college radio stations in your area: c/d

tony, just out of curiosity, what are the two stations yr referring to?

WNYU -- standard "in"(read: current indie rock) music programming, limited schedule, a few other shows limited to popular genres; metal, ska, techno
WFUV (Fordham) -- not bad, a bit heavy on dullish folk music & celtic
WFDU (Fairleigh Dickenson) -- limited late night schedule, used to be great but required staying up till 1:15 am, now probably a bit too heavy on bluegrass & reggage.
WSOU (Seton Hall) -- consistent heavy metal!

Nothing is more frustrating then taking a drive through the east when you get a faint signal of a good college radio station. Usually after 20 minutes it's goes static.

But of course in the tri-state area any of the college station programming never held a candle to WFMU, arguably the best station in the country. (Still frustrating to tune in to though)
Thank god for streaming radio, I would hate to still put up with that.

I share that sentiment.

James Madison Universitie's source for bad metal and even worse indie. For the latter part of the weekday evening's, you'll hear D-Plan at least five times. my college radio station blows.

Its not the American or British bands that annoy but the same five or six CANCON stars that annoy me.

Pity becuase I love the fact that "KAOS is committed to ensuring that 80% of all music played on the station come from sources other than the five major multi-national record distributors."

Sounds good in theory but haow many times do I have to hear that same K record......

i do a show on WPRB in princeton (103.3). we suffer from creeping indie rock syndrome (though there are a good handful of people trying to diversify the station's sound) and our mornings and afternoons are classical and jazz... but we've got some shows like dr. cosmo, strong little legs, greg lyon, etc, that are worth listening to.

I enjoy it.

Sometimes there's a nice jazz program on WRIU, but the jazz programs on Boston's NPR affiliate are much better.

Hi Anthony!

That's BURN, the Birmingham University Radio Network. I think it does pretty much require that you be parked outside the uni to hear it, but still...

Also WUOM out of Ann Arbor's University of Michigan has some solid programming; the student djs have decent range of taste but the signal is weak.

WFMU is truly one of the best stations ever, although in Detroit I can only listen through the internet....

Incidentally, tune in to http://radio.lancs.ac.uk/ between 6pm and 7pm to hear me DISCUSSING MUSIC. WITH A GUY WHO ONCE SAID "I mean the Bee Gees were 30 years ago, do we still need to be making dance music".

You may wish to do something else entirely instead.

ksjs (san jose state university)
kalx (university of california berkeley)
kusf (university of san francisco)

Duds: people will just play recognizable bands like Offspring, Coldplay, A Perfect Circle, etc, overabundance of novelty songs, uninteresting chatter, playing vinyl often means bad classic rock and 80s hits, plenty of mistakes by DJs, etc.

Classic: It has given me access to a lot of music I wouldn't have ever heard otherwise, I get to play Happy Flowers, "Sister Ray" or whatever else I want, etc.

I won't go as far as pimping my own show or anything, but give some college kids a chance, eh? We mean well.

why oh why is kusf all in vietnamese after 6:00pm?

http://spinningindie.blogspot.com/2008/10/cmjs-college-radio-awards-nominees.html

CMJ nominees:

Here are the nominees (which, by the way, anyone with a CMJ badge will be able to vote on during the conference).

2008 CMJ Radio Station Awards

Station Of The Year
KEXP-FM (University of Washington, Seattle, WA)
RLC-FM (Rutgers University & Piscataway High School, NJ)
WBWC-FM (Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, OH)
WFMU-FM (Jersey City, NJ)

Music Director Of The Year
Omar Husain (CJLO)
Susie Kuo (KSSU)
Cynthia Luna (WBWC)
Blair Neal (WRPI)
Erin Nelson (RLC)

Specialty Music Director Of The Year
Andrew Balcerzak and Brian Scavo (WBGU)
Robert Drucker (RLC)
Emelie Hegarty (WRPI)
Michelle Krupkin (KXLU)
Jesse Novak (WWVU)

Best Student-Run Non-FM Station
CJLO (Montreal)
KSSU (Sacramento)
KUOM (Minneapolis )
KVCU (Boulder)
Radio UTD (Richardson)

Biggest Innovator
Tenni Gharakanian (CFRE)
Aaron Levin (CJSR)
Mark Nason (WHSN)
Blair Neal (WRPI)
Jake Snyder (WLCA)

Most Groundbreaking
KEXP (Seattle)
KSSU (Sacramento)
RLC (Piscataway)
WFMU (Jersey City)
WRPI (Troy)

Music Director With The Best Band That Doesn't Suck
Myke Atkinson (CJSW)
Omar Husain (CJLO)
Troy Micheau (NVWR)
Erin Nelson (RLC)
Blair Neal (WRPI)

In It For The Music
Robert Drucker (RLC)
Aaron Henry (Montco Radio)
Mary Hutchins (WVUD)
Scott Karoly (KZSC)
Cynthia Luna (WBWC)

Best Podcast
KCRW (Santa Monica)
KEXP (Seattle)
RLC (Piscataway)
WFMU (Jersey City)
XMU (Washington)

Best Use Of The Web
KSSU (Sacramento)
Montco Radio (Blue Bell)
RLC (Piscataway)
WFMU (Jersey City)
WOXY.com (Cincinnati)

Most Likely To Reinvent Radio
KEXP (Seattle)
KSSU (Sacramento)
RLC (Piscataway)
WFMU (Jersey City)
WRPI (Troy)

Biggest Asset To The Community
KALX (Berkeley)
KEXP (Seattle)
KSSU (Sacramento)
RLC (Piscataway)
WFMU (Jersey City)

Best Use Of Limited Resources
CFRE (Mississauga)
KSSU (Sacramento)
Montco Radio (Blue Bell)
Radio UTD (Richardson)
RLC (Piscataway)

Most Fun
Kaitlin Butler (Radio UTD)
Cynthia Luna (WBWC)
Tenni Gharakanian (CFRE)
Aaron Henry (Montco Radio)
Omar Husain (CJLO)

Best Team Effort
CJLO (Montreal)
KCWU (Ellensburg)
KSSU (Sacramento)
RLC (Piscataway)
WSOU (South Orange)

someone give me something in connecticut

Are you down near Bridgeport and New Haven (where I once was for awhile way back when) or further north?

storrs (uconn)

WMUC at the U. of Maryland still appears to have some good programming--even if the broadcast range for the station has been cut because a Baltimore news station was allowed to increase their power (and I never remember to listen to it on the internets but only think about it when I am in my car in Maryland)

x-post So Connecticut ones need some changes?

WRAS in Atlanta is getting fucked over. The school administration is handing over daytime broadcast to Georgia Public Broadcasting & the student staff didn't find out until today: http://radiotvtalk.blog.ajc.com/2014/05/06/georgia-public-broadcasting-takes-over-georgia-states-wras-fmalbum-88/

“This new partnership is a proverbial win-win and opens the door for future collaboration,” said Dr. Mark P. Becker, Georgia State president, in a press release. “Our students will have new and exciting opportunities in the changing media landscape, and this partnership allows both GPB and Georgia State to better serve the metro Atlanta region as well as the state.”

Ana Zimitravich, the outgoing WRAS general manager and senior at GSU, said she found out along with the rest of the student staff today. “It’s a total, complete shock,” she said. “I had no idea this change was coming.”

(nb this is not the station at which I volunteer)

I know this is probably not unprecedented, but it hurts.

103.3 WPRB Princeton can be legit

Also, that sucks about the Atlanta station

That 2008 CMJ list includes the station I managed in college. (WBWC represent!)

WCSB, the Cleveland State University station, has some terrific programs. My fave is Anti-Urban Contemporary Thang, a Friday afternoon show that plays classic soul/R&B. There's also a good classic country & western show on Thursday mornings.

there is a nice iphone app called comm radio where you can stream dozens of these stations.

WZBC and WMBR are still outstanding in the Boston area. Both are a mix of students and community members, too, which goes a long way I think.

i like WVUM okay, but it's not as though there's anyone else to compare them to, locally.

I know this is probably not unprecedented

yeah this happens a lot, similar thing happened to KUSF here

man that sucks about album 88. interesting they apparently had the same issues w/ lack of interest from student body that have basically destroyed wuog up here.

I loved WSOU when i lived in New Jersey. Pirate Radio

interesting they apparently had the same issues w/ lack of interest from student body that have basically destroyed wuog up here.

As far as I know the student body had little to no say in the decision. I'd wager that GSU has way more students that listen to WRAS than GT does students that listen to WREK, but because of how the stations are licensed we are in a better position to defend ourselves, which we did successfully years ago when GPB tried to do the same thing with us.

NPR and their regional fingers like GPB are appallingly unscrupulous actors. tbh, the only times I've ever tuned into Album 88 is after dark, so this won't make a huge difference for me (for now), but I definitely feel bad for all the day listeners.

they've taken the morning & evening drive time blocks, which is when most people are listening on terrestrial radio.

WTJU in Charlottesville, Virginia, had one of these moments. They brought in a new station manager and were going to change the decades-old format (free-form programming within categories, i.e., rock, classical, jazz, and folk) to a "roots-oriented" station with a more determined genre (some kind of AAA "Americana" type thing), but the community, students, and alumni got riled up and demanded that they keep the station as-is. It was a little crazy, but it also worked, as the UVA team leading the changes backed off, the new station manager resigned, and programming stayed as-is. Student involvement is up a bit since that moment, and fundraising is way up, but I don't think this is the typical scenario at all. The community largely funds WTJU though, the University/state makes a pretty minimal financial contribution.

Yeah, taking the reins away from the student staff between 5am and 7pm is going to kill it dead. Hopefully a long time from now, but it's inevitable.

this is really terrible news.

This is crazy. I'm friends w plenty of WRAS DJs and yesterday the Fascistbook was full of anti-88 posts and I had no idea what was going on. This sucks! Also yeah more people listen to WRAS, WREK is nice if you want to hear a guy banging on a stairway for 10 minutes at 3am. Then again, WREK has College Sports, which sort of trump all non-sports-related college content. :(

Gonna take a second to promote my favorite radio show ever, hope it doesn't go away:

Jet Lag
Sunday 8-10pm
Hosts: Yoon

Jet Lag concentrates on vinyl recordings of international psych, prog, strange folk, soundtracks, and other rare music from the 60s and 70s. Since 2006, Yoon has featured her sentimental favorites ranging from Samuel Prody to Jean Le Fennec to Korean masterpieces by Jung Hyun Shin and Jung Mi Kim.

KALX just played one of my favorite songs by The Pop Group and yesterday played a Neubauten cover of "Sand" by Lee Hazlewood

I think we're going to see this happen more often as colleges seek ways to "monetize" these underperforming assets

What's funny to me how they're trying to frame the online stream as a problem solved. "People, people...you can still hear the programming you love!" But if it's really so great an option, why doesn't GPB just stream online and leave WRAS programming on the dial.

Why? Because they know it's ten steps down profile-wise.

the school isn't even getting that much money from this deal! they're being paid $150,000 which is what, like 5 out-of-state students?

It's the access to GPB production studios that they really want. They'll use it as a selling point for prospective media students.

Here's a thing about Album 88 my friend Millie wrote three years ago: http://magazine.gsu.edu/2011/04/spanning-the-spectrum-for-40-years/

It's quite wonderful, actually. I knew the station inspired Westerberg to write "Left of the Dial," but I didn't know it's where Gedolf first read the news report that later turned into "I Don't Like Mondays."

In related news, GSU also announced plans to take over Turner Field when the Braves move.

So yay for sports!

http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/college/georgia-state-wants-to-turn-turner-field-into-foot/nfq8R/

Thanks for posting that article, it's a wonderful read! Everyone in Atlanta is pissed off about this, because that station really meant a lot, especially for us old folks who were around before the internet really took off.

I remember hearing The Music Tapes on 88.5 and it just blowing my 18 year old mind that it was new music and not some lost thing from the 60s.

WRAS 88.5 FM officially signed on the air on Jan. 18, 1971, at 11 a.m. The first song ever played was opening measures from “Also sprach Zarathustra” by Richard Strauss, popularly known as the theme from the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.” It was immediately followed by “My Sweet Lord” by George Harrison.

<3<3<3<3<3

https://soundcloud.com/collegeradioday/sets/we-are-wras-simulcast-june-26/s-VTcqQ

This is the 54-minute segment created by and about WRAS that was simulcast on 50 college radio stations around the country today.