On October 3, 2025, while World College Radio Day was being celebrated all over the globe, Cleveland State University’s nearly 50-year old student-run college radio station WCSB 89.3 FM was shut down by administrators. Staff and volunteers were escorted out of the station by police and programming was soon replaced by JazzNEO, a music service produced by public radio group Ideastream. 

In the ensuing weeks, WCSB participants and supporters have been protesting this move and have organized under the name XCSB. To discuss what happened to the Cleveland State college radio station and what lies ahead for XCSB, two former WCSB student leaders join us on Radio Survivor. Liam Main was the business manager of WCSB and Alison Bomgardner was the most recent General Manager of the station.

The post Podcast #346 – The Fight for College Radio at Cleveland State Station WCSB appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Eric, Jennifer and Paul return with a new episode of Radio Survivor, recapping some of the latest news from our travels. Jennifer shares highlights from the annual student media conference hosted by Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS) and from her visits to college radio stations in New York City. Just back from South by Southwest, Paul lends perspective on some of the latest trends in podcasting. Additionally, we provide details about an opportunity for radio stations to broadcast the Wetland Project‘s annual Earth Day 24-hour slow radio event, featuring the sounds of nature. If you are interested in airing all or part of the broadcast, the organizers can be reached at INFO at WETLANDPROJECT dot com.

Edited by Eric Klein

This episode was produced by Jennifer Waits

Hosted by Paul Riismandel, Eric Klein and Jennifer Waits

The post Podcast #343 – Catching up on College Radio and Podcasting News (March 19, 2025) appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Williams College student Josh Picoult arrived on campus with a fascination for both history and radio. Four years later, he’s about to graduate after completing his undergraduate thesis on the history of college radio station WCFM, where he’s also the general manager. On this edition of Radio Survivor, we are joined by Josh, who talks us through some of the big ideas from his thesis: Gas Pipes, Gigahertz, and Grunge: Broadcasting at Williams College, 1940-1998. Josh also shares details about the current state of radio on campus.

The post Podcast #340 – College Radio History at Williams College appeared first on Radio Survivor.

World College Radio Day takes place on October 6, 2023 and in honor of that, we dig into the early history of college radio on our latest episode of the show. Jennifer Waits walks us through her research about college radio in the 1920s and earlier, sharing details from a paper that she presented this past spring at the Radio Preservation Task Force Conference at the Library of Congress. In that paper, she argues that we should be broadening our definitions of what college radio is, pointing out examples of radio clubs, radio experiments, and amateur radio activities that mirror the activities of future “broadcast” stations.

Jennifer recounts stories from more than 100 years ago, pointing out the incredible contributions that students have made to radio history. Along the way, we hear tales about early student radio practitioners at places like Haverford College, Union College, Harvard University, and Columbia University. Jennifer also asks for listeners to share details that they may have about very early college radio (1920s and earlier) at other schools.

The post Podcast #334 – College Radio’s Hidden Early History appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Jennifer, our intrepid radio station tour guide, leads us through some of her recent visits to college radio stations in New York and Rhode Island. This most recent academic year (2022-23) was an active one, with college campuses and radio stations coming back to life as pandemic restrictions have eased. We also discuss a long-running college radio program that just turned 50 years old. We are curious if listeners know of other programs of a similar vintage. We close the show with a discussion of the 20th anniversary of podcasting.

The post Podcast #332 – More College Radio Tours & Podcasting Turns 20 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

It’s been nearly three years since the FCC first announced that a new low-power FM (LPFM) application window would be forthcoming. Now we know that November 1 – 8, 2023 will be the third-ever opportunity for qualified non-profits to apply for a license. Jennifer, Eric and Paul review all the pertinent details, explaining why there is excitement around LPFM and this next chance for new community and college radio stations to go on the air.

We also take another look at Franken FMs – vestigial low-power TV (LPTV) stations on channel 6 that can be heard at the far left end of the FM radio dial. They were supposed to go off the air a year ago when the last LPTV stations converted to digital broadcasts. But the FCC eventually granted 13 of them “Special Temporary Authority” to continue broadcasting an analog radio signal experimentally even while their video signals went digital. At its July meeting the Commission plans to vote on rules that would allow these Franken FMs to live on, and we discuss what’s at stake.

The post Podcast #331 – New Low-Power FM Opportunity Coming this November appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The Radio Survivors return with a new podcast episode! Jennifer reports on her visits to four college radio stations in New York state in November, 2022. Part of a longtime project to document radio station field trips, these recent tours are her first since 2019. As COVID-19 restrictions have loosened, stations are largely back to normal operations, with many on an upswing, with more active participants. Jennifer also shares some radio history tidbits, as each of the stations that she visited has fascinating back stories. At Union College, students began broadcasting music over amateur radio in 1920. A trip to the Union College archives was like a dream for our resident college radio historian.

The post Podcast #329: New York College Radio Tours appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On the show this week, we explore one of our favorite topics: college radio history. Our guest, Andreas Preuss, just completed a multi-faceted project about student radio station WRAS at Georgia State University in Atlanta for his master’s thesis: Left of the Dial: Right on the Music: 50 Years of Georgia State FM Radio. We dig into various aspects of the station’s past, as well as Preuss’ interesting path to this project, having worked in college radio in the past as well as in commercial media for decades.

• College radio station WRAS-FM at Georgia State University
• Left of the Dial: Right on the Music: 50 Years of Georgia State FM Radio (MA thesis)
• From R.E.M. to GPB, A Student Documents the Bittersweet History of College Radio Powerhouse WRAS (Saporta Report)
• Radio Survivor coverage of WRAS/GPB programming takeover and protests circa 2014-2015
• Tulane University radio station WTUL-FM in New Orleans
• Shortwave radio station WRNO (Wikipedia)
• WRNO Worldwide website
• Vanderbilt University’s college radio station WRVU
• Katherine Rye Jewell website
• Podcast #244: Exploring the So-Called ‘Golden Age’ of College Radio (with guest Katherine Jewell)
• Podcast #164: College Radio and the Culture Wars (with guest Katherine Jewell)
• WPRB-FM at Princeton University
• College Radio Watch: WPRB Launches History Site
• Jennifer Waits’ 2012 field trip report from visit to WRAS-FM
• Jennifer Waits’ 2016 field trip report from visit to WRPB-FM

The post Podcast #322 – College Radio History at WRAS appeared first on Radio Survivor.

A year-and-a-half ago high school, college and community radio stations shut their studio doors in response to safety measures to prevent the spread of COVID. They quickly scrambled to find ways to stay on air, broadcasting archived programming, allowing DJs to pre-record or even broadcast live from home. We’ve dedicated several episodes to learning how different kinds of stations in a variety of regions confronted the emergency.

Whatever methods were employed, today – with the pandemic still ongoing – it’s heartening to listen around and note that most stations seem to have survived this period. There’s no sense that more stations closed down than in any other 18-month period. In fact, on October 1, college stations from around the world will join together in celebrating the 11th annual College Radio Day, featuring Ambassador “Weird” Al Yankovic.

We take this opportunity to survey radio’s remarkable survival story. Just as internet technology, like Zoom calls, revolutionized the ability to move work, school and other activities into the home, it also let stations stay connected with programmers and volunteers in a way that would have been significantly more challenging even just a decade earlier. Of course, we’re not arguing this is a net plus – too many lives have been lost or altered forever due to this disease. As well, working or DJing from home isn’t a boon for everyone, on top of the fact that closed studios severely impacts the collaboration and camaraderie that is at the heart of so many stations. Yet, it’s worth reflecting on why and how grassroots radio withstood this unprecedented challenge, continuing to serve listeners and communities and help them through this crisis.

• Episodes on stations dealing with the pandemic:
  • Podcast #237 – How Community & College Radio Can Deal with COVID-19
  • Podcast #238 – Social Distancing, Going Remote and Automation during Global Pandemic
  • Podcast #239 – Hunkering Down with Raven Radio in Sitka, Alaska
  • Podcast #240 – WFMU is Still On the Air During the Pandemic
  • Podcast #285 – Running a Big Community Media Organization in the 2nd Year of the Pandemic
  • Podcast #298 – College Radio at the end of the Academic COVID Year
• Oct. 1 is College Radio Day
• College Broadcasters Inc. Student Electronic Media Convention
• Radio World: “Goodbye ISDN, Hello Streaming“
• The Homelessness Marathon
• Negativland:
  • Negativland’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert
  • Negativland live (online) at the Ann Arbor Film Festival
  • Negativland’s Over the Edge Radio: Brain Science
• Princeton University’s WPRB
• Dr. Demento
• “Weird Al” Yankovic
• KCPR at Cal Poly is where “Weird” Al Got his start in radio
• Jennifer’s Tour of KRRC at Reed College
• KRRC
• Radio Survivor’s Top Radio Shows – Jennifer’s #4 – Dr. Demento

The post Podcast #317 – How Radio Survived 18 Months of Pandemic (and Keeps Going) appeared first on Radio Survivor.

What are the odds that a popular television series would feature your college radio station as a backdrop for two episodes? That’s exactly what Jennifer found, when HBO’s “Mare of Easttown” employed a set that accurately recreates Haverford College’s station as a location for the limited-run drama. Jennifer talked with the show’s production designer to get the behind-the-scenes scoop.

Paul recently experienced his own radio coincidence when he by chance discovered a storefront radio museum in the small Oregon city of Sutherlin. Although it was closed, the proprietor of the Radio Days Museum saw him outside and invited him in for a quick tour of the radio memorabilia collection. Paul also shares an orchestrated soundwalk he enjoyed down the road in Jacksonville, Oregon.

• Creating Haverford College Radio on Mare of Easttown
• Podcast #298 – College Radio at the End of the Academic Covid Year
• HBO series “Mare of Easttown”
• Jennifer’s Radio Station Tours
• Radio Days Museum in Sutherlin, Oregon
• Britt Fest’s Ellen Reid Soundwalk
• Podcast #246 – Radio in the Movies
• An Even Bigger Songs about Radio Spotify Playlist
• Podcast #297 – Radio Studies and Sound Work
• California Historical Radio Society
• “On the Radio” Exhibit at San Francisco Airport Celebrates Radio History
• Podcast #138 – Radio History on Display at the San Francisco Airport
• Radio History Imprisoned at Cork’s Radio Museum Experience

The post Podcast #306 – Radio Coincidences, from Easttown to Sutherlin appeared first on Radio Survivor.