On Friday, October 3, as World College Radio Day was being celebrated across the country and around the globe, students were locked out of their long-time home at college radio station WCSB 89.3 FM at Cleveland State University. Word soon spread that a deal had been struck between university leadership and local public radio organization […]
One of the first things that I noticed when I arrived at WMPG-FM in Portland, Maine was a familiar-looking three-dimensional grey cardboard sign perched in the lobby window. Hidden behind a chair and near stacks of bumper stickers, the sign is on my hypothetical radio station tour bingo card. Sent by musician Leo Blais many […]
“Walk to the front between the two large turrets!” read the text message from WZLY historian Berit Raines, directing me to the entrance of Billings Hall, a gothic 1904 building that is home to the Wellesley College radio station as well as various student services and administrative offices. While walking across the lushly landscaped campus […]
“The station’s in a bit a flux,” WBRS co-General Manager Ella Thanik said apologetically, after enthusiastically greeting me at the Brandeis University college radio station around lunchtime on a Thursday in early October. The student-run station had recently been painted and various items still hadn’t returned to their proper homes. A large dry erase board […]
Over the years there have been so many reports about the ebb and flow of college radio and I’ve tried my best to not feed into narratives of decline. With that in mind, I was pleased to read a piece this week from Emily White, Gen Z’s College Radio Revival, which outlines feelings about college […]
Jennifer Waits reports back from the Grassroots Radio Conference, held in Spokane Washington from September 11 to September 14, 2025. We recap FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez’s keynote address, in which she spoke forcefully about recent actions by the FCC that threaten freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Gomez talked about the importance of […]
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 […]
While the work of radio stations using terrestrial transmitters is a typical discussion topic on Radio Survivor, for this episode we find ourselves examining music and talk beamed down from satellites orbiting the earth. Satellite radio as we know it began in the 1990s, with its major players launching satellite radio services in the early […]
The magic of college radio lies not just in the sounds that are transmitted over the airwaves, but also emanates from the spaces from which stations operate. Often these are in obscure locales, tucked away in basements or on the edge of a campus. And sometimes the buildings themselves have their own unusual story, like […]
It was a surreal experience to return to one of my college radio alma maters, WBGU 88.1 FM at Bowling Green State University (BGSU), and encounter an unrecognizable radio station and campus. Granted it had been nearly 30 years since I’d left northwest Ohio, but I was still surprised by just how much can change. […]
