Princeton Review just released its latest college guide, The Best 389 Colleges (paid affiliates link) 2024 edition, so it’s time once again to take a look at its rankings for “Best College Radio Station.” Post-COVID, we are now back to regular annual editions of this list, which is based on student surveys about the popularity of their home school’s radio station.
Like last year, this list is now made up of 25 schools (compared with 20 in the years before COVID).
The 2024 list of the 25 colleges with the “best radio stations” has 19 out of 25 of the schools from the 2023 list. The big surprise this time around, is that Syracuse University dropped from the list. That school, which has several radio stations, has been featured on Princeton Review lists every year since the 2014 edition.
Once again, the list is a mix, including large universities with multiple radio stations as well as small liberal arts colleges with online-only stations. The biggest school on the list is Arizona State (around 65,000 students) and the tiniest is Bennington College (around 785 students). I am also pleased to have visited college radio stations at 6 out of the 25 schools on the list.
The East Coast still dominates. Huge states like California and Texas are not represented at all. The Northeast takes up more of the list than last year, with 16 schools from this region (6 from New York, 3 from New Jersey, 3 from Massachusetts, and 1 each from Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania). On the west coast, only 3 schools are represented (2 from Washington and 1 from Oregon). From the Midwest, the 3 schools hail from Minnesota, Michigan, and Ohio. Two schools from the South include one each from Virginia and Florida. And the sole college from the Southwest is from Arizona.
Best = Popular
As a reminder, although the Princeton Review describes its college radio results as “Best College Radio Station,” the title doesn’t tell the whole story. Here’s the skinny:
1. Results are based on student surveys
2. Surveys were conducted at 389 colleges
3. Students are asked to judge the popularity, not the quality, of an unspecified campus radio station at their own college
4. Radio stations are not named in the survey or in the resulting rankings
5. Only schools surveyed can make it into the rankings, so college radio stations at schools that are not surveyed by Princeton Review won’t appear on the list
A number of colleges appearing on the “Best College Radio Station” list have multiple radio stations, including student-run stations, large public radio stations, and everything in between. It makes sense that students would indicate that their school’s radio station is “popular” if they are on a campus with a high profile professional radio station and/or with several radio stations.
Digging into Methodology
According to Princeton Review, “We tallied the rankings lists in the current edition of The Best 389 Colleges (published August 2023), based on the data from our surveys of 165,000 students at the 389 schools in the book.”
The site says that the “Best College Radio Station” list is compiled “based on students’ answers to the survey question, ‘How popular is the college radio station?,” but in recent years, the question was phrased a little differently. For the 2021 edition’s list, the survey asked, “How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements at your school?” Among the list of statements was: “College Radio Station is popular.” Respondents were given the following options: Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neither Agree or Disagree, Agree or Strongly Agree.
How Similar is this Year’s List to Prior Lists?
For the 2024 Princeton Review list of “Best College Radio Stations,” 19 of the 25 schools were on the 2023 list. Mount Holyoke College and Sarah Lawrence College are the brand new entrants. Neither has appeared during the 15+ years that I’ve been tracking Princeton Review lists. The other four schools that did not appear last year include Skidmore College (last appeared on 2022 list), Rider University (last appeared on 2016 list), Wellesley College (last appeared on 2012 list), and Fordham University (last appeared on 2022 list). I love seeing that women’s colleges (Mount Holyoke and Wellesley and former women’s colleges (Skidmore and Sarah Lawrence) are taking up a bigger slice of the list this year!
Those that fell off the list this year were Northeastern University, Pace University, Chapman University, University of the South, Syracuse University and Carleton College.
The complete list for the 2024 edition is listed below. For comparison, here are the lists from the 2023, 2022 (different format- had “Great College Radio Station” list), 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008 editions of Princeton Review.
2024 Princeton Review’s Best College Radio Stations
(aka Most Popular College Radio Stations)
Note: I’ve added station names and call signs as the Princeton Review only lists school names. Schools in bold were not on the previous “best” list for the 2023 edition
1. University of South Florida (WUSF 89.7 FM and Bulls Radio online/89.7 HD3/on campus 1620AM, Tampa, FL)
2. Emerson College (WERS 88.9FM and WECB, Boston, MA)
- Learn more on my WECB tour: Station Field Trip
3. Reed College (KRRC, Portland, OR)
- Learn more on my KRRC tour: Station Field Tri
4. Arizona State University (KASC 1330 AM, Tempe, AZ)
5. University of Puget Sound (KUPS 90.1 FM, Tacoma, Washington)
6. Skidmore College (WSPN 91.1 FM, Saratoga Springs, NY)
7. Rider University (107.7 FM The Bronc, Lawrenceville, NJ)
8. Wellesley College (WZLY 91.5 FM, Wellesley, MA)
9. Bowdoin College (WBOR 91.1 FM, Brunswick, ME)
10. Hofstra University (WRHU 88.7 FM, Hempstead, New York)
11. Denison University (Doobie Radio, Granville, OH)
12. Hillsdale College (WRFH-LP 101.7 FM, Hillsdale, MI)
13. Mount Holyoke College (WMHC 91.5 FM, South Hadley, MA)
14. Bennington College (B-Rad, Bennington, VT)
15. Princeton University (WPRB 103.3 FM, Princeton, NJ)
- Read my WPRB tour: Station Field Trip #100!
16. Ithaca College (WICB 91.7 FM and VIC Radio, Ithaca, New York)
17. Washington State University (KZUU 90.7 FM, KUGR and Northwest Public Radio, Pullman, WA)
18. Dickinson College (WDCV 88.3 FM, Carlisle, PA)
19. Seton Hall University (WSOU 89.5 FM, South Orange, NJ)
20. Hamilton College (WHCL 88.7 FM, Clinton, NY)
21. Macalester College (WMCN 91.7 FM, St. Paul, MN)
- Learn more on my WMCN tour: Station Field Trip #95
22. Sarah Lawrence College (WSLC, Bronxville, NY)
- Read my 2023 tour of WSLC: Station Field Trip #171
23. Fordham University (WFUV 90.7 FM, Bronx, NY and Wavelengths at Lincoln Center, NYC)
- Learn more on my WFUV tour: Station Field Trip #139
24. Roanoke College (WRKE-LP, 100.3 FM, Salem, VA)
25. Providence College (WDOM 91.3 FM, Providence, RI)
Learn More about College Radio
If this is your first visit to Radio Survivor, take a look at our massive archive of college radio content. There’s a collection of radio news in the College Radio Watch column. We report on college radio culture on our radio show/podcast. We tour college radio stations regularly, and have a page devoted to college radio basics.
