormant WPIR. Interestingly, several had relatives, including cousins and parents who had worked in college radio or radio in general. WPIR board member Arzu Oran reflected back on an older cousin who had done college radio, saying “he always seemed so cool,” adding that this was part of her desire to join a college radio station, “especially at an art school” like Pratt.

Coincidentally, fellow board member Eve Mikkelson also had an older cousin who did college radio. She was partially drawn to Pratt Radio because she thought it would be the “perfect way to meet a bunch of people.” The newest board member (she was a week into her term when we all meet in March), Mikkelson talked about how much she enjoys doing her show, “Brooklyn Buzz,” which highlights Brooklyn artists. “Getting to curate what you play and what you say, it’s just a really nice form of expression,” she explained, adding, “You’re picking all your favorite things and you’re getting to share it with as many people as possible.”

Similarly, Oran, who hosts “Kraving Kibbeh,” spoke philosophically about the experience of listening to music “actively,” without distractions. She finds herself doing that much more while participating in college radio at WPIR, where she is more likely to listen to music “fully.” She said, “It feels so nice to actively listen” to both her own program as well as other shows on WPIR.

Building Community at Pratt Institute

In addition to the joy of “doing” radio, the participants at WPIR talked about the satisfaction that they felt in contributing to campus life. “I really like that we’re leaving a mark on the campus, because we’re helping to relaunch the Pratt radio station,” said board member Colin Coffey. He continued, “Hopefully we’ll keep thriving after we graduate…it’s just a nice community that we’ve built.” Leoung Tat agreed, adding that the station community is also building connections with other groups. She mentioned that several clubs have reached out to collaborate with WPIR. One organization, Queer Pratt, inquired about having DJs spin at an event and the student book club asked WPIR to curate playlists for their meetings.

Fall 2023 Shows at WPIR Pratt Radio

WPIR is up and running again this semester, with all four of the board members who I met in the spring still active on the Pratt Radio Board. When I tuned in to the stream in mid-October, 2023, there were 25 shows on the fall schedule running from about noon to 10pm. The broad range of programs include “Eli’s Experimental Hour,” “Jesus Wept,” “Evil Hour,” “Show Tunes Swag,” “Tuning into the 2000s,” “Clowns, Cowboys & Punks,” and more. An edition of “Nocturnal Emissions” that I caught featured bands with under 20,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, which I thought was an interesting way to feature more underground artists.

Thanks to WPIR Pratt Radio + More Radio Station Tours

Thanks to WPIR Pratt Radio for the wonderful visit. Also many thanks to WPIR advisor and Associate Director for the Student Union Alexander Ullman for taking time to speak with me. Additional appreciation goes to Brendan Enright, Project Archivist at the Pratt Institute for research assistance and for digging up some vital materials in the archives. And, finally, thanks to WPIR alum Daniel Fries for sharing his memories with me, helping to shed light on the station’s pirate radio rumors.

This is my 173rd radio station tour report and my 115th college radio station recap. View all my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives. Stay tuned for additional tours from my spring and summer travels.

The post Radio Station Visit #173: College Radio Station WPIR Pratt Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

With killer views from the 7th floor of a building in the heart of New York City, it’s no surprise that DJs at The School of Visual Arts’ (SVA) college radio station WSVA joke about wanting to live at the station. “I would love to have this as my apartment,” said Michelle Mullin, WSVA’s Manager of Operations. Similarly, alumnus Jacob Gardner, who uses they/he pronouns, admitted to napping at the station, especially since their apartment was in another borough. Beyond WSVA being a lovely space physically, the station also feels welcoming to its participants. “There’s actual life in this place,” explained Alice Katok, the station’s Manager of Production, contrasting it with the closet-like conditions of her apartment. Especially after a few isolating years of COVID, it’s clear that students are gravitating to college radio station WSVA in order to be part of a community of like-minded music enthusiasts.

WSVA Punk Show and Community Connections

And that community is growing beyond the walls of WSVA. The station hosted a sold-out punk show in February, 2023 (its first in recent memory) and 70 people showed up. Mullin was impressed by the turn out, saying that she’d never seen more than 30 people at a school event in her time at SVA. Although it was restricted to SVA-affiliated people, they even got some RSVPs from people who aren’t connected with the school. This outside interest was gratifying to WSVA and a sign to them that they are on an upswing.

Katok mentioned that they’ve also been getting communication from more artists and have had to turn down requests from bands to play. Additionally, WSVA has heard from folks at nearby colleges and college radio stations at FIT, Hunter College, NYU, and the New School about possibly collaborating on events. Mullin said that she feels “lucky” that WSVA has so much creative freedom; in part because the station is internet-only.

College Radio Station WSVA Feels Like an Art School

These days, WSVA is buzzing with activity. Gardner said that there were 40 shows in spring 2023 as well as a record number of listeners on the online station’s stream. And, specific attempts to make the station “more accessible” and “less cliquey” are paying off. “I tell everyone I know, you can come here, you don’t have to have a show,” Mullin remarked, adding, “I love coming in…and seeing 10 people in here.” Gardner explained that WSVA is “supposed to be a space that everybody can enjoy,” and pointed out that the station really “feels like an art school.” And it’s true. There’s art everywhere, including random paintings, sculpture projects, drawings on the walls, and a shared notebook packed with sketches. The WSVA Sketchbook was a new addition in February, 2023. Additionally, a “doodle challenge” on the wall of WSVA encourages DJs to “draw your favorite album from memory.”

Looking Back at WSVA During COVID

This creative, in-person energy is quite the contrast to the past few years during COVID. WSVA was completely shut down in spring 2020. By the summer, they had created a virtual studio over Discord and test ran a station on Twitch, where they even held a dance party. By fall, 2020 WSVA was running shows over Twitch. For Gardner, it served as their only social interaction, which they characterized as “commiseration” during an especially challenging time for students.

By fall, 2021, WSVA was back in its 7th floor studio, although work had to be done to spruce it up after it had been sitting idle for over a year. In-person shows resumed in October, 2021, with around 36 programs on the schedule. “I think people were just excited to do anything,” recalled Katok about this reawakening on campus. There were still restrictions in place, with only 3 people allowed in WSVA at a time in fall, 2021. “I was here typically alone,” Katok said.

WSVA Re-Energized in 2022-2023 School Year

However, by the 2022-2023 academic year. WSVA was even more energized, which was quite palpable when I visited in late March, 2023. “I’ve definitely noticed a shift this year,” remarked Katok, adding, “more people are curious” about the radio station. Along with that, WSVA is attracting more attention. Gardner joked that when they started at the school, the radio station was like the “Bigfoot of SVA,” with students not realizing that WSVA even existed. Another positive shift was that some younger staff members were in place this spring, with many of them still in leadership positions in fall, 2023. Having continuity is helpful, especially with the disruption during COVID.

College Radio Station WSVA’s Lively Space

The lively WSVA space is covered with flyers from past events, as well as promotional posters and stickers from prior eras of the station. The on-air studio is sweetly outfitted with a nice leather couch and matching chair, a cute floral armchair, and multi-colored plastic crates full of vinyl records. A red pitchfork is propped in one corner and posters and flyers cover the walls. A handful of CDs sit in the station window, which faces the entryway to the station. Another studio currently serves more like a storage area, but seems like it may have functioned as a production studio or news studio in the past.

These days, WSVA DJs are playing a wide range of genres. The folks who I met up with mentioned playing folk, mid-western emo, 1950s doo-wop, and hardcore. And by this fall, the 37 shows on the schedule included “Love Letter to an LP,” “Emo to the Extremo,” “Fiona’s iPod Shuffle,” “Into the Pit,” “Anti Wave,” “Girlie & Pop,” and more.

Although the WSVA crew recognizes the freedom that affords them as an internet-only college radio station; they also expressed some wistfulness about not having a spot on the terrestrial dial. We chatted about the station formerly being on AM, but not much was known about that time.

The Mysterious History of College Radio Station WSVA

Part of the challenge is that there is no written WSVA history. And the “about us” section of WSVA’s website circa January 2008 is comically spot-on when articulating this lack of a detailed station history. According to the post, “WSVA was founded…well, we actually don’t know when. I’m assuming it was some time in the late 80s or early 90s. Then it was shut down for a while and opened up again sometime in the late 90s. Again, we don’t know exactly when this was.”

Early Days of WSVA: 1980s

While WSVA’s “history is shrouded in mystery,” according to Gardner, there are little kernels of details around the station. Formerly a carrier current radio station at 590 AM, WSVA is rumored to have started in 1970. Throughout the 1980s, the college radio station broadcast over carrier current and into various spaces on campus. Events included a “Battle of the Bands” in spring 1986, with participants selected based on demo tapes. At the time, the station used the branding “WSVA 590 Rock 59.”

One featured program was “Overtones,” which played progressive jazz fusion and new age music. Other shows included the “heavy music” oriented “16 Tons” as well the “Rockin’ Rob Show,” which played new wave music, rock, rap, comedy and interviews. By spring, 1987, it seemed that WSVA’s space had been reduced, with it now occupying only a portion of the 7th floor lounge that was its home. An article SVA’s student newspaper Canvas states, “Our sound can be heard in the incredible shrinking seventh floor lounge Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Fridays 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. We can also be heard in the cafeteria every day from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and soon-to-be in the afternoons as well.”

1980s Programming

Additionally, a new show in spring 1987 was an on-air classifieds-type program, “The Bulletin Board,” which aired at 3:30pm every day. WSVA also offered to buy records from anyone on campus that spring. A local music show, “Homegrown,” began in fall 1986 and by spring, 1987 it had received material from a variety of bands, including The Crunge, Me and My Bro, Norman Bates and the Showerheads, Sidney and the Homewreckers, and the Rescue. In fall, 1987, the station was airing music (including a classical show), hourly newscasts, talk shows, and a comedy show within its mix of programming.

An October, 1989 account in Canvas reported on delays in broadcasting that fall due to an explosion in Gramercy Park and a New York Telephone strike. With new equipment, the station was gearing up to broadcast from 7am to 5pm on weekdays into four SVA buildings: Sloane House and lounges at East 21st Street, East 23rd Street, and West 21st Street.

Early 2000s at College Radio Station WSVA

Posters and stickers at WSVA from the internet era include the spot on the AM dial, suggesting that carrier current persisted into at least the early 2000s. Photographer Noah Kalina was Music Director at WSVA in the early 2000s and posted an anecdote about what the station was like during that time. While at the station he compiled charts to send to the industry publication, CMJ. Coincidentally, years later, he shot a CMJ cover featuring the musician Sia.

On his website, Kalina reflects back on his time at WSVA:

WSVA is a radio station nobody at the school even knew existed. It only broadcast in the school cafeteria which was 3 blocks away and they never had the volume up loud enough to hear it. We basically sat around the station all day making up the music charts we had to send in to CMJ. We would also field calls from all of the music publicists further perpetuating the myth that we were a legitimate radio station. This insured that the station could continue to receive tons and tons of promo CD’s and we could keep our jobs.

There was absolutely no authority so we basically made it up as we went along. It was the best job anybody in college could ever ask for, not to mention it was two flights above the darkrooms. How or why we ever got paid will always remain a mystery.

Judging by the look of the current website (we never had a website) not much has changed. It does however seem like they are doing a really fancy itunes stream. I am so proud of them.

Noah Kalina

Over email, Kalina shared more reminiscences with me, as well as some photos that he took of the station during his time there from 2000 to 2001. He explained that even though WSVA was piped into the cafeteria, it was an underused space, limiting their audience even further. He added, “They said it was in the dorms too, but it wasn’t.” As far as the music of the era, he mentioned, “…we basically had Radiohead KID A on repeat non-stop so that album marks that time for me. Fall/Winter 2000. Unforgettable.” He also recalled that a major renovation took place at WSVA in late April, 2001; which he captured in photos before the work has been completed.

Early Streaming at WSVA Limited to the Campus

While its unclear when internet broadcasting started for WSVA, it does seem that it was initially limited to campus networks. Vintage stickers posted at the radio station include a URL for Pipeline, which likely provided an intranet for the campus, seemingly between 2001 and 2008ish. In 2005, a comment on WSVA’s LiveJournal site said, “SVA should invest in a WSVA server for some sort of podcasting system, allowing for listeners outside of the campus! That’s what I think. Any ideas on implementing such a system?” A post on the station’s website four years later, in fall 2009, indicated that these broadcasts were still “limited to our school’s network.”

By spring 2011, WSVA could be heard streaming “via the magical internet, so listeners are able to tune in all across the world.” Some of these shows from this era were also posted as podcasts as well. Although I’m unsure about when carrier current broadcasting ended for WSVA, it appears that by 2013, the station was only streaming online. They also installed a webcam in 2013 and a few videos can be found on YouTube circa 2017. Also in the early 2000s, there were at least two different ‘zines produced by WSVA, including one called STATIC, and later a webzine called Xzyqunity.

Lore from WSVA’s Past

Mullin, Katok and Gardner were interested to learn more about WSVA’s past and have made attempts at research. Gardner found some recordings of shows circa 2017 and they have had requests from station alumni looking for even earlier archives. Gardner said that they are proud of WSVA alumni like musician Mike Krol. An interview with him is on the current WSVA website and Krol shares some memories of his time at the radio station in the early 2000s.

Rumors of a 1990 Kurt Cobain visit to the station are unverified, but there’s also SVA chatter about artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring (who attended SVA) hanging out in the school cafeteria. A friend of mine, John Devecka, who worked for carrier current equipment manufacturer LPB, recalled visiting WSVA circa 1995-1996 and seeing Keith Haring graffiti in the building’s stairwell. Devecka was there to test the carrier current system as well as to explore the possibility of installing radiating cable FM. Unfortunately with the layout of the building, it was found to be too expensive to shift to FM at that time.

While this mysterious history is alluring, today’s WSVA participants also worry about this lack of awareness of the station’s past. “I don’t want this place to be lost in history,” Katok explained. Mullin added that some of her professors seemed completely unaware of WSVA’s existence; although she noted, “We’ve been alive this whole time.”

During our chat in the spring, Gardner mentioned that WSVA had hoped to do a ‘zine again; so I was excited to see a post calling for writers and ‘zine contributors on the WSVA Instagram in October, 2023. Especially thrilling for me is that history will be part of that ‘zine. The post says, “We want to document the history of the radio station, as well as feature the works of our DJs who make WSVA possible.” I can’t wait to see the finished ‘zine and wish WSVA luck in sleuthing out more stories from its 50+ year history.

Thanks to WSVA + More Radio Station Tours

Thanks to everyone at WSVA for the warm welcome and fun visit in March, 2023. I’m also very grateful to Beth Kleber, Head of Archives for the School of Visual Arts Archives for help in locating WSVA material from the 1980s. More thanks to Noah Kalina for sharing memories and photos from his time at WSVA in the early 2000s.

This is my 172nd radio station tour report and my 114th college radio station recap. View all my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives. Stay tuned for additional tours from my spring and summer travels.

The post Radio Station Visit #172: College Radio Station WSVA at The School of Visual Arts appeared first on Radio Survivor.

I felt nostalgia for so many different eras of college radio during a visit to Sarah Lawrence College’s student-run radio station WSLC in Bronxville, New York. Located in beautiful Bates Hall, built in 1928 as one of the college’s first buildings, the station’s large windows afford DJs fresh air and a view of the lush campus. A black and white studio photo on the wall is a reminder of the station’s beginnings as carrier current station W-SLC launched by students over 640AM on February 4, 1946. At the time Sarah Lawrence was a women’s college, putting Radio Sarah Lawrence in the company of a small number of 1940s college radio stations led by women.

College Radio Station WSLC Launched by Students in 1946

An October 1945 article in The Campus talks about the origins of the station, writing, “A proposal for Sarah Lawrence to have its own radio station, presently known as Radio Sarah Lawrence, will come before the student body in the next all-student meeting. Alison Stacey and Leni Keir originated the idea and are seeking student support.” Apparently they encountered naysayers along the way, with, The Campus reporting in 1947 that Radio Sarah Lawrence “…was originally built because Harvard laughed at Sarah Lawrence and said ‘Sarah Lawrence couldn’t build or run a radio station, the students would be far too busy polishing their nails and meeting under the clock.'”

Radio Drifts Away and Returns in the Late 1990s

An active radio station that aired poetry, music, comedy, and even a rebroadcast of a campus talk by Eleanor Roosevelt (in 1951), WSLC seems to have drifted away within just a few years. Students made efforts to launch FM stations in the late 1970s and early 1980s and explored starting an AM station in the early 1990s. By 1998, students were honing in on the idea of doing a radiating cable station, along the lines of what college radio station WAKE FM at Wake Forest University was doing at the time. An early WSLC website from 1998 states that, “This system will allow us to broadcast to an area of about five hundred feet away from any on-campus building.”

And, then, by summer 1999, a new WSLC was built in the basement of Robinson and began broadcasting to the campus over 105.7 FM, radiating cable and then “through streaming audio,” according to a 2000 post on Sarah Lawrence’s early student-run server, Raptor. By January 2013, the station operated from the basement of the communications building (presumably Robinson) and was broadcasting online from 5pm to 2am. And, then, by fall 2013, WSLC had moved to the second floor of Bates, where the station remains today.

Peeking at WSLC through a Porthole in 2023

Decades later, the current iteration of WSLC broadcasts out of the same building where the station began 77 years ago. From the Bates hallway, one can peek through a small porthole window and spy Shaun Cassidy and Belle and Sebastian posters hanging on baby blue walls. The radio studio set-up is in full view, with a retro wooden-framed grayish blue dorm couch against one wall. Most dramatic of all is the bright, multicolored abstract patterned carpet that is so iconic that it inspired a WSLC sticker design.

Returning from COVID with Packed Schedule and Live Events

The streaming radio station airs 64 weekly shows, with an impressive roster of 74 DJs. WSLC Operations Manager Henry Burch said that the “packed schedule” during the 2022-2023 school year is a marked improvement from the prior year, which was still very much under the cloud of COVID-19 fears and restrictions. He explained that “COVID really crippled the station,” especially because people were forced to isolate from others. In turn, that made it more difficult to develop a sense of community at WSLC.

On an upswing, WSLC has been working hard since last spring to not only revamp the station, but to also do more events. Flyers were posted all over campus for a show happening the day after my visit. Connecticut queercore band Space Camp and New Jersey “weirdo hardcore” band Final Resting Pose played at the Black Squirrel (a former student hangout, but now a classroom) at Sarah Lawrence. Burch expressed excitement for the event and explained that WSLC is still figuring out which campus spaces work best for shows.

An event in February with “hyper pop” artist Gabby Start and Lux Deluxe was held in MacCracken Dance Studio. Flyers alerted attendees: “Shoes Off!,” in an attempt to protect the dance studio floor. Burch said that they’ve been doing around a show a month, with increasing success and “positive feedback.” He added that not only is it great to be able to see live music at Sarah Lawrence, but that these shows are also helping to build the WSLC community AND bring a feeling of community back to the campus at large.

Thriving College Radio Community in 2023

Meanwhile, inside the station, there are also signs of a thriving community. A WSLC log book sits on the desk, filled with handwritten playlists and doodles. An intentional tool to get DJs interacting with one another, its pages highlight the creativity and personality of WSLC participants. And it’s a big change from Burch’s first year at the station in the 2021-2022 school year, which he described as being a more “individual” experience. At the time he hosted the last show of the night, “Old World Underground,” and his only human interaction was with the DJ before him.

Appreciation for Physical Music at WSLC

In addition to working to build connections between DJs and the campus, WSLC has also made studio improvements. Expanding its library of physical music, the station has also revamped its equipment so that DJs can play vinyl records again (in addition to cassettes, CDs and digital music). The station’s small collection of LPs is on a shelf with plastic record dividers labeled “disco,” “soundtracks,” “jazz” and “80s synth pop bullshit.”

Black shelves house CDs, with more in boxes. Burch worked with WSLC’s General Manager Sam Wojcik to augment the collection. He said that maybe half of the DJs are using physical music, but noted that this has been steadily increasing. He pointed out that all the DJs have been trained on how to use physical media and that more have been getting comfortable with playing records and CDs.

Already a radio veteran when he arrived at Sarah Lawrence, Burch said, “I think physical music is an important part of the radio experience.” While in high school, he DJ’d at community radio station WXNA in Nashville, telling me that that’s where he “fell in love” with radio. That experience prompted him to join WSLC his first year of college. Whereas in high school he played a big variety of music on his shared show; at WSLC he’s tried to develop themes for each of his radio programs. Last year he showcased independent music, playing material that may not have been as familiar to listeners.

Variety of Shows at WSLC

Although Burch’s show last year leaned more indie, WSLC programs run the gamut. Burch said that they try to get DJs to play material that’s “more out there,” but that the schedule is “diverse,” with DJs playing “everything,” without many restrictions. Being a streaming radio station, they also have the freedom to play some material that FCC-regulated stations shy away from. Burch said that each DJ works to put forth a show that is unique and an extension of the host’s personality.

The current WSLC schedule includes shows playing “pop music from the left of center,” dark folk, country, heavy sounds, music by black artists, music made by women, “meteorological music,” shoegaze, music by Canadian artists, alternative and indie music by Latinx artists, and more. Show names are also reflective of the diversity and creativity of show hosts. “Eyebrows R Overrated,” “James Joyce was a Punk Rocker,” “Lady Bird Complex,” “The Radiation Exposure Surveillance NonForProfit (RESN)” (with DJ Leaking and Pooling & DJ Ooze), and “music to listen to anywhere but the airport” are a few of the highlights.

As I wrapped up my visit, Burch reflected on why WSLC is such a special place, telling me that he’d made some of his best friends there. “It feels so good to be part of a radio community,” he said, adding, “I feel like I’m supposed to be here.”

Thanks to WSLC + More Radio Station Tours

Thanks so much to Henry Burch for showing me around WSLC and to Sarah Lawrence College Archivist Christina Kasman for providing me with materials related to WSLC history! This is my 171st radio station tour report and my 113th college radio station recap. View all my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives. Stay tuned for additional tours from my East Coast travels.

The post Radio Station Visit #171: College Radio Station WSLC at Sarah Lawrence College appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Tucked away on the 3rd floor of the Campus Center at Brown University is a college radio station with a fascinating history. BSR (Brown Student and Community Radio) currently broadcasts online and over 101.1 FM in Providence, Rhode Island, with call letters WBRU-LP, but it is the descendant of likely the first AM carrier current college radio station in the United States: The Brown Network. Because of this rich history, I was eager to visit and sleuth out snippets from BSR’s past.

Walking into BSR on a Friday afternoon at the start of spring break in March 2023, I found myself in a large open room with CD-filled shelving, a bright orange couch, upholstered chairs with an abstract pattern in lemon yellow and white, and tables stacked with music-filled mail bins. A window looks into the broadcast studio and across the hall from that is a jam-packed office containing files and ephemera. Vintage black and white photos hang on the wall above the entry way and a decades old LPB broadcast console is prominently displayed in front of the studio window.

Josie Bleakley, one of three BSR Station Managers, was excited to show me various artifacts, including boxes of early photos and bins full of cassettes and mix tapes from local bands. Last year she started working on a project to archive and digitize some of this material. With about 20,000 pieces of music in the library, the project is “daunting,” but she explained that some of the music from local artists is not online, making the very DIY cassettes at BSR an important piece of Providence music history. A couple that she pulled out of a bin were especially charming. One had a handmade sleeve crafted from furry fabric and another, by the band Thieves, featured a screen printed design on a cloth bag.

Recent History at BSR

Bleakley became even more “fascinated” with radio history, especially BSR’s history, during a radio history class with Professor of American Studies Susan Smulyan at Brown. During the week focusing on college radio, the class met at BSR, learning about the history of radio on campus. For a class project, Bleakley created an update about the more recent years of the radio station, interviewing people who had been involved with BSR through COVID. “It feels like watching the history of radio unfolding,” she added, as we talked about the ups and downs of the station, including recent challenges.

Arriving at Brown in fall 2019, Bleakley learned about BSR during the fall Activities Fair the first week of freshman year and joined the station right away. Having just moved across the country for college, she found herself drawn to the promise of a community of liked-minded music fans. By March 2020 she had started her radio training and was gearing up to go on the air. But everything changed when the school and the station was shut down at the start of COVID-19. Unfortunately, the station closure also put a halt on some planned studio repairs, which were delayed even further with supply-chain issues. So, for a time, the BSR studio was both inaccessible and unusable.

Returning to In-person Radio after COVID

By fall, 2020 Bleakley returned to campus along with maybe 1000 students. BSR had been running automated programming, playing a mix of music without DJs. By the 2021-2022 school year, DJs could do remotes shows. BSR was operating with a smaller group of DJs and leaders and with the studio still not functioning, it was difficult to recruit participants.

Finally, in fall 2022, with the BSR studio operational again (repairs were completed in September, 2022), the station saw a “big uptick” in interest. Bleakley added that a lot of first and second year students are involved now and training is ongoing for many open shifts, noting that a “silver lining” to the shutdown was that now BSR is even more accessible. Additionally, non-student community members are now allowed to come back to BSR, bringing with them their “historical knowledge” of the station. “Anyone who wants to be involved can be,” she said, contrasting that with her experience as a first year student, when there was more competition and more hurdles to getting on the air. At that time, in 2019, one had to start out with an internet-only show the first semester, before being given an opportunity to broadcast over FM.

The changes in the station culture in just a few years are remarkable. Looking back on when she started at BSR in 2019, Bleakley recalled that it was “lively” and “active,” but that she also felt out of her depth as far as music, radio, and programming. Less exclusive of a place now, since they are rebuilding their community, the current BSR is reflective of what she thinks college radio should be all about: a station for “all of the students.”

History of BSR and College Radio at Brown University

Brown University has a storied relationship with wireless communication (read more about that on the Rhode Island Radio website) and college radio, with student-led campus radio efforts beginning in 1936. This early carrier current radio station helped to spawn countless campus-only AM stations all over the United States, leading to the growth of college radio. Eventually splitting into two separate radio stations; Brown’s student broadcasting work continues today with WBRU and BSR.

First launched in 1936 from a dorm room, the Brown Network broadcast to residence halls and other campus buildings using wires and building infrastructure to facilitate transmission. A 1941 Providence Journal article explained that the Brown Network “uses the electric light system of the university for distributing its programs. Wires from a four-watt transmitter are strung through steam tunnels and connected to the lighting system by condensers.” The AM station broadcast from the top floor of Faunce House by this time.

Beginnings of Carrier Current College Radio

The Brown Network’s student founders enthusiastically spread the word about campus radio, inspiring others to build carrier current stations at colleges all over the country. In 1940, they helped to launch the college radio organization, Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS) in order to build a broader college radio community. IBS still exists today and continues to hold annual conventions in New York City.

I’m always interested to hear details about women’s roles in college radio in the early 20th century and was pleased to learn that women were active participants in radio at Brown. According to a history of the station, “Pembroke women had first joined the Brown Network as announcers and administrators in 1939, when broadcasting on the Pembroke College campus began. Determined to stay afloat during World War II, the Brown Network allowed Pembrokers to join in full force as programmers, news announcers, engineers, and business managers.” Louis Bloch writes in Gas Pipe Networks: A History of College Radio 1936-1946, that “Jean Bruce ’40 was in charge of the thirty Pembroke women working on the Brown Network.”

WBRU-FM Launches; WBRU-AM Remains on Carrier Current

The Brown Network referred to itself as BUBC (Brown University Broadcasting Company) until 1945, when it changed its call letters to WBRU. In 1966, an FM signal was secured and WBRU-FM was born as a commercial station. WBRU-AM continued as a carrier current campus radio station, but seemed to have an increasingly lower profile. “By the 1970s, WBRU-AM was known for original music and entertainment programming. The 1980s Brain Bowl quiz show stood out for its free-form style. But as the FM market grew competitive, WBRU-AM became a low priority for staffers. Buildings renovated with steel and concrete made the weak AM signal virtually inaudible,” according to a history of the station.

WBRU-AM Rebrands as Brown Student Radio; Heads to FM and Online

WBRU-AM apparently struggled in the 1980s and was revitalized by the mid 1990s, with a station history explaining that in 1994 “…outgoing managers at WBRU-AM handed leadership to a group of freshmen determined to revive the defunct station,” which students viewed “as an outlet for less commercial music.” By the following year, WBRU-AM had signed an agreement to broadcast sports over Wheeler School station WELH 88.1 FM and rebranded itself as Brown Student Radio (BSR). Within a few years it had acquired more airtime and was broadcasting on 88.1 FM on weeknights beginning in November, 1997.

In 2011, BSR lost its lease of airtime on 88.1 FM, but continued as an internet-only station. Then, a few years later, BSR took advantage of the low power FM opportunity and applied for a license of its own. Meanwhile, WBRU-FM ended up selling its 95.5 FM license to a Christian broadcasting group in 2017. By 2018, BSR had returned to the FM airwaves with its new LPFM license for WBRU-LP at 101.1 FM. In an interesting twist, some of the old WBRU-FM’s programming (notably 360 Degrees Experience in Sound, focusing on R&B, hip hop, Afrobeats, reggae and more) now airs over BSR’s low power signal.

2023 and Beyond

Flashing forward to today, Bleakley is thrilled to have the station back in a physical space after the challenges of the pandemic and emphasized the importance of community for college radio. She also explained that college radio has always been about making connections and that she was inspired by BSR’s history, particularly learning about the time when radio was the main form of connection. Contrasting that with podcasts, she described conversations they had during her radio history class about the “universal connecting appeal” of radio at Brown, with everyone in their dorm rooms tuning in to the station at the same time in its early years. Nostalgic for those “gas pipe network” days of carrier current radio, she said that it would be “so fun” to once again broadcast to campus in that manner.

One challenge with that gas pipe fantasy is that most students don’t have radios. Acknowledging this, she was also plotting ways to get portable radios into more people’s hands. As we poked around the station, she showed me a crystal radio that she’d recently built on a field trip to the New England Wireless and Steam Museum; again hearkening back to radio’s early DIY days.

Vinyl records in the broadcast studio are another sign of radio and station history. Although not as commonly used these days at BSR, Bleakley remarked that a current DJ is interested in doing an all-vinyl show. With around 20 DJs this spring, at the time of my visit, BSR was in the midst of a recruitment period for various positions at the station. Shows on the schedule include Tanvi’s Tunes (“local indie rock to 80’s british feminist punk”), “Crushed Little Songs,” “Spoiler Alert Radio” (“Conversations on the craft of filmmaking”), “The Beat Surrender,” “Trending Globally,” “Donne del Mondo” (“Global music by women, celebrating musical women of the world”), “Cook Out!” (“Charlie and Laurie share their whimsy and fun with the masses”), and more.

Thanks to BSR + More Radio Station Tours

Thanks so much to Josie Bleakley for showing me around BSR and talking to me about the station’s past and present activities. This is my 170th radio station tour report and my 112th college radio station recap. You can see all my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives. Very soon I will be posting more tours from my East Coast travels.

The post Radio Station Visit #170: College Radio Station BSR at Brown University appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On a crisp November afternoon, I marveled at the autumnal beauty at Bard College in New York’s Hudson Valley. Bright red leaves clung to the trees within view of Ward Manor, a gorgeous 1916 mansion that is now a residence hall and home to college radio station WXBC. Tamar Faggen, WXBC’s General Director enthusiastically greeted me and led me downstairs to the station’s digs in the basement.

Already feeling like old friends since we’d chatted over email about our shared interest in college radio history, the visit was full of rushed and excited conversation about Faggen’s discoveries related to WXBC’s storied past. A Bard College senior, Faggen was inspired so much by her work at the station, that she decided to write her thesis about the history of WXBC. She shared photos and audio from the station’s past and we talked about the twists and turns when researching a radio station. “WXBC has had many cycles of collapse and rejuvenation over its 75 year history,” she explained. It’s a statement that could be applied to so many college radio stations that have ever-changing staffs of student volunteers.

Brief History of College Radio Station WXBC

Students launched WXCB (“x” for experimental and “bc” for Bard College) in 1947 as an AM carrier current station. Bard College Archives and Special Collections has posted amazing photos from those early days, including shots of student performances and of the studio set-up. AM broadcasts continued for decades, with WXBC’s website circa 2003 stating, “We broadcast on frequency 540AM from the top of Stevenson Gymnanium [sic]at a whopping 10 watts.” By 2007, the website describes the broadcasts as 5 watts over “a legally-operating, unlicenced [sic] radio signal on 540AM.” Those AM transmissions seem to have ceased by 2008, with WXBC’s website stating late that year, “For the convenience of all listeners, WXBC broadcasts online at wxbc.bard.edu. We are not currently broadcasting at 540 AM.”

WXBC in the 2000s

As far back as 2002, WXBC was streaming online, as it is today. In order to address technical issues and changing needs, Faggen helped to relaunch the station’s stream in October, 2021. That followed a down period for WXBC, which coincided with the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Faggen recalled that when she transferred to Bard College in fall 2020, she heard about the radio station from a friend while they were both quarantined in the same hotel. He was one of the heads of WXBC and relayed to Faggen the challenges they were having getting the station up and running again. “It just fell apart,” Faggen explained, telling me that the station did not broadcast in fall 2019 or spring 2020. By fall 2020, the station came back, but had limited participation.

Relaunching the Station in 2021

After DJing for two semester, Faggen and another fellow WXBC participant, Ray Camp, were asked to head up the station. One of the first things that they did was restructure the organization, so that there were more roles than just the two club heads. Faggen added that they spent a lot of time “researching and planning how to bring the station back to life,” which in large part meant finding a new streaming service. WXBC went with Mixlr, in particular because it offered a chat feature and the ability to record shows. When the station relaunched on October 1, 2021 for World College Radio Day, there were 35 DJs, up from 7 the year before.

Alumni Outreach Leads to Exploration of WXBC’s History

In preparation for that World College Radio Day broadcast (for which WXBC was a featured station in a global marathon), WXBC reached out to the Bard alumni office in order to obtain recollections from former station participants. Faggen was blown away by the response and the number of stories that were sent in, telling me, “that kind of started this question for me of ‘I wonder what the history of WXBC is?'” As a result of that initial alumni outreach, they heard from WXBC members who had been involved with the station as far back as the 1940s, with one even donating a copy of his radio show as well as transcripts and newspaper clippings. “This was a really big moment for us,” Faggen explained. And it’s clear that building connections with alumni and learning more about the station’s history has helped to generate excitement and enthusiasm at WXBC.

Growing Interest in WXBC

Faggen was upbeat about WXBC continuing to grow during this school year (2022-2023), with more staff being brought on, including a new Tech Director. She said that each semester there are more programs, including more diversity in the schedule. “I’m really proud of how the station was able to survive the pandemic,” she said, adding, “I think that killed a lot of college radio, but for me…I really discovered the passion that I had for the power of the human voice.” Describing that period of extreme isolation during COVID-19, Faggen pointed out the potential of radio. “This is something we can use to connect with the rest of the campus. Everyone’s alone in their dorm room, but we can all connect,” she said.

And with WXBC’s stream now on a platform with a chat feature, shows have become even more interactive, with lots of commentary between DJs and their listeners. Faggen said she’d love to have the station on FM, but was savvy about the downsides. With a scarcity of licenses, a lengthy process, and student turnover; it just didn’t seem like a viable option. And, indeed, previous attempts to go FM never came to fruition. A group at Bard College even acquired a license in 2007 (WLHV-FM), which it gave up in 2012 before building a station. In contrast, WXBC’s current status as a streaming station, free of FCC rules, provides them with more flexibility. “There’s a freedom that I think is really powerful about it,” Faggen explained. And with more than 50,000 listens in the year following the relaunch, the WXBC crew was feeling good. The number of DJs was rising too, up to 47 in November, 2022, chosen from more than 75 applications.

Packed Schedule and Wide Range of Radio Shows

The WXBC schedule is packed with 2-hour shifts from 6am to 2am, 7 days a week. A hold-over from COVID is a one-hour break between shows, to allow for a buffer between DJs. Although this interval began as a safety precaution, it has continued because people enjoy the smoother transition to the following show. This schedule also allows DJs and hosts to stay on the air a bit longer if they choose.

The line-up of programs is great mix and many shows are full of personality. Some of the spring 2023 shows include “Snot Rocket,” “Quantum Healing Sounds,” The Worst Show,” “Liminal Waves,” and “Teenage Kicks.” Airing the day before Halloween, “A History of Goth: Freak History Radio Night,” was one show that captivated me. A historically-based investigation of the concept of “goth” as well as goth music, the show made me think about goth in a different way. The host traced goth music back to the Doors, the Velvet Underground, Roxie Music, David Bowie, and Brian Eno. And I was surprised to hear Alice Cooper mentioned as one of the proto-goth musicians. His song “Dead Babies” was played as evidence of that and it was a convincing example of an artist playing around with ideas that came to fruition with later bands like Bauhaus and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

WXBC’s Vibrant Basement Home

In addition to the vibrant sound of WXBC, the station space is also full of life. An artistic display of the station’s call letters is perched on a shelf, with each block letter decorated in a unique style. One is covered in moss, another plastered with googly eyes, and the most fanciful features a collage of tiny boob photos, likely cut out of magazines.

Colorful streamers adorn the wall above the studio equipment and a nearby shelf was full of decorations, trinkets, and music books. A Donna Summer tape sat near stacks of 45s and shelves of CDs and vinyl records. And those pieces of music aren’t just relics from the past, DJs can and do play physical music, although “a lot of DJs use Spotify,” according to Faggen. WXBC is outfitted with a tape deck, turntable, and CD players and Faggen confirmed that there are DJs who even play cassette tapes. She added that there’s been a shift in the past few years, with many of the newer DJs using “vinyl and CD equally to digital audio files. It’s about 50/50.”

Plans are afoot to revamp an additional WXBC room down the hall. Shut down during the pandemic, it has served a variety of functions over the years, from a lounge to a recording studio. It is hoped that it can eventually be used as a “live room” for music performances in the future.

Thanks to WXBC + More Radio Station Tours

Thanks to WXBC’s Tamar Faggen for the visit and ongoing conversations about college radio history. She and I will both be speaking at the upcoming Radio Preservation Task Force Conference at the Library of Congress. Please join us at the event if you want to hear more about college radio history, including Faggen’s discoveries about WXBC’s past. This is my 169th radio station tour report and my 111th college radio station recap. View all my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives. And watch this space for additional tours in the next few months.

The post Radio Station Visit #169: Bard College Radio Station WXBC appeared first on Radio Survivor.

To say that my visit to college radio station WRUC 89.7 FM at Union College in Schenectady, New York was eagerly anticipated is an understatement. Rumored to be the “first” commercial college radio station, its predecessor stations have a fascinating history, making Union College an important stop for every college radio historian. Lucky for me, my trip to the school in November, 2022 included a visit to Special Collections and Archives at Union College’s Schaffer Library, which contains an enviable array of materials documenting the early days of student radio in the 1920s and beyond.

Snapshot of WRUC’s History

Like many college radio stations circa 2023, WRUC has had quite the journey, with many twists and turns along the way as far as its role on campus and its method of transmission. Currently broadcasting over 89.7 FM, WRUC has been a licensed FM station since 1975. Prior to that, student radio at Union College was transmitted by carrier current (starting in 1941, with call letters WRUC eventually adopted). But the early radio activities at Union College, beginning with experiments and amateur broadcasts, are especially fascinating and worthy of a much longer article.

Union College Radio Club Began in 1915

Radio experiments were happening at Union College since radio’s earliest days and the first campus Radio Club began in 1915, according to “Radio Broadcasting at Union College: A Brief History,” written by Rowan Wakefield in 1959. But what happened in 1920 is an important part of WRUC’s long-time branding as “first” in the nation. Its current website states, that WRUC “is the first commercial college radio station in the country.” While this specific claim has been debated (the first licensed broadcast station at Union was called WRL and was very short-lived), the early radio activities by students at Union College are impressive and worthy of more attention by radio scholars.

Union College Radio Club’s First Music Concert over Radio in 1920

As was the case with other early broadcasters, Union College’s Radio Club began with experiments over amateur radio. Significantly, on October 14, 1920, students in the club broadcast a short concert of music over the radio. In a piece previewing this event a few days prior, the student newspaper wrote:

If for the next week you hear noise a thunder every time you try to phone, you know the electric jazz experts are tuning up. And they are some jazz experts with high powers spark discharges. Starting next Thursday night, the radio club will give a concert via radio…This will be a weekly habit. If at some future time you have a dance on hand and your jazz artists fail you, call up 2 A D D tell them your trouble and if you’ve got a hairpin, a wire, a coil or two and a phone you will have al the music you wish via radio. (Concordiensis, October 12, 1920)

Following the successful first radio concert, headlines in the Concordiensis proclaimed, “Aerial Concert is First in Collegiate History” and “Ethereal Recitals Will be Given Weekly in Future.” An accompanying article states, “Transmitting the music from a phonograph into the receiver of a wireless telephone and then to amateur radio operators within a radius of 50 miles, members of the Union College Radio Club Thursday night gave what is believed to be the first wireless musical concert of an American college organization.” The paper reported that “vocal and instrumental records” were played.

The Role of Radio Prodigy Wendell W. King

Another notable aspect of this early broadcast is that the amateur station call letters used, 2ADD, were those of radio prodigy Wendell W. King, who started his own amateur station at the age of 12 and was “the first black student to attend Union for a significant length of time,” according to an article in the Encyclopedia of Union College History. The article points out that, “King had been involved with amateur radio since 1911 and may have been the most technically proficient student connected with early Union radio; he had already been president of the Troy Amateur Radio Club, had served in the Army Signals Corps, and had worked for the radio section of General Electric.” A profile of King in Union College Magazine outlines his achievements and also his “complicated time on campus.”

Experimental Station 2XQ and Continued Music Broadcasts

The Radio Club at Union College continued to do regular Thursday night music broadcasts over amateur radio and over its experimental station 2XQ (which it received a license for in 1919) and received letters from listeners who wrote in to report that they had heard and were enjoying the transmissions. In addition to those weekly broadcasts, the club did various “stunts,” including outfitting a baby carriage with a radio set. Radio Church services were also broadcast, including hymns played over a phonograph and “songs by a college quartet,” according to a report in the Schenectady Gazette on May 12, 1921. Another accomplishment in May 1921 was “the wireless transmission of the junior ‘prom’ music…which was the signal for hundreds of dances in this section of the country,” wrote the Schenectady Gazette. In advance of the prom, the Union College student newspaper Concordiensis reported that “The music of Ford Dabney’s Syncopated Orchestra of Ziegfield Midnight Frolic fame will be heard as far west as Nebraska and by ships far out at sea.” The event was an overnight affair, going from 10:30pm until 6am.

It’s difficult to ascertain if this was the first Radio Club on a college campus to regularly play music over the radio. Other stations had broadcast music over wireless prior to that time, but it’s unclear if this was happening with undergraduate students at the helm, as was the case at Union College. One very early example of music broadcasts over amateur radio took place at The Herrold College of Engineering and Wireless, which launched in San Jose, California in 1909. John Schneider writes, “Once [Doc] Herrold realized he had an audience of eager radio experimenters, he began to entertain them. He would discuss news items and read clippings from the newspaper, or play records from his phonograph. This got to be a more and more important part of the school’s operations, and regular programs were heard from the station as early as 1910.”

Broadcast Station WRL

In addition to these early broadcasts, Union College was one of the first colleges to obtain a limited commercial license to operate a broadcast station. The license for WRL was issued in March, 1922 and was held by Union College until 1924. Only a few other stations operating at colleges or universities obtained this type of broadcast license earlier, including University of Minnesota, and University of Wisconsin (both in January, 1922). After the WRL license expired, students at Union College did not run a broadcast station until launching an AM carrier current station in 1941.

100 Years Later: The State of WRUC in the 2020s

While the history of WRUC has been documented and celebrated, the station’s present state was more nebulous to me prior to my visit. The program schedule on the website was out of date and the internet stream was down. Social media had also been fairly quiet. So, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. As it turns out, WRUC has had challenges similar to those faced by many college radio stations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While visiting the WRUC archives with me, WRUC’s Senior General Manager Maya Gempler traced the station’s recent history, telling me that when she joined WRUC in fall, 2019, it was “fairly active,” with maybe 30 shows as well as a presence on campus through live events. Everything changed as students were sent home at the end of winter term in 2020, with WRUC “dying off” in the spring 2020 trimester. With no remote access capabilities, the programming that ran over WRUC during that time was whatever students had left running on automation.

Returning to the WRUC Studios in Fall 2020

By fall, 2020, most students were back on campus at Union College, but Gempler explained that it was a strange “weird, lonely, isolating experience,” with many school events online rather than in person due to COVID. WRUC worked with the campus Health and Safety office to come up with protocols for using the station and instituted some new rules that limited the number of people in the studio, instituted spacing between shows, and also required DJs to clean before and after their shows. Those requirements continued through that academic year.

Struggles in the 2021-2022 School Year

At WRUC, it was a return to more normal operations in fall 2021, but Gempler said that the number of participants had dwindled to only three people on the executive board and maybe 10 to 15 shows. By the winter of 2022, technical issues completely shut the station down from February through June, with no shows running for a big chunk of the spring. Although WRUC continued to do live events, Gempler explained that WRUC’s presence on campus was greatly diminished.

New Equipment and Optimism at WRUC in Fall 2022

After new equipment was set up in the summer of 2022, WRUC was able to return in the fall with 42 shows on the schedule, much like in the time before COVID. While the FM broadcast returned, issues with the internet stream remained, meaning that the primary way to hear the station was over terrestrial radio. I asked how most students listened to WRUC these days and Gempler said that they didn’t really know and that it’s been “frustrating” to not have the stream working. Junior General Manager Sadie Hill said that people in the local air listen over 89.7 FM and added that she also has friends with car radios who listen terrestrially.

Gempler explained that WRUC’s student DJs seem more interested in the “experience” of having a show rather than worrying about who is listening. One way that students can and do listen to WRUC is through speakers that pipe the station’s audio in to the Reamer Campus Center. WRUC’s main studio is dubbed the “fishbowl,” and has windows facing a bustling section of the Campus Center. DJs have the option of turning the speakers on or off, depending on their comfort level with having their programs broadcast to the fellow students who are visible from the booth. Some students also broadcast their shows over social media, like Instagram Live.

WRUC’s Two Studios

At the time of my visit, most WRUC shows were music-based, with a handful of sports shows as well. Gempler was pushing for more talk programming and told me that there were a lot of great ideas floating around for possible shows. Worried for a time that WRUC could disappear during the pandemic, she was feeling more optimistic when we spoke, saying she was excited about the station’s future. One possibility was a complete renovation of studio spaces. During my visit, WRUC was only broadcasting from its “fishbowl” studio, although it also had another space upstairs, which was not functional at the time. Some of the big dreams for WRUC include both live broadcasting and recording studios so that students could record podcasts, produce music, and broadcast live music.

WRUC’s upstairs studio has been around for decades and was eerily similar to my own college radio station’s layout from the 1980s (although built maybe 20 years earlier). A record room was long gone and I was sad to hear that at one point WRUC may have had upwards of 100,000 albums. Around the time of the “CD revolution,” when “vinyl was not a thing,” the records were in bad shape, according to Matt Milless, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs, Campus & Community Engagement at Union College.

The fragmented studio space is an interesting challenge at WRUC. Milless revealed that the “fishbowl” studio (which used to be an information desk where students could also rent videos and DVDs) was taken over by WRUC many years ago in order to have a stronger campus presence. He explained that he put in that studio in order to help “spark interest” in WRUC. He said that during some years students were enthusiastic about being seen while doing their shows, whereas other prefer to have more privacy. In reflecting on that time, he said, “we were trying to save radio.”

Growing Student Interest for WRUC

And it would seem that in the 2022-2023 school year, there’s a renewed energy around saving WRUC. The station’s Junior General Manager Sadie Hill said that the station’s executive board is “very passionate about making WRUC cool again.” And it’s a very good sign that during a Club Fair prior to my visit in the fall, around 200 people signed up to join the station, with around 30 to 40 shows making it to the WRUC schedule as a result. The range of shows includes a sports talk program focused on football and music shows that play indie rock, Bollywood music, and more. Union College president David Harris even came on the air in fall 2022 to do show where he picked out music alongside a member of the station’s executive board. The show was broadcast as well as transmitted over the president’s account on Instagram Live.

Passionate about college radio before she even arrived at Union College, Hill revealed, “I’ve always wanted to do college radio” and shared that her dad had a midnight radio show in the past. Influenced by him, she plays a lot of older music and classic rock on her WRUC show. Hill also does theme shows, ranging from songs about colors to a show about female rock stars. She expressed pride in Union College’s long radio history and also was enthusiastic about the opportunities and freedom available to students at WRUC today, saying, “the rule is no dead air.” She said that she appreciates the way that WRUC DJs express themselves through music, even if the station is “playing to nowhere.”

Like many in college, radio Hill said the thing that she loves about WRUC is “mostly the people,” adding that she felt like she was brought into the community and has developed friendships as a result. Similarly, WRUC’s Senior General Manager Maya Gempler shared, “I love that it involves students from so many different areas on campus,” including people from a variety of majors. She added that it’s inspiring that WRUC provides space for people to get together and get involved.

Thanks to WRUC + More Radio Station Tours

Thanks to everyone at WRUC and to the staff of Special Collections at Schaffer Library, Union College for the wonderful visit. I’ll have more to share about the early days of radio experiments at Union College in future posts and in some upcoming conference presentations. This is my 168th radio station tour report and my 110th college radio station recap. View all my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives. And watch this space for additional tours from my travels in New York state.

The post Radio Station Visit #168: Union College Radio Station WRUC appeared first on Radio Survivor.

College radio stations are generally very welcoming spaces, so much so that I often have to tear myself away at the end of a visit. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s WRPI 91.5 FM in Troy, New York had that effect on me. It had it all: comfy couches, the requisite Leo Blais sign, shelves of vinyl records, a meticulously organized engineering room, and a historical timeline (with photos!) on the wall.

WRPI felt like home, as it has a lot of the things that I love about college radio and college radio stations. But, as is the case whenever I tour stations, what really left a lasting impression on me were the people and the passion that they have for their station.

College Radio Reviving after COVID-19 Restrictions Ease

Lemon (Program Director) and Mei (On-Campus PR Manager) were my tour guides at WRPI during my November, 2022 visit. Both juniors, they were freshmen at Rensselaer during the 2020-2021 school year; a very strange time to be beginning college during the height of a pandemic. As I saw with all of my stations tours this past fall, college radio stations like WRPI had to make serious adjustments in 2020 and are still adapting as COVID-19 restrictions loosen. It’s apparent that the social aspects of college radio and college radio spaces are especially appealing now, since gathering with peers was severely limited for many students over the past few years.

First-year students are often introduced to WRPI during an orientation event called Navigating Rensselaer and Beyond (NRB). The station is one of the student clubs that invites students to come by for a half day or a day for a closer look at what they do. This past fall, WRPI had students go through a series of rotations to check out the technology, the live room, and the on-air studio. Mei explained that they showed the entire broadcasting set-up, with students exploring “every corner” of the station. It’s a huge recruitment tool for WRPI, with 70 to 80 students expressing interest in WRPI during the last session. Around 40 people stuck around until the end of the day and they were even given the chance to play music and talk over the air. “It’s a way to get people hooked,” Lemon added.

The Allure of WRPI for Students

Lemon outlined many of the attributes of WRPI that are a draw for students, pointing out the old equipment that they can work with and repair, the opportunity to broadcast to a 75 mile radius, the ability to mix music and bring in live bands, and the lounge area which is a “great place to hang out.” Mei said that the lounge stays open through the last show of the day, with many people opting to linger at the station all day.

It’s reassuring that interest is again high for WRPI, since during COVID they were unable to invite people into the station during orientation or in general. Membership numbers declined and participants couldn’t socialize in the same way as before. Mei described how there were even “X” marks on the couch, indicating the 6 feet of distance that people were supposed to maintain between each other.

While WRPI is student-run and student-focused, the station also has a smaller percentage of show hosts and DJs from the broader community on the air. Another impact of COVID was that these folks were generally not allowed on campus due to the school’s policy at the time that non-students or anyone not in the school’s COVID-19 testing pool was restricted from coming to campus. Those restrictions were relaxed in 2022. Lemon said that during fall semester 2022, WRPI got the OK to bring community show hosts back on-air, with most having returned by my November visit. With fewer hosts between 2020 and 2022, WRPI relied more heavily on their automation system, which is filled with thousands of albums (somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 per my tour guides). A current project, which will take a few semesters, is digitizing the station’s CD collection, adding the music to the automation system.

Large Library of Vinyl Records and CDs

In addition to the digitized music, WRPI has a large library of physical music, including vinyl records and CDs. Lemon said that students will play “vinyls,” but mainly use Spotify. Community DJs are more likely to play CDs, but CDs are generally the least played form of media at the station. The most popular methods for playing music at WRPI is from digital or computer-based sources, followed by vinyl records.

As we toured through the station, there were shelves and shelves of records, spread across numerous libraries. In the midst of reorganizing the rooms and the music collection, WRPI is retooling a former “genre room” to a space for CDs and material by local artists. That library used to house material with a “concrete” genre, but interpretations of genres have changed at the station, so the functionality of that room has been questioned of late. Another room is labeled VLTEB, an acronym for the charmingly named Vinyl Library Two: Electric Boogaloo.

Programming Variety

As far as programming, WRPI plays a mix of music shows, talk shows and sports (including hockey). The long-time LGBT show Homo Radio has been on the air since 1992, featuring “news, interviews, event listings, a concert calendar, music by gay-friendly artists” and more, per its website. As far as music, Lemon said that WRPI is a “niche station,” and Top 40 music isn’t generally played. Lemon’s show last fall, “The Lemonheads,” focused on 1970s rock and they also co-hosted “Music from the Decades” with friends. Mei played KPOP and JROCK on her show, “Candy Shop.”

As we glanced at a posted show schedule together, another staffer pointed out his show, “The Ungodly Hour,” which has to be one of the best show names ever. Other programs played indie pop, radio dramas, spoken word, R&B, hip-hop, electronic dance music, and more. I was intrigued by the wonderfully spooky description of a midnight show called “The Devil’s Hour.” Hosted by DJ Selene, the program schedule states, “At this hour, the veil between the living and the dead is the thinnest. Spirits make their way into our world, where they travel through the radio waves and enter the minds of mortals…”

During my visit the station’s powerful 10,000 watt FM transmitter was down. It was being shut off between 8am and 5pm for several months while it was being repainted. The webstream was still running and daytime FM broadcasts came back in January, 2023. As is frequently the case in college radio, the engineering team was busy with many projects. Jose, the Chief Engineer, showed me around the immaculately organized engineering room, which seemed quite fitting for a tech-oriented school’s radio station.

Student Radio at Rensselaer Dates Back to the 1920s

One of the things that prompted my visit to WRPI was my interest in the station’s long and intriguing history. Licensed as an FM station since 1957, WRPI is the descendant of campus radio activities dating back to the 1920s. Rensselaer-owned WHAZ launched over AM in September, 1922. At the time, a news account in The Knickerbocker Press described it as “the most powerful station operated at any educational institution in the country.”

A bulletin published by Rensselaer in 1922 states the rationale and purpose for this initial station:

Realizing its obligation to supply technically trained men for this work, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has, from time to time, found it necessary to make additions to its radio laboratory equipment. The latest addition is a radio telephone broadcasting equipment of the best type known to the art, which has been installed on the third floor of the Russell Sage Laboratory. It was designed primarily to give practical instruction in the operation of apparatus, the theory of which is studied in the classroom…

Popular interest in radio broadcasting has created a demand for diversified programs, and it is felt that engineering schools which require this type of apparatus for teaching purposes can assist in satisfying the demand of the public for broadcast entertainment by supplying programs of an educational nature. For this reason, this station, known by the call letters W H A Z, will broadcast every Monday evening at 8.15, Eastern Standard time, program. consisting of musical selections and addresses by men prominent in all fields of human activity.

Incredibly, AM station WHAZ was owned by Rensselaer until 1967, when it was sold to station WPOW. In the intervening years, a variety of radio activities were happening on campus. The WRPI website outlines this history. As far as the 1920s, “In 1924, a group called Campus Review was formed, devoted to broadcasting college-oriented entertainment and radio to the Troy area. Campus Review was initially responsible for programming a half hour of WHAZ’s six-hours-a-week schedule on Monday night,” according to the WRPI website.

Radio Expansion in the 1940s

By the 1940s, radio activities had expanded and an engineering student organized the “Rensselaer Broadcasting Association” in 1947. According to WRPI, “The RBA took over the remainder of WHAZ’s schedule, working with Campus Review and using talent drawn completely from the RPI community. Later that year, the Radio Club started an experimental AM radio station began broadcasting from the Russell Sage labs, under their call sign W2SZ. Its signal only covered the Quadrangle (then the freshman dorms), but with WHAZ only broadcasting once a week, W2SZ became the first campus station to truly get the attention of the RPI community. Soon students were referring to it, informally, as WRPI.”

In 1948, several radio groups on campus merged to form the Radio Counsel and a few years later, in 1951, it “was divided into an amateur radio group, which still convenes as W2SZ to this day, and a broadcast group.” Broadcasting over 640 AM as WRPI, this campus-only station sent programming out, “using small transmitters scattered throughout campus” and “claimed a listenership of 85% of all those listening to radio sets on campus,” according to WRPI’s website.

WRPI FM Era from 1957 to Today

At WRPI today, one can peruse a timeline of historical tidbits by decade, starting with the 1950s (WRPI launched over FM in 1957) and 1960s. A collage of photos, newspaper clippings, vintage program guides, and stickers; the timeline goes up through the 2010s. Mei and Lemon said that they hoped to extend the display to the 2020s.

As I concluded my WRPI visit, Program Director Lemon and On-Campus PR Manager Mei shared with me why the station is such a special place for them on campus. Mei explained, “It felt so easy to be here compared to any other places that I’ve been…being a woman in STEM.” She added that she also feels welcome at WRPI as a member of the LGBT community, remarking, “It’s nice to see yourself represented.” Lemon concurred, saying that “especially at an engineering school. It’s a majority cis-het men… It’s so nice to have this community where you can be authentic. You can be yourself. Not have to try to like mask, hide, anything like that.” Mei pointed out that WRPI is intentional about creating a positive environment and has safer space policies to ensure that people feel “welcome, appreciated and not put down.”

Thanks to WRPI + More Radio Station Tours

Thanks to everyone at WRPI for the fun visit. This is my 167th radio station tour report and my 109th college radio station recap. View all my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives. And watch this space for additional tours from my travels in New York state.

The post Radio Station Visit #167: College Radio Station WRPI at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute appeared first on Radio Survivor.

As I wandered through a labyrinth-like campus center building looking for college radio station WCDB after a long day of cross-country travel, it felt like the olden days before 2020, when I used to regularly take field trips to radio stations, often mapping out ridiculously ambitious schedules for myself in order to see as many stations as possible. That all stopped with the COVID-19 pandemic. Beginning in March, 2020, I stayed close to home. And most radio stations severely restricted the number of people coming in and out. Nearly three years later (what a strange time warp, that’s been), it feels like much of the life from before has returned. And that was palpable as I checked in on four college radio stations in New York in November, 2022.

WCDB-FM at the SUNY campus of University at Albany was my first station visit since 2019 and it proved to be an inspirational re-introduction into the world of college radio today. When I stopped by on an autumn Wednesday night, WCDB was abuzz with activity. In a manager’s office, flyers were printing for the fall show (featuring indie songwriter Katy Kirby, Brooklyn-based alt-rock band Raavi, and local rap group Capital City Crooks) that that station was presenting in a few days. Meanwhile, students streamed in and out of the station for a weekly drop-in training session in the studio.

College Radio Comes Back to Life after Pandemic

In my conversations with General Manager Mehr Sharma and Co-Training Director DJ Kastro we talked about how the pandemic pushed pause on the breadth of radio station activities; but the current vibe was optimistic, with WCDB on a high point, coming back better than ever. Sharma reflected on the past few years, saying, “I joined the station my first day of classes my freshman year, but because of COVID, half of that time doesn’t feel real.” Although WCDB continued broadcasting, there were fewer in-person DJs and more reliance on automation.

As restrictions slowly lifted, fall 2022 looks a lot like how things were when Sharma joined in 2019. “This year has been kind of crazy in terms of recruitment,” Sharma relayed, telling me that they are running out of prime slots for new DJs and training sessions are overflowing the studio with as many as 15 prospective DJs. She speculated that as more students are getting acclimated to regular college life, there’s an eagerness to participate in activities like college radio, saying that for seniors, “half of our college experience we weren’t able to do much, now we want to make the most of it.”

WCDB also has some long-time community and alumni DJs, notably Bill McCann, who has hosted “The Saturday Morning Edition of Jazz” since April, 1985 and Sir Walford, who has hosted a reggae show, “The Many Moods of Sir Walford” since 1997. Most of the DJs are undergraduate students and that’s the focus of recruitment efforts.

Creating a Welcoming Station Environment

A big accomplishment for WCDB has been attracting a broader range of students recently, with Sharma pointing out that the station now feels more reflective of the diverse student population on campus. By being more open to each DJ’s musical taste, they argue that they’ve created an environment that feels more welcoming than in the past. Sharma’s take on that is that college radio historically has a tendency to put up walls. She is a proponent of breaking apart that gatekeeper mentality, saying that “you get the weirdest, most fun stuff” if you are “inclusive to everyone,” adding, “There’s no point in being gatekeepery about college radio if we want college radio to keep being a thing.”

Many radio stations talk about making their spaces more welcoming and more diverse, but struggle to do so. When I asked how WCDB accomplished this in such a short period of time, DJ Kastro cited “Block Party” as one reason. At the campus event which showcases clubs, he DJ’d for 6 hours straight, serving as an enthusiastic ambassador for WCDB. Sharma chimed in that DJ Kastro did so “with the best energy.”

Besides that event, they try to be more present and visible on campus, and Sharma thinks it’s made a difference for prospective DJs to see “people of color who are into indie and alt stuff” representing the college radio station at events, “instead of a table of four white college dudes judging you as you pick out every CD.” Although Sharma had “sweet” training directors and was welcomed at the station, she acknowledged that there “was no one here that looks like me.” That is changing and she said that she’s heartened that more people are coming to the station to just hang out and “chat about music in a non-judgy way.”

Even within the past few years, there’s been a sense of station community, with DJs forging friendships at times with people who they may not have otherwise met on campus. Sharma joked that the station “has done a lot for our social lives,” and that rings especially true since she joined just a few months before the COVID-19 campus lock downs. She ended up “crashing” with the former WCDB General Manager during the summer of 2020 because she didn’t want to travel home during the height of COVID. And she’s not the only one who has become friends and roommates with others from the station.

Music, Sub Genres and Intersections with Albany Scene

Only 19, and celebrating his one year anniversary at WCDB on the day of my visit, DJ Kastro talked about how his short time at the station has opened his ears musically. Joining the station as someone strictly focused on hip hop, he shared that he got “converted” to the metal scene. He embraces the chance to go deep into sub genres of music, explaining how “breaking those bubbles” and definitions is important, adding that at WCDB, “we emphasize the sub genres.” Sharma mentioned that the station’s engineer is a good example of that blurring of genre boundaries, having started out as a “strict metal head” and now doing “doo-wop shows.” Other DJs play electronic music, video game music, country, alt rock, hip hop, and punk. A newer DJ has been investigating the history of the Albany punk scene and bringing in his own mix CDs.

Sharma also really enjoys booking bands and sharing music with others, telling me about her excitement about getting Raavi to play at the fall show since the band represents “a fresh perspective” in the indie music scene, being both queer and south Asian, like Sharma. WCDB has deep connections with the music community in Albany. Sharma characterized it as a “thriving” scene that’s a “welcoming” and “tight-knit community.” The station functions like a “pipeline” into that world, with current and former DJs and staff performing in bands, booking shows, doing sound at concerts, and running venues. WCDB hosts shows in Albany at 300 person capacity venues, with DJ Kastro commenting that this works to build connections “for a lifetime.”

Appreciation for College Radio’s History and Relevance Today

DJ Kastro also expressed his appreciation for both radio history and the ongoing relevance of radio. He said that it “feels good that people are still listening to radio,” especially in the “day of Spotify,” pointing out the importance of “broadcasting up and coming DJs and artists.” The broader community of college radio is something that motivates him and he mentioned college radio DJs from decades past, like Flavor Flav and Stretch & Bobbito, saying, “they inspire a lot of what I do.”

As DJ Kastro peppered me with WCDB trivia (including that the call letters stand for “Capital District’s Best”), it was clear that WCDB’s history is important to the station. One of the first things that one encounters in the lobby is a trophy case “shrine” full of artifacts, including flyers, promotional items, drawings, newspaper clippings, program guides, vintage 45s, and reel-to-reel recordings. A hallway wall that leads from the lobby to the studios features a giant commemorative record of the first song played on the station (Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run”).

The station website (which hasn’t changed much in at least a decade) is also an amazingly retro homage to the past, featuring imagery reminiscent of the early 90s. Sharma described the background graphic as resembling “bus seat upholstery” or “arcade carpet,” and chuckled at how people used to think it was “goofy,” but that freshmen have pointed out how “cool” the website looks, as the ’80s-looking logo and squiggles are now in style again.

Digging into WCDB’s Lengthy History

The WCDB website also includes a lengthy write-up about the station’s history and how it’s connected with earlier radio stations on campus. As a college radio history enthusiast, I appreciated the care taken to tell this story. In “A Brief History of Radio at UAlbany,” (written and edited by Marc Gronich and other radio alums), March 2, 1939 is cited as a key date for “the genesis of campus radio at UAlbany.” They write that on this date a “remote broadcast – over WOKO (1460AM)” emanated from a room on campus. The broadcast “began with a speech by Dr. Abram Brubacher, President of State College for Teachers, and was followed by a five-scene dramatization of the college’s early days. Playing of the school’s alma mater closed the half-hour program.”

Especially fascinating to me was how this broadcast and future broadcasts were facilitated by the discovery of old speech department equipment. Gronich writes, “President Brubacher and some of the faculty realized that equipment from the speech department, used to correct prospective teachers’ speech difficulties – recording machines, microphones and a soundproof room giving the best acoustic effects possible – could also be put to use to broadcast over the air.” These “remote broadcasts via WOKO continued until the early 1940s when World War II led to its suspension.”

Although the University Radio Council was created in the late 1940s to make plans for a campus radio station, a carrier current station was not launched until February 22, 1963 over 640 AM (out of a hallway broom closet) with call letters WSUA. The “Brief History” includes an amusing recollection from an alumnus saying that “the station was dubbed ‘The Fry Pan Network’ with 640 being the temperature for cooking ham.” The station had dreams of going FM and after obtaining an FCC license, WCDB launched with 10 watts of power over 90.9 FM on March 1, 1978. Per the station’s history, “WCDB’s first D.J., Jim Saturno, played Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’ over the airwaves as the university Carillon played the same song – ringing in a new era in UAlbany radio broadcasting.”

I love hearing about the ways that college radio stations have collaborated with each other over the years and was intrigued to read that the lead author of the WCDB history document, Marc Gronich, “spearheaded the Election Night College Network” (along with a crew of others from the station) in 1980 and 1984. “ENCN brought together 41 college radio stations from across the country to share election night news reports from a student perspective about the U.S. Senate, Congressional and Presidential races in each state. When a station filed a news report, it was able to receive a taped news report from a different state.”

More details on WCDB history can be found on the alumni-led WCDB Historical Society website, which was launched in December, 1996. Full of audio, video, and images, it’s an amazing resource for materials related to WCDB’s history. Per the society’s website, it is the “result of a project started in 1994 to form a WCDB Alumni Association to help guide and fund the radio station.” After evolving to an “online group for networking current and former WCDB and WSUA alumni,” it transitioned once again to “a repository of historical information and as an audio archive.”

Thanks to WCDB + More Radio Station Tours

Thanks to Mehr Sharma and DJ Kastro for the great conversations and fun tour of WCDB. You can hear more about this visit on Radio Survivor Podcast episode #329. This is my 166th radio station tour report and my 108th college radio station recap. View all my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives. And watch this space for additional tours from my travels in New York state.

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On the edge of a funky beach town in Maui lies magical community radio station KOPO-LP, whose broadcasts are filled with youthful voices. Since 2006, thousands of kids and teens from the Pa’ia Youth and Cultural Center (PYCC) have taken to the FM airwaves from its seaside perch.

Known as RadiOpio (opio means “youth” in Hawaiian), KOPO-LP operates from the site of a formerly abandoned building that now houses a youth center, complete with skate park. As surfers trek to and from the adjacent beach, young people are hanging out, skateboarding, playing pool, and taking part in a range of programs, from cooking to media production.

While on vacation in Hawaii this August, I dropped in to the station with my family and was lucky to be able to meet up with RadiOpio Program Director Laura Civitello. Civitello greeted us enthusiastically and indulged me in a short interview and tour. She told a fascinating story about the station’s improbable history. It all begins with Pa’ia Youth and Cultural Center, which stemmed from a grassroots community effort to re-purpose an old, spooky home that was the sole survivor of a neighborhood-destroying 1946 tsunami.

Civitello recounted that in 1999, a staff member at the youth center spotted an ad in Wired Magazine about the opportunity for a low power radio license and that prompted the organization to apply. By 2005, they were awarded a construction permit for a new FM station, but struggled to find someone to take on the project as a youth program.

When the center reached out to Civitello, her reaction was markedly different. She told me that she thought, “That’s perfect for me.” After taking on the project, she heard from plenty of naysayers who told her that it was “insane” to launch a radio station at the beach with kids on the air. She was undeterred.

Having been a volunteer at another Maui community radio station, Mana’o Radio (see my tour report), prior to KOPO-LP; Civitello had both local radio connections and insights, which helped as she worked to get the new station on the air in 2006. “It went well immediately,” she recounted, explaining that RadiOpio’s focus on its participants is key. To emphasize that, she spoke about the station’s air sound, relaying, “I hope it’s the sound of kids having fun.”

While we chatted, I noticed numerous radios in Civitello’s office. When I pointed them out, she smiled and revealed that folks keep giving her radios as gifts, no doubt as a sign of her passion for radio. The school year started a few days before our visit and the center was buzzing with activity. Young people trickled in and out to check in with Civitello and we were introduced to some of the DJs, including a pair of 12-year-old girls who were on the air.

The KOPO-LP studio is in a tiny room next to Civitello’s office. A short hallway leads in to the studio and we loitered there while checking out the space. With two DJs sitting in the studio in front of microphones and audio equipment, the studio was pretty much at maximum capacity.

Between songs, the show hosts bantered before exiting the studio to make room for the new crew of DJs. Civitello explained that the schedule is very loose, with kids as young as nine years old coming in after school and taking turns on the air. “I give them a lot of freedom,” Civitello shared, telling me that the young DJs make their own decisions about what to play and say on the air. Sometimes kids will even sing along with the music that they are playing with the microphones turned on.

Although KOPO 88.9 FM’s 100 watt range is hampered by the ocean (not too many listeners in that direction), we were amazed by how far we heard the station on our sunset drive up to the 10,000 foot summit of Haleakala. As we trekked out of town and up into the clouds, we caught a mix of pop (Billie Eilish was a big favorite of many DJs), hip-hop (Cardi B, Post Malone and Big Sean were represented) and reggae and could still hear KOPO-LP as we hit an elevation of 7,000 feet! On our post-sunset journey back down, KOPO-LP was playing some older music, including jazzy-bluesy material and some vintage pop from Patti Drew. Earlier in the day we’d heard some classic Beastie Boys as well.

Civitello said that over FM, KOPO-LP covers the north shore of Maui, but that it also has many “faithful” online listeners. The soul of the station is its young participants. “We’re like a family,” Civitello opined, telling me that the free after-school programs at the youth center draw in 9 to 19-year-olds from a range of backgrounds, including “some of the wealthiest kids in the world” as well as youth who are homeless. Most end up doing radio at one point or another, but there’s also the lure of the skate park, pool tables, and other programs.

As I took in the beautiful surroundings and incredible opportunity for kids to do radio at such young ages, I thought about all the tourists passing through on their way to see the sights of Hawaii. I hope they take the time to flip through the dial on their rental cars to catch the joyful sounds of kids and teens on RadiOpio.

Thanks to Laura Civitello for welcoming us at RadiOpio when we stopped by unannounced! Following the visit, she joined us on Radio Survivor show/podcast episode #210, “Youth Radio by the Beach,” filling in even more details about how the station came to be. This is my 165th radio station tour report and my 36th community radio station recap. View all my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives.

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On a dreamy Hawaiian vacation this August, I carved out some time to visit community radio station KMNO Mana’o Radio on the island of Maui. My colleagues Matthew Lasar and Paul Riismandel have both written about the station in the past and last year Paul did an impromptu visit, piquing my interest even more.

As I plotted out a family trip to Maui, scheduling a visit to KMNO was a great excuse to visit the town of Wailuku. We spent the morning sampling artisan doughnuts and meeting the gregarious owner at Donut Dynamite, hiking in the lush Iao Valley, and roaming through funky thrift stores and antique shops.

Located in close proximity to the town’s commercial strip, Mana’o Radio is a short walk to a record store, Request Music, as well as shops, restaurants and cafes. Having spent much of our trip in touristy zones, it was refreshing to check out the more locals-oriented Wailuku.

Embracing the spirit of aloha that we felt on our trip, Mana’o Radio was a lovely respite on a hot afternoon. In the air conditioned station lobby, General Manager Michael Elam met up with me and my family to share the story of KMNO. Shelves of music comprised one side of the lobby, with desks and cabinets on the other side. A door leads into the on-air studio, where a DJ was hosting a program during our visit.

An all-volunteer operation, KMNO is led by a six-person board and has around 45 volunteers. Eschewing pledge drives, Mana’o Radio instead relies on underwriting and special event fundraisers. Elam said that it has been “truly listener supported since day one.” Even better, he added that the station is financially stable and lauded by the community. Just a few weeks before my visit, KMNO was named “best radio station” in local publication, Maui Time Weekly.

Originally a low power station beginning in 2002 (KEAO-LP), Mana’o Radio’s initial FCC application stated,

Manao Radio was incorporated in the state of Hawaii on August 28, 2000. ‘Manao’ is a Hawaiian word which means ‘thought, idea, opinion, theory, meaning, mind; to think, suppose, meditate, deem, consider’. It is one of many non-English words used frequently in Hawaii, often in the phrase ‘sharing manao,’ or the exchange of thoughts, feelings, and expertise. Pre-contact Hawaiians had no written language; knowledge was passed through the oral tradition of sharing manao. We chose the name ‘Manao Radio’ because we see this station as a modern extension of this tradition; an opportunity to educate the community through multicultural sharing.

Mana’o Radio later cancelled its LPFM license and obtained a full power FM license, upgrading its signal in 2014 to 1200 watts at 91.7 FM. Elam told me that just last year, they added a translator and are now able to reach the entire island of Maui, which he said has around 160,000 year-round residents.

Elam explained that the station’s mission has expanded since its early days as a low power “hippie station.” While it still caters to that audience, programming has expanded recently and they’ve had an influx of new DJs in the past one to three years. There are hip-hop and electronica shows now and a beats workshop at nearby Request Music was in keeping with KMNO’s desire to support live music and local Maui musicians, according to Elam.

Although Mana’o is primarily focused on its local listeners; it’s not lost on them that the station broadcasts in tourism-focused Hawaii. With its online stream, Elam opined that they would love to have visitors take the station home with them.

With all local programming, KMNO airs a wide range of live shows and plays automated music playlists during the late night hours (midnight to 3am). Genres over the course of the broadcast day include metal, jazz, Celtic music, classical, blues, rock, soul, country, and more. While tuning in to the station throughout our Hawaiian vacation, we enjoyed the mix, including a fun old school hip hop show, some newer indie rock, and tidbits of Hawaiian history, which run twice a day.

A number of shows have a traditional freeform aesthetic, blending a range of genres. DJ Forest, who was on the air when we stopped by, talked about his underground radio past in the San Francisco Bay Area (at KPFA and KTIM to name a few). As I learned about the places that many Mana’o Radio DJs had migrated from, it brought to mind the fascinating melange of folks who have been drawn to Hawaii.

Mahalo to Michael Elam for the interview and tour. This is my 164th radio station tour report and my 35th community radio station recap. View all my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives.

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Summer began for me with a short trip to Colorado, which prompted a road trip to see the sights of Boulder, including famed community radio station KGNU 88.5 FM/1390AM. Founded in 1978, the station has staff of less than ten, but an active roster of around 400 volunteers and a broadcast that reaches from Boulder to Denver and beyond.

KGNU was recently on my radar after I learned about its long-running hip-hop program, “The Eclipse Show,” (reportedly the longest running hip-hop show anywhere) during a 2018 Radio Survivor interview with Hip-Hop Radio Archive founder Ryan MacMichael. Following that episode, we spoke with one of the hosts of the Eclipse Show, DJ A-L, to learn more about its 40 year history. As it turns out, the program’s history as “an alternative black radio show” (beginning in 1978) and current incarnation as a live music mix show parallels the history of KGNU; which piqued my interest about the station even more.

Coincidentally, KGNU kicked off its recent 40th anniversary celebration (read about the station’s early history here) with a New Year’s Eve hip-hop show, followed by a series of events, including a gala and a museum exhibit. Over the airwaves, the station did weekly music flashbacks (“40 Years in 40 Weeks”) and monthly programming flashbacks (“Flashback 40”), highlighting historic archives, including early LGBTQ and feminist programming.

Music and public affairs programming are important aspects of KGNU, with the FM schedule comprised of news/public affairs during traditional commute times (weekday mornings and afternoons) and for much of the daytime hours on Saturdays. Music rounds out the FM schedule and is also the entire focus of a special KGNU stream called “After FM,” for listeners who would like to tune in to KGNU music programming round-the-clock.

In addition to “The Eclipse Show,” another long-time program on KGNU, “Reggae Bloodlines,” has been on the air since 1978. Other music shows run the gamut from blues to electronic to folk to opera to jazz to experimental sounds.

On my visit to KGNU, Station Manager Tim Russo showed me around the Boulder digs and sat down for an interview with me. Connected with KGNU for around 20 years (and Station Manager since 2015), he first got involved while a student and campus activist, telling me that he recognized that radio was a way to “amplify” voices.

I was particularly excited to see the ways that KGNU works with local organizations, including numerous groups focused on youth. They’ve run youth radio camps, have worked with high school groups, and have a multi-year Media Gardens projects working with bilingual young people on art and radio projects.

KGNU has also brought high school students into the station alongside a training program (including bilingual storytelling) that takes place in the schools. Russo pointed out that they are already noticing an increase in interns from that partner high school and that it’s important for KGNU to learn from young people how to make the station a more “relevant” place for them.

Russo articulated KGNU’s desire to “keep the doors open” to youth and also allow for all volunteers to try new things and innovate. He said that it can be challenging for new folks to break into the programming schedule at KGNU, where there are more applicants than time slots. He’s hoping to create more opportunities and “side channels” in order to include more voices. In part, that’s where After FM and HD come in for KGNU. Those channels are available as “training and innovation spaces” and as places to try out new programming, according to Russo.

KGNU’s ethos as a “community-powered” station is palpable. Russo elaborated that, “We’re very much a mission-driven organization and that’s to be an amplifier for underrepresented voices, culture and community. So we definitely say that KGNU for 40 years has been amplifying community voices, culture and music.”

The desire to keep in touch with and change with the community is admirable. Russo told me that KGNU strives to be “perpetually relevant” and a place that is “reflecting the interests of the community” as a “cultural center” and “hub” for the community. “It’s much more than a radio [station],” Russo opined.

Thanks to Tim Russo and everyone at KGNU for the lovely summer visit. This is my 163rd radio station tour report and my 34th community radio station recap. View all my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives.

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At the end of a long day of travel, I found myself in the relaxing digs of streaming college radio station KSDT at University of California, San Diego (UCSD). In a quiet spot on campus, the station’s lobby door opens onto a pathway within the old student center complex. It’s near the student-run television station (Triton TV) and various socially-minded student services reside nearby, including a food pantry, LGBT Resource Center, Student Veterans Resource Center, Food Co-Op and a long-time collectively-run bookstore (Groundwork Books).

On a sleepy June evening, just a few days after graduation, Programming Director Adriana Barrios and Media Director Emanuel Castro Cariño greeted me in the KSDT lobby for a chat and a tour. The station was on a brief summer hiatus, with live shows returning in July. In the absence of regular DJs, KSDT was running an automated mix of music from a big hard drive dubbed “Satan.”

While there’s no set music genre for KSDT, the station does work to support independent, underground artists. Castro Cariño described the station sound as “eclectic,” praising its “weird audience” of listeners, including a fan in Poland who enjoys the station’s surf/garage show. Barrios said that while there are quite a few shows playing “indie pop” and “SoundCloud rappers,” she’s encouraging people to bring in genres that aren’t common at KSDT since they have so much available time on the schedule. “The more diversity in music, the better,” she relayed, summing up her programming philosophy.

An enthusiastic fan of college radio, Barrios talked about her visits to stations in Boston and throughout California (thanks to University of California Radio Network conferences). Inspired in part by what she and other staffers have seen at other radio stations, KSDT is combing through its archives to uncover its 50+ year history.

As is the case at many college radio stations, the current participants at KSDT don’t know too much about the station’s past. A decade ago, a 2009 UCSD Guardian article uncovered historical tidbits, namely pointing out that the station has never had a licensed over-the-air frequency. From the earliest days, KSDT operated over very low power, initially broadcasting to dorms in 1968 via AM carrier current. By 1973, the station was able to expand its reach to the broader San Diego community thanks to cable FM.

A 1987 Los Angeles Times article pointed out that KSDT “…has a potentially massive listening audience. You can pick it up at 95.7 on Cox Cable FM, 95.5 on Southwestern Cable FM.” The L.A. Times explained that cable FM was a service utilized by a small percentage of cable customers in 1987, stating, “A spokesman for Cox said a lot of people just plain miss cable FM. Out of 278,000 Cox subscribers, only 3,000 get the FM service. He, of course, would like a higher number, as would KSDT. (It costs $3.95 a month.) KSDT reaches only a few dormitories, wired to receive the signal through electrical outlets–you just can’t get it over the airwaves.”

As they toured me through the station, Barrios referred to vintage KSDT stickers emblazoned with long-forgotten frequencies from the station’s cable FM and AM carrier current days. She and Castro Cariño also pointed out file cabinets containing historical documents and reel-to-reel audio tapes housed in the station’s music library.

Barrios shared that KSDT is in the process of recovering its history by going through files and piecing together the story of the station’s past. As for the rationale, she opined that while KSDT is certainly looking ahead to its future, they also want to make a conscious effort to ground themselves in where they’ve come from.

It’s a group effort, with several folks at the station interested in delving into the station’s archival material, including video. KSDT’s Winter 2019 ‘zine even featured record reviews of some LPs from the KSDT library dating back to the 1970s and 1980s. Barrios would also like to work on engaging with KSDT alumni is a more significant way and creating a plan for how to involve alumni DJs was on her summer to-do list.

Just past the lobby, KSDT’s spacious on-air studio has a large window overlooking a patio, with picnic tables and an eatery nearby. When broadcasting, speakers outside the studio beam the KSDT stream to passersby. Within the studio, there’s the requisite broadcasting equipment and the surrounding walls and shelves hold the recently alphabetized vinyl LPs, 7″ records, and even some vintage reel-to-reel tapes.

The studio has another window overlooking a small office (with plenty of sticker-covered surfaces) as well as a roll-up door/window that can be raised to create an open expanse between the lobby and the studio. A short hallway leads from the lobby to a music practice room.

A student-run college radio station, KSDT has a staff of 12 students and around 100 DJs every quarter doing one-hour shows. Additionally, the station runs a music practice room with a membership of around 50 to 70 people. A unique project (I’m not aware of a practice room run by any other college radio station), I was told that the practice room is the only space on the UCSD campus outside of the music department that provides instruments and space for musicians to practice. Castro Cariño recounted that a few years back it was a “passion project” by the students who ultimately built the space.

A haven for both musicians and audio engineers, the practice room is stocked with drums, a piano, guitar, various percussion instruments, amps, cables, and microphones. In addition to being a helpful space for artists, it also benefits the station by bringing musical talent in to KSDT.

With summer break underway, Barrios was preparing for her senior year at UCSD while Castro Cariño was heading out into the world as a college graduate. At KSDT since his sophomore year, he said that while some might say it’s “bittersweet” to be moving on, he’s ready for the next phase and even has some ideas percolating on how to do community radio back in his home town. In part, he’d like to try to replicate the inspiring community that he found at KSDT. Reflecting back on his first moments at the station, he was struck by its “homey” feel, explaining that it was one of the places on campus where he felt “socially calm,” “at home” and “at peace.”

Barrios didn’t anticipate how important KSDT would become for her when she jokingly proposed hosting a show she called “Fake Indie, Real Talk” her first year of college. She told me that she didn’t know much about music and was intimidated by the seemingly music savvy DJs. Just wrapping up her second year at Programming Director when we met, she told me, “I’m so happy I applied as a joke,” adding that KSDT is “probably THE coolest thing on campus.”

It’s also a place where people seem to really care about the work that they are doing both on and off air. Barrios started up a new “training quarter” program in fall, 2018 to provide more structure for new DJs. The components of the program include orientation (including training on how to spin vinyl records), DJ shadowing, and a series of non-prime-time solo hours on KSDT.

Additionally, as part of the effort to make their time in radio a bit more of an educational experience, KSDT has a programming review process in which interns listen to shows at a particular time of day and provide feedback to the DJs/hosts. Barrios explained, “It’s really hard to do radio when you’ve never done radio before.” New DJs are given suggestions on how to improve their shows across a range of areas. Barrios described the reviews as “holistic,” with Castro Cariño adding that much of what they are aiming for is helping on-air hosts to be better communicators.

Both Barrios and Castro Cariño talked about how special it is to participate in college radio, citing being part of a creative community as a huge plus, especially at a university that they described as “STEM-focused.” It’s a sentiment that’s a common refrain at student-run radio stations and rings true for me as well: college radio can be an escape from the day-to-day stress of academics and a place to connect with fellow music lovers, artists, and soon-to-be radio nerds (in the best possible way).

Thanks to Adriana Barrios and Emanuel Castro Cariño for spending a Tuesday night hanging out with me and schooling me about all things KSDT. This is my 162nd radio station tour report and my 107th college radio station tour. See my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives. I recap my San Diego-area college radio travels on Radio Survivor Podcast #202.

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During my full day of radio station tours in the San Diego area in June, 2019, I visited college radio station KCR at San Diego State University. On a sprawling campus with a student population of more than 36,000, the station was a bit tricky to find. After a few missed turns, I parked atop an 8-floor garage and made my way the KCR studio in the school’s Communication building.

KCR’s General Manager Ahmad Dixon greeted me, giving me the grand tour of the main KCR studio and also led me on a quick jaunt to see a satellite building that serves as a production studio and social hub for the station.

Dating back to 1969, KCR is in the midst of its 50th anniversary celebrations this year. KCR has never had an FCC-licensed over-the-air terrestrial signal; but it does have a very interesting, interrelated relationship with a long-time public radio station on campus.

Radio activity began in 1960 at the then-named San Diego State College, when educational radio station KEBS launched as part of the school’s speech department. A 2009 obituary for founder Ken Jones, recounts that,

Jones was the brain behind KEBS-FM (Educational Broadcasting in San Diego) which later became KPBS. It was the first radio station licensed to a California State University campus. In the mid-1950s, as a speech communications professor at San Diego State College (now SDSU), Jones began his work toward starting an educational radio station on campus. KEBS began broadcasting on Sept. 12, 1960 from the Speech Arts Building. The original schedule was only two-and-a-half hours, five days a week.”

Although students were involved in educational radio station KEBS, it was not a student envisioned or student-led program, which ultimately prompted the eventual founding of student radio station KCR. On the KCR Alumni website, Jerry Zullo shares the story of how KCR came to be:

The story starts in 1966.  At that time, Radio-TV majors (later called Telecommunications & Film) were required to complete a Senior Project in order to graduate.  A student named Martin Gienke decided to do a feasibility study, complete with recommendations, on setting up a student radio station at San Diego State…

At that time, KEBS-FM (later KPBS-FM) was considered a ‘student station;’ that is, it was operated by students who were forced to work there as part of their Radio-TV curriculum.  KEBS broadcast with 780 watts with an antenna on the roof of the Speech Arts Building. We were on the air Monday through Friday from 4:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., playing classical music and boring taped ‘educational’ programs.  Hardly anybody’s real idea of a student station.

Martin roped me into the project.  He’d do the study, and then my Senior Project would be to get the station on the air.  The ideal solution would have been to take over KEBS and turn it into a real student station, but after discussion with faculty we knew that wasn’t going to happen.”

I was especially intrigued to read that in the 1960s, Martin Gienke and Jerry Zullo embarked on tours of “every college radio station in California.” Zullo explains:

We did interviews, found out what worked, what didn’t work, how the stations were set up, formats, funding, pitfalls to be careful of, etc.  In the end, we ended up with a report about three inches thick. The final recommendation was to make San Diego State’s student station a carrier current station, using electrical wiring in the buildings to carry the signal.”

A few years later, in 1969, the dreams of a student-run carrier current station were realized, with transmitters in dorms all over campus and the AM broadcasts even leaking into the nearby community. Zullo writes,

We started engineering tests and found that not only did we cover all the dorms, but the signal sort of leaked (kind of on purpose) and we covered the entire campus.  In fact, if you were driving, you could listen to KCR on Interstate 8 between San Diego Stadium and College Avenue.  On Montezuma Road and over to El Cajon Boulevard, you could hear the station from about 54th Street to 63rd Street.”

Meanwhile, educational radio station KEBS-FM transitioned to a public radio station and was one of the charter members of NPR, even changing its call letters to KPBS in 1970.

Today, KCR still has an AM signal, broadcasting at 1610 AM for about a mile around campus (the AM location has changed over the years) and can also be heard on Cox Cable. Most listeners tune in to the station’s internet stream, however. Additionally, KCR has a strong video presence, with web cameras in the studio and a thriving YouTube channel.

I began my tour in KCR’s on-air studio in the Communication building. General Manager Ahmad Dixon pointed out various highlights, including the brand new, bright red fabric soundproofing material lining the walls. The station was DJ-less during the visit and “QC” (aka quality control) was playing in place of a live human. Curated by the music director, QC is the name for the mix of music, including indie and local material, that runs on automation.

Student-run live shows at KCR are “totally freeform,” according to Dixon. While DJs have creative license to play what they’d like from the station’s library or from their own collections, they are encouraged to play “odd, esoteric, non-mainstream” material, Dixon explained. The station also airs a mix of talk shows and sports programming (with a “hyperfocus” on San Diego State sports).

A talk show fanatic, Dixon joined KCR as a freshman (he’s a senior in Fall 2019) and relished the opportunities to experiment on the air. He reminisced a bit, telling me that he’d spun Kids Bop records, played vinyl backwards, and improvised a song while on-air.

These days it’s a bit more challenging to play vinyl on KCR, although some DJs bring in their own turntables to do so. The station still has an extensive vinyl collection, housed in lockers along with some older CDs.

Interestingly, KCR has two distinct locations on campus- the main studio in the Communications building and an additional studio across campus. As Dixon led me to the second space, he explained that the station has been wanting to beef up its podcasting efforts and the additional production-focused studio is helping with that.

KCR was able to take over an unused Daily Aztec student newspaper office when the publication reduced its space in the building. Today, it serves as an office, hang-out space and production facility for KCR. The main room is spacious, with seating, desks, computers, filing cabinets, and lots of historical items, including photos, and old KCR publications. Behind a door is a studio stocked with audio equipment.

With about 150 members of KCR, the station is busy both on-air and off-air, with radio shows, an active blog, and video content. In the past it also produced a magazine called “Dead Air,” which I caught glimpses of on the station’s walls.

It was gratifying to see that KCR has an active alumni network documenting the station’s 50 year history. Its alumni page is full of goodies, including scans of archival photos, program guides, vintage ephemera, and audio. Alumni still grace the KCR airwaves; with one DJ, Joe Shrin, a 40+ year veteran of the station. At KCR since 1976, he’s said to be the show host who has been there the longest.

Thanks so much to Ahmad Dixon for the summer tour of KCR! This is my 160th radio station tour report and my 105th college radio station tour. Read all of my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives. I also share tidbits about my San Diego-area college radio travels on Radio Survivor Podcast #202.

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Just east of San Diego, California in El Cajon is Grossmont College, home to online college radio station Griffin Radio. An extension of the community college’s Media Communications program, Griffin Radio is a “practical applications laboratory,” providing students with experience running and operating a radio station.

Griffin Radio is the descendant of AM carrier current station KGCR, which dates back to at least the 1970s. A 1986 piece in the Los Angeles Times explains the state of the station at the time, although misstates the station’s lengthier history:

Grossmont College’s tiny KGCR, which went on air 18 months ago and now broadcasts Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., has three formats. The first hour is devoted to jazz; 9 a.m. to noon is alternative music, and noon to 7 p.m. is Top 40.”

Call letters were eventually changed to KGFN, with the station ultimately getting renamed Griffin Radio after it dispensed with its carrier current broadcast. At the station since 1997, General Manager/Faculty Advisor Evan Wirig told me that the station’s AM carrier current transmissions inexplicably only went to the library. He remarked that the rationale behind transmitting radio in a quiet library space never made sense to him, although the speakers under the bookstore were appreciated.

He ended the carrier current broadcasts around 2000 and joked that prior to that one could apparently hear the AM broadcasts under Grossmont College’s old lamp posts. Things have changed quite a bit since then and the campus continues to evolve, made apparent to me after I navigated through a labyrinth of construction adjacent to the Digital Arts building where the station is housed.

A long-time radio fan and media industry veteran (he met his wife while doing college radio), Wirig seems to relish his current role as mentor and teacher. Like a proud parent, he enthusiastically shared anecdotes about students and alumni from the program, marveling at their achievements. Many have gone on to radio and media industry jobs and students regularly win broadcasting awards from various organizations.

Like most college radio stations, Griffin Radio has student leaders, regular air shifts, and many off-air projects, from promotional activities to production work. Live programs typically air between 8am and 3pm on school days. During my summertime visit students were not around, although the station runs on automation. Down the hall from the Griffin Radio studio, a journalism “Bootcamp” was underway, with students from various colleges getting a week-long crash course in hands-on journalism. Topics and projects included editing, podcasting, news reading, and radio news.

Although separate from the academic year’s radio program, there’s certainly overlap between the boot camp and the three semester long radio series. Those wishing to participate in Griffin Radio must first take a class in basic audio production or basic announcing. Advanced students have the opportunity to take on major leadership roles at the station, including Station Director, Program Director and News Director. While those positions are hired by Wirig; the student leaders are tasked with interviewing and hiring candidates for additional roles, including Production Manager, Music Director, and so on.

For the most part students are selecting the music that airs on Griffin Radio, which coalesces around a format that Wirig dubs “college top 40.” Encompassing a wide array of genres, the sounds include oldies, new age, rap, hip hop, independent music, country western, Broadway tunes, 80s new wave, progressive, metal, alternative and even holiday music. He added that it’s a “good, eclectic mix” that focuses mainly on the “college audience.” Although they are free from FCC rules as an internet station, Griffin Radio still eschews profanity-laden tracks and avoids material “promoting a hostile environment,” as Wirig relayed.

Wirig has high standards, telling me, “I expect a degree of professionalism.” Students can only play music housed in Griffin Radio’s digital library and when there isn’t a live show, automation kicks in. Occasionally bands play in the spacious station space or on its adjacent balcony. Additionally, Griffin Radio regularly does remote broadcasts from campus events, including career fairs and transfer days.

As he’s preparing students for real world, industry jobs, Wirig explained that for him, “hands on” learning is critical. “You just can’t learn outside of doing it,” he remarked. While students are gaining exposure to industry standards, like music rotation, they are also given the opportunity to do specialty shows and podcasts (recent ones have dug into musicals, urban legends, and the urban dictionary). Some students have done shows in their native languages, including Latinx Fest (in Spanish) and a techno show in Japanese; both shows drew audiences from afar, including Japan and just across the border in Mexico. One long-time regular Griffin Radio listener even sends DJs pizza when he is impressed by what they are doing on-air.

As we wrapped up my tour, Wirig waxed philosophical about journalism and media, remarking that the program continues to reinvent itself and that media is “very resilient.” Pointing out that, “leadership never changes” and that “good audio will always be good audio,” Wirig clearly relishes watching his students grow and succeed. “I will never give up on anybody who keeps trying,” he opined.

Thanks to Evan Wirig for the wonderful visit to Griffin Radio. This is my 159th radio station tour report and my 104th college radio station tour. Read all of my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives. Also, you can hear some tidbits about my San Diego-area college radio travels on Radio Survivor Podcast #202.

The post Radio Station Visit #159: Griffin Radio at Grossmont College appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Tucked away in a shed in a northwest Seattle neighborhood was perhaps the tiniest radio station that I’d ever seen: community radio station KBFG-LP. Part of the most recent wave of low power FM stations, it launched in December, 2017 and broadcasts for a 2.5 mile radio to a potential FM audience of around 250,000 people in the Ballard, Fremont and Greenwood neighborhoods (thus the B-F-G call letters).

Radio Survivor readers will recall that my colleagues Eric and Paul attended KBFG’s launch party, interviewing several of its founders for Radio Survivor Podcast #124. That event was also featured in a big story about low power FM in the New York Times, lending some incredible early attention to the station.

Thanks to the wonders of technology, KBFG-LP was able to take to the airwaves before it had a public-facing studio, with programmers submitting their shows remotely. Within a year, it opened “The Shack,” in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. The mini studio was housed in a pre-fabricated building that I was told was really designed as a lawnmower shed. Nestled behind a coffee stand and steps away from a dumpster on a Ballard corner, it was a funky location that truly spoke to KBFG’s hyper-local, neighborhood ethos.

On a rainy afternoon in late October, 2018, I ventured to “The Shack” to check out the station. With room for approximately two people in the studio, part of the visit was spend lingering outside under umbrellas. As I spoke with Fulcrum Community Communications (KBFG’s non-profit license-holder) board member Jerry Russell, his fellow board member Pamela Burton arrived for a separate interview. I was curious how we’d all manage the space constraints and watched in awe as she invited the guest into her car for the conversation, while I chatted with Russell in the small studio. Clearly this is a crew that is used to managing with limited resources.

At the time of my visit, the Shack had been up and running for about six months, with a couple of shows broadcasting live from the cozy studio, including a Sunday evening show called “Night Sweats.” Other volunteers used the Shack to pre-record their shows or conduct interviews that would air at a later time. Russell explained that the Shack was outfitted with “bare bones” equipment while KBFG awaited an eventual move to a bigger space.

A light outside the door of the Shack alerted passersby that the station was on the air and speakers could also be set up to play KBFG to folks hanging out in the adjacent triangular gravel-filled space. While it was quiet (except for the “45rpm” show of 1940s and 1950s music playing from automation in the background) and rainy on my visit, I was told that during summer months there were picnic tables and a food truck parked outside, creating an even more convivial atmosphere

Earlier in the day, I got my first taste of KBFG during the Halloween event/food drive, Hunger Goblin’ Treat or Treat, in a nearby neighborhood. The station set up a remote outpost in the corner of a bank, with windows facing a busy daytime trick-or-treating route. The costumed father-son DJ duo played spooky tunes and chimed in with running commentary about the ghouls, goblins, TV characters, and other revelers spotted during the event.

While both the parade broadcast and the Shack speak to KBFG’s community outreach, back in October much of the production of radio shows was taking place inside the homes of DJs and show hosts. With a mix of music and public affairs programming, KBFG’s local-focused mission extends to the artists played over the airwaves. When there isn’t a live DJ, the station plays a curated mix of music, with 80% of it from Seattle artists and 20% from musicians from other states in the Northwest. Russell told me that by October, 2018, the station had already acquired music from 5,000 artists in Seattle alone. During my visit, the music collection was largely digital, with not much room for a physical music library of records or CDs in the Shack (although I did spot a few vinyl LPs).

Russell and Burton were among the group of folks who worked to bring KBFG to the airwaves. While Russell’s radio experience was limited to a stint at his high school station many years ago; Burton worked at Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles for close to 20 years in numerous roles, including Director of the Pacifica Radio Archives.

Burton’s work at Pacifica as both a radio producer and archivist informs her current programming on KBFG, as she regularly combs the archives to use on her “You Heard it Here” program, drawing links between current events and historical material. She’s pulled clips from a wide range of past programs, with topics covering everything from feminism to vampires.

Excited about both the current group of KBFG-LP volunteers and the possibilities of collaborations with Seattle institutions and venues, Burton told me that she was looking forward to having more people involved with the station, adding, “everybody’s invited to come and play.”

In March, 2019, KBFG moved to its new home, complete with studio and office, leaving the Shack behind. Its new headquarters, The Jack Straw Cultural Center, holds a special place in community radio history, having been established with funds from pioneering Seattle radio station KRAB (hear about the KRAB Archives on Radio Survivor Podcast #134). Over email, Burton relayed the exciting news:

Our new digs are in the Jack Straw Cultural Center which was built from funds earned when KRAB radio’s frequency was sold in 1984. There are production studios down stairs as well as performance spaces which we plan to use for live broadcasts. For now we are training new programmers in our studio/office including a Monday night session at 7pm called Office Hours when program director Tim Flanagan goes on the air inviting people to come in and learn how to do radio.

Thanks so much to everyone at KBFG for sharing your station with me. This is my 158th radio station tour report, my 33rd community radio station tour, and around my 21st LPFM tour. Read of my radio station tours in numerical order or by station type in our archives.

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With its lime green accent wall, thrift-store panda, and hand-me-down theater department sets; college radio station KSPU.org is full of quirky touches and mysterious lore. Seattle Pacific University’s online radio station is a shining example of how much can be accomplished by a tiny, motivated staff.

In the center of the action on the campus in Seattle’s North Queen Anne neighborhood, KSPU’s digs in Weter Memorial Hall are located across from a student lounge where folks linger on couches and sip on Starbucks coffee. While showing me around the station last fall, Station Manager Taylor Muñoz remarked, “I love that we are so close to everything.”

A station window overlooks a plaza, Martin Square, which serves as a gathering space and a venue for events and concerts. The nearby real estate has been a boon for KSPU, which has thrown spring concerts just outside its doors using a stage in Martin Square.

Muñoz (a college senior) shared that “events are huge” for KSPU, which hosts them quarterly. While the station’s stream is important (and what makes the organization a radio station), these live gatherings make all of the work and the connections to the audience palpable to DJs and staff. “Sometimes it’s easy to feel like no one really notices what we’re doing, but then we throw events and [see that] people really care about what we’re doing, because we get really good participation at events,” she explained.

With a roster of DJs hovering at about 5 at the time of my visit, it was amazing to hear just how much KSPU does with a small team. Media Manager Michael Miller is responsible for social media and ticket giveaways, a job that used to be shared by two people.

Although Miller (a junior) did a show at KSPU his freshman year, his interest in the station grew tremendously during a school project when he was a sophomore. Tasked with finding a journalistic “beat” for a communication class, Miller chose KSPU and did a series of interviews and pieces digging into station events and culture. That immersion prompted him to get further involved.

Muñoz first learned about KSPU at a school involvement fair when she was a freshman. A music lover already, her interest was piqued and she started writing music and show reviews for the station’s music blog, The Panda Munch. By sophomore year she was appointed Media Manager and in her junior year she was Events Coordinator. It was a clear path to leading KSPU and she revealed, “I always knew I wanted to be Station Manager.” Her music immersion is not solely located at KSPU, however. She snagged an internship at beloved Seattle music label Sub Pop her junior year, telling me that it was “one of the greatest experiences of my life.”

It’s inspiring to hear that an influential label like Sub Pop has such an affinity for college radio in its home town, with several former interns hailing from KSPU. And, both Miller and Muñoz spoke of the strong relationships that the station has built with the Seattle music scene. Not only does the station help promote up and coming artists, but it also gives away tickets to big shows featuring well-known musicians.

The online-only nature of KSPU doesn’t seem to be a hindrance at all, particularly since its young audience is glued to laptops and phones rather than terrestrial radios. According to Miller, “Nobody I know has an actual radio in their room.” That’s a change from the past, when former Seattle Pacific student radio station KSSR 660 AM beamed to AM radios on campus.

The history of student radio at Seattle Pacific University is murky, but I’ve found references to 660 AM carrier current broadcasts in the 1970s from KSSR, which was housed in Alexander Hall. That station appears to have been relatively short-lived; with plans for a radio revival underway in fall, 1999.

A campus news report from Seattle Pacific University in 1999 states:

Boomer alums might well remember the golden days of radio on the Seattle Pacific campus when KSSR broadcast in the ’70s. The student-run station eventually fell silent due to lack of interest, but a new generation returns to the airways soon, perhaps as early as this spring.

Get ready for KSPU.

The brainchild of 30-year-old transfer student Doug Russell, KSPU will be formed as a campus organization. It’s still in the planning stages with money being raised through ASSP and off-campus revenue sources…

At first, KSPU will broadcast over cable TV channel 44, which does not require federal licensing. Once the program has stable funding, Russell plans to seek permits for AM and FM broadcasting.

Today, KSPU broadcasts solely online. While much of its history is still a mystery to me, snippets of the recent past provide plenty of charm. Minutes into my visit, I learned about Woodstock, KSPU’s panda mascot. Emblazoned on the website, stickers, and other paraphernalia; the branding came to be not because of any sort of official school tradition. Perhaps a decade ago, KSPU staffers found a full panda suit, complete with panda head and decided to make it the station’s mascot. Nobody ever wears the suit, but KSPU brings the panda head to events.

A month before my visit, KSPU had a station bonding trip to a Goodwill during a leadership conference and found a stuffed panda to add to the station’s collection. “Woodstock” now has a place of honor on a KSPU couch alongside a poop emoji pillow that was scored during the same shopping spree.

The sense of camaraderie at the station was apparent. Muñoz affirmed that KSPU is a “good creative outlet” for students, with Miller adding that it’s also “a great way to have diverse perspectives” represented. They both were proud that the station was reaching folks on the small campus of around 4,000 students, telling me the sense of accomplishment felt when spotting KSPU stickers on computers and water bottles owned by people who they’d never met.

Thanks to Taylor Muñoz and Michael Miller for the tour of KSPU. This is my 157th radio station tour report and my 103rd college radio station tour. See all of my radio station tours in numerical order or by station type in our archives.

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My 5th and final radio station visit at the end of a long day of Seattle touring brought me to an interesting arts enclave in Warren G. Magnuson Park in northeast Seattle. My destination, the newish low power FM (LPFM) community radio station SPACE 101.1 (KMGP-LP), which is a project of the Sand Point Arts and Cultural Exchange (SPACE).

I arrived at the park after dark and was told to look for the old gatehouse. A former military base, Magnuson Park is full of historical buildings, lending charm to SPACE 101.1’s perch above one of the park’s entry points. Formerly a Sergeant at Arms quarters dating back to the 1940s, there are some funky quirks, including remnants of an old bathroom, bank, and armory.

SPACE’s Executive Director Julianna Ross and Space 101.1 Program Director Eric Zappa welcomed me for a relaxing chat and tour. Ross has been hard at work on restoration, advocacy, and arts projects in Magnuson Park since 2004 through her work with SPACE. The non-profit also runs a gallery and she and Zappa explained that they are excited to do more programming and endeavors that take advantage of the synergistic relationship between the gallery and the radio station.

A few ideas include grants for on-air projects by local artists and more artist interviews on air. A recent gallery show about protest art inspired an on-air show featuring protest songs, which Zappa acknowledged is just a small example of the types of collaborations that could happen.

The 350 acre Magnuson Park has undergone big changes since it transitioned from its former function as a Navy support base. A number of historic buildings have been restored and a few buildings have been converted to housing. When I visited in October, 2018, Ross told me that by the end of 2019, there are expected to be around 1,000 residents in Magnuson Park.

As a hyper-local LPFM community radio station, Space 101.1 launched over FM on October 6, 2017, so was just over a year old when I visited. Inspired by the LPFM opportunity, Ross marveled at the low cost to apply and get started, while simultaneously reminiscing about all of the hard work and volunteer hours required. After just a year on FM, the station was already attracting dedicated show hosts, garnering unsolicited donations, and inspiring listeners.

Drawing from the nearby community, volunteer hosts range from former college and community radio DJs to journalists to former city council members. The Sunday night programming especially caught my attention, with the station’s own improvised radio serial, “Broken Alaska” and a vocal improv-oriented show “Sound Improv Live!” Other locally-produced programs on the schedule include “Magnuson Nature News,” public affairs show “The Bridge,” as well as a variety of music shows.

With a background in college radio at Ithaca College’s WICB, Zappa said that he didn’t want to be a commercial radio DJ, but easily embraces the allure of community radio at Space 101.1, recounting, “this is my dream gig when I was 22 and it’s still pretty cool now.” In addition to planning the schedule and co-hosting a show (“Wedgwood Rocks,” in a nod to an iconic rock formation in the neighborhood) with his wife, Zappa also crafts a curated mix of music and local voices that airs when there’s no live DJ or host. His goal is to make the station sound “warm and neighborhoody.”

Engaging with local residents is a huge part of the station’s ethos and Ross told me that a big goal is to work directly with folks who live in the park. She’s been working on various grants to aid with radio training for volunteers and an early project did just that with middle school girls. While the physical space isn’t as accessible as they’d like; Ross is hopeful that the technology of radio will allow for remote participation for volunteers who can’t physically get to the station.

Perhaps one of the sweetest tales of the station’s impact on local residents is Zappa’s recounting of a musician revealing his shock over hearing his band’s song on the radio for the first time. At an event, the band member described the moment to Zappa, telling him that he was so thrilled to hear the song on the radio that he started running around his house, with his wife and kid screaming in excitement. Zappa said that the story gave him “goosebumps,” and is one of his favorite moments at the station so far.

Ross also expressed her profound joy in community interactions, reminiscing about a big party in the space before it was a functioning station. She joked about “staging” it to look like a radio station, with desks, posters, and microphones, before they had all of their equipment. Even though they weren’t on the air at the time, it was a successful event, inspiring her to do more community events at the station in the future. “I love interfacing with the community so much. And radio stations are so friendly and fun,” Ross beamed.

Thanks so much to Julianna and Eric for the lovely night-time tour and chat at Space 101.1. It’s a real treat to visit relatively new LPFM stations to see the growth of community radio first-hand. It was also cool to see “Radio Survivor” scrawled in dry erase marker on the schedule on the wall, as KMGP-LP is also one of the radio station affiliates for the weekly Radio Survivor radio show!

This is my 156th radio station tour report, my 32nd community radio station tour, and around my 20th LPFM tour. To dig into more, take a look at my radio station tours in numerical order or by station type in our archives.

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It’s become somewhat of a station tour cliche for me to write about the homey feel of the radio stations that I visit. But, Bellevue College’s public radio station KBCS 91.3 FM in Bellevue, Washington takes that vibe to another level, as its station is located inside an actual house.

After a full day of travel and tours of three high school radio stations last October, I walked to the station’s front door as the sun was setting. Interim General Manager/Music Director Iaan Hughes greeted me, welcoming me into the radio house.

Existing in one of those interesting radio station hybrid categories, KBCS-FM is an independent public radio station with around 100 community volunteers, located in a standalone house on a college campus. It airs a mix of syndicated and locally-produced news and public affairs shows as well as a broad array of music programs.

Although it has student roots, launching in 1973, KBCS has shifted over the years, moving from a student radio station to more of a community, then an independent public radio model.

Student activism plays a big part in the KBCS origin story. “Appropriately it started with a protest outside of the president’s office here at Bellevue College. At the time it was Bellevue Community College and students did a sit in after having their initial request for a radio station denied. And that was enough to get the license and get the college kind of on it,” Hughes relayed.

By around the mid-1980s, the college hired a General Manager for KBCS and the station shifted to more of a community radio model, according to Program Director Patrick Whalen. Today, the station is a bit of a mixture. Whalen outlined that, “We’re kind of a hybrid. We’re independent. We’re …obviously not affiliated with NPR. We don’t carry any of the large public media distributed programs…We’re with Pacifica…So we have…Thom Hartmann…Because we’re so largely programmed still by volunteers, we’re clearly a community radio station.” He added the caveat that, “Because of the market that we’re in we can’t only do that just to be able to build audience.”

Shelves of vinyl on the walls at KBCS reveal the music programming trajectory of the station. As we sat in a front room/LP archive, dubbed the “Vinyl Lounge,” Whalen pointed out to me that the station initially had a progressive rock orientation from around 1973 to 1983, but then switched to an “anti-rock” format, playing jazz, folk and world music. He joked that it’s amazing that a station in the Seattle area in the 1980s and 1990s had “nary a Sub Pop release in the library.”

In a metropolitan area known for its grunge rock history and awash in non-commercial radio offerings, KBCS has worked hard to find its niche. Whalen gave his take on the Seattle radio scene, arguing, “We’re in a really vibrant public media market. We have amazing radio stations here. Some of the top in the country in their formats, if not THE top, so we have this big shadow to work within…We have KEXP, we have KUOW, we have KNKX…, Dance 89…a top dance station, so… we have to play in a different sand box…”

Today, about a third of the station’s broadcast day is devoted to public affairs programming, with the rest comprised of music. Hughes elaborated that KBCS has a largely “AAA” upbeat music format on daytime weekday shows (noon to 7pm), peppered with “some classics” going back to the 1960s and 1970s, as well as new releases.

Public affairs has taken on a bigger role in the past couple of decades, with the largely volunteer-produced news/public affairs show “The Morning Blend,” a huge source of pride for KBCS during my fall visit. According to Hughes, “It speaks deeply to the communities here in the Pacific Northwest. It tells stories that are not covered nationally or locally really…”

As an added benefit, this daily news show also ends up being a recruiting tool for the station, working to bring in new listeners from a range of communities. Whalen explained, “Our news and public affairs ends up being kind of a default engagement strategy for us because there’s constantly people coming into the station and telling their stories..,” adding that News and Public Affairs Director Yuko Kodama “…makes a concerted effort and is focused clearly on social justice issues and on stories and individuals and on voices that aren’t normally heard on air in this market so her work and her passion and her professionalism is a huge asset for the station.”

As I was completing this article in April 2019, KBCS announced that “The Morning Blend,” time slot would be replaced by the syndicated hip-hop talk show Hard Knock Radio, with “…KBCS’ national-award-winning reportage focused on social justice issues within the Pacific Northwest” continuing during existing public affairs programs. Other syndicated news and public affairs shows on KBCS include the Thom Hartmann Program, Democracy Now!, and the newly added Rising Up (as of April 29, 2019). Specialty music shows are mostly hosted and curated by local volunteers, with the syndicated Grateful Dead Hour also in the mix.

Genres covered include the general categories of “Dance, Trance and Electronica,” “Folk and Americana,” “Jazz and Classical,” “R&B, Soul and Hip-Hop,” “Rock and Blues,” “World,” and “Variety” (including an experimental music show and a program focused on female artists).

The non-rock music legacy at KBCS is perhaps most interesting in the CD and vinyl library housed in the rear part of its dwelling. Music is organized in hyper-specific categories, particularly in the international music section, which includes Flamenco gypsy, Cuban, Hawaiian, klezmer, French-Canadian, Eastern Europe and Brazil among it subcategories. There are also sections for gospel, RPM, Native American, early music, hip hop, jazz and more.

Hughes pointed out that some of the larger music sections are extensions of long-running KBCS programs, including a 30-year-old Brazilian show (Raizes) and the beloved Saturday afternoon program, Hawai’i Radio Connection.

In the midst of a massive music digitization project, KBCS has already digitized over 100,000 tracks using a Cloud-based program. Initially starting with the bluegrass library, volunteers and a work study student had made their way through the R&B collection and were working on the blues section at the time of my visit. Hughes was excited about the progress, saying, “It to me feels like the future,” especially in light of increasing issues with the functionality of CDs and CD players.

As I wrapped up my visit, Hughes spoke a bit about his passion for KBCS and what drew him to the station back in 2001, revealing, “I love the variety and the eclecticism. That’s what initially drew me to the station. I was managing a music store and one of my employees did a late night jazz show here and knew that I loved country music and Americana music and when the opportunity kind of opened to do a late night show he said, ‘hey, you should check this out’ and it was just really amazing to flip yourself down to the low end of the dial and find an enormous palette of music. Things that I thought maybe no one else even knew about. Of course..I quickly learned my lesson of how little I knew and…it really felt like coming home in many ways.”

Thanks to Iaan Hughes and Patrick Whalen for the wonderful visit to KBCS. This is my 155th written station tour. Please, scan through my radio station tours in numerical order or by station type in our archives.

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Mercer Island High School radio station, KMIH is the third in a trio of high school radio stations that I visited while in Seattle in October, 2018. First licensed in 1970, KMIH holds a class D FM license, currently over 88.9 FM in Mercer Island, Washington.

Founded in 1969, KMIH has bounced around the dial and was in danger of extinction in 2002.

According to a 2011-2012 Mercer Island School District communication:

In 2002, the station fought to stay alive when the Federal Communications Commission allowed a commercial station to take its place on the dial. Today, KMIH remains on the air at 88.9 FM and 94.5 FM, thanks to a group of former KMIH students who are now members of the volunteer staff and Booster Club.

A non-profit booster club helped out KMIH and even purchased an FM translator at 94.5 FM in order to expand the station’s signal into parts of Seattle. That simulcast ended in February, 2017 when the club sold the translator. At the time, Mercer Island School District reported, “The Booster Club plans to use the net proceeds from the sale to contribute to capital projects that will enhance the station, the 88.9 signal and will expand student experiences.”

KMIH’s enthusiastic General Manager, Joe Bryant, is in his fourth year at the station. During his tenure, he worked to rebrand and reformat the KMIH. For years, the station was known as Hot Jamz, playing “current hits with little interruption,” according to Bryant. In January, 2017, he worked with his student Program Director (she’s now a college student still assisting Bryant at KMIH) to create a new brand and format: “88.9 The Bridge: Music and Conversation That Spans Generations.”

The music mix ranges from Bob Seger to Arcade Fire, with a dose of music from the Pacific Northwest (Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, Alice and Chains, and up and coming bands like Naked Giants and Ayron Jones). Bryant described the format, saying that KMIH “superserves” local music, playing artists from the area every hour. With a background in commercial morning radio, Bryant explained, “I got here” and “I wanted to teach kids to tell stories.”

In addition to putting his stamp on programming, Bryant has also worked to expand the radio program at Mercer Island High School. He relayed that he started with just one class and 18 students and four years later oversees 80 students in three full classes. On top of that, he’s the school’s assistant badminton coach and the adviser for a marketing club (DECA).

Although Bryant did high school radio himself at nearby KASB (see my tour) in Bellevue, Washington, he never imagined that he would some day be a teacher. In contrasting his 25 years in morning radio, he opines, “this is the future,” revealing that his current gig working with students “is a real passion project.”

As we began our tour, senior “Mariner Max” was launching into his solo stint at the helm of KMIH during a National High School Radio Network broadcast (see my Radio World piece about the network). An award-winning sports show host, Max deftly shifted between his take on the World Series and other sports topics to montages of edited clips that he’d prepared in advance of the show. With four years of high school radio experience (he started at KMIH as a freshman), he’s a rare teenager who is already a seasoned broadcaster. Bryant beamed that Max is “one of the greatest baseball minds of any age.”

In addition to Max’s show, KMIH airs live sporting events, a number of sports-themed shows, talk shows, and specialty music programs. A few highlights include a fantasy football call-in show (“Fantasy Island”), “Hip Hop News and Sneaker Talk,” “Science and Politics,” a bluegrass and American roots music show, a program about movies, and a show focused on the school marching band (“Band Camp”).

Bryant sees KMIH as a “learning lab” that is also open to students from outside of Mercer Island High School’s radio program who use the facility to create podcasts and more. In an interesting twist, Bryant even teaches a class over the airwaves. During “Joe’s Class” on weekdays at noon, “Broadcast Media teacher, Joe Bryant, teaches his class live on the radio during the lunch hour! Joe is joined by students, teachers, parents and even the occasional celebrity!” The show description speculates, “Tune in and check out the only high school class taught live on the radio (that we know of)!”

At the time of my visit, there were also some shows hosted by folks from outside the school community, including a progressive rock show, Grateful Dead show, and a long-running late night music mix show (see a station tour video shot by one of its hosts in 2017).

I was also excited to hear that KMIH has its own radio station vehicle. Bryant revealed, “We’re getting a Bridgemobile,” and told me his plans for the remote broadcast van that was handed down from commercial radio station KMPS. “It’s going to be a bright red van and we’re going to have to get it wrapped with our logo…It’s going to have an old Marti unit,” Bryant shared.

His enthusiasm for high school radio was infectious. Reflecting back on his entire career, he told me, “25 years of morning radio was great and I loved being able to do that…but what I love more is being able to sit here and make the next generation get really excited about story telling…”

Thanks so much to Joe Bryant and everyone at KMIH and Mercer Island High School for the warm welcome. This is my 154th radio station tour overall and my 11th high school radio tour report. Don’t miss my recap of all three Seattle-area high school radio station tours on Radio Survivor podcast/radio show episode #177. Scan through my radio station tours in numerical order or by station type in our archives.

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High school radio station KASB-FM in Bellevue, Washington was my second stop during a hectic day of radio station tours in the Seattle area in October, 2018. Bellevue High School’s Career and Technical Education Department Chair Brad Conger reached out to me awhile back, encouraging more coverage of high school radio on Radio Survivor. I was happy to oblige.

Dating back to 1974 (see some early photos), KASB is a class D non-commercial high school radio station on 89.9 FM near Seattle. Housed in modern digs (Conger helped with the station’s redesign in 2012), KASB’s welcoming on-air studio overlooks a busy hallway at Bellevue High School. Unlike its former, tucked-away location, KASB’s current on-air studio is immediately seen and heard (thanks to an overhead speaker) by students and staff walking by.

Part of a broader media program, it is both physically and philosophically linked with television, film and photography studios and work spaces, with many of the rooms purposely built to be shared across disciplines.

I arrived after the school day had ended on an early release day, so things were pretty quiet on campus after the stream of parents picking up students departed. A handful of students were quietly working on computers in the large classroom where radio, film, and TV classes take place.

Around 40 students are involved with KASB, with participation open to high school students from across the district. Station members are required to have taken the school’s radio class at some point. Conger is himself an alumnus of the program, starting at the station in 1983 when he was a high school student (take a look at these 1980s photos of the station staff). He graduated in 1985 and then returned in 2002 to lead the program.

As the semester was just getting underway at the time of my visit, the schedule of student radio shows was still developing, with participants getting assigned their first solo DJ show the following week. Student leaders (second year radio students and beyond) were in the midst of training, just getting settled into their station roles, including Music Director and Public Service Announcement Director.

When there isn’t a live show on KASB, programming plays from a “jukebox” of music and station IDs. Students can host shows whenever they’d like, with most taking place during and adjacent to the school day. A morning talk show starts one hour before school and other shows run during 1st period, lunch, after school, and in the evenings. KASB’s format is Top 40 music, although live student shows are mostly talk.

Interestingly, back in Conger’s high school days, KASB also ran a Top 40 format. He told me that in the 1980s the station either aired live shows or turned off the transmitter. He fondly recalled playing Monty Python sketches over the air, telling me that back then the station relied on cart machines and turntables.

These days students play material from online sources or from their phones and Conger speculated that the CD player in the studio hasn’t been used by students since it was installed in 2012. However, he added that every year one or two students ask for turntables. One bit of technology that wasn’t around in the early days of the station is live video streaming, which is now shared on Twitter and Facebook during KASB’s live talk shows and archived there as well. The station’s live audio stream can be heard on MIXLR.

While there is a music format for KASB overall, students are asked to select the music and format for their hour-long shows. Conger tells them to think about their chosen format and how it might fit into a big city’s overall radio landscape and ratings. With that, there’s freedom to stray from the official Top 40 format.

Walking around the KASB on-air studio, one quickly grasps the variety of student shows that have aired on the station. As part of a class assignment, everyone is required to create a promotional poster for one’s radio show. Those posters plaster the studio walls, offering glimpses of the teen personalities that grace the Bellevue High School station’s airwaves. A smattering of show titles include, “Three Sleep Deprived Teenagers Talking about Things,” “Morning Waffles,” “The Child Laborers,” “The Cool Kids Club,” and “Thrash Zone with DJ Severed Limbs.”

The Seattle area is full of high school radio stations and I visited three in one day. Conger told me that there are around six stations that keep in regular touch through an email list and an annual high school radio festival. They provide a support network for each other, sharing tips and advice.

Conger’s students also participate in larger student media organizations, taking part in regional and national competitions. An impressive collection of trophies and certificates represent recognition from the Washington State High School Radio Awards, Northwest High School Film Festival, and the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS).

KASB is also a member of the National High School Radio Network, a group of high school stations that share programming across the network every Wednesday. On the day of my visit, KASB was preparing to air the week’s live National High School Radio Network show from nearby Mercer Island High School station KMIH (my next tour!). As I wrapped up my visit, Conger summarized his passion for high school radio, explaining, “I love the creativity of the students…It makes my job exciting every single day.”

Thanks to Brad Conger for taking the time to show me around KASB-FM and for encouraging me to visit more high school radio stations. You can hear about my three Seattle-area high school radio station tours on Radio Survivor podcast/radio show episode #177. Peruse all of my radio station tours in numerical order or by station type in our archives. This is my 153rd radio station visit report and my tenth high school radio tour report.

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For the past four years, I’ve been sharing tidbits of my radio station tours on the Radio Survivor show/podcast. My travels have taken me across the United States, visiting a variety of stations from California to New York.

In this collection of podcasts featuring radio station tours, you’ll hear interviews with enthusiastic radio participants working in high school radio, college radio, and community radio. Numerous low-power FM stations are represented, some of which were just getting on the air.

Every station has a unique story and it’s been my pleasure to bring more attention to intriguing radio happening in every corner of the United States. Read on for a list of radio station tours that have been featured on the podcast.

To dig into all of my tours, peruse the full list in chronological order.

• Field Trip 91 – Radio K at University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN  (2015); podcast #22
• Field Trip 97 – KBPS at Benson Polytechnic H.S., Portland, OR (2015); podcast #24
• Field Trip 99 – WHCS at Hunter College, New York, NY (2016); podcast #47
• Field Trip 100 – WPRB at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (2016); podcast #48
• Field Trip 103 – WOWD-LP Takoma Radio in Takoma Park, MD (2016); podcast #57
• Field Trip 104 – WERA-LP Radio Arlington in Arlington, VA (2016); podcast #57
• Field Trip 105 – CHIRP Radio in Chicago, IL (2016); podcast #60
• Field Trip 106 – Met Radio at Metropolitan State U of Denver, CO(2016); podcast #56
• Field Trip 108 – The SOCC Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO  (2016); podcast #63
• Field Trip 110 – KVCU Radio 1190 University of Colorado, Boulder, CO (2016); podcast #63
• Field Trip 112 – KBPK at Fullerton College, Fullerton, CA (2016); podcast #66
• Field Trip 113 – KEPC Pikes Peak Community College, Colorado Springs, CO (2016); podcast #66
• Field Trip 115 – KXUA at University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR (2016); podcast #69
• Field Trip 116 – KHDX at Hendrix College, Conway, AR (2016); podcast #70
• Field Trip 117 – KCHUNG Radio in Los Angeles, CA (2016); podcast #74
• Field Trip 118 – KPSQ-LP in Fayetteville, AR (2016); podcast #82
• Field Trip 119 – KUOZ-LP at University of the Ozarks, Clarksville, AR (2016); podcast #82
• Field Trip 121 – KUHS-LP in Hot Springs, AR (2016); podcast #68
• Field Trip 124 – WRIR-LP in Richmond, VA (2017); podcast #88
• Field Trip 138 – WPPM-LP at PhillyCAM in Philadelphia, PA (2016); podcast #97
• Field Trip 141 – WKCR at Columbia University in New York, NY (2017); podcast #136
• Field Trip 142 – WIIT, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL (2017); podcast #136
• Field Trip 143 – WHPK at University of Chicago, Chicago, IL (2017); podcast #142
• Field Trip 144 – KVCB-LP at Vacaville Christian Schools, Vacaville, CA (2018); podcast #147
• Field Trip 145 – Wave Farm and WGXC in Acra, NY (2018); podcast #151
• Field Trip 146 – WGXC Hudson in Hudson, NY (2018); podcast #151
• Field Trip 148 – WVKR-FM at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY (2018); podcast #161
• Field Trip 149 – KDVS-FM at University of California, Davis in Davis, CA (2018); podcast #175
• Field Trip 152 – KNHC-FM at Nathan Hale High School, Seattle, WA (2018); podcast #177

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My marathon day of Seattle radio station visits last October launched with a trip to see high school radio station KNHC-FM aka C89.5. As I approached Nathan Hale High School in my rental car, I tuned in to the dance music station while delighting in the dramatic Pacific Northwest scenery: dark grey skies and vibrant fall foliage.

Vibrant fall foliage adjacent to track at Nathan Hale High School. Photo: J. Waits

While listening to the morning show, I heard chatter about “Lap Day,” and later learned that as part of the on-air fundraiser, station staff agreed to run a lap around the school track for every $1,000 raised. I was amazed to hear that the morning show brought in $9,000 that day, meaning that the whole morning staff agreed to run 9 laps! A dedicated donor even stopped by to run with them for the final hour of the show.

Sign for fall pledge drive at high school radio station KNHC C895. Photo: J. Waits

Fundraising is a big deal for KNHC, which holds two on-air fundraisers a year as well as an end of the year online campaign. Overseen by a small paid staff, C89.5 is run by professionals who manage day-to-day operations and guide the student participants. There are around 17 volunteer hosts in addition to the more than 100 students who take part in station activities.

KNHC lobby. Photo: J. Waits

When I stopped by, morning drive host Drew Bailey was on the air and was joined by a student in the studio. A station veteran, he began at KNHC as a student at age 16, making this his 24th year on the air. The sole paid DJ, he’s on the air every day from 6am to 10am and used to volunteer as a Saturday night show host for 14 years.

DJ Drew Bailey in the KNHC studio. Photo: J. Waits

Although students pop in and out of the station throughout the school day (including before and after school and during lunch), they were largely absent from the station during my visit, owing to Nathan Hale High School’s complicated bell schedule, which is different every day. General Manager June Fox explained that students are adaptable and “they just plug in [to the station’s schedule] when they’re here.”

Student schedule of radio activities at KNHC. Photo: J. Waits

To get on the air students either have to pass the semester-long “Introduction to Electronic Media” class or an intensive 5-week summer radio class. For students, the work at the station is all hands-on, with “something different every day,” according to Fox. Students not only work with experienced DJs during live shifts, but they also do voice tracking and production work behind the scenes. Music is mostly played from a hard drive and I didn’t see a physical music library during my visit.

On-air studio at high school radio station KNHC C895. Photo: J. Waits

Fox has been with C89.5 since August, 2015 after stints at a wide range of radio stations, including public radio, high school radio, commercial radio, and college radio.

June Fox in front of C89.5 mural at the high school radio station. Photo: J. Waits

Since it was mid-pledge drive at the station, I enjoyed checking out the latest station swag (including customized Lego figures and rainbow socks) as well as the closet full of prior promotional items. Packed with CDs, stickers, buttons, fabric flying discs, music-loaded USBs, temporary tattoos, and more; the station branding emphasizes positivity and inclusivity, with rainbow motifs and purple and pink hues on many of the materials.

Bin marked “pronoun buttons” at KNHC with rainbow temporary tattoos. Photo: J. Waits

A sign on the wall reminds participants that the station is a safe space for all and C89.5 regularly participates in LGBTQ pride festivities. Fox shared that during Seattle Pride, station members affixed six thousand C89.5 temporary tattoos on attendees, remarking, “It was so much fun!”

“We Welcome ALL” sign at KNHC. Photo: J. Waits

An electronic dance music station, KNHC shows cover a wide variety of sounds. Although the daytime features more mainstream music, things get more adventurous at night, when sub-genres like house, trance, drum & bass, world dance, industrial, and downtempo/chill are highlighted.

DJ gear at KNHC. Photo: J. Waits

Additionally, Thursday mornings are devoted to 1980s new wave music. In the evenings, different resident DJs spin during the station’s “The Drive at 5” mix show.

KNHC sign outside the high school radio station. Photo: J. Waits

Conveniently located next to a small parking lot by an athletic field, C89.5’s digs (which it’s inhabited since 2009) include a large open space, with cubicles for the professional staff on one side and five production studios on the other. The on-air studio faces into the main room on one side and borders a live music studio on the other. Performances recorded in this room are archived on the station’s website as “live exclusives.”

Live music room at KNHC. Photo: J. Waits

One of the production studios (studio A) has a large window facing a main hallway in the school, with a quintessential high school view of lockers. Fox told me that this studio was the original on-air studio, but the window to the school proved to be too much of a distraction for students, as classmates would greet DJs by banging on the glass.

View of school lockers from studio at high school radio station KNHC. Photo: J. Waits

A nearby doorway leads into the school and there’s a classroom (not exclusively for radio classes) adjacent to that. During my visit, Fox and I quietly passed through a “dry art” class in that room in order to visit the promotions closet.

CDs in KNHC’s promotions closet. Photo: J. Waits

Signed artist photos, posters and framed gold records appear throughout the station, including a photo of Lady Gaga with the inscription, “C89.5! Thank you for spinning my record, babe” and signed by Lady Gaga. Fox told me that C89.5 was the first station in the country to play Lady Gaga, even inviting her to perform at the station’s listener appreciation party at the high school in 2008.

Signed Lady Gaga photo at high school radio station C89.5. Photo: J. Waits

I was especially charmed by a collection of artwork on the station’s wall and learned that the small canvases were decorated by musicians who’ve stopped by C89.5. Artists are asked to pick up sharpies and create a special drawing for the station. Pieces vary from simple signatures (sometimes with a mounted CD) to colorful abstract designs to stunning line drawings. It’s a crafty way to pay tribute to the musicians that pass through the station.

Drawings by artists who have visited KNHC. Photo: J. Waits

A veteran station, KNHC launched over FM nearly 50 years ago in 1971. Well-regarded in dance music circles, it’s received both local and national accolades. On its website, KNHC reports, “In 2003, The Village Voice recognized KNHC as ‘Best of New York’ high school radio stations thanks to its internet streaming, and the next year became the first non-commercial station in the United States to join the Billboard Magazine Dance Radio Airplay panel.”

Vintage C89.5 jackets on the wall of the high school radio station. Photo: J. Waits

Thanks so much to June Fox for the wonderful time at C89.5! This is my 152nd radio station tour and my 9th visit to a high school radio station. You can hear more from the tour on Radio Survivor podcast #177. All of my station visits are cataloged in numerical order and by station type in my tour archives. Stay tuned for more reports from my October, 2018 Seattle travels.

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It was after ten o’clock on a Friday night when I headed to community radio station Freeform Portland‘s studio in Portland, Oregon for a visit. Board President Becky Meiers had invited me and Paul Riismandel to join her on her final show before she embarked for Alaska and I couldn’t refuse. The co-host of a cassette-themed program, The Tape Escape, Meiers crafted a radio-themed mix tape for her show in honor of the Grassroots Radio Conference that weekend.

“The Tape Escape” on Freeform Portland’s posted programming schedule. Photo: J. Waits

The indefatigable Meiers played a major role in organizing the 2018 Grassroots Radio Conference, which was hosted by community radio station KBOO (see my tour), where she was wrapping up her work as Development Director. After a full day at the conference, she wound down with her music show, as she reflected ahead to her new job as station manager of community radio station KCAW in Sitka, Alaska.

Becky Meiers in Freeform Portland studio. Photo: J. Waits

Her tracks, which made up the “A” side of the mix tape, expressed her radio love, with songs like “French Radio” by Swirlies, Spoon’s “Car Radio,” and the Guided by Voices track “Radio Show.” Freeform Portland’s consulting engineer Todd Urick (also a college radio alum of KDVS, which was one of my recent tours) created the mix on the “B” side. His selections reflected his passion for retro pop culture, from the theme song to the 1983 video arcade-themed movie Joysticks to cheesy faux jingles, to a new wave parody song (“Palolo Valley Girls”) to radio station air check clips.

“To Radio People” mix tape at Freeform Portland. Photo: J. Waits

While enjoying the music mix (hear the entire October 5, 2018 show) and occasionally sharing the mic with Meiers, Riismandel and Freeform Portland’s Operations & Engineering Chairman Arthur Rizzotto, I also took in the surroundings. The studio is a dream for music nerds, with cassette players, turntables, CD players, a small vinyl collection and even a retro radio.

Turntables and headphones in Freeform Portland studio. Photo: J. Waits

The on-air studio has windows overlooking the street below, with a view of a bus shelter, food mart, and furniture gallery. The room opens up into a living room-like space with a couch, plants, sticker-covered cabinet, and a wall covered with a packed hand drawn on-air schedule.

View from Freeform Portland’s music library hallway. Photo: J. Waits

The narrow hallway leading out of the station is lined with floor-to-ceiling shelves on one side, largely packed with vinyl in addition to some CDs and cassette tapes. In a place of honor adjacent to the studio entrance is a framed memorial to Negativland’s Don Joyce, including one of his cart’s alongside a packet of his cremains.

Framed Don Joyce cart and cremains at Freeform Portland. Photo: J. Waits

It was just two years ago when my colleague Eric Klein was on the scene for Freeform Portland’s antenna raising festivities, which he beautifully documented on Radio Survivor Podcast episode 41. Board member Jessica Ponaman articulated over email why she was inspired to help start the station, proclaiming, “To make sure communities have access to the radio airwaves!!!”

Officially KFFP-LP 90.3 FM and KFFD-LP 98.3 FM, Freeform Portland is one of the many new low power FM (LPFM) community radio stations to go on air following the FCC’s 2013 LPFM application window. The station began streaming online on April 1, 2016 and launched over FM on April 16, 2016.

Vinyl records and more music in Freeform Portland’s hallway leading to its front door. Photo: J. Waits

Considering just how new the station is (launching in 2016), I was flabbergasted to hear about the huge pool of volunteers (hovering around 200) currently devoting time to the station. Clearly Portland was hungry for independent radio. The schedule on the wall hints at the diversity of shows on air during my October visit, ranging from “Dark Noise” to “Part Time Punk.” The station has live DJs twenty-four hours a day, with 84 on-air volunteers hosting two-hour shows. To keep the schedule fresh, DJs must reapply for their shows every six months. According to Meiers, “We bring new people into the community quite often as a result.”

Program schedule on wall at Freeform Portland. Photo: J. Waits

A passion for music is at the heart of Freeform Portland and the station’s name is an overt proclamation of its freeform orientation. After my visit, Meiers elaborated over email:

DJs are given total control over what music to play, regardless of music genre or approach. There are no blocks of programming for people to conform to. We hold operational expectations (informed by FCC rules and the Communications Act, among other standards) as a community, but otherwise impose no limitations on what goes on the air. We do expect programming to focus on music, art, and cultural expression, so we do not have programs that focus on news or public affairs. That’s just the difference people hear on the air — the difference in our community, the difference in how we’re entirely volunteer-run, the difference in our overall openness to community broadcasting is something that gets expressed differently. We’re openly exuberant and human, and I think that comes through in the way we sound.

Sound board at Freeform Portland. Photo: J. Waits

Meiers first joined up with Freeform Portland in early 2016, even though she was already working at KBOO, recounting, “I saw that the community was going to put up the antenna together, and I joined in. There’s a picture of me lugging cinder blocks up a ladder…I joined right as the station was going on the air.” She added, “…the world of community radio was bigger than a single station, and…expanding opportunities for people to make media was my purpose. Helping to develop a freeform format station was doubly important in Portland, a city where affordable and accessible creative space is dwindling. The format is like an audio ‘studio,’ and I was really drawn to that concept.”

Arthur Rizzotto, Becky Meiers and Paul Riismandel in Freeform Portland studio. Photo: J. Waits

Many folks with radio experience and with Portland radio connections were involved with Freeform Portland’s founding and ongoing operations. In addition to KBOO, there have been intersections with XRAY.fm (see my tour), Radio 23, and Portland Radio Authority. A few of the Freeform Portland founders also had influential college radio experience at KDVS (read my tour) as well.

Radio at Freeform Portland. Photo: J. Waits

Interestingly, both Becky and Todd remain involved with Freeform Portland remotely. Meiers told me, “I keep volunteering for Freeform, even though I live far away, because I truly love the Freeform community and broadcast.”

View of Freeform Portland’s front door from within the station. Photo: J. Waits

Thanks so much to Becky Meiers for inviting me and my colleague Paul along during a fun Friday night broadcast! This is my 151st radio station tour. You can read my full roster of tours in numerical order and peruse field trips by station type in my tour archives. Watch this space, as I will have a cluster of Seattle radio station tours posting soon.

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On a drizzly Columbus Day morning, I arrived at the Day Theater in Portland, Oregon to visit community radio station Portland Radio Project. The welcoming message on the marquee read: “PORTLAND RADIO PROJECT 99,1 A LOCAL BAND EVERY 15 MINUTES,” proudly proclaiming the presence of the low power FM radio station that was housed within.

Portland Radio Project sign on marquee in front of Day Theater. Photo: J. Waits

The streets were quiet on the block, which contained an interesting mix of businesses, including a frame shop/art gallery on the ground floor of the Day Theater, a marijuana dispensary next door and a gun shop across the street.

Portland Radio Project sign in ground floor window, reflecting view of street. Photo: J. Waits

A steep flight of stairs leads to the upper level of the building, where a dance studio shares quarters with Portland Radio Project aka KSFL-LP 99.1 FM. Percussive sounds emanated from the dance space, where I imagined tap dancers at work. Tucked into two rooms, the station is comprised of a compact on-air studio, hallway and neighboring production room.

Production studio at Portland Radio Project. Photo: J. Waits

The studio is fairly spartan, with a board, a dedicated music computer loaded with the station’s automation system, an internet-enabled computer, turntable, microphones, and monitor speakers. A handful of vinyl records were tucked in a corner, left behind by visiting artists or sent to the station for airplay. A credenza holds office supplies, some station promotional items, and a coffee pot. Mic stands are stacked in a corner adjacent to an intentionally boarded up window, covered by decorative curtains. DJs used to have a view to the street below, but the constant traffic rumble, particularly from trucks, proved to be problematic, as the sound bled into the studio.

On-air studio at community radio station Portland Radio Project. Photo: J. Waits

DJ Nastacia Voisin had just wrapped up her three hour weekly Monday morning program and stuck around to provide me with the low-down on the station. A volunteer since 2015, Voisin began as an intern after graduating from University of Portland. She worked at the campus newspaper and got her first radio experience volunteering at community radio station KBOO (see my tour). It turns out that University of Portland has a policy that students can only participate in one student media outlet, so she was unable to work at college radio station KDUP (see my tour) while working on the newspaper.

Portland Radio Project’s Nastacia Voisin in the studio. Photo: J. Waits

Voisin recounted that when she arrived at Portland Radio Project, the station was mainly focused on music, but was adding more public affairs and talk programming, including the Community Voices show about local non-profits that she still helps produce. Voisin ran down the variety of roles that she plays at the station, saying, “I wear a lot of hats.” In addition to her music show (her program emphasizes local artists and upcoming shows), she’s also the station’s podcast coordinator, as well as the producer for the Cybercast Oregon show in collaboration with Mt. Hood Community College.

On-air studio at Portland Radio Project. Photo: J. Waits

Beginning as a streaming radio station in October, 2013, Portland Radio Project started as a reaction against the dearth of public service-oriented commercial radio stations following years of media consolidation. My colleague Paul Riismandel spoke with co-founder Rebecca Webb and marketing staffer Carrie Kikel during the early stages of the station and provides some great backstory. He writes of their ambitious goals back in 2013, saying, “They’re not looking to serve a small niche of listeners. ‘We’re trying to draw a mass audience,’ Webb said, ‘using a proven radio format: folk, rock and blues. Interjected in that programming are elements of information and news.'”

Rebecca Webb in lobby of Day Theater building. Photo: J. Waits

Interestingly, during Riismandel’s chat, he shared word of the LPFM application window. He writes, “Then the three of us got into a discussion about the upcoming low-power FM licensing window, which prompted Webb and Kikel to start rethinking the option of a terrestrial signal. Webb said she was going to investigate the option. Several days later she sent a follow-up email saying ‘an LPFM app is now in the offing.'”

Portland Radio Project sign in building lobby. Photo: J Waits

Quickly granted a time-shared LPFM channel in 2014, Portland Radio Project was winning awards for its news programming even before its FM debut in 2015. On the Radio Survivor Podcast #6 in July, 2015, we took a closer look at the station’s transition from online to FM broadcasting. Flash forward to 2018 and Portland Radio Project is now the sole inhabitant of its low power FM channel in Portland, Oregon after its time-share partner, Q Center, departed in fall, 2016.

Birthday greetings at Portland Radio Project. Photo: J. Waits

Broadcasting over 99.1 FM around the clock, Portland Radio Project’s mission today is focused on a mix of music, local artists, and engagement with the Portland non-profit community. The website states:

Along with a fresh mix of new rock/indie/pop/R&B/Soul and Hip Hop, and special shows dedicated to alternative, jazz and country, we play a local artist every 15 minutes! It’s a new model for radio: a true, independent and sustainable radio station/stream that serves as a cultural hub, reflecting and reacting to listeners. Our mission is to give a voice to local musicians, nonprofits and small businesses – engaging and mentoring new generations of arts lovers and community supporters.

Posters and flyers for local events posted in Portland Radio Project’s hallway. Photo: J. Waits

Some of the programs on the schedule include shows centered around music subcultures (“Subculture”), proto punk (“Radio After Death”), Portland artists, country, and indie rock. When there isn’t a scheduled show or a live DJ, automation software takes over. A music curation team creates “music logs,” which are essentially curated playlists utilizing both algorithms and hand-picked tracks aligned with the time of day and type of music, according to Voisin. Describing it as “rough curation,” she explained that newer DJs can also stick to the programmed music logs, adding that, “It’s like a river of music” that one can dip in and out of during one’s show.

Sound board in Portland Radio Project’s on-air studio. Photo: J. Waits

In addition to the logged digital music, some hosts also play vinyl or pull material from their own collections (Portland Radio Project doesn’t have a physical music library). Live DJs mostly come in after 5pm, as it’s a volunteer operation and most folks have day jobs. During my visit I heard a lot about plans for the station’s growing roster of podcasts, including the Portland-specific “Joyride,” which will deal with transportation, including deep conversations about ethics, access, and more. On the Friday “Podcast Co-op” show, the station airs a collection of public affairs shows, which are also available on-demand as podcasts.

Audio equipment in Portland Radio Project studio. Photo: J. Waits

As we wrapped up our visit, Voisin spoke passionately about the station, telling me what she loves about Portland Radio Project, revealing, “I’m just in love with the mission statement…my deepest goal as a journalist is to figure out a way of using media for what I believe is one of its true purposes is, which is giving a voice to those who don’t have a voice….and being able to fulfill that on a daily or weekly basis by playing local musicians and featuring non-profits and businesses from the area.”

View into production studio at Portland Radio Project. Photo: J. Waits

Voisin added that she also enjoys collaborating with fellow volunteers, saying, “The work itself is beautiful and…hopefully we’re building something that is meaningful outside of just our little collective…”

Equipment and vinyl in studio at community radio station Portland Radio Project. Photo: J. Waits

Thanks so much to Nastacia Voisin for taking the time to chat with me about Portland Radio Project and to Rebecca Webb for setting up the visit. This is my 150th radio station tour report overall and 30th community radio station field trip report. See the full collection of tours on the Radio Stations Tour page.

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The stereotypical college radio station that I conjure up in my mind looks a lot like KDVS 90.3 FM at University of California, Davis. Its spacious digs are full of musical ephemera, from posters of bands that I’ve loved over the years to packed shelves housing recorded material on every format imaginable (even carts). Rumored to have one of the largest record collections in the west, KDVS has an enviable stash of vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, carts, and more. The station even ticks off many of my radio station scavenger hunt boxes with its Leo Blais sign, sticker-covered cabinets, comfy couches, and potty-mouth graffiti.

Sticker-covered cabinet at KDVS. Photo: J. Waits

Mix of Students and Long-time DJs

Beyond the alluring college radio trappings is a station with a fascinating history (it’s celebrating 50 years on FM this year), diverse programming, and a deep connection with the local music scene in Davis, California. Comprised of student and non-student staffers and volunteers, KDVS has a tradition of having a multi-generational roster of DJs that includes high school students as well as long-time volunteers who have been at KDVS for decades.

Hall and Oates cart at KDVS. Photo: J. Waits

I was amazed to learn that one reggae DJ, Gary B. Goode, has been doing a program there since 1972! On-air DJ Mindy, who was in the studio when I visited, joked that Gary was an already an old timer when she joined in 1987. She also told me that another blues host first joined the station in 1967, although he hasn’t been on the air continuously since that time.

On-air studio at college radio station KDVS. Photo: J. Waits

Summertime at KDVS

Although I’d visited KDVS a couple of times in 2011, it has become one of my lost station tours that was never written up. Determined to rectify that, I reached out to the station this summer when I had plans to be in Davis. Lucky for me, General Manager Jacob Engel had just returned to town after spending the summer on the East Coast at an internship. Groggy from his flight the night before, he graciously met up with me on the morning of Sunday, August 26. Despite being physically away from the station, he had been managing KDVS remotely for three months and was back in time to start preparing for the fall quarter, which was about a month away at the time. As one would expect early on a Sunday during summer break, KDVS was still a bit sleepy as many students were away.

KDVS General Manager Jacob Engel. Photo: J. Waits

General Manager’s Introduction to KDVS as a Teen

Now 20, Engel first learned about KDVS when he was 13 years old. Seeking out news about Occupy and an infamous protest in which demonstrators were pepper sprayed at UC Davis, he turned to the station to try to learn more about the incident and its aftermath. He stopped by the station in 9th grade while on a school trip to UC Davis, eventually joining the station his freshman year of college. He told me that on that first visit, he was amazed by the place, recalling that he thought, “this is something I’d love to be a part of…it was a perfect fit.”

KDVS sign on the wall outside its building at UC Davis. Photo: J. Waits

Since that time, his music taste has broadened even further and he’s witnessed how fellow KDVS participants have had their taste expanded. He talked about his prior job at the station as Staff Development Coordinator, in which he trained new DJs. Engel recounted that he enjoyed, “just seeing these excited…music lovers turn into really cool DJs…and just fall in love with music that they didn’t even know existed…and fall in love with genres that they couldn’t even imagine,” adding that for KDVS DJs, “The love of music just explodes.”

Music genre color codes sign at KDVS. Photo: J. Waits

Touring the Station

KDVS’ expansive basement home includes a welcoming lobby, comfortable office with couches, file cabinets, and a wall collage of the station schedule. Beyond that room is another office where T-shirts and other promotional items were being readied to send to fundraiser donors. Past the lobby is another doorway that leads into the on-air studio that also has enough room for a small record library of mainly items in current rotation.

Music collection in the on-air studio at college radio station KDVS. Photo: J. Waits

Beyond that room are a series of hallways and alcoves housing even more of the record library. There is also a production studio that overlooks a “dead room” where bands have recorded in the past, including for KDVS’ one-time record label. A few smaller rooms are used as listening stations where DJs can preview new releases and mark bad language and other potential FCC violating content. Interestingly, that task is called “censorship” at KDVS. The studio that we ducked into had turntables, CD players, and graffiti scrawled all over the walls.

Music censoring room at KDVS. Photo: J. Waits

Rumored Station Move

Engel said that there’s talk that the station may have to move at some point for seismic work, as the buildings nearby are already undergoing renovations. It’s a daunting prospect, particularly with so many layers of history on the station walls alone. He remarked that a move would change the aesthetics of KDVS and that the paper posters and flyers on the walls would likely not return because of fears that they pose a fire hazard.

Posters and flyers on the wall at KDVS. Photo: J. Waits

Additionally, the station’s vinyl library doesn’t currently meet ADA standards; so the arrangement of the music collection will likely change so that it is accessible to individuals with disabilities. Plans are already in place for an elevator to replace KDVS’ “dead room.” Since prior talk of KDVS moves never materialized, Engel and others don’t know the timeline for the rumored renovations.

LPs in KDVS music library. Photo: J. Waits

KDVS’ 50+ Year History

Before launching KDVS over FM in 1968, students ran a dorm-based AM carrier current radio station at UC Davis. Beginning in 1964, KCD pumped out transmissions at 880 AM from the laundry room of the all-male Beckett Hall. Engel shared that even though the station was initially in a male dorm, women were always involved. Because of that, station participants spoke up for gender equality, leading to the first women’s bathroom and first co-ed bathroom in a male dorm on campus.

Leo Blais sign and view into production studio at KDVS. Photo: J. Waits

Today, KDVS broadcasts over 90.3 FM at 13,000 watts, reaching listeners well beyond Davis. With around 85 participants, the station broadcasts live 24 hours a day every day of the year, with no automated programming. About 60% of volunteers are students and around 40% are non-students, including some UC Davis professors. As a freeform station, KDVS doesn’t place too many rules on its show hosts beyond adhering to FCC guidelines and playing new material from the “current stacks” at least twice during one’s shows. DJs are also expected to put in 40 volunteer hours doing station work during each 10-week quarter.

Sign on KDVS wall about volunteer hours. Photo: J. Waits

Freeform Philosophy at KDVS

Engel explained, “The great thing about freeform is each DJ does something completely different…we will not tell you what to play.” With that in mind, some DJs will focus on a particular genre, whereas others will play a mix. With its strong devotion to music, KDVS also puts on a lot of shows, the biggest being Operation Restore Maximum Freedom. The annual festival includes upwards of 30 bands and is the station’s main spring fundraising event. Other creative projects at the station have included the KDViationS quarterly program guide/ ‘zine, which received national attention for its nude staff centerfold in 1986.

1995 copy of KDViationS program guide at college radio station KDVS. Photo: J. Waits

The creative spark fueled by participation in KDVS had taken many of its alums into other community radio pursuits. Former General Manager Todd Urick founded community radio advocacy organization Common Frequency and KDVS alums have played a big role in the launch of new LPFM community radio stations, particularly in Portland, Oregon. In Radio Survivor episode #41, we hear stories from Freeform Portland participants who were inspired by their time at KDVS.

Heavy metal stand at KDVS. Photo: J. Waits

Thanks to Jacob Engel for touring me around KDVS and for sharing his personal history of the station with me. This is my 102nd posted college radio station tour and 149th radio station tour report overall. See the full collection of tours on the Radio Stations Tour page and start placing your bets on who will be my 150th tour.

1/9/19 update: Hear audio from my tour of KDVS on episode 175 of the Radio Survivor show/podcast.

The post Radio Station Visit #149 : College Radio Station KDVS at UC Davis appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Fireflies, letters from prisoners, and a dolphin shower radio are just a few highlights from my visit to Vassar College radio station WVKR 91.3 FM in Poughkeepsie, New York. While summer can be a bit sleepy at college radio stations, it’s often a fun time for me to visit, as campus parking is plentiful and student station managers have fewer academic commitments.

WVKR sticker posted at the Vassar College radio station. Photo: J. Waits

On the evening of July 5, I ventured to WVKR, which is somewhat hidden on the third floor of the College Center building. Luckily one of the summer station managers, Micah Fedenko, had clued me in to keep an eye out for a staircase across from a printer. It’s not unusual for it to be somewhat of an adventure to find a college radio station within a campus building.

Radio at WVKR. Photo: J. Waits

Just having wrapped up sophomore year, Fedenko’s passion for WVKR was evident, as they reminisced about being invited by friends to the station late one night and discovering “crazy stuff” and “amazing” music. Now a show host and an incoming Station Manager, Fedenko revealed that they had “minimal exposure” to radio while growing up in Brooklyn (largely due to being car-less) and was surprised to find such a rich music culture after arriving at the Vassar College radio station. A proponent of radio as an outlet to showcase underexposed music, Fedenko curates a program focused on playing artists of color and queer artists of color and explained, “All revolutions have had radio.”

Micah Fedenko in front of sticker-covered cabinet at Vassar College radio station WVKR. Photo: J. Waits

Mix of Programs, From Polka to Activist Radio

Run by students, with a mix of student and non-student hosts, WVKR’s schedule includes both long-time shows and ever-changing student programs. As expected, summertime features fewer student DJs. WVKR airs a fascinating mix of programming, including two (!) polka shows, a talk show hosted by high school students, Activist Radio, and numerous music shows (blues, oldies, reggae, jazz, country, and more). Its longtime mission has been “to promote music not heard elsewhere and to serve the community interest through eclectic radio programming.”

“Polka People are Happy People” T-shirt at WVKR. Photo: J. Waits

Longtime Prison Talk Show

After spotting a stack of envelopes with return addresses at prisons, I asked Fedenko if WVKR had many listeners at nearby correctional facilities. They filled me in about the long-time, Voices Beyond the Wall: New York Prison Talk Radio show that airs every other Sunday at 3pm. Having just recorded an episode of the Radio Survivor show about a prison-themed installation, I was especially interested in the role that the show plays in the local community.

Letters from inmates at WVKR. Photo: J. Waits

Prisoners Listen from Eight Nearby Correctional Facilities

Proving an outlet and communications tool for prisoners and their families, the popularity of and important service that the show provides was hinted at by a stack of letters at WVKR from correctional facilities. Having also been a DJ at a college radio station in listening range of a state prison, I asked Fedenko about the nearby prison and learned that the station is near several. Glancing through a stack of unopened letters in the station’s mail pile, I counted no less than 4 different facilities. I later found out that listeners tune in from eight prisons in the Hudson Valley.

Music office at WVKR. Photo: J. Waits

Voices Beyond the Wall Honored by NY State Assembly

Coincidentally, Voices Beyond the Wall, was profiled in the Hudson Valley Press the day before my visit, in part because its host was honored by the New York State Assembly. The article recounts the show’s decade-long history, explaining that,

…’Voices Beyond the Wall,’ is heard every other Sunday in eight correctional facilities in the Hudson Valley as well as by their families, friends and countless others, including a world-wide audience via the Internet. It focuses on the challenging, real world transition many inmates will soon make, a reentry that [host Ernest] Henry hopes he can inspire with tales of success from others who have gone down a similar road. In addition to providing pivotal political and societal information in the first hour, the show contains a core interview in the second hour, and concludes the final hour with a reading of letters from men and women in prison as well as questions posed from family members.

As Fedenko and I continued our conversation about the power of radio, I was struck by how a college radio station can be a lifeline for not only students finding their place within a college community as well as for even more vulnerable incarcerated citizens.

“WVKR stands against hate” flyer on the wall of the college radio station. Photo: J. Waits

Station Launched on FM in 1976; Radio Activity Began 80 Years Ago at Vassar

A long-time college radio station, WVKR was granted an FM license in 1976, the descendant of an AM carrier current campus-only station that began in the early 1970s. Radio activities at Vassar College stretch back even further, as programming arrangements with local radio stations began 80 years ago, with short broadcasts running as early as 1938, according to Vassar Encyclopedia.

WVKR show host in studio. Photo: J. Waits

Leo Blais Sign, Skull Planter, Big Bear and Other Quirky Mementos

Today, WVKR broadcasts at 3400 watts, with the signal reaching not only the Hudson Valley and surrounding areas of New York, but also into Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The radio station space is full of whimsical touches, with an altar-like collection of items (stuffed animals, a jester-hat wearing mini Christmas tree, a globe, and more) lined up on a window sill in the lobby.

Leo Blais sign and other items on window ledge at WVKR. Photo: J. Waits

Some college radio station staples are present, including couches, Leo Blais-crafted cardboard WVKR sign and a skull (this time around, a Day of the Dead-like painted skull planter). A large sculpture of bear holding a WVKR sign stands proudly in front of the window. Fedenko explained that DJs bring “tokens” when interviewing to become a member of the station and an array of these “mementos” are on display.

WVKR bear at the Vassar College radio station. Photo: J. Waits

Lots and Lots of Vinyl and CDs

Shelves at WVKR contain a large collection of LPs and CDs, although Fedenko told me that student DJs mostly stick to digital music sources, with a lot of the older community member DJs playing vinyl. Regardless, physical music is stuffed into many nooks and crannies at the station, from the lobby, to the on-air studio, to back rooms.

LPs and CDs in college radio station WVKR’s on-air studio. Photo: J. Waits

The music office is like a college radio time capsule, with its walls and cabinets sprinkled with decades-old band stickers (Groovie Ghoulies, Josephine Wiggs Experience, and Flipper jumped out at me), radio-specific graffiti (“Call Rhino!”), and even a copy of a CMJ publication (RIP). A “Music Archive” behind closed doors also offers a glimpse into the past, with vinyl records from floor to ceiling.

Door to WVKR music office. Photo: J. Waits

The on-air studio is surrounded by a large stash of vinyl and CDs along its periphery. It is also outfitted with at least four turntables and multiple CD players and cassette players, making it possible for DJs to play music from an incredibly large number of sources.

Turntables in WVKR studio. Photo: J. Waits

Radios, including WVKR’s Dolphin Shower Radio

I was pleased to see that WVKR has an appreciation for old school radio. I saw radios on display at the station and a WVKR-branded dolphin shower radio is one of the recent promotional items crafted for the station’s fundraising efforts. Before tearing myself away from the station, I couldn’t resist buying a shower radio for myself. Making my way to the parking lot after dark on the warm summer night, I was delighted to spot fireflies, a sight that I had not seen in decades.

Dolphin shower radio at WVKR. Photo: J. Waits

Thanks to Micah Fedenko for the wonderful tour of WVKR! See my full list of radio station tours, including all of my college radio station tours on our brand new Radio Station Tours page. As I write this, I’m plotting out numerous tour stops in the coming months.

The post Radio Station Visit #148: WVKR at Vassar College appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Tucked behind the gymnasium at Mendocino High School is the most magical building full of audio-visual delights. Home to high school radio station KAKX 89.3 FM; the warehouse-like space is a hub for all media arts at the high school. Just blocks away from the quaint seaside village of Mendocino, California, the school and its radio program exemplify some of the best aspects of small town life. With an enrollment of around 200 students, the tiny school’s radio station impressed me with its work and collaborations both on and off campus.

Athletic field at Mendocino High School. Photo: J. Waits

General Manager Marshall Brown greeted me as I walked past the school’s athletic field en route to the station. A Mendocino High School graduate; he’s also an enthusiastic alum of the radio program.

High school radio station KAKX’s General Manager Marshall Brown. Photo: J. Waits

A Sense of Community

Throughout my visit after school on Friday, September 7, I heard anecdotes about the ways that other nearby commercial and community radio stations had lent a hand to KAKX. Program Director Angela Carpenter is also interning at commercial radio station The Skunk (KUNK 92.7 FM in Fort Bragg) upon Brown’s suggestion. A high school senior, she’s about to have her own solo weekend program on the Skunk. The youth-oriented show will focus on music and talk and she hopes to bring in students and coaches from the school for on-air interviews.

Angela Carpenter in KAKX studio. Photo: KAKX

Clearly part of a tight-knit radio community, KAKX has also been the beneficiary of equipment hand-me-downs from nearby locally-owned commercial radio station KOZT-FM The Coast (which I rhapsodized about in a post in 2010). A 20-year-old plaque perched in the on-air studio gives thanks to the KOZT owners.

1998 Tom Yates and Vicky Watts Broadcast Facility plaque in studio of KAKX. Photo: J. Waits

Touring the Studio

The spiffy new studio has only been in that particular room for around six months. For ten years, the same space was a remote outpost for community radio station KZYX-FM (home to one of my favorite shows, “Trading Time” and the topic of a 2010 tour report).

Studio at high school radio station KAKX. Photo: J. Waits

Today, the room contains a small collection of CDs, audio equipment, music-poster adorned walls, and a vintage dot matrix printer for KAKX’s EAS messages. A handful of additional studios in the building have tools for editing, music production and video production, as well as musical instruments (I spotted a piano, several keyboards and guitars) and Brown’s prized LaserDisc collection.

EAS printer at high school radio station KAKX. Photo: J. Waits

Having spent much time in Mendocino County over the years, I’m not surprised to hear these reports of stations helping each other out in these rather remote locations. Although I’m well aware that Mendocino is several hours away from larger population centers like Santa Rosa; I hadn’t really comprehended what that might mean for a music-obsessed high schooler. Kids in Mendocino might have to drive three  or more hours to see big name acts touring through San Francisco. I was told that the nearest record store was two hours away in Santa Rosa. Music can of course be found in shops in and near Mendocino, but one may have to scour miscellaneous music stores, gift shops, book stores, vintage outlets, and thrift stores or search online to find specific titles.

Henry Thomas points at music posters on wall of KAKX studio. Photo: J. Waits

Campus Collaborations

In just the production arts classes alone, 75 students gain experience with the station. Additionally, a new collaborative live news show will be produced with help from students in classes in the History, English and Journalism departments. A few weeks into the school year, Brown and the KAKX student staff were enthusiastic about an upcoming meeting of the KAKX Residency Program during which they would begin to plot out this year’s schedule. Essentially a radio club now, this means that any student at the school can join up with and volunteer at the station.

Flyers for student radio shows posted on wall at KAKX. Photo: J. Waits

Music of all Types

KAKX also airs a broad range of music. Carpenter told me that last year’s shows included a mix of oldies from the 1970s and 1980s to EDM to original music by students to country. She relayed, “it’s really for everyone,” sharing an anecdote about a baby even asking to listen to KAKX. Student Manager Henry Thomas (also a senior) explained that working at KAKX has expanded his taste in music and gave specific credit to Tito, a former DJ who influenced music at the station in general.

High school radio station KAKX’s Student Manager Henry Thomas in lobby of station. Photo: J. Waits

A fan of aggressive EDM and glitch metal, Tito’s mark on KAKX had led to participants labeling certain types of music “Tito music.” Because of that legacy, I was excited to randomly catch an archived show hosted by Tito while listening to the station after my visit. Throughout my time tuning in, I heard a great deal of interesting music, some of it familiar favorites (yay for Sleater-Kinney!) and some entirely new to me. I was also charmed by a Star Trek-themed station ID and intrigued by a bluegrass hour.

KAKX flyer in the high school radio station’s studio. Photo: J. Waits

Students can play music from vinyl, CDs, cassettes, and digital sources. Brown revealed that there is a hidden stash of KAKX vinyl and student interest in playing LPs. With that in mind, Thomas talked of his plans to do an all vinyl show this school year.

CD players in KAKX studio. Photo: J. Waits

Live Sports Broadcasts

Beyond music, KAKX also produces live sports broadcasts, including basketball games and even a Quidditch match for homecoming festivities. Since the department does more than radio, students also film the games and play music during half-time from the studio. I was amazed to hear that not only does Thomas do sideline reporting, but he also is the school mascot. Deft at multi-tasking, he and his fellow students take on many roles at the small high school.

Sign on wall at KAKX: “Quiet Please! Live Radio in Progress.” Photo: J. Waits

Live Shows and Recorded Shows from the Archives

KAKX, whose moniker is “student powered radio,” strives to have around five to six live programs a week during class time. When there isn’t a live DJ or host in the studio, the station has a stockpile of 106 hours of pre-recorded radio shows from mostly the last five years of the station. A deeper archive includes some shows from the late 1990s and early 2000s with “wicked playlists,” according to Brown.

CDs and view out of studio at KAKX. Photo: J. Waits

General Manager is an Alum of the Program

KAKX launched nearly 25 years ago and Brown joined up while a student in 2006. After he graduated in 2009, he kept tabs on the station, telling me, “I was in love with this station and program and wanted to give back.” Eventually an opportunity to work at KAKX was presented to him and he returned in 2013 to oversee the radio program and more. Leading all of the production arts disciplines, Brown not only oversees the radio station, but also leads classes and activities in video production, music production, and the yearbook. His 4-hour live show, “Coffee with Brown Sugar” airs the second Friday of the month and features mainly lofi hip hop instrumentals as well as talk show elements.

Reel-to-reel equipment in studio at Mendocino High School. Photo: J. Waits

Exuding enthusiasm for both radio and his students, Brown shared his optimism about the growing production arts program, with KAKX being the “heart of the program.” He likes to give students a “baseline” amount of knowledge about station operations, letting them “go at it,” telling me that doing radio “just expands their horizons automatically.”

Radio in studio at high school radio station KAKX. Photo: J. Waits

Thanks to Marshall Brown, Angela Carpenter, and Henry Thomas for taking the time to meet with me and show me around KAKX. It’s always a treat for me to visit high school radio stations. You can peruse all of my high school radio tours and other high school radio news on Radio Survivor.

The post Radio Station Visit #147: KAKX at Mendocino High School appeared first on Radio Survivor.

With the rental car radio tuned to community radio station WGXC at 90.7FM, this intrepid radio reporter took a scenic drive through the lush countryside of Hudson Valley, spying vintage diners, farms, and picturesque barns. Tucked away in the basement of the First Presbyterian Church, the Hudson outpost of Wave Farm’s WGXC serves as one of the main studios for the 3300 watt community radio station.

Near the entrance to WGXC Hudson. Photo: J. Waits

The wide-ranging WGXC operates on a multi-studio model, with transmissions alternating from full-time studios in Acra and Hudson and from a weekly temporary studio at the Catskill Public Library. Because there’s so much to see across multiple locations, I took time to visit both Wave Farm’s WGXC studio in Acra (covered in Station Visit #145 and on episode #151 of the Radio Survivor show/podcast) as well as the subject of this piece: WGXC’s Hudson studio.

Postcard of WGXC coverage at Hudson studio. Photo: J. Waits

Initially a streaming radio station beginning in 2009, WGXC’s call letters refer to its broadcast range in Greene and Columbia Counties. Launched over 90.7 FM in 2011, WGXC was the first full power radio station build to be the focus of a community radio barnraising event spearheaded by Prometheus Radio Project.

WGXC 2nd anniversary open house sign. Photo: J. Waits

On my Friday morning visit on July 6, Station Manager/Managing News Editor Lynn Sloneker toured me through WGXC’s new Hudson studio, which they’ve inhabited since April, 2018. She admitted that it was a bit bittersweet leaving the original station home, but the move to a more centrally located and more accessible space has already been a boon for WGXC. Walk-in traffic has increased dramatically and hosts and visitors no longer have to trek upstairs to get to the studio. As an added bonus, the formerly sleepy Sundays at the station are now quite lively thanks to the popular church services upstairs. Rumor has it that one can even hear sounds from the church’s organ emanating through the building and into the WGXC studio.

DJ in WGXC-FM in Hudson, NY. Photo: J. Waits

Close to 100 volunteers work at WGXC, with around 80 community radio programmers on the air. Programming includes music shows, twice daily news shows, public affairs and talk shows, and more experimental transmission arts programs. With the tagline “hands-on radio,” the station encourages hosts and DJs to take a creative approach, even inviting them to take advantage of the station’s multiple streams for mixing purposes.

Artwork and books in WGXC lobby. Photo: J. Waits

Transmission arts are a big focus of WGXC’s parent non-profit, Wave Farm, which also offers artist residencies and media arts grants. On Saturdays and overnight, experimental programming from Wave Farm’s Acra studio is broadcast over WGXC-FM. Fans of radio in general, WGXC is a Radio Survivor affiliate, airing the Radio Survivor show on Saturdays at 8am and Sunday mornings at 1am.

Studio at WGXC Hudson. Photo: J. Waits

With a background in journalism, Sloneker was a newbie to radio when she joined WGXC seven years ago, but her news chops shine through in the station’s ambitious news efforts. She explained that WGXC airs a “steady stream of talk and information” each morning, with not only WGXC-produced news programs and updates, but also some syndicated material from Democracy Now.

WGXC’s Station Manager/Managing News Editor Lynn Sloneker. Photo: J. Waits

WGXC’s daily news program, “All Together Now!,” has both a morning and evening edition, plus a 24/7 online newsfeed. The program schedule describes it as “… a unique, community-based collaboration between listeners and programmers, both on-air and off” that “features local and regional news, weather updates, feature segments, and newsmaker interviews.” Sourcing some material from listeners, the show invites folks to call and leave a short message for possible inclusion on the program. One can also log in to the “All Together Now!” stream to hear news, weather, and programming updates throughout the day.

WGXC banner outside its church home in Hudson. Photo: J. Waits

While listening to the station, I also heard some news contributions from a nearby low power FM community radio station. Sloneker shared that WGXC has been happy to collaborate on news with other stations and would like to do more of that, telling me that WOOC-LP in Troy, New York has been a great partner. “We trade interviews,” she explained, adding that the stations “share a congressional district” and WOOC’s proximity the New York State Capitol in Albany has been helpful for news gathering.

Headphones in studio at community radio station WGXC Hudson. Photo: J. Waits

As I mentioned in my Wave Farm tour post, WGXC has an unusual collection of streams accessible from its website and app. In addition to the live WGXC 90.7 stream and the “All Together Now!” news stream, one can also tune in to hear experimental sounds generated by the weather (Weather Warlock), heard at WGXC’s pond station (Pond Station), and from the transmission arts-oriented Standing Wave Radio.

Transmission Arts book at WGXC Hudson. Photo: J. Waits

Sloneker revealed that the WGXC app also allows users to generate their own streams, taking citizen journalism to another level. Interested broadcasters can fill out a form stating what they’d like to air and can then initiate a transmission that will show up on WGXC’s “listen live” bar. Some of the programming that has been transmitted this way includes town board meetings from Catskill, police committee meetings, and rallies. She added that the objective of this tool is to “get many more municipalities involved,” so that there’s a breadth of community programming available. In addition to its use as a news tool, the app has been used for arts and music transmissions from a range of organizations, including Fridman Gallery, John Cage Trust, Radius, Prattsville Art Center, and more.

“WGXC wants you to be on the radio” sign at WGXC Hudson. Photo: J. Waits

Another example of community engagement is WGXC’s live programming on Tuesdays from the station’s satellite studio in the Carnegie Room of the Catskill Library. More of a pop-up studio, gear is set up in a conference room at the library for the weekly broadcasts. Like every other day of the week, Tuesdays are filled with news, talk, and music shows.

Michael Jackson 45 on the wall in WGXC studio. Photo: J. Waits

A youth programming block runs at 3:30pm every day, featuring shows either aimed at a younger audience or shows hosted by young people. The Wednesday show “Get Happy” is one of the more unexpected shows, with youth programmer DJ Stella Prince airing mostly music from the 1930s and 1940s. On Mondays, teens discuss books and teen media on “Bound by Books.”

Youth Employment Services partnership certificate at WGXC Hudson. Photo: J. Waits

With not only the youth shows, but also with programming throughout the schedule, Sloneker expressed to me that WGXC works to bring in a diverse mix of community members, including “people who you rarely see together” outside of the station. She added, “people register their voices here.” Couple that with WGXC being a station that’s focused on “free expression” and that encourages experimentation and you have a quite special undertaking indeed.

Studio at WGXC Hudson. Photo: J. Waits

Thanks to Lynn Sloneker and everyone at WGXC for the wonderful visit. For more of the back story on the station and Wave Farm, see my companion tour post and tune in to Radio Survivor show #151.

The post Radio Station Visit #146: Community Radio Station WGXC-FM in Hudson, New York appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Radios in the woods, a pond station, and a Theremin are just a few of the goodies to be seen and heard at Wave Farm in Acra, New York. A non-profit arts organization, Wave Farm runs community radio station WGXC-FM and offers grants and residencies in transmission arts. For a radio nerd like me, a summer afternoon spent at Wave Farm was a dream come true. The day prior, I got a preview, as I toured WGXC’s studio in Hudson, New York (the subject of my next station visit post) – one of two full-time studios for the station.

Entrance to Wave Farm in Acra, New York. Photo: J. Waits

When I arrived at Wave Farm, artist-in-residence Dan Tapper was outside of Wave Farm’s Study Center setting up for a live performance, the culmination of his week-long stay in Acra. His project, Seven Songs for Seven Planets and a Black Hole at the Heart of the Universe, was comprised of a series of “interdisciplinary works,” including installations, broadcasts, and performance. An accompanying flyer explains that, “The material for the works has been developed by Dan during the residency period and focuses on using data from space and physics – specifically our solar system – as a creative tool and as a catalyst for exploration of a subject from many angles.”

Dan Tapper performs at Wave Farm. Photo: J. Waits

As Wave Farm’s Executive Director Galen Joseph-Hunter toured me through the property, we passed by several pieces by Tapper, including his VLF (very low frequency) Listening Post. Built with materials found on-site, the “installation allows the listener to experience natural radio produced by the earth’s ionosphere as well as the pervasive hum of digital technology and the electric grid.”

Dan Tapper’s VLF Listening Post at Wave Farm. Photo: J. Waits

Further into the woods, more of Tapper’s work was broadcast via low power AM from a camp radio station (installed by Dan Braverman – our guest on Radio Survivor Podcast #148) inside a truck (Max Goldfarb’s Mobile 49) and broadcast even further afield into Japanther’s Remote Audio Outpost (which is also where visitors can record confessions using an old telephone).

AM transmitter inside Max Goldfarb’s Mobile 49 at Wave Farm. Photo: J. Waits

Over the years, numerous artists have spent time at Wave Farm, creating pieces, doing research, and producing radio shows (from radio theater to experimental sound art to spinning records). In addition to Tapper’s new works, the 29-acre site is home to a range of projects, dispersed along trails through the woods and in one case, in the radio studio. That piece, Quintron’s Weather Warlock (hear an interview with the creator on Radio Survivor Podcast #151), sits majestically next to the station’s mixing board, ready to be used by DJs and hosts as an “interactive instrument.”

Weather Warlock in Wave Farm’s WGXC Acra studio. Photo: J. Waits

An analog synthesizer that is controlled by the weather, the Weather Warlock is also a stand-alone Wave Farm online stream. “Outdoor sensors detect changes in sunlight, wind, precipitation, and temperature, with output becoming particularly dynamic during periods of rapid meteorological change, such as sunrise and sunset.”

Sign for Quintron’s Weather Warlock at Wave Farm. Photo: J. Waits

A short walk from the studio, Zach Poff’s Pond Station (the focus of Radio Survivor Podcast #137) is afloat atop a pond, capturing underwater sounds through hydrophones and serving as one of Wave Farm’s streaming stations from dawn until sundown. It’s a mesmerizing listen, as the transmission changes based on weather, creatures, outside sounds (we yelled at the pond and heard it on the station), and even vibrations from far away airplanes and nearby lawn mowers. WGXC hosts often use the Pond Station feed as a sound bed during their programs.

Zach Poff’s Pond Station at Wave Farm. Photo: J. Waits

Walking away from the Pond Station, audio transmissions from hidden radios in the woods (which my daughter described as “creepy”) guided us along paths leading to additional pieces. First up is Max Goldfarb’s Mobile 49, the mobile 1620 AM radio station (Standing Wave Radio) housed in a vintage red truck.

Max Goldfarb’s Mobile 49 at Wave Farm. Photo: J. Waits

Patrick Quinn’s Survant USB Dead Drop is a nod to spy culture, with a USB drive embedded into a tree. Visitors can leave or retrieve messages, as it serves as “both an archive and a remixological tool.” Finally, Japanther’s Remote Audio Outpost is a combination confessional and recording booth.

Remote Audio Outpost at Wave Farm. Photo: J. Waits

Closer to Wave Farm’s Study Center and radio studio is Heidi Neilson’s Outernet Library Branch. A bench with a satellite dish overhead, the Wave Farm branch of the Outernet is part of “an expanding library collection of data files broadcast from satellites in space.” The Acra outpost “serves as a data transmission receiving station where collected files are stored and can be accessed by library patrons through wireless devices.” Nearby is Dan Tapper’s Ontology of Stones, a work inspired by Pauline Oliveros’ Rock Piece and featuring the sound of a pair of stones, plus an interactive element, where visitors can pick up stones from a pile and play along.

Heidi Neilson’s Outernet Library Branch at Wave Farm. Photo: J. Waits

While the outside attractions (including an inviting pond-side hammock) are alluring, the scene inside Wave Farm’s WGXC Acra Studio above the Wave Farm Study Center is equally compelling. On the second floor, the studio is tricked out with many musical instruments and sound sources, including a Theremin, a mini wind-up music box that plays the Simpsons theme song, chimes from Fluxus artist Dick Higgins, an air organ, a vintage Rap Man keyboard with a built-in vocoder, Foley-type tools (including an avocado shaker and a toy xylophone), and numerous Walkman-sized novelty-themed Sound Machines that emit a range of sound effects, from claps to laughs to stringed instruments.

Sound Machines in Wave Farm’s WGXC studio. Photo: J. Waits

For transmission artists, there are also shortwave radios, the Weather Warlock, and a channel on the sound board for the Pond Station. Wave Farm’s Artistic Director Tom Roe demonstrated the various sonic elements in the studio. When I noted that one could literally “play the studio,” he replied that it was “exactly the idea.”

Theremin in Wave Farm’s WGXC Acra studio. Photo: J. Waits

Wave Farm’s WGXC Acra studio also contains some more typical tools, including turntables, CD players, tape decks, an a radio tuner. An adjacent production studio is available to producers, artists and hosts. Downstairs, in the Study Center, is a collection of radio and transmission arts-themed materials. Walls are lined with books, with vintage radios and boxed radio-making kits adorning the shelf tops. Records and CDs are available for use, with an archive of past performances awaiting digitization, some dating back to pre-Wave Farm projects in the late 1990s/early 2000s.

Radios and books in the Wave Farm Study Center. Photo: J. Waits

Speaking of the early days of Wave Farm, the non-profit began in Brooklyn in 1997 as the microcasting collective and performance space free103point9. As stated on the Wave Farm website, “free103point9 was an active participant in the U.S. microradio movement, an activist and advocacy effort that helped create this country’s low-power FM radio service, which provides a licensing opportunity for small broadcasters operating transmitters of 100 watts or less.” Through the affiliated venue, even more connections were made with a broader community of artists who, “…started to think conceptually about the transmission spectrum as a creative medium, becoming invested in a ‘hands-on’ relationship with the airwaves.”

Artwork on wall at Wave Farm. Photo: J. Waits

By 2001, free103point9 had launched a streaming radio station in Brooklyn, which is now known as Standing Wave Radio. In 2009, WGXC online radio launched and by 2011, licensed full power station WGXC debuted over 90.7 FM in the Hudson Valley. In June, 2012, Wave Farm’s Study Center opened to the public. The very low power Wave Farm 1620-AM station began in 2014 from Wave Farm’s Acra location. 1620-AM airs the same programming as Standing Wave Radio, which also broadcasts over WGXC 90.7 FM on Saturdays and overnight.

Inside Mobile 49, which houses Standing Wave Radio 1620-AM. Photo: J. Waits

Joseph-Hunter added the caveat that sometimes “resident artists take over the AM transmitter in conjunction with their work on-site,” and that was the case during my visit. During other times, “Standing Wave Radio is a combination of current Transmission Arts and Experimental Sound programming (which also airs on WGXC Saturdays and overnights) as well as from the Wave Farm (and earlier free103point9) archives,” Joseph-Hunter explained.

Radio hanging in tree in the woods at Wave Farm. Photo: J. Waits

It’s a dizzying variety of content that is being produced at Wave Farm by artists and show hosts, at both the Acra property and within Wave Farm’s WGXC studios in Acra, Hudson, and beyond. I’ll explore the radio programming emanating from outside of Acra in my forthcoming tour report about WGXC’s Hudson studio.

WGXC stickers on shelf at Wave Farm’s Study Center. Photo: J. Waits

It was difficult to leave Wave Farm, as there was still much to explore, including artist-designed mobile apps with even more sonic surprises and interactive elements to several installations throughout the property. With an ever-changing list of resident artists, Wave Farm is never the same place twice; so it would be impossible to see and hear it all.

Tom Roe and Galen Joseph-Hunter at Wave Farm. Photo: J. Waits

Thanks to Galen and Tom for the lovely afternoon and warm welcome. You can hear more from my visit and also catch my colleague Eric Klein’s interview with Weather Warlock creator Quintron on Radio Survivor Podcast #151. Stay tuned for my companion tour report from my visit to WGXC’s Hudson, New York studio.

The post Radio Station Visit #145: Wave Farm in Acra, New York appeared first on Radio Survivor.

It was with great anticipation that I arrived at VCS Radio at Vacaville Christian Schools in Vacaville, California for a full day of immersion into the highly unusual middle school/high school radio station. Having spoken with energetic station manager Ralph Martin previously for the Radio Survivor podcast, I expected that it would be a visit full of surprises. The trip did not disappoint. Not only was I interviewed by middle school broadcasters, but I also was treated to a spooky Tesla coil demonstration.

Middle school students on the air at VCS Radio. Photo: J. Waits

KVCB-LP (the “V-C-B” stands for Vacaville Christian Broadcasting) is a wonderful oddity, not only because of its youthful participants. Radio geeks will be amazed to learn that it operates as an HD low power FM station (at 100.9 FM), perhaps the only one of its kind. The topic of Radio Survivor Podcast #94 (“The High School Radio Station that Went HD”), this unique broadcast configuration allows KVCB to program 96 hours of material every day across its four HD channels.

HD radio in VCS studio. Photo: J. Waits

The main channel, HD1 (also heard on the VCS Radio online stream) is where listeners can hear student programming, including live shows many afternoons and mornings. HD2 is focused on sound art and includes student compositions as well as pieces performed by the VCS Radio Symphony and VCS Radio Jazz Ensemble. Old time radio shows like The Shadow (one of my all-time favorites!) and Father Knows Best can be heard on the HD3 channel and HD4 plays school announcements. Some programming from the HD channels is interspersed within the main channel’s programming. Sound art and experimental music fans can hear “student produced and performed sound art, poetry and music” on Saturday nights at 7pm on the main channel, HD1, and online.

Production studio for high school radio station VCS Radio. Photo: J. Waits

While we may typically think of school radio stations as being connected with broadcasting, multi-media or journalism programs; KVCB’s origin story has a musical bent. Martin, who is also Conservatory Education Director, is primarily a music teacher in the VCS Radio Conservatory. With all conservatory students involved with VCS radio, it means that around 200 kids participate directly and, as Martin points, out, “the entire school is involved in some form of broadcasting through our event coverage.”

Signage for VCS Radio and music programs outside the classroom. Photo: J. Waits

I was excited to hear that younger students have an opportunity to get involved with VCS Radio. According to Martin, “…we started elementary student segments this last semester. All of our ‘top-of-the-hour’ legal ID’s are broadcast by 5th and 6th graders. Sometimes when you hear, ‘This is a test of the Emergency Alert System!’, it is often done live by a 3rd or 4th grader. The younger kids love doing the EAS tests. It’s an important job!”

Student at VCS Radio. Photo: J. Waits

With the music and radio programs intertwined, it means that KVCB is likely the only radio station in the United States with its own symphony orchestra. Some of the conservatory’s enviable projects are performing and composing film scores to numerous silent films, including early works by Thomas Edison. The conservatory’s website points out that the “VCS Radio Symphony has achieved international recognition for its work in restoring, preserving and recreating performances of classic cinematic musical scores – especially from the silent film era. The ensemble was the first in the United State to premiere the restored Fritz Lang’s Metropolis with its original score in 2007, prompting the mayor of Vacaville to proclaim a day in their honor.”

Poster in VCS music room for Metropolis performance. Photo: J. Waits

Martin first started up a radio station at VCS as a tool for his music students to share their opinions about music; for that reason, VCS Radio participants are typically music students and musicians who might be taking music classes on one day and doing radio the next. Others are welcome to join in after school. Lines blur between the radio and the music programs, particularly since the radio studios are housed along the edges of the music room, with several of them doubling as music practice rooms.

Overhead view of VCS Radio studio and production rooms. Photo: J. Waits

When I approached VCS Radio’s headquarters, it was impossible to miss the music department’s colorful, radio-themed truck parked out front. The bright blue vehicle is adorned with an “On-Air” sign, microphone graphic, and branding for both the radio station and the school orchestra/jazz band. A reconditioned U-Haul truck, the spiffed up vehicle is now used for transporting music equipment to gigs.

VCS Radio Conservatory truck. Photo: J. Waits

Although Martin would say that music came first at VCS, the truth is that he has a long history as a radio buff. He’s been at Vacaville Christian Schools for 33 years and in his radio role, he’s been the mastermind of some intriguing projects, including a few “secret” stations and broadcasts, including hidden Morse code messages over KVCB.

Ralph Martin at VCS Radio. Photo: J. Waits

Over email, Martin told me VCS Radio’s back story, explaining,

VCS Radio started around 1997 (or close) as a classroom exercise for my music students. They were mock radio segments where I would have my students select a piece of music and describe what they like or dislike about it. They would provide a little information about the artist and reflect on how their selection moved them. From there it morphed into event broadcasting online and on a part-15 free radiate system that I had set up on campus.

AM carrier current equipment at VCS Radio. Photo: J. Waits

While doing the unlicensed part 15 broadcasts, Martin experimented with carrier current, using it to broadcast to the music building. He still utilizes AM carrier current today to broadcast a message to his students for a final exam project in which they are required to build a crystal radio. Martin poses a question to his students that can only be answered by listening to the mysterious AM broadcast. “I give my students an empty toilet paper roll, a safety pin, a dulled razor blade, a broken pencil, some copper wire, and a wood or plastic block. Their job is to design and build a device to decode the broadcast and answer the question. Essentially, they’re building a ‘foxhole’ crystal radio. It works great and shows them a bit about early wireless technology,” Martin relayed.

AM carrier current equipment at VCS Radio. Photo: J. Waits

As far as the Morse Code broadcast, it’s something that Martin has rigged up with the FSK identifier function on KVCB’s transmitter. Martin pointed out, “To hear it, you would need equipment capable of detecting the code. I suppose if, in the unlikely event, we ever had any dead air, and a standard radio receiver was close enough to our transmitter, and you turned up the volume and listened really, really hard, you’d hear artifacts of the mysterious broadcast. And, of course, if you knew morse code… well, there you go! :)”

Posters and Charlie Chaplin upstairs at VCS Radio. Photo: J. Waits

While visiting radio stations, I always have an eye out for interesting artifacts. There’s a lot to see in the VCS music room/radio station, including instruments galore, countless movie and event posters, a cardboard Charlie Chaplin cut-out, a tiny Yoda, vintage radio equipment, and perhaps the most exciting item that I’ve ever seen: a Tesla coil. During our lunch break, Martin asked if I’d like to see it in action. How could I refuse?

Tesla coil at VCS Radio. Photo: J. Waits

The dramatic Tesla coil, which Martin built with the help of a special effects-focused Tesla coil expert, serves as another instrument of sorts for the music students and has appeared on stage during performances to heighten the drama and add “scary effects.” Martin explained that most recently he challenged his jazz band to create a work representing a plane flying through a storm. During our conversation in February, he told me that he anticipated that the imminent performance would likely use the Tesla coil to represent lightning.

Tesla coil in action at VCS Radio. Photo: J. Waits

Creativity is held in high regard at VCS Radio and I was glad to catch some student-crafted compositions on the station’s HD2 channel as I sat in my car in the school parking lot. One jazz piece turned out to have been the work of a student who I later met at the radio station; another was a funky beat poetry-infused jazz number. I also heard some interesting samples and bits of an interview where girls asked boys their thoughts about girls. As far as the “sound art”-oriented HD 2 channel, which often will feature nature sounds as well, Martin revealed that some “people like to tune in and just sleep” to it.

Mixing board in VCS Radio studio. Photo: J. Waits

In addition to music programming, VCS Radio has conducted numerous live broadcasts (sports, meetings, etc.) and even created its own science fiction radio drama series (Unit X-7), with performances done in the style of a live radio play, in front of an audience.

Headphones in VCS Radio production studio. Photo: J. Waits

On the day of my visit, I was a fly on the wall during a few live middle school shows. Beforehand, Martin joked with me, “Some people are brave enough to visit while 6th and 7th graders are running a radio station!” For me, this was a huge bonus, as I haven’t seen a middle school radio program before. The team of boys (several shared hosting and engineering duties during each segment) selected music to play, shared light banter, and even invited me to be interviewed on-air.

Student in VCS Radio studio. Photo: J. Waits

Later in the day, I witnessed KVCB’s National High School Radio Network broadcast. On Wednesdays during the school year, different high school radio stations take turns broadcasting on fellow network stations across the country. Martin was the instigator behind the High School Radio Network, which now has around 25 participating stations. A crew of girls from VCS Radio produced that week’s episode, selecting music, fielding phone calls, and chatting on-air. As with the middle school broadcast, I was asked to make a cameo appearance, chiming in about my work as well as answering some pop culture questions.

High school students in the studio at VCS Radio. Photo: J. Waits

While the network shows will pause during the summer, VCS Radio will continue to broadcast online and to local Vacaville listeners. As Martin wraps up the academic year this week, he’s already looking ahead to the station’s summer schedule. “With our 4 HD channels, we’re responsible for 96 hours of programming each day, 365 days a year. The station is open all summer long. Our students can broadcast by reserving time in one of our studios,” he shared.

Instruments in music room adjacent to VCS Radio. Photo: J. Waits

Thanks to Ralph Martin and everyone at VCS Radio for the inspiring visit. This is my 144th radio station tour report, with more on the way. My most recent field trips are located on Radio Survivor and a full list of all my station tour reports is archived on Spinning Indie.

The post Radio Station Visit #144: High School Radio Station VCS Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Kanye West and Common had an epic freestyle rap battle on WHPK. That’s just one reason why the University of Chicago’s station is interesting and historic. Jennifer Waits takes us on a virtual tour of the studios, located in an actual working bell tower.

Jennifer, Eric and Paul also discuss how college radio has played a formative and supporting role in the development of hip-hop, by providing an open, often uncensored platform for new and emerging artists. Then we dig into a recent New York Times story that proclaims YouTube as the new platform for pirate radio. Paul offers his cranky take on this proclamation.

Now you can catch this episode on YouTube, along with some of Jennifer’s tour photos:

Show Notes

• Radio Station Visit #143: College Radio Station WHPK at University of Chicago
• Podcast #141 – How Radio Isn’t Done, According to Negativland’s Don Joyce
• Kanye West vs. Common Freestyle Rap Battle at WHPK on YouTube: Part 1 | Part 2
• Podcast #136 – Storied College Stations WIIT & WKCR
• Radio Station Visit #142: College Radio Station WIIT at Illinois Institute of Technology
• Inside Paul’s Boutique: Interviews with The Dust Brothers
• Rock Radio’s War Against Disco
• Visiting University of Washington, Bothell’s College Radio Station UWave
• Is YouTube the Home of the New Radio Pirates?
• ______ is an Internet Radio series on Radio Survivor
• Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative
• Culture Jamming and Meme-Based Communication
• Artists’ Television Access
• Wet Gate: The All-16mm Projector Ensemble
• Superstar: Todd Haynes’s Banned Karen Carpenter Movie is Visionary

The post Podcast #142 – Touring WHPK’s Bell Tower & YouTube’s ‘Pirate Radio’ appeared first on Radio Survivor.

I’ve been wanting to see University of Chicago’s college radio station WHPK for quite some time and even had a thwarted trip a few years back when a scheduled tour was canceled due to illness. So, it was with great anticipation that I stopped by on Friday, December 1st for my long-awaited visit. Particularly in light of some recent changes at WHPK in the past few years, I was glad to have a chat with a crew of both students and long-time community volunteers.

WHPK sign. Photo: J. Waits

Located in the Reynolds Club student center, WHPK occupies an aerie-like space in the Gothic building’s bell tower (Mitchell Tower). After navigating up a steep, winding flight of wooden stairs, one arrives at its cozy home. Station Manager Ethan Weinstein greeted me and introduced me to a big group of colleagues, ranging from long-time volunteers to newer student DJs. During our wide-ranging conversation, we touched on some of the latest challenges at the station, including a ban on late-night programming, a requirement for community DJs to have background checks, and the station’s two month closure in 2016 after the discovery of a few dead bed bugs in the music library.

Entrance to college radio station WHPK. Photo: J. Waits

Community DJ and University of Chicago alumna Marta Nicholas has had the longest relationship with the school and the station and recalls visiting friends at WHPK’s predecessor station in the 1950s: WUCB. She also shared with me details about the even longer radio history at University of Chicago, which dates back to the formation of a “Radio Office” in 1922. By 1931, a radio production featuring professors called “The University of Chicago Round Table,” was being produced out of Mitchell Tower and it eventually became syndicated nationally over NBC. Student radio started in 1945 with the establishment of AM carrier current radio station WUCB. Although it began in the basement of Burton-Judson Courts (check out a 1953 WUCB letter here), it moved to Mitchell Tower in 1959.

1966 WUCB program guide. Photo: J. Waits

By 1968, WHPK (I was told that the call letters are a reference to the Hyde Park-Kenwood neighborhood) had launched over FM, originally at 88.3 FM and then moving to 88.5 FM in 1985. In the 1970s, Nicholas officially joined WHPK and has been doing an international music show since that time.

WHPK DJ Marta Nicholas in the station office. Photo: J. Waits

Today, WHPK attracts around 70 participants, including student and non-student volunteer show hosts and DJs. The compact station space includes a music library that overlooks the on-air studio on one side and a long and narrow production studio on the other (which has windows facing the street). I was told that in the olden days, the current production studio served as the on-air studio. Just outside the on-air studio is a bathroom, which someone joked was the fantasy character Shrek’s, likely because of its fantastical, medieval-looking wooden door. Down the hall there is a two-room WHPK office full of music-to-be-reviewed, historical ephemera, file cabinets, and seating.

WHPK restroom door. Photo: J. Waits

Although we spent much of the visit chatting in the office, I could have whiled away several hours in the packed music-library. LPs filled shelves that extended from the floor to the ceiling and a rolling wooden library ladder allowed for access to the uppermost titles.

Co-Music Director Nik Varley in WHPK record library. Photo: J. Waits

A graffiti-filled table was in the center of the room and I smiled upon spying the numerous anti-disco rants scrawled on its plastic surface. When I asked if it had been there for a long time, I was told that it wasn’t that old and that a current DJ is the one with a beef against disco music. It amused me that a popular 1970s-era lament (“disco sucks”) seems to have been resurrected so many decades later.

Disco No Disco graffiti at WHPK. Photo: J. Waits

Having read about some challenges at WHPK over the past few years, I was eager to get some perspective from both students and community members. Former Station Manager Zach Yost (the Rock Format Chief at the time of my visit) recounted that during a seven month period, several things happened at the station that led to some hard feelings among both students and community volunteers.

WHPK record library. Photo: J. Waits

Yost explained that “a whole slew of administrative changes [were] implemented…about pretty much the same time as we were running into facilities issues with the bed bugs. That kind of led to some weird overlapping.” These policy changes included a new requirement that WHPK volunteers who were not affiliated with the university (not students, staff or faculty) would have to submit to a background check. With DJs already miffed about that, the presence of a few dead bed bugs in the WHPK music library led to a station closure and requirement that DJs agree to have their homes inspected for pests. Following the home inspections, WHPK got another blow, when they were informed that they could no longer have live radio shows 24 hours a day. According to Yost, “There was no specific incident that seemed to prompt it and it was just sort of, well now, since we’ve been closed for so long, we feel like this is the best time to implement this policy and from here on out, this is how we’re going to be operating.”

WHPK production studio. Photo: J. Waits

Following this policy change, WHPK is able to have live DJs and hosts in the studio during the “normal” hours for the building: from 7am to midnight during the week and from 8am or 9am on the weekends. Since the station doesn’t have an automation system, that means that WHPK is off the air from at least midnight to 7am every day. Participants told me that they hope this policy will change in the future, but they have heard that it’s unlikely that hours will expand if the station remains in its current location. In regards to the operation of the radio station, this change means not only a reduction in the number of DJs and programs, but also in the loss of the long-time tradition of graveyard shifts for newer DJs.

WHPK’s “King George” Smith and his co-host Hattie May the Blues Lady of the “TGIF Blues” show in the studio. Photo: J. Waits

Despite these setbacks, WHPKers expressed enthusiasm about the station and particularly about its role in building connections between the campus and the community. Weinstein explained, “I think it’s a thrill and a pleasure to be able to take on the responsibility of administrating this weird, proud, wonderful, sort of eclectic community infrastructural enterprise that can operate as like a bridge between the town and the gown…Or from the gown to the town, necessarily; since we are a terrestrial FM radio station, our audience is the immediate surrounding area. I think it’s a privilege to be able to serve the people of Hyde Park and the people of the South Side of Chicago.”

WHPK Co-Music Director Eli Winter and Station Manager Ethan Weinstein in WHPK record library. Photo: J. Waits

Yost eloquently conveyed some of the more ephemeral aspects of radio that make it so alluring for both participants and listeners. “I think there’s something magical about being able to connect with people wherever they are through this strange disembodied medium…if for an hour a week to have people welcome you into their cars or homes or just head spaces, because they want to hear what you’re playing…It’s humbling and it’s exciting…” he opined.

Husker Du LP in WHPK library. Photo: J. Waits

Both students and community DJs expressed pride in WHPK’s role in Chicago music history, sharing lore that the station has played a part in the local hip hop and noise scenes and that it may have been the first station in Chicago with a rap music show in 1984. A 2011 piece on the University of Chicago website outlines the station’s role in hip hop history, stating:

The first station to play hip hop in Chicago in the mid-1980s, WHPK played a pioneering role in the Chicago rap scene, drawing attention to the then-burgeoning genre. Aspiring artists—some future superstars—flocked to the third-floor Reynolds Club tower, waiting for hours to bring in their demo tapes or even perform on air.

In his 2011 memoir, One Day It’ll All Make Sense, the artist Common describes how in the late 1980s, he and his rap trio C.D.R. camped outside on 57th Street, until their music was played.

Rap station ID cart at college radio station WHPK. Photo: J. Waits

A 1996 rap battle at WHPK between Common and Kanye West is now legendary, as it is another moment when the college radio station was at the center of hip hop music history. Rap is still a part of the WHPK schedule, with shows three nights a week. Other genres represented at WHPK include rock (weekday mornings), classical and many flavors of international music (weekday afternoons), jazz (evenings, plus “legendary” jazz on the weekends, including Sunday mornings), folk, and electronic music (weekday mornings). Public affairs programming also airs on weekday afternoons and a live in-studio music show, Pure Hype, runs on Friday nights.

WHPK sticker at the station. Photo: J. Waits

as far as the noise scene goes: Radio Dada, Tuesday 10pm-12am, technically incorporated under ‘rock,’ is a now I think ~decade-long tradition that involves WHPK DJs spinning records backwards, layering sludgecore with sound effects, reciting incantations on air, choreographing elaborate sound-systems, ‘playing the studio,’ and frightening away all listeners under the age of 99 in the greater South Side of Chicagoland area (plus worldwide on the web). It’s the closest we get to avant-garde, also the closest we get to insanity — though somewhat regularly in the past we have had noise artists play live in the studio during Pure Hype.”

As far as the station at large; the remainder of the academic year is going to be hectic for the University of Chicago college radio station. Having just celebrated its 50th anniversary over FM with a birthday bash last month, WHPK is now planning for its annual “Summer Breeze concert on the afternoon of May 12.

2014 Summer Breeze poster on the wall at WHPK. Photo: J. Waits

Thanks so much to everyone at WHPK for the fantastic visit and thoughtful conversations. This is my 143rd radio station tour report, with more on the way from visits in Washington, D.C. and California. My most recent field trips are located on Radio Survivor and a full list of all my station tour reports is archived on Spinning Indie.

The post Radio Station Visit #143: College Radio Station WHPK at University of Chicago appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Jennifer Waits takes us on tours of two storied college stations, with deep roots in their communities. WIIT-FM is the student station at the Illinois Institute of Technology, housed in the modern Rem Koolhaas designed McCormick Tribune Campus Center situated at the intersection of Chicago’s Bronzeville and Bridgeport neighborhoods. WKCR is Columbia University’s station, with a rich history in New York City’s jazz community, whose many luminaries have paid a visit.

We learn how IIT was home to early radio broadcasting pioneers, including vacuum tube inventor Lee de Forest, and why WKCR’s student DJs eschew more familiar rock music in favor of genres like jazz, contemporary classical and experimental music. Plus, Paul shares some memories of his recent visit to Mana’o Radio on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

Show Notes

• Radio Station Visit #142 – College Radio Station WIIT at Illinois Institute of Technology
• WIIT-FM
• Wikipedia: Lee de Forest
• Lee de Forest website
• Radio Survivor Episode #135: Resurfacing Women’s Contributions in Podcasting History
• Lupe Fiasco
• Radio Station Visit #141 – College Radio Station WKCR at Columbia University
• Stretch and Bobbito
• WKCR-FM
• Spinning Indie Radio Station Field Trip #13: WBAR at Barnard College
• WBAR
• Spinning Indie Radio Station Field Trip #7: WNUR at Northwestern University
• Spinning Indie Radio Station Field Trip #58: WHRB at Harvard University
• WTSR
• Mahalo to Mana’o Radio, Maui’s Community Station
• Mana’o Radio

The post Podcast #136 – Storied College Stations WIIT & WKCR appeared first on Radio Survivor.

With so many college radio stations in the Chicago area, it can be tough to decide which to visit first. WIIT 88.9 FM at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) jumped to the top of my list when I learned that it was potentially one of the oldest college radio stations in the country. Coupled with its adventurous freeform music shows and the studio’s alluring modern architecture; this collection of factors led to my visit on Friday, December 1, 2017.

Campus center where WIIT is located at Illinois Institute of Technology. Photo: J. Waits

Located in IIT’s McCormick Tribune Campus Center, WIIT inhabits a mesmerizing and colorful space in the 14-year-old Rem Koolhaas-designed building in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood. When we arrived, it was impossible to miss the glass-walled WIIT studio, as it overlooked a thoroughfare on the main level, near the primary entrance to the building.

View from outside WIIT studio. Photo: J. Waits

A dramatic setting, the on-air studio basked in an amber glow during our lunch-time visit, with light streaming in from nearby windows covered in an orange honeycomb pattern. Spacious and triangular in shape, WIIT’s studio was arranged such that the on-air DJ is positioned with a panoramic view, including the angular terminus of the triangle. Different colored lights emanate from below the console table, programmed to interact with the music. As it’s a college radio station at a tech school, I wasn’t surprised to hear that the lights are controlled by an app.

App-controlled lighting in studio at college radio station WIIT. Photo: J. Waits

I found myself captivated by the WIIT studio, particularly because of the lighting and its spaciousness. Location scouts have also been hip to the design and the room was featured in season two of the television show “Empire,” standing in for a commercial radio station. WIIT Station Manager Soren Spicknall reminisced that during filming, the show producers accidentally took WIIT off the air, which station personnel were understandably not pleased about.

Leo Blais sign in WIIT studio. Photo: J. Waits

While DJs mostly bring in their own music, the station also has a collection of CDs that are in the process of being digitized. A music director curates the shelves of new releases. Hosts can play material using turntables, CD players, cassette decks, and through digital inputs in the on-air studio.

Turntables in WIIT studio. Photo: J. Waits

With such modern digs, it’s easy to overlook WIIT’s notable history. And, sadly, much was destroyed or thrown away during station moves. Spicknall pointed to a sticker-covered cabinet in the studio, telling me that they made a point to save it. In order to ensure that the past is preserved and celebrated going forward, the station appointed an official station historian less than two years ago.

Soren Spicknall in front of sticker-covered cabinet at WIIT. Photo: J. Waits

Illinois Institute of Technology was formed in 1940, with the merger of the Lewis Institute and the Armour Institute of Technology. Located at the site of the current IIT campus, the Armour Institute began in 1893 and the Lewis Institute (which was on the west side) began in 1895. From 1899 to 1901, famed inventor Lee de Forest was an instructor at Armour Tech and conducted important wireless experiments while on campus. According to IIT Magazine,

Although instructor Lee de Forest taught at Lewis Institute and performed research at Armour Institute of Technology (AIT) for only a brief time, he entered into the wireless annals with the first successful long-distance telegraphy experiments while on what would become IIT Main Campus. A prolific inventor, de Forest, along with his business partner, E. H. Smythe, developed an improved telegraphic detector, which they called the responder, and conducted a series of wireless-transmission distance trials in the long hallways of Main Building as well as on its roof. In 1901 the duo met with further victory when they sent a signal-the letter ‘h’ in Morse code-from the roof of Main Building to the now nonexistent Lakota Hotel at 30th Street and Michigan Avenue, about a half-mile from Main Campus.

Equipment in WIIT studio in 2017. Photo: J. Waits

Tasked with many projects, WIIT’s historian has been digging into the campus’ radio past, including scouring through vintage student newspapers and doing direct outreach to station alumni. Over email, WIIT Historian Steven Milan Moreno provided me with a preview of some of his discoveries. According to Moreno,

Radio on the campus of Illinois Tech (or Armour Tech as it was known back then) has been documented as far back as the fall of 1914, when the Armour Radio Association was created by ten students. The founder and first president of the association was H.D. Stevers, who would go on to demonstrate radio technology for the entire campus by playing Victrola music wirelessly to the amazement of all in attendance. The actual intent of the demonstration was not for it to be used for entertainment but for it to be used in WWI as an effective means of communication. The association was temporarily disbanded after the US entered the war, but reconvened a year after the end of the war under the call sign 9NV.

LPs on wall of WIIT lobby in 2017. Photo: J. Waits

Unsurprisingly, the subject of H.D. Stevers’ May, 1920 thesis for his B.S. in Electrical Engineering was The Design and Construction of a Radio Station for the Armour Institute of Technology. Stevers writes in his introduction, “Since its founding in the Fall of 1914, the Armour Radio Association has felt the lack of an actual station with real apparatus. This thesis describes the station which has been built to fill this need.” This amateur radio station was built by 1920 and was housed in the school’s physics laboratory. It’s unclear how long that equipment was in use, but amateur radio was revived in the same location, with the creation of Armour Tech Radio Station 9YL in 1922 by the Armour Tech Radio Club, as outlined in a May, 1923 issue of The Armour Engineer.

Boombox at WIIT in 2017. Photo: J. Waits

Historic paperwork related to the establishment of FM radio at IIT. Photo: J. Waits

Spicknall recounted that a group of four alumni recently flew in and spoke to WIIT members about life at the station in the 1960s. They also brought along recordings and curios from their time on the air. As I’ve heard over and over again, alumni also revealed to current WIIT participants that the station was a “huge bright spot,” even if other college experiences weren’t always as positive.

Stamp from IIT radio station’s days as WOUI. Photo: J. Waits

The current studio was renamed the A. Sidney Katz Radio Studio in 2010 in honor of a 1962 alumnus who had also been a DJ at the station. According to IIT, “During his time as a student at IIT, Katz worked as an engineering technician and a part-time math tutor, while hosting a DJ program at the student radio station which was then housed in the basement of a campus fraternity house.”

View of WIIT studio window. Photo: J. Waits

More recent station history is a bit murkier, although Spicknall pointed out that WIIT has played an important role in Chicago hip hop. He revealed that rapper/producer Lupe Fiasco formerly hosted a radio show at WIIT. The Monday night show, FNF Radio, was on the air by around 2005.  Moreno added, “Interestingly enough, recent station history is by far more scarce in our records. As for our role in hip hop, I know we had significant ties to the genre in the past and I am planning to continue my research in the area in the coming months.”

Stickers and ephemera in old WIIT file cabinet. Photo: J. Waits

Flashing forward to today, WIIT is a freeform station, airing an interesting mix of shows, with many reflecting the diverse, international student body at IIT as well as within the nearby community. Music programs include those focused on Taylor Swift, Bollywood sounds, British invasion rock, “nerdcore,” hip hop, EDM, fusion music from India and the west, music from Panama, as well as programs that play a range of genres (gospel, rock, country, 80s music, etc.), and some live mix shows. Talk and talk/music hybrid programs include “Womyn Power Hour,” “The Toy Reporters” (fan culture), “Sharon’s Uncommon Views on Everyday Issues” (emphasis on seniors, disabled, diabetic care), and “21st Century Fountainhead” (architecture and the city). WIIT is also partnering with IIT’s student government and student newspaper on programming, including a weekly recap of student news. Spicknall marveled that a listener might tune in to hear Taylor Swift, political talk, and noise music back-to-back on a given day.

Flyers for WIIT programs posted outside the studio. Photo: J. Waits

Around 25% of the shows are run by non-students, with some hosted by long-time volunteers. Spicknall explained that WIIT’s location at the boundary of the distinct neighborhoods of Bronzeville and Bridgeport has been an important part of the station’s identity. He told me, “We’ve always stood at the intersection…as a melting pot” for students and community members. These connections also bridge across neighborhoods and radio stations, as one long-time DJ, Earl Hall (host of “The Duke’s Classic Soul and R&B Revue”), also hosts a salsa music show at University of Chicago’s college radio station WHPK.

Equipment in WIIT studio. Photo: J. Waits

On campus, it’s easy to get the word out about WIIT, particularly owing to its location in a heavily trafficked student center that Spicknall described as the “social center” of campus. Ping pong tables, lounge areas, and eateries are steps away and while sitting in the station office, we heard the non-stop tapping sound of ping pong balls, as games were being played just outside WIIT’s door. Live programs run when the building is open, from 7am to midnight, with the studio in view of all who travel through the building. Speakers outside the studio door and throughout the building pipe in sounds from WIIT to building visitors. Automation (which is actively updated by the station’s music director) takes over during the late night hours and WIIT has the ability to also run pre-recorded shows during that time.

Hallway near WIIT. Photo: J. Waits

Spicknall is happy with the state of WIIT, postulating that there is more student interest in the station than there was a decade or so ago, with perhaps the number of student DJs the highest it’s been since the mid-1990s. There are so many student hosts at the moment, that the station is achieving its goal of 75% students, so is about to embark on a competitive process to add some additional non-student shows. Community-hosted shows are highly coveted and there is a backlog of hundreds of applications for these slots.

WIIT logo on wall of radio station. Photo: J. Waits

Proud that WIIT is becoming increasingly welcoming to all sorts of folks, he pointed out that management wants it to be a place where all of the on-air content, including public service announcements, reflects the station’s commitment to “openness of thought.” On a campus that is 70% male, Spicknall estimated that around 40% of WIIT participants are female and one program, “Audibly Neurodivergent” is hosted by a non-binary individual with “multiple differences.” He praised the show, telling me that it’s been a great platform, as it’s had a lot of guests with “interesting intersecting identities.” For Spicknall, doing a radio show is “sort of a respite” from the “rigorous” coursework at IIT. He said that it’s an opportunity for many students to take part in a “passion project,” that is completely separate from their majors and career aspirations.

Soren Spicknall peruses CDs in WIIT music library. Photo: J. Waits

Thanks so much to Soren Spicknall for taking the time to talk to me and tour me around WIIT and to Steven Milan Moreno for all of the amazing historical information, particularly since they were in the midst of finals! 4/4/18 update: Hear some of my interview with Spicknall on Radio Survivor Podcast #136, during which I discuss my tours of WIIT and WKCR.

This is my 142nd radio station field trip report, with more on the way from my Chicago and Washington, D.C. trips. My most recent field trips are located on Radio Survivor and a full list of all my station tour reports is archived on Spinning Indie.

The post Radio Station Visit #142 – College Radio Station WIIT at Illinois Institute of Technology appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On a rainy New York City day this spring, I headed to Morningside Heights in upper Manhattan for a visit to Columbia University’s college radio station WKCR 89.9 FM. The 76-year-old station has a deep respect for its history and I was delighted to see numerous reel-to-reel players, an entire room full of vintage audio recordings, and an active library of physical music.

WKCR sign on the outside of the college radio station’s building. Photo: J. Waits

A bit different from many college radio stations, WKCR’s format steers away from rock and pop, instead focusing on lesser-heard radio genres, including jazz, classical, new music (experimental), international music (under the In All Languages moniker) Latin music, and a wide range of under-represented American genres (blues, gospel, bluegrass, underground hip hop, soul, funk, and country). WKCR also produces news, sports and arts programming. A notable tradition at the station is marathon broadcasts to celebrate birthdays or memorialize musicians of note. Most recently, the station remembered free jazz drummer Sunny Murray with a nine-hour special on Sunday, December 10, 2017.

Reel-to-reel tapes at WKCR. Photo: J. Waits

Although it’s student-run, WKCR has mostly a non-student listening audience in both the New York market (where it broadcasts at 89.9 FM) and all over the world online. DJs and hosts have included not only students, but also Columbia University staff members and alumni, with some having started at the station as far back as the 1970s.

On-air studio at WKCR. Photo: J. Waits

WKCR Station Manager Elizabeth Maghakian, a sophomore at the time of my March, 2017 visit, toured me around the station. Aware of WKCR before she was a Columbia student, she joined up with the station in the spring semester of her first year in college and initially was an intern on the Tuesday night blues show, which she continued to host at the time of my visit. Always interested in music, particularly the type not played on typical radio stations, Maghakian started listening to WKCR while in high school (she’s from Manhattan).

WKCR Station Manager Elizabeth Maghakian eyeing vinyl library. Photo: J. Waits

Whereas many of her classmate aren’t necessarily WKCR listeners, Maghakian told me that her friends will tune in to hear her show. Over the years she’s also made many friends at WKCR and she said that the station’s volunteers are not only passionate about music, but also about WKCR. As testament to that, she reminisced with me about a time that she spent 36 hours at the station during a blizzard.

WKCR studio. Photo: J. Waits

Additionally, the connection with the outside community of listeners is gratifying to those working at WKCR. Maghakian shared a few anecdotes, including the story of a long-time gospel show listener who doesn’t have the mobility to make it to church anymore, but who reports that the WKCR gospel show is a “staple” of their spiritual life. She also remembered a 3:30am call from a listener who had been in a terrible mood for weeks, but recounted that after hearing a particular track on WKCR, his mood lifted. Interactions like that are some of Maghakian’s favorite moments at the radio station.

Letters to WKCR. Photo: J. Waits

With around 100 on-air hosts, WKCR attracts about 20 new interns every semester. Live programming runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. DJs play music from WKCR’s music library of CDs and vinyl, but also from their own collections of digital and physical music. A few hosts will play material from cassette tapes and reel-to-reel recordings, particularly vintage material or difficult to find releases.

Turntables at WKCR. Photo: J. Waits

Although Columbia is associated with FM radio experiments in the 1930s, student radio began at Columbia in February 1941 with a closed-circuit campus-only station launched as CURC (the Columbia University Radio Club), with FCC-licensing arriving later that year. According to WKCR,

On July 18, 1939, a 400-foot antenna tower in Alpine, New Jersey broadcast the very first FM transmission. Edwin H. Armstrong, a Columbia University professor, was the first to develop this alternative to traditional AM broadcasts. WKCR shares a history with Armstrong and his groundbreaking work, accounting for the marginally accurate phrase, “The Original FM” occasionally heard on-air. Beginning as the Columbia University Radio Club (CURC) as early as 1936, the organization was not a radio station as we know it, but rather an organization concerned with the technology of radio communications. As membership grew, however, the nascent club turned its efforts to broadcasting. Armstrong helped the students in their early efforts, donating a microphone and turntables when they designed their first makeshift studio in a dorm room (1107 John Jay, to be precise).

Cylinder and vintage recordings at WKCR. Photo: J. Waits

Call letters WKCR appeared later in the 1940s, a reference to “King’s Crown Radio.” Broadcasting over AM, with occasional FM experiments; WKCR launched over FM in 1956. For a period of time, AM and FM stations co-existed on campus, with each having a distinct personality (AM reportedly more casual, FM more polished).

LPs at WKCR. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

Renowned for its jazz programming, WKCR has hosted an enviable list of musical greats over the decades. Longtime DJ and jazz historian Phil Schaap started at the station in 1970 and hosts several shows today. In a 1992 interview, he recounted a bit of jazz history at Columbia, saying:

And unlike its Ivy League brethren colleges, Columbia had this proximity to the jazz world — not exactly situated in Harlem, but close enough that a great deal of night life in Harlem, and indeed of jazz nightlife in NYC, was picked up on by students. This tradition of Columbia students’ interest in jazz predates the formalization of WKCR. The earliest jazz critics were Columbia students. Barry Ulanov, who was class of ’39, went on to become the editor of Metronome. Jack Kerouac, class of ’43, and the Avakian brothers — Al and George, although George did not go to Columbia — were writing jazz reviews as high school students at Horace Mann, up on 120th St. inside Teacher’s College. Then you had Ralph Gleason, class of ’36, one of the great jazz writers.

WKCR flyer. Photo: J. Waits

When Schaap got to the station in 1970, he was part of the group of folks that worked to develop a roster of jazz programming. He explained,

Jamie Katz, who’s the son of pianist Dick Katz and has a lot on the ball, got here when the station was in its key period of transition. Jamie got a toehold for jazz, and I arrived immediately thereafter, in February of 1970. Jamie envisioned real expansion of jazz programming. In his junior year, he went away, and what happened then was very quick…We took a series of decisions by the station…and were going to offer a cultural forum to answer needs of listening in the NYC area as opposed to Columbia campus — and from that comes a jazz department.

WKCR sign near entrance to station. Photo: J. Waits

Today, WKCR has nine distinct departments highlighting music and news that is alternative to what might be found on other stations. Genres of focus include American (folk, hip hop, blues, gospel, country, soul, funk, etc.), Classical, Jazz, Latin (WKCR first started airing salsa music in 1970), New Music (think noise, electronic music, John Cage, etc.) and “In all Languages.” Current “In all Languages” shows focus on a variety of genres and regions, including African music, reggae from Jamaica, South Asian music, field recordings, music of the Middle East and North Africa, modern music from China, and classical music from around the world. News, Arts, and Sports round out the schedule.

Record at WKCR. Photo: J. Waits

Although show hosts may change over the years as students come and go, the general schedule remains fairly consistent, as far as blocks of programming. One project underway is to work go through WKCR’s massive collection of reel-to-reel recordings, including some interviews that may have only aired once when originally recorded. It was a thrill for me to peek behind the scenes to see shelves full of materials and I hope the station is able catalog them more fully. Some historic WKCR student news recordings made during the 1968 student strike at Columbia have already been digitized. Listen to a bit of that material here.

Reels at WKCR. Photo: J. Waits

In reflecting on her time at WKCR, Maghakian told me that she appreciated the community at the station as well as the connections she has with listeners. She explained, “We get some people who call in and say…’I just found out about your station and I thought maybe you were just a jazz station, but then I tuned in at a different time and it was like country music that I like’…. I love people discovering the station…I love our listeners a lot and I love the people who program here a lot…I think it’s definitely a community that we care for each other and we care for our listeners and I think that’s really valuable.”

WKCR participants in “fish bowl.” Photo: J. Waits

Thanks to Elizabeth Maghakian for touring me around WKCR and to everyone at the station for allowing me to be a fly on the wall on Friday, March 31. 4/4/18 Update: Hear some of my interview with Maghakian on Radio Survivor Podcast #136, during which I discuss my visits to WKCR and WIIT.

This is my 141st radio station field trip report, with more to come from travels in Washington, D.C. and Chicago. My most recent field trips are located on Radio Survivor and a full list of all my station tour reports is archived on Spinning Indie.

The post Radio Station Visit #141 – College Radio Station WKCR at Columbia University appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Mendocino County has a bounty of new community radio stations thanks to the recent low power FM (LPFM) application window and I was excited to get to visit one of those stations: KLLG-LP in Willits, California earlier this year. After spending the night near the coast, I headed inland, driving on a windy country road through the forest to Willits. On my way, I passed campgrounds, a horse camp, logging operations, and vineyards before arriving at the Little Lake Grange, the non-profit that holds the FM license for KLLG. With headquarters in a beautiful, 100-year-old school building, it’s an idyllic place for a community radio station. And, as last month’s devastating fires in Mendocino County illustrated, hyper-local local radio can be an important lifeline during a crisis, particularly in small, rural communities.

The Little Lake Grange in Willits, CA: home to LPFM radio station KLLG-LP. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

When fires came roaring through the Redwood Valley area just south of Willits in early October, KLLG-LP did its best to keep listeners informed. KLLG’s former Program Director Michelle Cummins told me over email that the Redwood Complex fire was about 8 miles from the station. She recounted that:

Remarkably, we did not have any programmers who lost their homes, however, we all know people who did. We had many programmers who were in the mandatory and voluntary and evac zones. In the first hours of the fire incident, there was no internet or cell phones available. We definitely learned the importance of the relationship of a local radio station with all of the agencies that are first responders.

Studio at LPFM community radio station KLLG-LP. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

Volunteers stepped up to report on the fires. According to Willits News,

When cell phone towers were damaged and all cell phone communications (with the exception of satellite phones), and internet were unavailable over a two day period as a result of the Mendocino Lake Complex fire, KLLG and KZYX Public radio became the local sources of information in Willits.

Mike Burgess, Lauren Jaslow and Liam UiCearbahil were some of the volunteer staffers manning the station and attempting to keep residents informed during the emergency.

UiCearbahil in particular, came in to do the night shift from 11 p.m. to sunrise and relayed emergency and evacuation updates from CalFire, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and other sources throughout the night. Cummins said people told her they were very grateful to have his comforting familiar voice getting them through the confusion when the internet was down.

Willits Hometown Radio sign at KLLG-LP. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

Having launched just a year prior, in September 2016, KLLG-LP had not faced this scale of an emergency. Programmers shared information about the fires, but had a number of challenges, including lack of internet access and road closures. Cummins said that the station learned a lot and offered advice for other community radio stations in order to better prepare for this type of  disaster:

Tips for other LPFM stations would definitely be to host some kind of…open forum where you invite the first responder agencies such as highway patrol, sheriff, police department, fire departments, to come and learn about what the station can do for them and how they can use the station and view it as an asset to the community [and] the agencies. Being proactive is very important. Also, when reporting, definitely stick to the facts, use a calm and positive tone, [and] record and document everything. It’s a good idea to have a map of the area in the station as well.

Signed Willits Fire Rescue T-shirt on wall of KLLG-LP in April, 2017. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

Cummins added, “I am very proud of our station, KLLG, for the support that we were able to offer our community in the week of this disaster. We had volunteers on air 24 hours a day for the first 72 hours and continued playing updated messages throughout the incident. The community has shown a lot of support and validated the importance of the station in times of disaster and in times of peace.”

Album covers above bulletin board and white board at KLLG-LP. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

All of this support must be particularly gratifying since KLLG is a very young station. Whereas many other Mendocino County towns have community radio stations (including LPFM stations in Covelo, Laytonville, Ft. Bragg and Ukiah), Willits was one of the last to hit the airwaves.

KLLG-LP stickers at the LPFM community radio station. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

Founder and former General Manager Lanny Cotler was instrumental in getting KLLG-LP off the ground and has been following the station’s progress. Over email he provided more back story about the station, telling me that he wanted to bring community radio to Willits. Cotler elaborated, “I saw the narrow window the FCC was offering to obtain one of a limited number of LP licenses, learned that rural areas with one application are a good bet to be granted the license, and it hit me how a hyperlocal station would be a great boon to a small community…”

Cotler remarked, “The vision was that in order to survive our community had to become more RESILIENT. More self-reliant, more able for all sides within the community to communicate with each other—rich, poor, old, young, gay, straight, left, right. I wanted to set up a means of communication, a platform to do this. That’s what sold all sectors of this town on backing the idea of a low power FM radio station.”

With the recent fire, he acknowledged that “KLLG rose to the occasion,” adding, “In a sense, we prove[d] ourselves to the town. We made mistakes. Many behind the mic didn’t know all the protocols, but we were for a few days the only means for citizens to get info on what was happening.”

Poster from “station delivery” party for KLLG. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

When I met up with Cummins and other station volunteers back in April, we talked a lot about community, which is at the heart and soul of the station’s parent organization and landlord, The Little Lake Grange. Part of a large, national fraternal organization for farmers that dates back to 1867, the Grange, was historically a place where folks might share tools and farming skills, according to Cummins. The Little Lake Grange was founded in 1938 and was “primarily a farming organization into the 1950’s” that “gradually transformed itself into a community organization focused on the life of the Willits community,” states a Little Lake Grange brochure.

A longtime Grange member, Cotler had his eye on the Grange building as an ideal spot for a radio studio, so approached the organization to be the sponsoring non-profit for the new LPFM. He also found synergy between the goals of the Grange and the new community radio station, explaining, “Since the goal of the Grange is to serve our community by making it more resilient, I wanted a radio station that would dedicate itself to that purpose: strengthening our community’s resiliency!”

Promotional materials at the Little Lake Grange. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

Farming, food and community are still a vital part of the ethos of the Little Lake Grange. Today, the Little Lake Grange hosts numerous community events, including pancake breakfasts, concerts, film series, and a farmers market. It helped to establish a nearby farm school and also houses local grains in silos behind its building. Cummins added that Willits is an “active agrarian community.”

Mini production studio at KLLG-LP. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

One benefit for KLLG is that its location within the Little Lake Grange building allows for easy access to its auditorium, which has a direct line to the radio station’s studio. This proximity has allowed the radio station to broadcast from various events, including pancake breakfasts. Focusing on locally-produced programming, the station was working to train programmers and build out its schedule when I visited in April, just a few months after the station first started running live shows. At the time, the Willits LPFM radio station had around 18 live shows a week, comprising 28 hours of the weekly schedule. Around sixty folks had gone through programming training by early April, with at least 20 more in the queue. An automated mix of music airs when there is no live show. By early November, KLLG was up to 30 programmers producing a total of 68 hours a week of locally-produced content.

KLLG-LP entrance in the distance, just down the hall from Little Lake Grange auditorium (right side of photo). Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

The programming mix today includes a variety of music and talk shows, with music shows focused on reggae, local music, electronic music, bluegrass, blues, Americana, and more. Talk shows run the gamut from “Baby Talk” (birth stories) to “Steve on Sports” (sports talk). One of the more unusual shows, “BiPolar Express,” is hosted by Skunk Train (a historic train that runs through the redwoods from Ft. Bragg to Willits) conductor/train singer Greg Schindel. On the show he plays music and brings in a range of guests. Cummins explained that part of what makes the show unique is that, “he has two personalities and they talk to each other on the show.”

Baby Talk host Mamma J. (Jaynene Johnson) in KLLG-LP studio. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

While KLLG has a small collection of vinyl records and CDs, most DJs bring in their own music to play, typically via CDs, vinyl records, cassettes, and digital files. During my visit, Chief Engineer Roger Wilson joked that the station has “one and a half turntables,” as he was working to fix a persistent hum emanating from one of them. The building’s vintage electrical system and 14-foot ceilings have presented various challenges for the station, yet much attention was put into the construction of KLLG’s free-standing, thick-walled studio within the former schoolhouse classroom space. Wilson, along with volunteers, did the majority of the work to build the studio and Cummins and others reminisced about crawling under the building in order to complete a few different tasks.

“Live” studio sign at KLLG-LP. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

As she passes the torch to new Program Director Lauren Jaslow, Cummins shared that much has been accomplished in the past year, from creating procedures and training programs to developing plans for underwriting and fundraising. She pointed out, “Year two is about developing all of those systems” that have been put in place, particularly in the areas of “programming, engineering, and development…”

While the station has accomplished a great deal already with a tiny volunteer staff, KLLG’s Finance Director Bob Fry told me that the station could accomplish even more with additional volunteers. Projects on the wish list require extra engineers (including folks who can simply run a show for tech-wary hosts), traffic managers (to schedule and run syndicated shows), and marketing experts to help get the word out about the station. Fry relayed that the station has the potential to bring together residents from their diverse community and that he’s already felt inspired by listener response to KLLG.

CDs at community radio station KLLG-LP. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

Wilson reflected on the group effort required to get KLLG up and running, recounting that, “I’m used to building and making anything, but to have a team…who haven’t built a radio station before…to step up and say ‘this sounds like a good idea’ and we’ll learn all this esoteric voodoo that’s necessary to make something happen in spite of whatever noise gets in the way of us…For them to step up and put the effort in, separate from their regular lives and make it happen, it is…wonderful to see…I am delighted.”

Bob Fry, Michelle Cummins and Roger Wilson at KLLG-LP. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

Thanks to everyone at KLLG-LP for the warm welcome, including Lanny Cotler who reached out to Radio Survivor from the very beginning and to Michelle, Bob, and Roger for taking the time to speak with me during my visit.

The post Radio Station Visit #140 – Community Radio Station KLLG-LP in Willits, California appeared first on Radio Survivor.

No two radio station tours are alike. More often than not I’m solo, trekking into hidden corners of campuses from early in the morning to late at night. Occasionally family, friends or radio colleagues will join me, sometimes tag teaming with me as I interview station personnel. My visit to Fordham University’s music-focused NPR-affiliated public radio station WFUV on March 28 exists in a category unto itself, as the tour was arranged by the Dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, who happens to be my husband’s sister. Relatively new to Fordham, Dean Maura Mast had yet to tour WFUV, so my visit provided the perfect excuse to arrange an official visit.

Dean Maura Mast in her office at Fordham University. Photo: J. Waits

After arriving at the Bronx, New York campus, my husband, daughter and I first met up with Dean Mast in her office. Soon after, we were joined by one of WFUV’s many student staffers, Mary Munshower, who filled me in on the role of students at the radio station. WFUV actually drew her to Fordham University, as she wanted to take advantage of the hands-on learning opportunities that the station provides. Just wrapping up her junior year at the time of our spring visit, Munshower is a musician with dreams of working in the music industry.

Mary Munshower, Brian Mast (in background), Dean Maura Mast and Chuck Singleton in live studio at WFUV. Photo: J. Waits

At WFUV, Munshower started out as an intern and is now a paid video engineer, filming live sessions at the station and at various off-site concerts. With a strong emphasis on music, WFUV has musicians playing at the station at least once a day, with each session getting filmed and recorded. Footage is meticulously edited and then shared with WFUV listeners on both the station’s website and on the public radio digital music site VuHaus.

A look at some of the live sessions recorded for WFUV. Photo: J. Waits

It was nice to get Munshower’s take on the station before my official tour, as it helped to shatter some of my assumptions about the role of students at university-based public radio stations. I later learned that around 80 students work at WFUV, a staggering number for a station not run by students.

Sound board at WFUV. Photo: J. Waits

My public radio visits have been limited (tour #22 to KZYX, tour #45 to KALW, tour #67 to NPR headquarters, and tour #70 to KEXP) and this was actually my first trip to see a college-based public radio station. My impression is that most public radio stations are professionally-run with limited opportunities for students, except for a few internships here and there. WFUV intentionally breaks from that mold, with student participation critical to not only keeping the station running from day to day, but also to staying on top of the latest in technology.

Press clippings about WFUV’s video operation. Photo: J. Waits

When we made our way to see WFUV’s basement home (our group was an entourage of five, including my family, Munshower and Dean Mast), General Manager Chuck Singleton confirmed that WFUV’s situation is “unique,” telling me that it’s unusual for a professionally-run station to have a large student staff.

Studio at WFUV. Photo: J. Waits

With a history stretching back to 1947 (yes, it turns 70 this year!), WFUV began as a part of the school’s communications department and initially served as a learning lab. Singleton said that by the late 1960s, it was broadcasting at 50,000 watts. Then part of the Student Affairs division, WFUV was run by students.

LPs at WFUV. Photo: J. Waits

Regular rock music shows began at WFUV in 1970, which was not common for the era according to Singleton. He recounted that in the ensuing years, WFUV’s mix of shows were hosted by students, alumni and community members, forming a “crazy quilt of specialty shows” ranging from classical to rock, Latin music, Italian pop, Christian music and more.

Accolades and ephemera in the WFUV hallway. Photo: J. Waits

Singleton went on to explain that after WFUV’s second full time General Manager retired in the mid-1980s, the university decided that it wanted to increase the public service and community impact of the radio station. Part of that mandate included reaching a more substantial audience while at the same time preserving the student training component. To help reach those goals, by the late 1980s, WFUV had become a public radio station. Today, it has a full time staff of 30, a part time staff of 15, and between 70 and 85 student workers. In 2017, students are working mostly behind the scenes, mainly in news, sports and engineering/production.

WFUV Program Director Rita Houston showing off vintage gems in her office. Photo: J. Waits

As far as programming, WFUV’s emphasis is on “music discovery,” with a particular focus on “adult album alternative music.” The weekday schedule is made up of WFUV-hosted music shows along with the syndicated “World Cafe” (2am to 4am). Weekends feature more of a mix, including some specialty music shows (ranging from folk music to music from the 1920s and 1930s), talk shows, public affairs programming, and Catholic Mass on Sundays.

CDs in WFUV studio. Photo: J. Waits

One long-running show, “Ceol na nGael,” (Music of the Irish) was launched by Fordham students in 1974 and continues to be hosted by students every Sunday from noon to 4pm. In addition to airing Irish music, the program features news and sports updates from Ireland and a community bulletin board.

Staff at work in WFUV news room. Photo: J. Waits

WFUV also has a number of show hosts who’ve been connected with the station for many years. During my visit, I met Darren DeVivo, who began DJing at WFUV when he was a freshman at Fordham in 1983 and “basically never left.” Another long timer, DJ Paul Cavalconte, got his start at WFUV more than thirty years ago and after stints in commercial and satellite radio he returned to the station as a guest host in 2013.

WFUV host Darren DeVivo. Photo: J. Waits

Today, WFUV occupies spacious digs in the basement of Keating Hall at Fordham. Way back in the 1940s, the station started out on the 3rd floor of its building, moving down to the basement in 2005. Singleton happily shared some lore about the location, telling us that the 1929 building was featured in a “WPA Guide to New York” for its “collegiate gothic architecture.”

Keating Hall at Fordham University – home to WFUV. Photo: J. Waits

The basement used to house a cafeteria, which moved out in the 1960s, creating a “creepy fallow space” with secret tunnels leading to a hospital morgue, according to Singleton. Adding to the mystique, a scene from the Exorcist was filmed across the hall. Post-renovation, the basement is bright and delightful, housing not only WFUV, but also the department of Visual Studies.

Bookorder Tape recorder disguised as a Bible in WFUV General Manager Chuck Singleton’s office. Photo: J. Waits

While making our way through the station, we saw staff offices with whimsical decor (including vintage records and audio equipment), a working news room, an air staff room, studios (including Studio A, where bands perform live), a video production work room, conference room, and a music library. Walls were dotted with awards, gold records, and displays of past CD compilations put together by WFUV, making for a lively and colorful environment at the radio station.

FUV Live compilation displayed on wall at WFUV. Photo: J. Waits

Thanks so much to my sister-in-law Maura Mast for arranging the visit to WFUV and to Chuck Singleton for taking the time to chat with us while leading us on a station tour. I’m also very thankful to Mary Munshower for sharing her added insights about WFUV and for leading my family on a bonus campus tour.

Equipment in WFUV live room. Photo: J. Waits

This is my 139th radio station field trip report, which means I’m nearly caught up on my recent visits, with just two more remaining from my New York and California travels. My most recent field trips can be found on Radio Survivor and a full list of all my station tour reports is compiled on Spinning Indie.

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In a serendipitous coincidence, new low power FM (LPFM) community radio station WPPM-LP had its launch party while I was in Philadelphia for the College Broadcasters Inc. convention last October. Not one to miss a historic radio event, I sneaked away from the conference in order to attend the festivities on October 20, 2016. Excitement was in the air during the launch event, which I recounted in a piece for Radio World.

PhillyCAM building. Photo: J. Waits

A project of Philadelphia Community Access Media (aka PhillyCAM), WPPM-LP is one of the newest LPFM radio stations to emerge out of an existing public access television station. This partnership has many obvious benefits, including the ability to do combination television/radio broadcasts from the same facility. While sitting in the PhillyCAM TV studio during the official countdown for WPPM’s launch, I was amazed by the multi-media possibilities for public access stations. Also, as I’ve seen while visiting other new LPFMs aligned with community access television stations (see tour #107 to KOMF-LP in Denver and tour #104 to WERA-LP in Arlington), being part of an existing organization can be incredibly helpful for a new radio station, as there is already an infrastructure for management and fundraising.

PhillyCAM started its cable TV broadcasts on October 23, 2009 and within a few years, began thinking about radio. After submitting a LPFM application during the 2013 window, the group was awarded a construction permit in January, 2015 for a station at 106.5 FM in Philadelphia. Later that year, on PhillyCAM’s 6th anniversary, it launched a streaming radio station, only to have to shut it down in January, 2016 when host Live365 went out of business.

According to WPPM’s Station Manager Vanessa Maria Graber, “In July 2016 we finished building our transmitter site and studio and began broadcasting pre-recorded programming.” Prompted by the Democratic National Convention being held in Philadelphia, WPPM also debuted its first live show on July 25, 2016. The daily evening news show, WPPM News, was produced by Graber, along with a dozen volunteers and was created specifically for the convention.

Programs for WPPM-LP launch event. Photo: J. Waits

On the day of my visit, October 20, 2016, WPPM-LP officially launched regular live programming and its new internet stream. After the launch ceremony, I walked upstairs from the TV studio to take a look at WPPM-LP’s on-air studio. A couple of DJs were in the midst of their show, while attendees mingled in the space. A few albums and cassettes were stacked nearby, as a DJ cued up music on one of the two turntables. The studio is also outfitted with CD players and a cassette deck, making it a very welcoming environment for physical music enthusiasts.

Derwood Selby (front) and DJ Affirmation (on turntables) in the WPPM-LP studio. Photo: J. Waits

At the time, the schedule was in its beginning stages, with 15 programs and 35 in development, so there were still plenty of open spaces for future show hosts. With a freeform, community access model, the station is open to a wide variety of programming, ranging from jazz music programs to locally-focused talk shows. An in-progress schedule was posted across two of the station walls, with program titles like “Teen Talk,” “Radio Africa,” “50 Shades of Jazz,” “Broad St. Line,” “Labor Justice Radio,” and “Uneasy Listening” written on pink sticky notes. During the launch party, Graber shared that she’s particularly passionate about news and social justice and talked about programs that she was working on, including one about post-prison life, a show focused on drug policy & reform and another that highlights hip hop, graffiti & social movements.

Table with microphones in WPPM-LP studio. Photo: J. Waits

Always seeking volunteers, PhillyCAM offers a number of radio training classes for interested programmers. Although plenty of folks brand-new to radio are getting involved, I was also excited to meet radio veteran Joe Lex at the launch event. Intrigued by his WEFT radio T-shirt, I said “hello” and mentioned that I had visited the Champaign, Illinois-based community radio station a few years back (see my 2012 tour here). Lex revealed that he was one of the founders of WEFT, telling me that he unfortunately moved to Dallas before the station actually launched on-air. Adding that he hadn’t been on radio in 30 years, he told me that getting back into radio has been on his “bucket list.” Now retired, he was enthusiastic about the possibilities with PhillyCAM, saying, “I am just so eager!” As of March 21, 2017, Lex hosts a Tuesday afternoon jazz show, “Dr. Joe’s Groove” over WPPM-LP, which I enjoyed while writing this post.

WEFT T-shirt spotted at PhillyCAM launch party. Photo: J. Waits

Jazz seems to be a vital part of the WPPM schedule and was the focus of a special “30 Days of Jazz” event in April. Graber explained that, “We partnered with the Philadelphia Jazz Project to celebrate our rich culture of jazz in Philadelphia during Jazz Appreciation month in April.  We played footage we collected at concerts, conducted interviews with local jazz artists and featured their music, and we hosted a 5 part series on WPPM called ‘My Favorite Things: Why We Love our Music,’ which was a radio show about why musicians, DJs, teachers, and collectors love jazz music.”

As of May, 2017, WPPM’s schedule has expanded considerably, with a roster of 46 hosted shows on the air, with four more in production. In addition to local shows, WPPM also runs programming from Pacifica and other sources. Some of the syndicated shows include “Democracy Now!,” “UnderCurrents,” “Peace Talk Radio” and “Up Front Soul.”

WPPM-LP T-shirt. Photo: J. Waits

Graber shared some of the more unusual shows on WPPM-LP with me, including “Talking Machine Hour,” which plays vintage music off of 78rpm records using 100-year-old Victrolas. She added, “It’s the only show of its kind in Philly.” Another music-oriented show, “Sylver Alert,” plays “retro pop and dance music.” Hosted by DJ K-Tell, the program features music off of 45rpm records and has an emphasis on the LGBTQ audience, according to Graber.

Cultural programs are a big staple as well, including the Mexican and Indigenous culture-focused “Nika Tlaka,” which is hosted by an artist who is also an undocumented immigrant. Two Irish immigrants, Sean Timmons and Fergus Carey, host “Craic Radio” and often highlight live music by local Philadelphia artists.

As she reflected on what makes WPPM special, Graber pointed out that there are a number of factors, telling me, “We are in a public access community media center, so many of our members are engaged in multimedia production.” She added, “Also, we are representative of the population we serve meaning we are diverse and truly local. WPPM is in and of the community and is able to highlight local people doing positive things in Philly and South Jersey.” Finally, as mentioned earlier, WPPM DJs embrace a variety of music formats, with Graber proudly telling me, “…most of our music shows play vinyl!”

Wall at PhillyCAM. Photo: J. Waits

Six months after the launch celebration, WPPM is thriving. Graber explained, “There is a feeling of shared accomplishment in building this station…WPPM has a steady flow of guests coming into the studio each week, meaning tons of people are now getting access to the airwaves. The DJs and guests often stay and hang out and talk in the hallways. They talk openly about their concerns and about music.  It’s how I always imagined a community radio station being a hub for local music, organizing, and community building.”

Next up on the horizon, WPPM will hold its first on-air FUNd Drive from June 19 to 26. “It’s our attempt to do special programming, engage our listeners, and promote the station,” Graber revealed.

Congratulations to WPPM-LP on the October launch and big thanks to Vanessa Maria Graber for her warm welcome and for providing me with the back story on the station. Be sure to see my Radio World article for additional photos and a more in-depth picture of the launch event. This is my 138th radio station field trip report. Still to come are additional reports from New York and California. My most recent field trips can be found on Radio Survivor and a full list of all my station tour reports is compiled on Spinning Indie. 6/29/17 update: My tour of WPPM-LP is also the focus of episode 97 of the Radio Survivor Podcast.

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The most recent UCRN (University of California Radio Network) conference provided the perfect opportunity for me to finally see Loyola Marymount University’s college radio station KXLU 88.9 FM in Los Angeles. Located on the Catholic university’s resort-like campus full of palm trees, expansive lawns, and glistening white buildings, KXLU feels like a secret club, blasting adventurous music from its 4th floor lair in the Malone Student Center.

Malone building on Loyola Marymount University campus. Photo: J. Waits

In honor of its 60th anniversary this year, a large celebratory poster is prominently displayed in the station lobby and was one of the first things that I noticed when I arrived at KXLU on the morning of Saturday, April 8th for the UCRN event. As I got my bearings, conference-goers snacked on breakfast fare, picked up commemorative UCRN T-shirts from the LP and 7″ record-filled live room and were led on tours through the station space.

7″ records at college radio station KXLU. Photo: J. Waits

In the midst of KXLU’s weekend Latin music programming (Alma del Barrio, which runs from 6am to 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays), the on-air hosts graciously welcomed visitors into the studio for a peek. Chock full of fun decor, a stylish pillow-adorned couch, a wall full of CDs, the requisite sound equipment, and even a shelf of newly added cassettes; it’s a warm and welcoming space for DJs and guests.

Alma del Barrio DJ in the KXLU studio. Photo: J. Waits

One enters KXLU headquarters through a long hallway full of historic photos and framed ephemera. At the end of that hall is a lobby-esque area with a high desk where visitors can check in. To the right of that is the office of KXLU advisor Lydia Ammossow and adjacent to that is the KXLU studio. If one makes a left turn at the front desk, you will be led to an open hang-out area with seating and lovely views of the campus out of large windows covering one entire wall and CDs covering the opposite wall. Off of that open area are entrances to the record library/live room, another studio, and the on-air studio for student-only radio station KLMU (see my tour report here).

Shelves of CDs at college radio station KXLU. Photo: J. Waits

With a mix of both student and non-student DJs from the broader Los Angeles community, KXLU airs a diverse mix of programming. In addition to its long running (since 1973) weekend block of Latin music (Alma del Barrio), the station airs a variety of sounds throughout the week. The KXLU website states that, “KXLU offers a widely diverse and alternative programming schedule which includes the following genres: progressive and independent rock, classical, opera, world, dance, country, metal, noise, jazz, punk, kids, ginecore, oldies, surf, psychedelic, reggae, theater & film as well as being home to one of the most successful and longest running Latin radio programs in the country, Alma Del Barrio.”

Vinyl LPs at college radio station KXLU. Photo: J. Waits

Run by a student director team of seven undergraduates, KXLU uses its online-only sister station KLMU as a training ground for new on-air recruits. KXLU General Manager Lily O’Brien told me that among the 90 or so DJs, “a little under half are students, but with how our scheduling works, most of the daytime and late night shows are students on air!” O’Brien just wrapped up her senior year at Loyola Marymount and has been involved with KXLU since her sophomore year. As a newly minted college graduate, she reflected on her time at the station, telling me:

KXLU acts as a little space away from LMU on LMU’s campus, if that makes sense. It’s a place for all the weird kids who wanna gather and geek out about music together. Our presence on campus is relatively small, which is funny because most students don’t realize KXLU actually broadcasts out of LMU, but ask any Los Angeles native and it would be hard to find someone who isn’t familiar with the station’s legacy and name!”

Lily O’Brien at KXLU. Photo: J. Waits

O’Brien elaborated on KXLU’s reputation off campus, saying that, “We are really the only independent, commercial-free FM radio station in LA, so I think KXLU is an integral part of the music scene in southern California.” Like many college radio participants, she also shared that KXLU has been an important part of her social life and her music education, explaining that:

I love that KXLU has caused me to meet some of the best people in my life–it really feels like a giant, weird, smelly, 21st century family.  I also love that because everyone has such different tastes, I am confronted with music and sounds that I would never seek out on my own but actually end up loving.  It forces me to expand my horizons.  I also love that when literally every other radio station is playing a commercial, I can turn on KXLU and hear something weird.”

Sticker-covered window at college radio station KXLU. Photo: J. Waits

Celebrating its 60th anniversary over FM this fall, KXLU is the descendant of a long radio legacy at Loyola Marymount, which had its start back when Loyola University and Marymount College were separate institutions. The Loyola Marymount University Archives maintains a collection of materials related to the station’s history and outlines those early days. According to a description posted on the Online Archive of California:

The inception of the student operated radio station, known as the KLU Campus Radio Workshop began in 1946, with equipment designed and built by Loyola University student staff. The student staff was comprised of World War II veterans who had gained electronic and radio experience while in service. In 1952, the radio station adopted the call letters KXLU, and hoped to switch to an FM transmission soon after. In 1957 the applications for transmitter construction and FCC approval were filed and KXLU 88.7 went live. From 1959 until 1968, KXLU broadcasted from 89.1. The radio station moved one last time to its present frequency of 88.9 FM in September, 1968.”

Vintage photos on the wall at college radio station KXLU. Photo: J. Waits

Old-timers will note that KXLU attracted attention in the 1980s and 1990s for its work championing punk rock, local music, and future superstars like Nirvana. A 2015 piece in the Los Angeles Loyolan digs into 1990s-era station lore. Maria Nelson writes, “KXLU was the first station to give bands like Beck, Black Flag and Jane’s Addiction tons of play on the airwaves. When the rumor surfaced in the Loyolan offices that the station was also the first to air Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit,’ a song that would change the landscape of music as we know it, an investigation into the station’s past ensued.”

KXLU’s live studio. Photo: J. Waits

Nelson learned that former KXLU Music Director Daniel Makagon was the first to play “Smells like Teen Spirit” over KXLU. According to the piece, “Makagon, now a professor of communication studies at DePaul University in Chicago, officially brought an end to the mystery. ‘I was a senior or about to start my senior year when I interviewed Nirvana and played “Smells Like Teen Spirit,”‘ Makagon wrote via email. ‘In this particular case,’ continued Makagon, ‘Nirvana was in town because they were about to make the video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and wanted us to announce that video shoot. The band needed extras for crowd shots.'”

Flyers on wall at KXLU. Photo: J. Waits

The station still has many programs that play underground and local artists, including the decades-old Demolisten show, which began in 1984. Airing on Friday nights from 6pm to 8pm, the show features demo recordings and live music every week. For more on the station’s music legacy, take a look at the video crafted by Loyola Marymount University, which features interviews with famous musicians and station staffers.

Poster for Demolisten show at KXLU. Photo: J. Waits

O’Brien told me that in honor of the station’s upcoming anniversary this fall, various plans are in the works. She revealed, “Special 60th anniversary merch, shows, and maybe even something a little bigger like a small festival are things to look forward to in celebrating KXLU’s birthday come this fall! Stay tuned to our social media for more announcements and updates…”

60th anniversary poster at KXLU. Photo: J. Waits

Ammossow shared a few more details, telling me that a summer festival will kick off KXLU’s 60th anniversary celebrations. Coming up on July 16, KXLU’s 3rd annual Alma del Barrio Salsa Festival will take place from 11am to 7pm in Loyola Marymount’s Sunken Gardens. Ammossow told me that the lineup will feature “…a Brazilian soul samba opening band called Os Zagueiros” as well as salsa bands “Con Ganas, Iliana and Las Chikas and headliners Costazul and Charanga Cubana.” The free, all ages event will also feature salsa dance lessons, food trucks, DJ sets, and pop-up shops. Recounting the success of last year’s event, she reminisced that, “For our most recent festival, well over 2,000 people were in attendance. Every age range was represented in the audience from infants to great-grand parents.”

Alma del Barrio poster on wall outside KXLU. Photo: J. Waits

More specific KXLU anniversary celebrations will take place in the fall during Loyola Marymount University’s alumni weekend, including a KXLU 60th anniversary celebration on Sunday, September 24th from 2pm to 4pm in the radio station. “We will be welcoming back all of our alums to a special reception to toast the past 60 years of free form independent college radio thriving on our LMU blufftops,” revealed Ammossow.

KXLU playlist. Photo: J. Waits

No doubt many of those returning to KXLU in the fall will share memories of good times spent at the station across the decades. Summing up the unique qualities of KXLU, O’Brien surmised that part of what makes the station special is “The fact that the station’s ultimate decision makers are actually students who make everything happen.” She added that, “We are lucky to have a lot of creative freedom with how things are run year-to-year.”

DJ cheat sheet in KXLU studio. Photo: J. Waits

Thanks to everyone at KXLU for the great time at UCRN and to Lydia Ammossow and Lily O’Brien for sharing the inside scoop on the station. This is my 137th radio station field trip report. Still to come are additional reports from Philadelphia, New York and California. My most recent field trips can be found on Radio Survivor and a full list of all my station tour reports is compiled on Spinning Indie.

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It wasn’t until I visited Loyola Marymount University for the UCRN (University of California Radio Network) conference on April 8, that I realized that the Los Angeles campus was home to two college radio stations: KXLU-FM and online station KLMU. Since I have a soft spot for lesser known stations, I was interested in the story behind KLMU. Although it’s housed in the same space as its FM sister station KXLU, it has its own personality and management.

Turntable in KLMU studio. Photo: J. Waits

The streaming radio station has roots as a campus-only AM station, which could be heard in the residence halls. Located down the hall in the same space at KXLU, the KLMU studio is outfitted with a turntable, CD players, microphones, and sound board. A full-sized Pac Man arcade game greets arrivals into the studio. When I poked my head in on the Saturday morning of my visit, there was no one on-air, so the station was likely running on automation. KLMU Co-Director Ricky Barocio explained that the online station is “exclusively for LMU students and it is run by students.” With around 54 student DJs, the station plays a mix of “talk shows, sports shows, and…music shows that play music from the early 2000s, to modern indie rock, to some disco/techno/house shows,” according to Barocio.

2013-2014 KLMU logo by Sofia Leggio. Photo: KLMU

KXLU advisor Lydia Ammossow explained that for students, faculty & Loyola Marymount staff members interested in broadcasting over FM on KXLU, training at KLMU is a requirement. Barocio added, “KLMU is a necessary prerequisite in order to join KXLU.” In fact, part of his job is to evaluate DJs and select those who he feels are ready to move up to KXLU. KXLU General Manager Lily O’Brien shared that, “KLMU…acts as sort of a precursor for potential KXLU DJs. It is a student run, student-DJ-only radio station that has a different, less strict set of rules than KXLU does, and gives LMU students the opportunity to try and put together a communication broadcast that helps them find their radio voice and taste. It’s actually super cool.” Relations between KXLU and KLMU are friendly, with each station opening up events to the other. The stations have held DJ open houses together and in recent years, KLMU has hosted film screenings, art shows, concerts and music festivals.

KXLU and KLMU recruitment flyer

A bit mysterious, KLMU doesn’t have a website, although it provides updates and events details on its Facebook page and has an online stream that resides here. Adding to the under the radar feel, its history is difficult to discern. Barocio is a sophomore, just finishing up his second full year at the station. When I asked him about the station’s origins, he said, “I am honestly not too clear about the entire history of LMU, but I know that there [have] always been two stations.”

KLMU studio. Photo: J. Waits

As recently as 2009, KLMU still referenced a 840AM channel, but it’s hard to determine when its AM carrier current broadcasts ceased. An October, 2009 piece in The Los Angeles Loyolan reported that at the time, “Once on air, DJs’ shows can be heard from channel three of any on campus television, or online at myspace.com.” Ammossow has been managing the student radio program at Loyola Marymount since 2003 and filled in a few more details about KLMU. Over email she told me, “This is anecdotal, but I believe it started in the 1950’s/1960’s and was mainly playing pop and rock while KXLU was playing primarily classical at that time. I’ve had a hard time tracking down the actual history as KLMU 840am, in that iteration, ceased operating well before I came on board. My sense is that it was still available at that frequency into the 90’s, but by the time I came on board in 2003 the wheels were already well into motion for moving it to an official online station since the university had long since got rid of the carrier current interface in the residence halls.”

KLMU award posted at KXLU. Photo: J. Waits

Barocio explained how he found out about KLMU, telling me, “I had friends who were involved at KLMU, and naturally as I was a music aficionado from LA I found it appropriate to join.” Today, Barocio also hosts a Monday morning show over KXLU and he shared that getting involved with both stations has been a significant experience for him. He told me, “Particularly for me, or people who are interested in joining KXLU, I love how I was able to express my music taste freely and then get the opportunity to join KXLU, which overall has made me [grow] to love LMU more.”

Board in KLMU. Photo: J. Waits

Thanks to KXLU and KLMU for the great visit during UCRN and thanks to Ricky Barocio, Lily O’Brien and Lydia Ammossow for taking the time to share further details about the college radio station. This is my 136th radio station field trip report. Still to come are tours from Philadelphia, New York, and California (including KLMU’s sister station KXLU). My most recent field trips can be found on Radio Survivor and a full list of all my station tour reports is compiled on Spinning Indie.

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There’s nothing like visiting a college radio station that you listened to in your youth, so I was in full-on fan girl mode when I set foot in college radio station WKDU in Philadelphia. The Drexel University radio station was one of the spots (you can listen at 91.7 FM) that I would lock in to while spinning my stereo dial while in college near Philly. It’s likely that I dug their punk rock and new wave music at the time and chances are high that I rang them up to take advantage of free tickets to shows when I was a cash-poor student.

Mailboxes and music publications in lobby of college radio station WKDU. Photo: J. Waits

Oddities and Ephemera on the WKDU Tour

Well, my October 20, 2016 visit to WKDU did not disappoint and there were still many hints of the 1980s past that first endeared me to the station. Shelves full of music consumed a closet-like library space, stickers plastered on doors and cabinets hinted at music and radio history, and hand-made show flyers sent me on a nostalgia trip, reminiscing about the days of Fugazi and Bikini Kill shows. One of the on-air DJs that I met (host of the “Aging Anarchist’s Radio Program“) even started at WKDU in the 1980s, although his program that day included a range of punk, space rock and drone music from many eras. I also noticed another retro touch, as the DJ kept track of the music being played using a paper playlist.

WKDU’s Master Control Room (aka MCR). Photo: J. Waits

The WKDU space was full of amazing oddities and ephemera, including a creepy alien mannequin, toy army figures and industrial sized reflectors glued to the ceiling, several bowling pins, political drawings, a sticker-covered car bumper, an old TV with a WKDU cut-out inside of it, a Ms. Pac Man arcade game, and a large Santa Claus decoration adorned with faux armor. My personal radio station scavenger hunt check list was overflowing as well. I saw not only a Leo Blais-crafted WKDU sign, but also a Steve Keene painting and a life-size Ron Burgundy cardboard cut out. If one had in their mind the stereotype of what a cool, long-time college radio station might look like, WKDU would be it. It’s even located in a basement.

Leo Blais WKDU sign. Photo: J. Waits

Although I loved every second of my tour, it’s a bit of a blur for a number of reasons. First of all, I trekked over to the station with a large group of conference-goers from the College Broadcasters Inc. convention as one of the “adult” chaperones. Since we all drifted from space to space in clusters, the visit wasn’t conducive to in-depth interviews. Additionally, by the time of the afternoon visit, I was feeling pretty miserable from a cold that had just kicked into full gear. In spite of it all, I was excited to be seeing an interesting college radio station with other college radio folks, including a few people who had previously toured me around their home college radio stations, including SCAD Atlanta Radio (field trip #39), KCSU (field trip #109), KXUA (field trip #115) and WPRB (field trip #100).

Ron Burgundy at WKDU. Photo: J. Waits

WKDU Radio History, Including Carrier Current Past

Radio at Drexel dates back to the late 1950s, via campus-only carrier current radio station WMAX (aka “the Dragon’s Voice). The January 30, 1959 issue of the Drexel Triangle reports,

RADIO HAS FINALLY COME TO DREXEL! After terms of dis­cussion. radio is a reality. WMAX began its broadcasting services in the early part of this week on an experimental frequency of 1600 KC. Broadcasting will continue on this frequency until the main transmitter is finished. The temporary transmitter is located in the Women’s Dorm, operating with a power of less than one watt. Due to this low power, the station will probably be heard only in the im­mediate area of the Dorm…When completed, the main transmitter will operate on a fre­quency of 690 KC and will have a power in the neighborhood of sixty watts. It is believed that this will be more than sufficient to cover the entire campus and ad­joining areas.”

WKDU participants in the college radio station’s lobby. Photo: J. Waits

College radio participants in 2017 might be surprised to see that the same 1959 article included gendered station roles, stating, “The station still needs staff an­nouncers and engineers for Satur­day and Sunday afternoon shows in addition to girls for clerical help.” The station’s initial schedule appears to have had both male and female show hosts, however, with programs focused on pop music, vocal jazz, “study music,” love songs, Frank Sinatra tunes, and dance bands.

“WKDU if you steal, we will kill you” sign on the door to the college radio station. Photo: J. Waits

WMAX ceased to exist in July, 1962 and according to a letter to the editor of the Drexel Triangle in September, 1962, the station was in the midst of moving its studios and rethinking the overall structure of the college radio station. In the process, the call letters were changed to WXDT. The new station started out by operating experimentally in the fall of 1962. A December, 1962 Drexel Triangle article explained that the station was trying out new programming and could be heard in the Drexel Activities Center and in the library. It was hoped that the signal could be expanded to more student residences the following year and the station’s long-term goal was to have an FM license, which it was eventually awarded in 1971.

Show flyers on wall at WKDU. Photo: J. Waits

After moving to FM and changing its call letters to WKDU, the newly licensed station shared its frequency with the Philadelphia Wireless Technical Institute’s station WPWT until the late 1980s. In 1990, WKDU took over 91.7 FM and started broadcasting 24 hours a day. Radio history fan Arcane Radio Trivia did some sleuthing and has some interesting tales to tell about this arrangement as well as the programming over WPWT (including disco and metal).

Engineering Dept. sign at WKDU. Photo: J. Waits

I’m glad to see that WKDU maintains an interest in station history. Take a peek through the station’s blog archives to read about some of the reel-to-reel and vinyl gems in its library, as well as the back story on its long-time reggae programming. There’s even some audio from a 1977 WKDU interview with the John Minnis Big Bone Band.

WKDU studio. Photo: J. Waits

WKDU Today

WKDU is a student-run, free format college radio station. According to the WKDU website, “If you are a current undergraduate or graduate student at Drexel, you are eligible to become a member. All new members undergo a training process that includes sit-ins with current DJs, new music listening, station service hours, and concludes with an on air and operations log test.”

CD library at college radio station WKDU. Photo: J. Waits

The current WKDU schedule includes a broad mix of music programming, with shows that play reggae, rock, metal, gospel, electronic music, punk, ska, hip hop, soul, jazz, noise, and modern classical.  Show titles like “Metal and Coffee,” “Garbage and Noise,” “1100ccs of Hate,” “Kombucha Mother,” “Caribbean Beats” and “Alt Things Considered” hint at the diversity of the station. Live music is also a mainstay at WKDU, with in-studio performances happening on a regular basis. Just last month, there were nine in-studios.

Steve Keene “Apples in Stereo” painting at WKDU. Photo: J. Waits

To help get them familiar with WKDU’s programming, new DJs are required to play six new releases per hour on their shows, with that requirement reduced to three new items per hour for established and specialty show DJs.

CDs at WKDU. Photo: J. Waits

Thanks to everyone at WKDU for the great tour and warm welcome. This is my 135th radio station field trip report, which means that I have just one more Philadelphia station tour to write up in addition to a couple in New York, and a few in California. My most recent field trips can be found on Radio Survivor and a full list of all my station tour reports is compiled on Spinning Indie.

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On a Friday evening in October, I traveled to Temple University in Philadelphia to see college radio station WHIP (pronounced W-H-I-P). As I approached its TECH Center building home, buses in the area were idling nearby, collecting passengers for a Temple football game that night. When I arrived at the station, WHIP’s General Manager Ed LeFurge and Program Director Eric White greeted me and welcomed me for a tour and chat.

Temple banner en route to WHIP. Photo: J. Waits

LeFurge and White are passionate spokespeople for WHIP and enthusiastically shared with me some recent successes. A student-run station with around 100 participants and 18 student staff, WHIP has a long tradition of sports programming, although we spoke quite a bit about the growth of its news department and the diversity of its music shows. I was there on October 21, just a few weeks prior to the presidential election and was told about the station’s plans for election night coverage from a campus bar. In the preceding months, numerous station personnel had received press credentials for various political events, including debates. Additionally, WHIP had gotten interviews with both national and local officials, sometimes even before major news outlets.

WHIP Sports logo on the college radio station’s wall. Photo: J. Waits

WHIP has also made an effort to connect with both radio industry professionals and college radio peers. One of the first things that we talked about was the Temple University Radio Networking Summit (T.U.R.N.S.) that had been held six months prior to my visit. WHIP organized the event, inviting guest speakers and students from around 20 local colleges for a day of panels and networking. LeFurge and White told me that after the election they would begin planning for the April, 2017 event. As it turns out, the next T.U.R.N.S. will take place this Thursday, April 27 at Temple University. In speaking of last year’s event, LeFurge recounted, “It was a really nice event that brought people together to network, to meet people and learn a little bit more about the radio business.”

WHIP studio. Photo: J. Waits

An internet-only, student-run radio station today, WHIP originally launched over campus-only FM in 2000. Student radio has existed on campus much longer, however, with campus-only AM carrier current radio station WRTI (the call letters refer to its educational leanings and stood for Radio Technical Institute) emerging in 1948 (read about its early history here) and continuing until 1968. According to a timeline on the WRTI website, WRTI got an FM license in 1953. The new WRTI-FM went all jazz in 1969 and shifted to a jazz/classical format in 1997.

Audio equipment at WHIP. Photo: J. Waits

WRTI-AM was student-run from 1948 to 1968 and it was interesting to learn from a WRTI history website that WRTI collaborated with other local college radio stations in a “collegiate network.” I’ve been working on digging up the history of Haverford College’s radio station and had come across evidence of another similar network in the Philadelphia area in the 1940s. According to the WRTI history website, “On February 21, 1949, WRTI joined ‘The Philadelphia Inquirer Collegiate Network.’ This local hook-up connected the campus stations of Temple University, Swarthmore College and the University of Pennsylvania (WRTI, WXPN and WSRN). At that time, WRTI broadcast from 12 noon until 11 pm with WRTI programs airing from noon ’til 6 and then network programming from Swarthmore and Penn.”

Recording sign at WHIP. Photo: J. Waits

Today, WRTI-FM is a professionally-run public radio station with little interaction with student-run WHIP. According to LeFurge, the stations are very different. He explained, “They’re a specific platform. They play classical, jazz music. We do everything.” It had been decades since there had been a true college radio station on campus, so the creation of WHIP created more opportunities for students. White surmised, “I just think…It was a really kind of a sad thing when RTI stopped with student workers…or at least…slowed that down… And when we got brought back… I think that we really kind of just brought that sense of life back into…radio.”

Press clipping about the origins of WHIP. Photo: J. Waits

According to the Temple News, WHIP was first conceived in 1997 and originally broadcast to the campus over FM in 2000 using low power transmitters. Not heard much beyond the Student Center, WHIP had dreams of wiring the campus so that more could hear the station. By 2005, WHIP was making plans to move to a new location and transition to an online-only station. A 2005 piece in the Temple News reported on plans to get the station online by 2006, stating, “WHIP was previously broadcast only in the Student Center via radio. Programs will no longer be heard on the radio channel, 91.3 FM, but through their Web site. [WHIP President Akin B.] Ware said he wants WHIP to be the best online broadcast in the country.” The build out of the new, online-only station was slow going, and a fall 2006 article anticipated WHIP’s imminent relaunch in 2007.

Press clipping on the wall of WHIP about the early days of the college radio station. Photo: J. Waits

LeFurge told me, “We had a lot of great people that helped get this station founded. You know our advisor John DiCarlo. He’s the Director of Student Media…He’s been here for 15 years and you know John’s seen a lot of changes and he’s been a huge, huge influence on getting us up and running…” In addition to its online stream, WHIP is also one of the college radio stations featured on iHeartRadio. LeFurge extolled the benefits of that partnership, saying, “it’s awesome for us,” adding that when people ask them what their frequency is, they can say, “Well, we don’t have a frequency, we’re on iHeartRadio. You can listen to us worldwide online.” He continued, saying, “And it’s cool because…my family in Jersey can sit and listen to it and…people from all over the place can tune in and listen to us, so…it’s really been a blessing for us to be on iHeartRadio.” LeFurge added, “I think being on iHeart gives us just as much legitimacy as it does having an FM frequency, because…an FM frequency if they’re only FM and they’re not online, I’m not hearing them outside of a certain jurisdiction…that’s one of the benefits to it.”

Board at WHIP. Photo: J. Waits

Since its earliest days, the WHIP call letters have stood for “We Have Infinite Potential” and reflect the overall optimism of the station. Live programming generally runs from around 11am to midnight on Sundays through Thursdays (and was expected to extend to 9am soon after my visit), from around 11am to 7pm on Fridays and from 10am to 7pm on Saturdays. With around 100 hours of live broadcasting every week, WHIP airs a wide range of shows, including live sports, sports talk, news, and music programming. During my visit, they were preparing for a broadcast of that night’s Temple football game.

Eric White in WHIP production studio. Photo: J. Waits

As far as music, DJs play digital music across a range of genres. White told me, “We play everything from country to hip hop to reggae, jazz, metal…anything you have an idea for, we pretty much cover it.” He does a reggae show and told me that he’s after an indie show and just before a punk show. He added, “it’s definitely an anything goes mentality as long as it’s clean.” Even though WHIP is online-only and not bound by FCC regulations, the station opts to stay clear of music with profanities.

Stack of LPs and CDs at WHIP. Photo: J. Waits

I was super impressed by the wisdom and professionalism of LeFurge and White. Both seniors (and volunteers), they take great pride in the station and in supporting newer participants. LeFurge explained, “The one thing that the station was missing was the lack of professionalism,” adding, “I’m a very policy-oriented guy.” He ended up setting some rules and created a station manual so that people know what is expected of them. Additionally, LeFurge said, “I wanted to take WHIP to the next level.” I was amazed to hear that he instituted a “48 hour email policy,” with members of the station expected to answer their emails within 48 hours. He explained, “communication…is key…without communication we cannot be successful.” He also meets with staff weekly and tries to not only be a boss, but a friend, telling me that, “I’ve learned…having a support system is how people are successful in life…they all have my phone number…I’m a phone call away.” White concurred, saying, “It’s all about relying on other people.”

“Clean Up” sign at WHIP. Photo: J. Waits

White talked about the negative stereotypes that are often associated with college students and with his generation and said that it’s important for WHIP to focus on being a radio station first. He explained:

Our biggest thing is getting ourselves out there and letting people know that we’re not a college radio station, we’re a radio station…Take the word ‘college’ out…yeah, we’re all college students that run it, but because of the culture of professionalism we’ve established here and…basically how the word college means immaturity sometimes to people, I think that really emphasizes that we put together some great stuff and we really do want to be legitimate…A lot of us work our asses off…outside of the station…we still put our time in and that ultimately is a mark of excellence.”

Eric White in WHIP studio. Photo: J. Waits

LeFurge agreed, saying that it’s unfortunate that sometimes college radio is equated with “amateur” or “immature.” He explained that at WHIP, they hold themselves to a professional standard and because of that, they have had some great opportunities, including big interviews and partnerships. The station is self-supporting, receiving no money from the university, so it largely survives on advertising earnings and payments from DJ gigs. LeFurge told me that WHIP provides DJs for a regular Friday night event put on by Student Activities and said that the station is regularly DJing events for various departments on campus. A particularly high profile hosting opportunity was for a large campus concert (Owlchella) featuring the likes of French Montana.

Poster for WHIP event. Photo: J. Waits

In addition to WHIP’s deep involvement with Temple University culture and events, it also strives to connect with the broader local music scene. White pointed out that he feels like it’s part of his duty at the station’s Program Director to “bring to light the awesomeness of the local scene.” He explained that Philadelphia is rich with live music, including bar shows, house shows, and “dope hip hop shows.” As I wrapped up my visit, White led me on a quick tour through WHIP’s studios, showing me the broadcast studio, news room and production studio. Preparations were underway for the night’s football broadcast from Lincoln Financial Field, so station volunteers were largely focused on ensuring that all was squared away for that.

Newsroom sign at WHIP. Photo: J. Waits

Thanks so much to Ed LeFurge and Eric White for a wonderful visit to WHIP. This is my 134th radio station field trip report. Still to come are recaps of two more visits to radio stations in Philadelphia as well as a couple in New York, and a few in California. My most recent field trips can be found on Radio Survivor and a full list of all my station tour reports is compiled on Spinning Indie.

The post Radio Station Visit #134 – College Radio Station WHIP at Temple University appeared first on Radio Survivor.

It was after dark when I arrived on the University of Richmond campus on Wednesday, March 15, 2017. Although I had a general idea of where college radio station WDCE was located, I had to circle the building before eventually spotting the station’s sign above the stairs leading down to the entrance to its basement lair. The on-air DJ Todd Ranson let me in the building and gave me the grand tour.

WDCE sticker on the wall of the University of Richmond college radio station. Photo: J. Waits

I was amazed to find out that Ranson first got involved with WDCE during his first year at the private liberal arts university in 1983 and has been on the air off and on ever since. He recalled that on his first day of freshman orientation, he drove to campus, said his goodbyes to his family, and then headed straight to the radio station, telling me, “I was completely smitten.” After making connections there, two hours later he drove back home to see Neil Young in concert. When he started at the station, R.E.M. was all the rage and he Ranson was into 1960s garage rock. Always interested in learning about the latest music, he continues to listen to a lot of radio, telling me that he particularly likes British radio, as he finds that it’s about two to three weeks ahead as far as new music goes.

WDCE DJ Todd Ranson peruses the college radio station’s library of vinyl LPs. Photo: J. Waits

Ranson also lauded the Richmond radio scene, telling me that the city is “very blessed” with so much good radio. He also subs at community radio station WRIR-LP occasionally (see my station tour #124), telling me that many WRIR DJs got their start at WDCE. Additionally, there are some WDCE DJs who have shows on other stations, including WTJU (see my station tour post #129), hinting at the tight-knit worlds of college and community radio.

Local CDs in WDCE studio. Photo: J. Waits

Since he’s been at WDCE through many generations of students, Ranson shared some perspective on how the station has changed over the years. He told me that WDCE was extremely popular for many years and then interest in the station among students waned in the mid to late 1990s. He was heartened that in the past four years or so, there’s been “tremendous student support.” The station even got a new studio maybe five or six years ago. Ranson said that the basement space was originally the kitchen for a women’s dorm from around 100 years ago. It had a dirt floor and was a “wreck” before being remodeled into WDCE’s current digs.

Vintage WDCE sticker posted on a window at the radio station. Photo: J. Waits

Surprisingly, Ranson is not the most veteran DJ at WDCE. In fact, there are station participants who started out at the station as far back as the 1960s. A 1962 plaque on the wall was evidence of those early days, when the station’s call letters were WCRC. According to a piece in University of Richmond Magazine, radio “activities” took place on campus as early as 1922. Carrier current station WCRC launched in 1960 and WDCE’s FM broadcasts began in 1977.

WCRC plaque from 1962 at WDCE. Photo: J. Waits

Today, the station is student-run and has a mix of student and non-student DJs broadcasting over 90.1FM in Richmond, Virginia. Ranson said that the station is a “blank page” for students and people have taken on a wide variety of interesting projects. On-air, DJs have a lot of freedom and he likened college radio to the “wild wild west,” where you can almost do anything you’d like.

View of the WDCE on-air studio from the college radio station’s CD library. Photo: J. Waits

The WDCE space consists of a large on-air studio with windows overlooking a record library on one side and a seating area with shelves full of LPs on another. A couple of additional rooms house office/storage space. I hung out while Ranson wrapped up his show and did the hand off to the student who was on the air after him. Although he first started in radio in the age of LPs and cassettes, Ranson comfortably mixed in music from YouTube, CDs, and LPs during the bit of his show that I saw. A fan of all kinds of new music, he sources material from many different places.

Todd Ranson doing his show at college radio station WDCE. Photo: J. Waits

Following my visit, I caught up with WDCE Program Director Sam Schwartzkopf over email to learn more about the station. In addition to overseeing programming, she hosts a Thursday afternoon show called “Glamorous Indie Rock N Roll,” whose title was inspired by a Killers song. She explained, “My co-host plays largely indie, while I specialize in folk and some pop-punk! It’s a conglomerate of a show, to be sure. Sometimes we have themed shows, which are an interesting challenge for the week. For example, our last one was a ‘Soundtrack Day’ where each 15 minute segment featured a different movie soundtrack we grew up listening to.”

Ambient, electronic, jazz CDs at WDCE. Photo: J. Waits

According to Schwartzkopf, there are around 70 DJs total. She said, “…they are split evenly between students and community,” adding the caveat that, “This is not by design but by coincidence.” Live shows typically air from 9am to 1am and during the late night/early morning hours, WDCE goes off the air.

Lounge area at WDCE. Photo: J. Waits

When I asked Schwartzkopf about the station’s overall programming philosophy, she opined, “When we turn our transmitter on for the day, we play a Shakespeare quote: ‘If music be the food of love, play on.’ I suppose that’s the closest thing we have to a unified philosophy. Music is an instrument for community, and WDCE is always striving to strengthen the University of Richmond through good, quality music.”

Postcard for WDCE open house. Photo: J. Waits

The station’s website mentions that WDCE has also hosted a number of live music events, stating that, “Over the years, WDCE has brought many concerts to the campus including DC punk legends Fugazi, indie favorites Death Cab For Cutie, and hip-hop veteran Masta Ace.” Schwartzkopf said, “We usually have one a semester. Sometimes we have two during the spring semester, when the weather is nicer. Our most recent was at the on-campus restaurant and bar, The Cellar. They are kind enough to give us their space from time to time. It’s a friendly, intimate venue, and we usually have one concert there per semester. The concerts often showcase two or three DJs [and] bands of diverse genre[s], and our larger concert this semester will also incorporate some bigger-name, yet still local, bands.”

Flyer for a past WDCE event. Photo: J. Waits

Sticker-covered file cabinet at WDCE. Photo: J. Waits

The post Radio Station Visit #133 – College Radio Station WDCE at University of Richmond appeared first on Radio Survivor.

There’s a lot of radio going on at University of Virginia and the newest station is WXTJ-LP, a student-run low power FM (LPFM) college radio station. Although its studio is in the same facility as WTJU (see my tour #129 here), WXTJ-LP has its own identity and air sound. Frustrated by the lack of student involvement at WTJU, General Manager Nathan Moore decided to create a second, student-only radio station. According to Moore, “I basically took the ‘go big or go home’ approach to student involvement at WTJU. I was having a hard time increasing the percentage of students involved at the station. So I built them a parallel second station. It worked.”

College radio station WXTJ’s studio. Photo: J. Waits

Moore explained that WXTJ (originally WTJX) began as a webstream for three and a half years and then launched over FM in April, 2016. Describing it as a “fraternity for misfits,” Moore told me that the new station has already been a huge success as far as increasing student involvement. He told me that participation went from zero to 120 students in just a year. When I asked him why they decided to apply for the LPFM license, he explained:

We went for the LPFM license because it reaches a bigger audience – particularly in cars. And particularly community folks who are less apt to stream something coming from UVA grounds. It also lends more of a sense of importance and legitimacy to the whole enterprise when it’s an official FCC-licensed thing that students really control and operate.”

Poster from the WTJX days. Photo: J. Waits

Although WXTJ has just one studio of its own, station members are able to use WTJU’s music library and production studio. The stations are still part of one big family and help each other out with events and promotions. Additionally, some WXTJ DJs have ended up on the air at WTJU. Moore explained the main differences between the stations, pointing out that, “WXTJ is all students, and the programing is totally freeform. Some days, you might hear a mix of EDM or old school hip-hop or indie rock. Or the students might raid our vinyl library and play an old record of traditional Swiss folk songs. Plus conversations and interviews thrown into the mix.”

CD players, equipment in WXTJ studio. Photo: J. Waits

Following my March 17, 2017 visit, WXTJ Co-Director Chase Browning filled in further details for me over email. Since University of Virginia has several radio stations, I was curious to hear what drew him to WXTJ. He told me that he joined in September, 2015 and shared that, “As a new student, I wasn’t totally sure of the difference between WTJU & XTJ – but what initially appealed to me was that XTJ was an all-student station, so I stuck with it.”

Flyers and artwork on the wall at WXTJ, including some referencing old call sign (WTJX). Photo: J. Waits

He said that around 100 students are affiliated with WXTJ, with 75 scheduled shows that run between 8am and 2am every day of the week. When there isn’t a live DJ in the studio, automation kicks in. According to Browning, “…we channel the broadcast to DJ Aud O’Mation (its actual name in the schedule) which is a songbank of around 3,000 songs. It’s going to be a summer project to do a complete jukebox overhaul, because while most of the stuff in there is bland folk or electronic, there is some bizarre spoken word, sonic collages, and recordings of live performances, most of which are wildly explicit. Who knows how those got in there – but we’re gonna clean it up.”

WXTJ board, with note about turning on automation system. Photo: J. Waits

The freeform nature of WXTJ sets it apart from WTJU. Browning characterized the programming philosophy for me, saying that it largely has to do with DJ freedom:

By free form radio, we mean that we trust in the integrity of our DJs to play good quality music, and leave it up to them as to what counts as good. Some of the DJs who are transfer students and were active in their old college radio stations have talked about requirements where the song can’t have more than 5,000 views on YouTube, or a certain amount of listens on Spotify. We’ve discussed in XTJ on whether we should only play music that’s been released in the past year. Ultimately, those arguments always break down, because a good quality radio station necessarily cannot be uniform in content. Our station would lack all credibility if we didn’t have late night hip-hop shows, Saturday midnight electronic, femme, queer, and riot grrl, the one great classic rock show, and all the rest. Free form radio is the spirit of college radio, it’s the tradition we are inheriting, and it’s what the DJs do a hell of a job keeping alive and relevant.”

WXTJ sign on door at the college radio station. Photo: J. Waits

Beyond what’s going on over the air, WXTJ also regularly hosts events, including an art show and sale on the weekend of my visit. I actually learned about the art show from the General Manager of another college radio station (WXJM), so it had clearly gotten some buzz outside of Charlottesville. Browning told me,

This year’s art show was our second annual, and we tried splitting the proceeds 60/40 between the artist and a given charity. Submissions were open to anyone anywhere, and we received an even split between student / non-student submissions. A handful, actually, were from faculty / staff of the university.”

Flyer for WXTJ Art Show. Photo: J. Waits

Music was part of the festivities at the art show, with live acoustic acts last year and DJs this year. Additionally, WXTJ puts on a variety of live music events regularly. Browning described the station’s role in the Charlottesville DIY music scene, saying,

WXTJ hosts a ton of concerts each year, usually at 1411 Gordon Avenue. Last year the house was known as ‘Camp Ugly,’ because one of the people living there founded an art / music / booking collective called Camp Ugly here in Charlottesville. They’ve done everything from host DIY shows, experimental dance, hold screenings and discussions of film, screen original films, and make clothing / pins / etc. They were really the first house full of students that brought DIY performance to UVa grounds.

Now the house known as ‘Trash House,’ has inherited the tradition, and hosts many similar events. Trash House has also collaborated with numerous other clubs, such as Feminism is for Everyone and the Student Hip-Hop Organization, to host larger events, namely our annual show in the UVa chapel. This annual show is reserved for bigger acts and has sold out each of its three years.

Lastly, toward the end of the year, there’s an annual event in Charlottesville known as ‘The Foxfield’s Races,’ which is a horse race about 20 minutes away from grounds. It’s a fairly bourgeoisie event that a fair amount of students attend, so radio hosts an ‘WXTJ Hates Foxfield’ event. This is an all-day festival with about 6-7 bands, a magician, plenty of refreshments, and a last big send-off for the end of the year.”

WXTJ staffers at College Radio Symposium. Photo: J. Waits

For a relatively new college radio station, it’s amazing to see that WXTJ is already deeply involved with local music and art scenes, particularly the “smaller, DIY and underground type of performances,” according to Browning. It’s also clearly created its own unique, all-student community in the short time that it’s been in existence. Browning described the impact the station has had on him, telling me, “WXTJ has been key to my time at university. The people I’ve met through radio and the music I’ve been exposed to has enriched my life and had an immense impact on how I understand and experience music.”

Praise for WXTJ from the 21 Society. Photo: J. Waits

Thanks to Chase Browning and Nathan Moore for the interviews and to everyone at WXTJ for the warm welcome during my tour and at the College Radio: Then, Now and Next symposium. This is my 132nd radio station field trip report, with more on the way from my Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York and California travels. My most recent field trips can be found on Radio Survivor and a full list of all my station tour reports is compiled on Spinning Indie.

The post Freeform Music, House Shows, and Art: Touring College Radio Station WXTJ-LP at University of Virginia appeared first on Radio Survivor.

While making plans for my trip to Charlottesville, Virginia for the College Radio: Then, Now and Next symposium, I was looking forward to seeing all three radio stations that have an affiliation with the University of Virginia: WTJU (see my tour report #129), WXTJ and WUVA. Each has a distinct personality. WTJU is a non-commercial FM station with mostly non-students hosts, WXTJ is a student-run, freeform low power FM station, and WUVA (pronounced woo-vuh) is a student-managed commercial FM station whose most recent format was country.

Equipment and On-Air sign in WUVA studio. Photo: J. Waits

Just a few months before my visit, WUVA announced that it would be selling its FM license to a commercial radio group, so I was worried that I would miss my opportunity to see the station. Luckily, WUVA was still inhabiting its studio space, so I was able to get a quick tour on March 16. To me, this was even more notable, as I’ve only visited a handful of college radio stations with commercial licenses.

Nash Icon – the most recent WUVA format. Photo: J. Waits

Celebrating its 70th anniversary this fall, WUVA (its call letters are a nod to the University of Virginia acronym: UVA) is the descendant of a campus-only AM carrier current radio station that launched in the fall of 1947. Its license is held by WUVA, Inc., which is managed by students, with oversight by students and alumni. The WUVA website explains,

In the post-war era, some universities were beginning to recognize broadcasting as an area for academic study. At these schools, many student-originated stations evolved into the ‘official’ college radio station, receiving sanction, funding and facilities from a supportive institution. However, at schools without a formal broadcasting or mass communications program — including the University of Virginia — these stations tended to remain financially and organizationally independent, continuing largely as extra-curricular student organizations.

Most operated as non-commercial, public radio stations, relying on small budgets consisting mainly of listener donations and meager community support. A handful, however, sought and secured permission from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to operate as commercial broadcasters, selling advertising to support themselves, and evolving into a unique breed within the species: student owned and operated — yet fully self-supporting — commercial broadcast operations.

 

1960s WUVA recruitment flyer on wall at WUVA. Photo: J. Waits

After an unsuccessful attempt to obtain an AM license, WUVA added a cable FM transmission, which meant that listeners off campus could tune in. Eventually, WUVA was granted an FM license by the FCC and in 1979, WUVA started broadcasting over the commercial frequency of 92.7 FM. Since that time, the station has run a variety of commercial formats, including Album Rock, Top 40, Contemporary Hits, Urban Contemporary and Country. Although affiliated with the University of Virginia, WUVA is an independent organization (WUVA, Incorporated). According to its website,

WUVA, Incorporated has fostered independent, student-owned, student-operated electronic media at the University of Virginia since 1947. Although this organization has members who are University of Virginia students and may have University employees associated or engaged in its activities and affairs, the organization is not a part of or an agency of the University. It is a separate and independent organization which is responsible for and manages its own activities and affairs.”

1974 WUVA promotional cartoon posted on the wall at WUVA. Photo: J. Waits

In its early years, radio station WUVA had a large number of student participants, but those numbers dwindled in recent years, exacerbated by the station entering into a local marketing agreement with a commercial broadcasting group and leaving campus in the mid-1990s. The station eventually moved back on campus to Alumni Hall in 2010 and will be moving out shortly now that the WUVA-FM license sale is being finalized.

1979 WUVA photo on the wall at WUVA. Photo: J. Waits

With such a strong history, I was curious about all of the vintage equipment, records and materials that WUVA must have accumulated after being in operation for 70 years. According to the WUVA website,

When it left Lefevre dorm in the mid 1990s, the station was forced to divest itself of virtually all its analog-era equipment, including an historic collection of vinyl-based music. Except for its transmitter atop Carter’s Mountain, up the ridgeline from Monticello, WUVA had been operating for nearly a decade by leasing other stations’ facilities and equipment. As a result, when WUVA moved into its new studios in the summer of 2003, it had to make major capital investments to re-equip itself with everything from desks and chairs to the latest digital broadcast gear.

1988 photograph on the wall at WUVA. Photo: J. Waits

Although I didn’t see vintage records or equipment when I toured WUVA, the walls of the space were covered with photos, press clippings, and other tidbits of station history that had been blown up and mounted onto oversized display boards. It was an amazing glimpse at 70 years of history.

1980s press clipping posted on the wall at WUVA. Photo: J. Waits

The station space itself is located upstairs in the grand Alumni Hall at University of Virginia. There are several radio studios (some with fireplaces) as well as a room full of computers that has been used by the WUVA News operation, which has an emphasis on video, print and journalism. At the time of my visit, I didn’t see much in the way of radio activity and WUVA’s buyer (Saga Communications) was already broadcasting its own country music format (C-ville Country) over the FM signal via a local marketing agreement. It’s expected that when the sale is completed, the call letters will change to WCVL and WUVA Inc. will retain the WUVA branding for its other projects. Soon, WUVA Inc. will move out of the Alumni Hall space and the organization will devote itself entirely to WUVA News.

WUVA’s home at Alumni Hall at UVA. Photo: J. Waits

WUVA Inc.’s Marketing Director and President-Elect Matt Kesselman graciously toured me around the WUVA space and he and current WUVA, Inc. President Kailey Leinz (both are University of Virginia students) were kind enough to answer some follow-up questions over email. I was especially curious to learn more about student involvement at WUVA. Leinz shared her early experience with WUVA, telling me over email,

I knew coming into college that I was interested in and wanted to pursue broadcast journalism. At the time, the only real opportunity for that was doing radio broadcasting through WUVA, so I signed up immediately. At the time the station was still ‘92.7 Kiss FM’, a hip hop and r&b format. The music was all pre-programmed, but students could sign up for slots to do news, entertainment, or sports spots on the radio.”

Studio at WUVA in 2017. Photo: J. Waits

During her first year at the station, Leinz said that there was still a decent amount of student participation, but that numbers declined every year. She explained that, “I would say the last time students were heavily involved was three years ago. I was a first year and did weekly news spots for the radio– there was still a pretty robust student involvement on the on-air side. It faded by my second year, two years ago, and by last year there was no student involvement whatsoever.” When I asked her why she thought there was a drop-off, she speculated, saying, “I think the system was just getting more and more disorganized as we struggled to keep the radio station afloat, and we were focusing a lot more on our online operation, so eventually radio was just left behind by students.”

Studio at WUVA in 2017. Photo: J. Waits

From what I have seen it is very difficult for students to sustainably and effectively contribute/run a commercial radio station, you need a significant amount of professionals which then takes away from the student element of the college radio station. I also get the sense from talking to alumni that the modern student experience is very different than many years prior where current students are dragged across many activities all demanding their focus, which makes it difficult to keep students working consistently on something that requires absolute consistency. Again, this is a limited perspective.”

WUVA newsroom. Photo: J. Waits

Looking to the future, both Leinz and Kesselman are optimistic about WUVA’s new direction. Kesselman told me, “…WUVA will mostly be focused on news & journalism, particularly modern forms of online journalism which includes a lot of video content.” When I asked about radio, he shared that he does hope that students will continue to do work with audio, saying, “There are no plans currently for an online radio station, I will be pushing my staff to create more audio content in the form of serial podcasts.”

WUVA Media sign at WUVA. Photo: J. Waits

Considering that WUVA has a long legacy, I wondered how folks had responded to news of its FM license sale. According to Kessleman, “Student-side the sale is very exciting, it will free up resources for students to do what they have been focused on for the last couple years. Alumni/board-side, the sale was harder for them but ultimately they understand why it makes sense and are motivated to make it work and make WUVA as successful as possible.”

WUVA stickers at WUVA. Photo: J. Waits

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Back in October, 2016, I had a flurry of radio station visits in the Philadelphia-area, including a night-time trek to new low power FM (LPFM) college radio station WNUW-LP at Neumann University. WNUW’s General Manager Sean McDonald graciously picked me up from WYBF at Cabrini University (see my tour report #122) and drove me to see his nearby station in the Philadelphia suburb of Aston, Pennsylvania.

A glimpse at WNUW-LP from outside its building. Photo: J. Waits

Part of the overarching Neumann Media program, WNUW is the latest iteration of student radio on campus. According to McDonald, students had been asking for a student radio station for many years and an internet-only station launched in January, 2008 (when he was a student), following an initial radio course in 2007. When the LPFM application window opened, Neumann Media jumped on the opportunity and the school was ultimately awarded a license to broadcast over 98.5 FM.

WNUW banner at Neumann Media. Photo: J. Waits

During our drive, McDonald told me the back story of how WNUW came to be on FM. The university president actually alerted McDonald to the forthcoming LPFM window, passing along some information that had been sent by a consultant. McDonald recalled that after reviewing the details, “…we went for it and it was exhilarating.” Although there were frustrations along the way, he told me “it paid off in the end, because the students were more ecstatic to be on the air and to tell people they were on the air, than to just be on a stream.”

CDs at college radio station WNUW-LP. Photo: J. Waits

McDonald added the caveat, “… and that’s not to dig anybody on a stream, because I was for seven years, I was stream only. But people look at us differently now because we have an FM station…and to anybody that doubts the power of radio, you should see the faces when we tell someone that we also have our own radio station that’s over the air. Their eyes light up. Their parents eyes light up. It’s more than worth all of the troubles and frustrations that we went through. It’s just legitimized our program and it’s empowered students to do something even better.”

WNUW-LP studio. Photo: J. Waits

Neumann University has been incredibly supportive of the station’s move to FM and in addition to the license, the station also received a studio in the brand new John J. Mullen Communication Center on campus. Dedicated just two weeks before my visit, the shiny new digs are expansive (10,000 square feet of space for all of the school’s media and communications activities) and state of the art.

Multi-use communications lab at Neumann University. Photo: J. Waits

In addition to the WNUW studios, there are television studios, a green room, super fancy recording studios (sound isolating Wenger rooms, with “virtual acoustics”), and a multi-functional hall with projectors, robotic cameras, wireless microphones and video hookups. It’s also home to Neumann Media, the “student run media hub at Neumann University. Neumann Media is comprised of 4 parts: 98.5 WNUW, NeuVideo/NeuTube, Neumann Sports Network, and NeuPress,” according to its website.

Wenger Virtual Acoustic Environment controls in sound studio at Neumann Media. Photo: J. Waits

On top of his role as WNUW’s General Manager, McDonald is now Director of Neumann Media and was deeply involved in designing the communication center addition. As McDonald walked me through the Neumann Media space, he beamed with pride, telling me, “I literally built this thing…this is my baby.”

Colorful cables at Neumann Media. Photo: J. Waits

WNUW launched in late 2015, hosting a big party with live music on the first day of classes that August, followed by its official FCC on-air date in November, 2015 from its former location. WNUW first went on-air from its new building on April 30, 2016, while things were still under construction. McDonald said that they had “really” moved in by the end of July. Although most of the radio equipment had already been in use before the move, they still had a few “hiccups” and had to work out some kinks with a new automation system. McDonald said that it’s actually be a “fun learning curve” and added that it’s been great to watch the schedule grow every week. Additionally, radio classes were taking place in the studio, making for an even better learning environment.

Automation list at WNUW-LP. Photo: J. Waits

At the time of my visit, live programming started as early as 10am and ran as late as around 11pm. McDonald told me that Neumann has around 2,500 students and is predominately a commuter campus, with most students working full-time in addition to their coursework. There are some dorms on campus, but there are also students who travel home to work on the weekends.

Vinyl LPs at WNUW-LP. Photo: J. Waits

A big goal for McDonald has been to make the station feel inviting to students and faculty from many different disciplines. To that end, he’s recruited nursing majors, sports marketing majors (a few of whom are doing a show about the business of sports), a PhD student from the pastoral care & counseling program, faculty from the English department, and more. He shared with me that,

…I’ve worked very hard to get more people on. Now I’ve got…two professors in psychology. They’re doing a show called ‘This is your brain on politics’ and it’s the psychology of politics, especially right now with this presidential election and they’re breaking down, well, how is the media influencing it.”

Live assist button at WNUW-LP. Photo: J. Waits

Inspired by shows like this, others have asked to get involved with the station and he told me that the English department was looking into doing a program about the history of comedy. He added, “Maybe it took us getting the new facilities, but people now see it and they go, oh, it’s that easy and it’s recorded and I can build a resume and a reel around it…It’s amazing.” WNUW had around 48 participants back in October, the majority of which are students. As evidenced by the programs that I just described, there are also a handful of staff and faculty members hosting shows.

WNUW’s schedule. Photo: J. Waits

In addition to its public affairs and talk shows, WNUW plays a lot of music and has students managing music submissions. McDonald explained, “…I would say predominantly we are music-driven and we are music-driven from every spectrum…We have a professor that does 50s and 60s jazz on Fridays. He calls it ‘That’s Jazz.’ Then we have students that are country only or pop only or whatever I feel like playing today.” When there isn’t a live program, the station’s automation system kicks in, playing a selection of music that would likely be heard during hosted shows. McDonald said that the range of genres includes “brand new, throwbacks, country, rap [and] oldies.”

Sign reminding WNUW hosts to turn on automation system: AUTO. Photo: J. Waits

McDonald was also the 2016 President of College Radio Day and told me that he’s been particularly excited about the College Radio Foundation’s new grant program for college radio stations. He said that he thinks that the future of college radio is “bright, inventive and out of the box,” adding that he believes that students will “continue to reinvent radio” and that “the unknown is really exciting and invigorating.”

Headphones in college radio station WNUW-LP’s studio. Photo: J. Waits

Huge thanks to Sean McDonald for not only the tour of WNUW, but also the door-to-door transport on what was a very long travel day for me. This is my 130th radio station field trip report, with more on the way from my Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York and California travels. My most recent field trips can be found on Radio Survivor and a full list of all my station tour reports is compiled on Spinning Indie.

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WTJU was the impetus for my trip to Virginia last month, as the University of Virginia-based radio station invited me to speak at its College Radio: Then, Now and Next symposium on St. Patrick’s Day. I’d long known about the station and it was actually my 17th (and final) stop on my Spinning Indie 50 State Tour series.

One of many Steve Keene paintings at WTJU. Photo: J. Waits

It was great to catch up with WTJU General Manager Nathan Moore in person, as I had been in touch with him for many years and had interviewed him for the station profile that I wrote in 2012. Much has changed since then, including the launch of a student-focused low power FM (LPFM) radio station (WXTJ), the debut of a WTJU camper and celebrations in honor of the station’s 60th anniversary this year.

Nathan Moore in one of WTJU’s studios. Photo: J. Waits

So, at the end of a long day of college radio immersion, I popped by WTJU as it was setting up for one of its regular Friday night live music events. These Lambeth Live sessions happen in a lounge that’s adjacent to the radio station and on the night of my visit, the Bobby Midnight Band was preparing to play.

Sound board for WTJU’s live session. Photo: J. Waits

My friend and Radio Preservation Task Force colleague Laura Schnitker joined me as we toured WTJU with Moore. On the cusp of its 60th anniversary when we visited, WTJU has had several celebratory events in the past few weeks and is currently in fundraising mode with a week-long “Rock Marathon” pledge drive through April 16. The marathon schedule is jam-packed with special programming, including shows focused on hardcore, math rock, psychedelic music, and material from specific years (1967, 1977, 1987, etc.). This pattern of fundraising repeats with other WTJU genres during various points of the year.

Schedule from WTJU’s recent Folk Marathon. Photo: J. Waits

Coincidentally, the day that I am publishing this piece (April 13) is University of Virginia founder Thomas Jefferson’s birthday and those paying close attention may notice that the station call letters W-T-J-U are in honor of his influence and stand for “Thomas Jefferson’s University.” Located in Charlottesville, Virginia, in close proximity to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello plantation, the campus feels drenched in history.

University of Virginia ephemera on the wall at WTJU. Photo: J. Waits

College radio history at University of Virginia is also pretty interesting, with carrier current station WUVA launching in 1947 and eventually evolving into a commercial FM station by 1979. About a decade after WUVA began, WTJU was launched. According to Moore,

…my understanding is that both WUVA and WTJU were founded (or co-founded) ten years apart by the same guy: George Wilson, a professor in the Department of Speech and Drama. He and others had gotten WUVA going as a carrier current. But he maintained an interest in establishing another station that was FM and non-commercial. And from what I hear, he had an abiding interest in having a station that was more geared toward ‘good music’ (i.e. classical) than the popular music WUVA was playing at the time.”

Prototype of 60th anniversary WTJU logo that Nathan Moore was working on. Photo: J. Waits

As with many college radio stations, the music genres played over the air changed with the decades. Moore told me that during the 1970s, “WTJU started playing lots more music other than classical. While the station had never been truly 100% classical music, it was almost all classical in those first 13 years or so. By 1970, students with broader tastes started pushing in rock, jazz, and folk. Also a bunch of campus news. Supposedly with some contentiousness, though I’ve heard different versions of that. All those music genres remain on the air today.”

Classical LPs at WTJU. Photo: J. Waits

The 1980s at WTJU coincided with the assumed heyday of college radio and Moore told me that it was one of the station’s “golden eras.” He explained, “…this is when guys like Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich of Pavement, Dave Berman of Silver Jews, James McNew of Yo La Tengo, Boyd Tinsley of the Dave Matthew Band, Rob Sheffield (writer, Rolling Stone) and Steve Keene (artist) were all DJs at WTJU.” He added that they were part of an “influential DIY scene that spilled over into Charlottesville’s music scene and far, far beyond.”

1990s carts in WTJU studio. Photo: J. Waits

The mid-1990s saw a change in the DJ makeup at WTJU. Its first paid General Manager, Chuck Taylor, was hired and he “… sort of oversaw the shift of WTJU from a traditional *college* station to more of a community station at UVA. By 2000, the percentage of hosts was less than 30% students. The station also added three more full-time staff in addition to Chuck by the early 2000s,” according to Moore.

WTJU music library. Photo: J. Waits

After some drama with Taylor’s short-lived replacement in 2010 (which we covered on Radio Survivor), Moore was hired as GM. By 2013, Moore helped found streaming, all-student radio station WXTJ in order to address the low student participation at WTJU. It received a new low power FM license and launched over 100.1 FM in April, 2016. Between the two stations, there are now around 300 radio participants at WTJU/WXTJ.

WTJU studio. Photo: J. Waits

Today, WTJU is probably best described as a community radio station. It broadcasts in Charlottesville at 91.1 FM and during daytime hours and on the weekends, it can also be heard on 102.9 FM in Richmond. College radio station WVCW (see my recent visit report) leases time from them over 102.9 FM on weekday nights.

LP at WTJU. Photo: J. Waits

WTJU has around 120 shows hosts, with approximately 20 students in the mix. Live programs run from 6am to 3am and WTJU airs syndicated news and public affairs shows from 3am to 6am. Programming is “…sort of a stratified block program schedule,” according to Moore. He explained that, “…there’s quite a bit of diversity within genre that happens from one day to the next. So, for example, we air classical music weekdays 6-9am. Then jazz & blues 9am-12pm, rock 2-4pm, folk & roots 4-7pm, etc.”

WTJU documentary

WTJU occupies a large space on the second floor of the tucked-away Lambeth Commons building at University of Virginia. When we visited on a Friday night, much of the activity was focused on the band playing live that night. A few station staffers were in the studios of both WTJU and student radio station WXTJ. We started our tour in Moore’s office, which apparently used to be a pep band storage room full of uniforms. He pointed to an office next door, telling us that it had been packed with instruments.

Vintage WTJU T-shirt. Photo: J. Waits

We made our way through the station lobby, passing its mail room, kitchen, storage areas, WXTJ studio, record library, production studios, on-air studio, and music director office. Promotional posters lined hallway walls and I was excited to see numerous Steve Keene paintings. I’ve seen his paintings at other college radio stations, but WTJU used to be Keene’s radio home, so his work is everywhere. You can see a gallery of his work on the University of Virginia website.

One of the many Steve Keene paintings at WTJU. Photo: J. Waits

It was also nice to see some historical items, including a wall of carts with old promos and station IDs from the likes of Sleater-Kinney, Pavement, and the Meat Puppets in the WTJU studio, file boxes of ephemera in a closet, and a pile of past marathon T-shirts in Moore’s office.

Box of playlists and top of the charts lists at WTJU. Photo: J. Waits

I’m a bit obsessed with radio classes for kids and teenagers, so I was pleased to hear that WTJU runs summer camps for middle school and high school students. Kids this summer will have their programming broadcast over FM on WXTJ.

Flyer for WTJU radio camp. Photo: J. Waits

Another ongoing fascination for me is radio station-branded vehicles and when I visited, Moore mentioned that he was renovating a camper for a future project. Recently unveiled (see photos on Facebook), WTJU’s bright blue station camper hints of some fun future endeavors. Moore told me, “It’s an old 15-foot pull-behind 1971 camper that I got for the price of three turntables. We’re renovating it to turn it into a mobile recording studio / pop-up concert venue / food truck. And we’ll be able to send audio back to the station to broadcast from pretty much anywhere we go. Exactly how it’ll be deployed is a work in progress, but the idea is to use it as an amazing community engagement tool. Or put differently, we’ll be the party that shows up at events.”

Listening station in WTJU library. Photo: J. Waits

With boundless energy and immense passion for radio, Moore also organized a college radio symposium in the midst of camper renovations, anniversary planning, and the day-to-day operations of WTJU. He explained, “The inspiration for the symposium basically stemmed from some conversations around the station. Conversations that are certainly happening at other stations too – things like where is college & community radio going? What will really look like in a few years? What will keep students and others engaged in a media outlet like ours? How can we best serve our community and university with our on air and off air activities?” Moore added, “Plus, I really, really enjoy getting smart people together for a good conversation. It’s like my favorite thing.”

Table at entrance to College Radio: Then, Now and Next symposium. Photo: J. Waits

Thanks so much to Nathan Moore for the wonderful conversations during the “College Radio: Then, Now and Next” symposium and for the tour and back story on WTJU and WXTJ. I’ll be profiling WXTJ in a separate post.

Quiet in the Studio sign at WTJU. Photo: J. Waits

This is my 129th radio station field trip report, with more to come from my California, New York, Virginia and Philadelphia-area travels. My most recent field trips can be found on Radio Survivor and a full list of all my station tour reports is compiled on Spinning Indie.

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