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 […]
This week, community radio station KXRY-FM (aka XRAY.fm) announced that it is now the holder of its own FM license in Portland, Oregon. According to XRAY, “We received big news from the FCC: XRAY is now the official license holder of 91.1 FM! Much like renting a house or apartment, XRAY has been operating 91.1 for […]
This year, the annual High School Radio Day tradition has expanded to a full week, from April 21 to April 28, under the moniker High School Radio Week. For those wishing to pick a singular day to celebrate, Wednesday, April 25th is the official date for the 7th annual High School Radio Day. More than […]
While I was in a research rabbit hole this week, I found an intriguing tale of an early “broadcast” of a college football game through the use of a telegraph in 1903. According to the University of Michigan Amateur Radio Club, On October 31, 1903, the University of Michigan Football Team traveled to Minnesota to […]
Over the next few days, the station where I volunteer, Foothill College radio station KFJC-FM is broadcasting live from a music festival several thousand miles from home. With a fixation on underground music and a growing obsession with undertaking ambitious remote broadcasts from afar; my KFJC cohorts continue to amaze me (see my tech-heavy account […]
Musician, DJ and radio artist Don Joyce passed away nearly three years ago, on July 22, 2015. He left behind a voluminous archive of his KPFA radio program “Over the Edge,” which took off in new, chaotic and creative directions when he welcomed the participation of the experimental band Negativland in 1981, then joining the […]
On this week’s Radio Survivor Podcast/radio show, I’m pleased to share two of my most recent college radio station tour reports. In the episode, Paul Riismandel and I chat about my visits to WIIT at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and WKCR at Columbia University in New York City. Both stations are super interesting, […]
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 […]
College radio history is near and dear to my heart and I appreciate it when stations celebrate their origin stories. With many stations purporting to be the “first” at this or that, I’m always eager to dive into long-lost documents in order to sleuth out the veracity of station lore. As any historian or journalist […]
While touring through the “On the Radio” radio history exhibit at SFO Museum on Monday, I was reminded of a couple of college radio connections. Curator Daniel Calderon pointed out to me his “nod” to college radio in the FM radio portion of the exhibit. According to the exhibit notes, “As FM searched for its […]
