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.

On this edition of the show, we explore public radio history, specifically the origins of public radio in the United States, including the important role played by college and university-based stations. Josh Shepperd joins to talk about his new book, Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting, which examines the intersections between the media reform movement, public broadcasting, educational technology and communications policy and research. Josh is an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and is Director of the Radio Preservation Task Force at the Library of Congress.

The post Podcast #336 – Educational Radio and the Beginnings of Public Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In the last few years a number of large and prominent public media organizations have been forced to confront the effects of sexism, racism and harassment within their own organizations that has been tolerated for too long. One clear cause is a serious lack of diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the public media system. Public Media for All is a diverse coalition of public media workers, led by people of color, that is organizing to raise awareness of the negative effects of this deficiency and the resulting culture in public media, and sharing solutions for individuals and organizations.

Sway Steward is on the organizing committee for Public Media for All, and joins the show to tell us more. They’re organizing a day of action and education on November 10, providing resources for people of color, white allies and organizational leadership to seek and create accountability and bring about positive change.

• Public Media for All
• Current: Coalition organizes day of action for movement to fix public media’s workplace culture

The post Podcast #270: Public Media for All appeared first on Radio Survivor.

This week, we explore the ancestor of public radio in the United States: educational radio. Our guest, Stephanie Sapienza, helps to bring educational radio archives to life through her work on the multi-institution “Unlocking the Airwaves” project. As Digital Humanities Archivist at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities at University of Maryland, Sapienza is working with audio from the National Association of Educational Broadcasters (NAEB). She describes the breadth of materials in the collection and its role in public radio history and also shares more about her unique (and entertaining) presentation at the Orphan Film Symposium in which she reported on old time educational radio in an old time radio style.

• Stephanie Sapienza’s website
• The Orphan’s Radio Hour
• Orphan Film Symposium
• Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH)
• Unlocking the Airwaves
• American Archive of Public Broadcasting
• Radio Preservation Task Force website at Library of Congress
• National Association of Educational Broadcasters collection at University of Maryland
• Podcast #192: Saving Radio History with The Radio Preservation Task Force episode with Josh Shepperd

The post Podcast # 252 – Exploring the Seeds of Public Radio in Educational Radio Archives appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Raven Radio, KCAW-FM, serves Sitka and the remote communities of Southeast Alaska with public radio content, local news and volunteer-produced programming. Like “shelter in place” elsewhere in the lower 48, Sitka is on what they call a “hunker down” advisory. We talk with KCAW General Manager and friend of the show, Becky Meiers about how the station is balancing staff safety and vital public service during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Right now radio broadcasters are considered essential personnel, so they may travel to the station’s studios, but the advised 6-feet of social distance requires only two people can be on premises at any one time – one upstairs and one downstairs. That’s prompted some shifts in daytime programming when it’s important to have at least one news or operations person on hand at all times.

Because KCAW is often the only reliable information real-time information source for remote villages that have limited internet and landlines, Becky serves on the local emergency planning committee and coordinates closely with emergency personnel. At the same time, the station continues to provide music and cultural programming for that much needed break.

When news of the pandemic first hit, KCAW staff and management assembled a preparedness plan. Though there were no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Sitka when we recorded on March 27, once a first case is confirmed, the station will move forward to the next phase of its plan. Learn what that plan is, and how KCAW engages with its community and listenership in this interview.

• KCAW-FM, Raven Radio
• KCAW just received a grant from the Brown Institute for Media Innovation
• KCAW Coronavirus Information Hub
• “Have an Old Fashioned with a modern twist, thanks to Sitka’s virtual bartender“
• Podcast #84 – Improving Your Radio Reception
• Podcast #197 – Raven Radio in Sitka, Alaska
• Touring KCAW, Sitka Alaska’s Raven Radio

However,

The post Podcast #239 – Hunkering Down with Raven Radio in Sitka, Alaska appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On this week’s episode, Karen Cariani, the David O. Ives Executive Director of the WGBH Media Library and Archives, joins us to talk about the work of the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB).

A collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH, the AAPB not only archives public radio and television; but it also makes material searchable and accessible through its website.

• American Archive of Public Broadcasting
• WGBH – What’s Happening Mr. Silver (two online, more are available on site at WGBH or the Library of Congress)
• AAPB Special Collections
• AAPB Scholar Exhibits
• FIX IT+, Transcribe to Digitize challenge
• AAPB blog
• Open Vault (WGBH Media Library and Archive website)

The post Podcast # 218: Archiving Public Media appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Radio Survivor celebrates 10 years on the internet and four years podcasting with our 200th episode. Matthew Lasar joins Jennifer Waits, Eric Klein and Paul Riismandel for this review of the last decade in radio that matters.

Matthew tells the Radio Survivor origin story that sprang forth from his I.F. Stone inspired research deep into the digital catacombs of the FCC database, unearthing comments that broadcast execs never imagined would be public – such as one who accused prominent media reformists of being “communists.”

Jennifer recalls how a literature review for a journal article on college radio revealed how little scholarly work existed on the topic, compelling her to document this important media form that Matthew says he has learned is, “the first public radio.” “The present is future history,” Jennifer observes. This prompts Paul to comment how we’ve begun to fulfill that promise, given that Radio Survivor now has dozens of citations in scholarly works.

On the way through these stories, everyone notes the changes in the broadcast and online media landscape since 2009, how some publications have come and gone, and offering reasons why Radio Survivor has managed to survive. It’s a discussion of interest to anyone who has tried to, or wants to, sustain a passion project fueled primarily by volunteer labor.

As we announce on this episode, in August we’ll be publishing our first ever print project, hand made in the spirit of great independent radio.

We’ll send issue #1 to every Patreon supporter who gives at the $5/month level or more. But you have to be signed up by August 1, 2019.

Plus, every new sign-up gets us closer to our goal of 100 Patreon supporters so that we have a foundation to do the work of documenting the upcoming 20th anniversaries of Indymedia and low-power FM.

See our ‘zine page to learn more, or go ahead and sign up now.

• A Decade of Radio Surviving
• College Radio Watch: Ten Years of College Radio Coverage and More News
• Lasar’s Letter on the FCC: VNR executive files e-mail with FCC against “radically left wing” group
• The Official Website of I.F. Stone
• Spinning Indie
• mediageek
• Matthew’s books:
  • Pacifica Radio, the Rise of an Alternative Network
  • Uneasy Listening: Pacifica Radio’s Civil War
  • Radio 2.0: Uploading the First Broadcast Medium
• Help Us Tell the History of Indymedia & LPFM
• RadioSurvivor’s Top Radio Shows – Paul’s #1: Free Speech Radio News
• A Sad Goodbye to Free Speech Radio News
• Garrett Wollman’s Radio Tower Quest
• History of the Grassroots Radio Conference
• Podcast #190: Radio Spectrum and Transmission Art
• Radio Survivor ‘Zine #1

The post Podcast #200 – How We Survived a Decade of Independent Publishing appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Alaska’s unique geography and way-of-life leads to unique radio. Raven Radio is a public and community station serving the city of Sitka, along with seven other small towns in Southeast Alaska. The station is not just a source of news, music and culture, but also a lifeline for people living in remote communities where there may not even be cell service.

Becky Meiers moved from Portland, Oregon and community station KBOO to become general manager of KCAW in fall of 2018. Paul made Sitka the last stop on his spring Alaskan vacation to visit her at the station this past Memorial Day weekend, taking time for an interview. Becky explains why the station airs a mix of conventional public radio programming, like NPR’s “Morning Edition,” alongside the kind of volunteer-produced programs that one associates with community radio.

Broadcasting in a market with just two other radio stations, Raven Radio really needs to be “all things to all people” in a way that is demanded of few stations in the lower 48. While a tremendous responsibility, it also leads listeners to learn how to use a station that doesn’t air the same programming 24/7, and to value the resource. The experience of broadcasting at KCAW informs takeaways about community radio in general that Becky shares with us.

• Pictures and more from Paul’s tour of Raven Radio
• KCAW-FM Raven Radio
• City and Borough of Sitka
• Tenakee Springs, Alaska
• Coast Alaksa Public Media Cooperative
• Muskeg Message example: Roger Schmidt reads muskeg messages, with drum solo

The post Podcast #197 – Raven Radio in Sitka, Alaska appeared first on Radio Survivor.

From the “Classical Radio Era” to today’s hottest podcasts, we’re here for the love of radio drama and fictional sound-art. Our guest is Neil Verma, author of a book and teacher of classes on the subject, although as he tells us on today’s episode, the class became a lot more popular with students after he changed the name from “Radio Drama” to “Audio Drama.”

We dedicate hours of time and effort for each weekly episode.

Help us sustain and grow this show by contributing as little as $1 every month. With four episodes every month, that’s just 25 cents for each one.

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Theater of the Mind – Imagination, Aesthetics, and American Radio Drama

Neil Verma essay on The Shadows

The Classical Radio work of Norman Corwin

J.G Ballard’s Radio Plays on the BBC

The Shadows

Wolverine: The Long Night

The Truth

Homecoming

Classic Radio’s The Shadow

Nightvale and affiliated programs

Pacific Northwest Stories

Ars Paradoxica

Limetown

Deathscribe

Jennifer Waits’ article on Unshackled

Matthew Lasar writes about and speaks on the podcast about Mae West

The post Podcast #176 – Audio Fiction’s very long history of innovation appeared first on Radio Survivor.