Happy World Radio Day! This year’s theme is youth and innovation (see Paul’s post from earlier today), a timely sentiment considering what a great week it’s been for college radio! As we reported yesterday, Rice University was just granted a construction permit for a new low power FM (LPFM) radio station. This will allow KTRU.org to get back on the regular-old FM airwaves after losing its powerful full power signal in 2011. It’s an exciting moment for the students at KTRU.org, especially after the disappointment and protests following the sale of its license to University of Houston in 2011.
Alums Return to Air at KZSC
Also this week, Matthew wrote about KZSC-FM, the college radio station at University of California, Santa Cruz, and its upcoming programming for the school’s 50th anniversary. During Alumni Weekend (April 24-26), alumni DJs will return to the airwaves.
The Mysterious Black College Radio Convention
In a Radio Survivor Bulletin exclusive this week (sign up here, if you don’t already receive it), I delved into the history of the Black College Radio Convention. Launched in 1979, the annual conference took place in Atlanta and was a major event for college radio stations at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) until 2009. Read more about it (and other news from the week) in the Radio Survivor Bulletin.
Happy 51st Anniversary to KDVS and Happy 59th Anniversary to KSPC
This month a few California college radio stations celebrated anniversaries, including University of California, Davis station KDVS-FM (see Pacifica Network’s article commemorating the station’s 51st anniversary) and Pomona College’s KSPC-FM, which launched 59 years ago this week.
mtvU College Radio Woodie Nominations are Open
And, without much fanfare, mtvU has opened up nominations for its annual College Radio Woodie award. Anyone can nominate a station by visiting the RateMyProfessors site and submitting the school name and call letters of one’s favorite college radio station. It’s unclear when the nomination period will end, but the nominees will be culled down to 10 finalist stations. If the awards run like last year, the winning station will be determined by online voting (recent winners held click-a-thons on campus in order to generate votes). The victor will be announced at the mtvU Woodie Awards in Austin, Texas during SXSW on March 20.
KUWS Documentary Paints Portrait of College Radio Community
It was pretty inspiring to see the short documentary, Left of the Dial: The College Radio Experience about University of Wisconsin-Superior’s college/public radio station KUWS-FM this week. Featuring interviews with a range of DJs, plus some great shots of CD-filled offices, vinyl playing on the turntable, and poster-covered walls, I felt right at home watching the sights and sounds of KUWS, which one DJ describes as a “community” and place for the “freaks and the weirdos.” So much of this documentary range true for me, including a comment about a listener driving at night and hearing an amazing track on the station that improved their mood. Yep, that’s part of what I love about college radio too.
KUWS is an interesting station in that it airs both Wisconsin Public Radio programming as well as student-produced shows. The student-produced underground music-oriented Dean’s List program airs from 10pm to 1am and student-produced jazz music programming (91 Jazz Street) airs on weekday evenings until 9 or 10pm.
We cover the culture of college radio every Friday in our College Radio Watch feature. If you have college radio news to share, please drop us a note at EDITORS at RADIOSURVIVOR dot COM.
