The Economist features a piece about college radio this week, with the headline How is College Radio Faring in the Streaming Era? – Not Signing Off Yet. It takes a cursory look at the state of college radio, unfortunately recycling stereotypical themes about the decline of college radio and its imagined heyday in the 1980s and 1990s. It’s not all gloom and doom, though. As evidence that college radio isn’t dead yet, it points to University of Minnesota’s college radio station Radio K and its embrace of social media, video, and audio streaming. The article states:
Radio K, the University of Minnesota’s radio station, demonstrates how college radio can not just weather the changes, but thrive in this new climate. Maddie Schwappach, the music director, states that digital tools have allowed them to take their curatorial work to a wider audience. The station hosts roughly 50 band performances a year, and it livestreams the events on Twitter or posts the videos on its YouTube channel. Listenership tends to be highest on Friday afternoons between 3 and 5pm, when hosts focus on local bands. It is highly engaged, too: they get the most calls, listener requests and donations during those segments.
Some digital-native DJs post full recordings of their shows on SoundCloud, Spotify or Bandcamp, or edit them down into podcasts. They pose questions on social media ahead of the programme—such as ‘What’s the saddest song?’—that are likely to elicit a reaction and entice listeners to engage with the show. The station uses social media to promote ticket giveaways, and posts about bands on Snapchat or Instagram. Graphic-design students help to create a distinguishable brand identity.
What do you think? Is the future of college radio digital? Is college radio long past its heyday? What are the best strategies to attract younger listeners?
Radio Obscura on the Podcast: Summer Camp Radio, Antarctica, Prison Radio Exhibit and More
I’ve been having so much fun bringing some quirky radio stories to the Radio Survivor Podcast/Radio Show. On this week’s episode we explore summer camp radio, a category I was unaware of until recently. Back in the 1990s, upwards of 350 sleep away camps operated their own radio stations. Numbers may have dwindled since then, but we hear about one camp that is alive and well in 2018. Hopefully you’ve been tuning in to our podcast every week or perhaps you listen to it on a local radio station. We’d love to hear what you think and if you have suggested topics for future episodes.
More College Radio News
New Stations
CSUSB Palm Desert Launches New Campus Radio Station (Palm Desert Patch)
State of College Radio
How is College Radio Faring in the Streaming Era? (The Economist)
Programming
There Will Always Be a Special Place for Old-Fashioned Radio (Chicago Tribune)
Radio Station Working for Landslide Risk Mitigation in Assam (Northeast Now)
Bogus Carriage List Causes Concerns about Improper Use of Station Call Letters (Spark News)
College Radio Alums
Local Radio Student Accepts Night Shift at Popular St. Louis Radio Station (RiverBender.com)
Lewis and Clark Radio Broadcasting Graduate Lands On-Air Dream Job (RiverBender)
Northwestern College Radio Alum Jeanne Sparrow Back on Chicago Airwaves (The Chicago Defender)
WIU Graduate Credits Opportunities at WIU for Helping Solidify His Doctoral Path (Western Illinois University News)
Meet the New President of Colorado Public Radio – College Radio Changed His Life (5280)
Profiles
Buchanan Right at Home as New GM (Radio Ink)
Academic Programs
SIUC Has an Innovative Program in Radio, Television and Digital Media (The Southern)
