The annual Princeton Review “Best College Radio Stations” list is here, just in time for the 2025-2026 academic year. Appearing within The Best 391 Colleges – 2026 edition, the “best college radio station” list shines a spotlight on 25 schools with radio stations deemed the most popular based on student surveys.
New Entrants to the List Hit the Top 10
A highlight of the new list is that it features four schools that have never appeared in the “Best College Radio Station” list in the 30+ years of its publication. Notably, two of those schools made their debut on the list by appearing in the Top 10. Washington and Lee University came in at #3 and Rollins College is in the 9th slot. Additionally, two schools on this year’s list hadn’t appeared on the “Best College Radio Station” list in 20 years or more.
East Coast Dominates
Once again, the Princeton Review list is a mix, including large universities with multiple radio stations as well as small liberal arts colleges with online-only stations. The biggest school on the list is Arizona State (with 195,000+ students) and the tiniest is Bennington College (797 undergraduates). I am also pleased to have visited college radio stations at 6 7 8 out of the 25 schools on the list.
The East Coast still dominates, although there was a slight increase in representation this year in other regions. California is once again absent from the list. In this edition, 11 schools from the northeast made the cut (3 from New Jersey, 3 from Massachusetts, 2 from New York, 1 from Vermont, 1 from Pennsylvania, and 1 from Maine). From the Midwest, the 6 schools hail from Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, and Ohio (2). On the west coast, only 3 schools are represented (1 from Washington and 2 from Oregon). The three schools from the South are from Florida (2) and Virginia. And the Southwest is represented by two schools, one each in Texas and Arizona.
Best = Popular
As a reminder, although the Princeton Review describes its college radio results as “Best College Radio Station,” the title doesn’t tell the whole story. Here’s the scoop:
1. Results are based on student surveys
2. Surveys were conducted at 391 colleges. Per Princeton Review, “They constitute only about 15% of America’s nearly 2,400 four-year institutions.”
3. Students are asked to judge the popularity, not the quality, of an unspecified campus radio station at their own college
4. Radio stations are not named in the survey or in the resulting rankings
5. Only schools surveyed can make it into the rankings, so college radio stations at schools that are not surveyed by Princeton Review won’t appear on the list
A number of colleges appearing on the “Best College Radio Station” list have multiple radio stations, including student-run stations, large public radio stations, and everything in between. It makes sense that students would indicate that their school’s radio station is “popular” if they are on a campus with a high profile professional radio station and/or with several radio stations.
Digging into Methodology
According to Princeton Review, ”We tallied the rankings lists in the current edition of The Best 391 Colleges (published August 2025) based on the data from our surveys of 170,000 students at the 391 schools in the book.
The site says that the “Best College Radio Station” list is compiled “based on students’ answers to the survey question, ‘How popular is the college radio station?,” but in recent years, the question was phrased a little differently. For the 2021 edition’s list, the survey asked, “How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements at your school?” Among the list of statements was: “College Radio Station is popular.” Respondents were given the following options: Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neither Agree or Disagree, Agree or Strongly Agree.
How Similar is this Year’s List to Prior Lists?
For the 2026 Princeton Review list of “Best College Radio Stations,” 17 of the 25 schools were on the 2025 list. Washington and Lee University, Rollins College, John Carroll University and University of Portland are brand new entrants, not having appeared during the entire history of Princeton Review lists going back to the 1993 edition. The other four schools that did not appear last year include Rice University (last appeared on 2002 list), Grinnell College (last appeared on 2006 list), Monmouth University (last appeared on 2021 list) and Macalester College (last appeared on 2024 list).
Those that fell off the list this year were Skidmore College, Carleton College, Princeton University, Saint Michael’s College, DePauw University, Allegheny College, Washington State University, and Hamilton College.
The complete list for the 2026 edition is listed below. For comparison, here are the lists from the 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 (different format- had “Great College Radio Station” list), 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008 editions of Princeton Review.
2026 Princeton Review’s Best College Radio Stations
(aka Most Popular College Radio Stations)
Note: I’ve added station names and call signs as the Princeton Review only lists school names. Schools in bold were not on the previous “best” list for the 2025 edition
1. Seton Hall University (WSOU 89.5 FM, South Orange, NJ)
2. Reed College (KRRC, Portland, OR)
- Learn more on my KRRC tour: Station Field Trip
3. Washington and Lee University (WLUR 91.5 FM Lexington, VA)
4. Emerson College (WERS 88.9FM and WECB, Boston, MA)
- Learn more on my WECB tour: Station Field Trip
5. Mount Holyoke College (WMHC 91.5 FM, South Hadley, MA)
6. Hofstra University (WRHU 88.7 FM, Hempstead, New York)
7. Denison University (Doobie Radio, Granville, OH)
8. Hillsdale College (WRFH-LP 101.7 FM, Hillsdale, MI)
9. Rollins College (WPRK 91.5 FM, Winter Park, FL)
10. University of South Florida (WUSF 89.7 FM and formerly Bulls Radio – now Bulls Media, Tampa, FL)
11. Arizona State University (Blaze Radio – formerly known as KASC 1330 AM, Tempe, AZ)
12. Bowdoin College (WBOR 91.1 FM, Brunswick, ME)
- Learn more on my WBOR tour: Station Field Trip #174
13. University of Puget Sound (KUPS 90.1 FM, Tacoma, Washington)
14. Illinois Institute of Technology (WIIT 88.9 FM, Chicago, IL)
- Learn more on my WIIT tour: Station Field Trip #142
15. Dickinson College (WDCV 88.3 FM, Carlisle, PA)
16. John Carroll University (WJCU 88.7 FM, University Heights, OH)
17. Rice University (KTRU-LP 96.1 FM, Houston, TX) – last appearance was in the 2002 edition
18. Rider University (107.7 FM The Bronc, Lawrenceville, NJ)
19. Wellesley College (WZLY 91.5 FM, Wellesley, MA)
- Learn more on my WZLY tour (visited after publishing this list): Station Visit #180
20. Ithaca College (WICB 91.7 FM and VIC Radio, Ithaca, New York)
21. Bennington College (B-Rad, Bennington, VT)
- Learn more on my B-Rad tour (visited after publishing this list): Station Visit #185
22. Grinnell College (KDIC, Grinnell, IA) – last appearance was in the 2006 edition
23. Monmouth University (WMCX 88.9 FM, West Long Branch, NJ) – last appearance was in the 2021 edition
24. Macalester College (WMCN 91.7 FM, St. Paul, MN) – last appearance was in the 2024 edition
- Learn more on my 2015 WMCN tour: Station Field Trip #95
25. University of Portland (KDUP, Portland, OR)
- Learn more on my 2013 KDUP tour: Station Field Trip #48
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