Big changes came to college radio in the 2010s, with dramatic losses and exciting new opportunities, leading to perhaps more college radio than ever before thanks to the variety of forms that college radio now takes. Despite the challenges, college radio is as resilient as ever and students’ desire to work in audio is strong as we begin the next decade.
College Radio Fights Back
At the start of the 2010s there were a series of high profile college radio license sales (with the most press attention for the loss of University of San Francisco’s KUSF-FM, Rice University’s KTRU-FM and Vanderbilt University’s WRVU-FM), which not only shook up communities of listeners and participants, but also led to organized protests (I dubbed 2011 “The Year that College Radio Fought Back”), collaborations, and new alliances. College radio stations came together, offered support, and even opened up their airwaves to bring attention to the plight of stations who were fighting license sales. College radio organizations and allies (including College Broadcasters Inc., National Federation of Community Broadcasters, CMJ, Grassroots Radio Conference, UCRN, and SXSW) also provided space for discussion on the topic of how to prevent station sales.
While some students were distressed by the loss of terrestrial licenses, others took these shifts in stride, embracing online radio, HD radio, podcasting, low power FM, and even iHeart Radio (which began adding college radio stations to its platform in 2012).
Celebrating College Radio
College Radio Day debuted in October, 2011, a welcome celebration on the heels of the loss of FM broadcasts at KUSF, KTRU and WRVU. Over the course of the decade, College Radio Day expanded from the one-day-a-year event in the United States to a global experience, uniting student radio stations all over the world. Additionally, the College Radio Foundation was formed in 2014 as a non-profit overseeing College Radio Day, as well as a grants program, record label, and affiliated events like an annual vinyl marathon (“Vinylthon”).
College Radio Embraces LPFM
The 2013 low-power FM application window brought even more opportunities for college radio and around 100 colleges and universities applied for new LPFM licenses, with more than 70 ultimately granted construction permits. After the major losses at the start of the decade, witnessing the growing interest in starting up new college radio stations was inspiring to watch.
FCC Cuts Student Stations a Break
There was some great news for licensed U.S. college radio stations in the past decade in regards to the FCC. Instead of continuing to levy big fines regardless of station type, in 2013, the bureau decided to cut student-run radio stations a break when they committed first-time violations. Fines were lowered and compliance plans were put in place in several cases. It was nice to see this compassion and recognition that low budget college radio stations with transitory staffs can easily make mistakes and that paperwork errors shouldn’t have to bankrupt a station
CMJ’s Slow Death
An integral part of the college radio/music ecosystem for decades, CMJ started the 2010s with a full roster of activities, including an annual conference/festival in New York City, weekly radio charts, a website with music news, reviews and more, and a subscription-based trade magazine (CMJ New Music Report). CMJ’s “College Day” event during the CMJ Music Marathon featured a day of panels, performances, and an awards ceremony focused on college radio. However, behind the scenes CMJ was having financial difficulties and went through a series of changes in ownership and management. By Fall, 2016, CMJ was distintegrating. A group of former employees sued CMJ for unpaid wages dating back to October, 2015 and in Februrary, 2017, CMJ’s weekly charts ended. The slow death of CMJ was sad to witness, with the company’s trademarks up for auction in 2018.
In late 2019, word came that new owners plan to bring CMJ back in 2020, promising events, charts, and editorial. So we’ll have to wait to see what the next decade brings for CMJ. Some media reports seem to equate CMJ’s death with the supposed death of college radio; but CMJ was just one part of the college radio universe and was largely serving the music industry in recent years. To that end, other organizations cropped up to compile radio charts and curate music biz conferences.
College Radio Takes on New Forms
Throughout the decade, colleges launched all sorts of radio stations, from streaming-only to terrestrial stations. As we’ve seen since the very beginnings of radio, college broadcasting has never been limited to one method. The myriad forms of college radio over the years have included amateur radio, licensed AM radio, campus-only AM carrier current, stations communicating over public address systems, many types of licensed FM radio, HD radio, cable FM, campus cable, cable TV, internet radio, radio over the phone (accessed by calling a phone number), podcasting, streaming video stations, apps, and audio options yet to be invented. While we saw fewer and fewer of certain types of college radio stations in the 2010s (very low power class D FM stations, commercially-licensed college radio stations, and carrier current stations are less frequent than a decade ago), there was growth in LPFM stations and streaming stations continued to launch (or were revived).
Feeling nostalgic or want to take a deep dive in college radio in the 2000s? See my year-end reviews from 2019, 2017, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2011, my decade in review piece from 2009, as well as our About College Radio Page.
