NY Times Discovers College Radio Doesn’t Suck… er, no duh.

It’s got to be tough to be a NY Times reporter. As the stalwart standard-bearer of US print journalism, whenever you report on a cultural phenomenon you’re responsible for ostensibly declaring it as new, or newly rediscovered, newly viable…. newly whatever. While at the same time cultural insiders view that coverage with both “no duh” knowing disdain, along with the muted pride of being noticed by the Old Grey Lady.

So, that’s my stance on the Times’ recent article on continuing relevancy of college radio, spotlighting WRPI at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and KWVA at the University of Oregon. But primarily I’m glad to see the Times taking notice of what feels like an increasingly forgotten form of radio.

I got my start in college radio at WTSR-FM at the College of New Jersey (it was Trenton State College when I was there), and I’m very glad to say that ‘TSR is still a truly student-run station. Now I have the great privilege of being the adviser to student-run WNUR-FM at Northwestern University. Although it seems the bloodshed has slowed, during the 90s and early 00s there seemed to be quite a slate of student stations being reclaimed by college administrations in order to be repurposed into public radio stations or even sold off to the highest bidder (usually a church or christian broadcaster). It seems that things have now stabilized, and I hope that the remaining student-run stations are able to stay that way, although I fear the economic downturn again will make college-owned stations seem like tasty prospects for quick cash.

Along with community radio, student-run college radio is one of the last strongholds for independently programmed radio that is responsive to local community. Student-run stations are often criticized by students and non-students for being comparatively elitist and unrepresentative of both campus and local community. I remember in my college days the station being criticized for playing mostly indie rock that many (if not most) of my fellow students weren’t interested in. They’d tell us that they would listen more if only the station would play more mainstream pop and rock like the local CHR station. While the management of the station might have liked to believe these students, even then we all had enough of an instinctive understanding of basic political economy to recognize that our little college station was no match for the commercial CHR’s advertising and market power. In essence, it was absurd to compete with the commercial stations on their own turf, and a complete waste of the noncommercial license to even attempt it.

As an adviser to a college station in 2008 I see the same trends noted in the Times article, in that the contemporary college student listens to way less radio now than when I was a freshman in 1989. It’s no longer the case that the average college student prefers the local pop station to their college station. Rather, the average college student really does prefer her iPod.

Yet, I argue that true student-run and programmed college stations play a valuable role of cultural and political education in their communities. It’s often overlooked that most college stations are also staffed by a percentage of community volunteers who bring in both community representation and a broader range of experience. While not the same as community radio, any community that has a student-run station should be thankful that this beacon of noncommercial integrity often comes as a partial or wholly-funded gift from the college or university that sponsors it.

Yes, it may esoteric, amateurish or occasionally sophomoric, but I also know that without college radio many a community would have no jazz, classical, bluegrass, blues or experimental music on its airwaves, in addition to the more youth-associated genres of indie rock, metal, rap, dance and electronic.

Sure, many people now turn to the internet, satellite radio and downloads for the music they would have once gotten on the airwaves. But what about those without the resources, money, knowledge or wherewithal to use the ‘net or iPods? Or who want to be able to tune in anywhere without any hassle? Radio isn’t dead, even if the proclivities of the professional middle class are changing.

Yuppies (even if they look like hipsters) never listened to music radio much anyway….

Occasionally There Is Justice: free103point9 Receives an FM License

There are so few open frequencies for new full-power noncommercial radio stations in the US, so it’s all the more exciting to learn that the great folks at free103point9 have received a license from the FCC to start a 3,300 watt FM station in New York’s Hudson Valley.

free103point9 is an amazing group that promotes transmission arts, located at the intersection of music, experimental sound construction and radio. Over the last 10 years they’ve maintained an online presence with a live audio stream, while catalyzing the creation of new sonic arts through programs like the residency program at their Wave Lab on 30 acres in upstate New York. free103point9 also sponsors performances and concerts, releasing many of these recordings through their Dispatch series.

I’m so jazzed about free103point9′s FM license because it promises to be a station that is dedicated to and a participant in the creation of art, sound and music, not just merely playing existing recordings on air. With 168 hours a week to fill, I’m sure that the station also will be playing recorded music, along with important news and public affairs show. But the connection of an FM station to a non-profit group already engaged in the production and promotion of sonic art is both new and promising.

Indeed, I think that the sonic and transmission arts represent a fruitful new frontier for radio as the medium transcends being just a music jukebox (no matter how eclectic). Now, this sort of artistic experimentation has happened on community, college, public and even commercial radio stations for decades, but rarely has taken center stage — Public radio’s This American Life arguably is the best known example of a radio program that breaks out of the typical confines of radio genre and format. However, more often programs that truly play and experiment with sound and transmission are relegated to overnight hours and not often long-lived.

I also think it’s great that free103point9 started life as a microbroadcasting collective, that turned into an internet broadcaster, and is now bridging to the airwaves. Each medium has unique constraints, advantages and audiences and the future vitality of radio will rest on the fruitful use and bridging of multiple methods like these.

I’m scheduling Tom Roe, Program Director of free103point9, to be on the radioshow in the next few weeks. I’ve wanted to feature more transmission and sonic arts on the radioshow, but the move to Chicago this year and limits on my time and energy have kept this idea on the back burner. But hearing about free103point9′s license gives me motivation to re-engage with it.