If College Radio Had A Chance…

By Linwood Nicolas Jr on October 26th, 2021.

(WZBT 91.1 FM, Gettysburg’s Logo)

In the past, College Radio has had a huge impact in our radio culture much more than we’ve realized. Unfortunately due to the rise of blogging, file sharing, and widespread broadband access the percentage of College Radio listeners has decreased significantly. However, this does not mean College Radio station don’t offer many influencial benefits to the mainstream radio industries as well.

Why College Radio Stations?

When reading the article by Kevin Loranzo “Does College Radio Even Matter Anymore…?” we learn many benefits that may have gone more and more unnoticed over the decades. He states “Though initially used as an education tool for broadcasting lectures, by the end of the ’80s college radio had become an indispensable musical tastemaker, with trade magazines and multiple nationwide charts tracking the growing popularity of the market.” This quotes emphasizes what exactly shift had allowed College Radio Stations to become this huge success during the time. Essentially College provides a free-form community where you are allowed to speak freely on any topic you want to a community who has no true rules and possibly allowing for better interactions. Rob Quicke, a British expat says “There has to be a place that is a little dangerous, scruffy, where mistakes are made. And from that rawness comes the music that changes everything.” College Radio Station has shed light o infamous bands such as U2, R.E.M., the Cure, the Smiths, Dinosaur Jr., Hüsker Dü, Minutemen, and the Replacements.

The Challenges

That being said, College Radio Stations have faced enormous challenges over the years. It states in the article that “around 2010, a growing number of colleges began transferring their FM broadcast licenses to larger conglomerates for a short-term economic windfall.” Once can simply imply this is because of the lack of audience the stations receive. As a result, they can not afford running a terrestrial radio station, paying for a broadcast tower, equipment repair, and a variety of music licensing fees. Thus leading to a quick solution, transferring or selling an FCC broadcasting license with no refund. We see this case within The WZBT wikipedia website page when discussing the origins of WZBT. The station was originally founded by Gettysburg College as “WWGC” which was was formed as a student-run media club o campus. However, according to the wikipedia site “..The Gettysburg College Board Of Trustees granted approval to WWGC-AM to transform from its closed-circuit AM frequency to a full service terrestrial radio FM station and received its first FCC license for educational FM broadcast.” Having started with initial funding from the Parents Committee, WWGC was then reborn as WZBT- 90.3 FM.

Conclusion

Even though College Radio Stations have experienced a massive downfall in production numbers. The Station still provide influence to todays culture, even if a little bit. After all, 91% of American listen to FM/AM radio when listening to radio according to the “2015 NIELSEN RADAR STUDY”. This means those who do listen to the radar, will cross over your station at least once while browsing through. Who knows what happens if they become interested. “There might be a 16-year-old out in the suburbs who is too stoned to operate the fucking SiriusXM in his dad’s SUV, so he just stumbles onto that. So it continues.”says  Deerhunter frontman, Bradford Cox. 

Sources

Kevin Lozano, 2017. “Does College Radio Even Matter Anymore?” https://pitchfork.com/features/article/10018-does-college-radio-even-matter-anymore/

Wikipedia, last edited on 13 August 2020, at 13:21 (UTC). “WBZT” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WZBT

WZBT Photo: http://wzbt.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/wzbtorg_banner.jpg