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In the fall, I had a great visit to see college radio station WHPK at University of Chicago. The focus of my 143rd station tour report (posted this week); WHPK just celebrated its 50th anniversary of FM broadcasting, although radio history at University of Chicago stretches back further. Chicago College Radio Tours I feel lucky […]
Community radio KBOO-FM is hosting this year’s Grassroots Radio Conference on the occasion of the station’s 50th anniversary. The conference is happening October 5 – 7, 2018 and registration is open now. Founded in 1996, the GRC is intended to be a space where broadcasters, producers and supporters can share skills, discuss important issues and […]
I’ve been wanting to see University of Chicago’s college radio station WHPK for quite some time and even had a thwarted trip a few years back when a scheduled tour was canceled due to illness. So, it was with great anticipation that I stopped by on Friday, December 1st for my long-awaited visit. Particularly in […]
This week, community radio station KXRY-FM (aka XRAY.fm) announced that it is now the holder of its own FM license in Portland, Oregon. According to XRAY, “We received big news from the FCC: XRAY is now the official license holder of 91.1 FM! Much like renting a house or apartment, XRAY has been operating 91.1 for […]
While I was in a research rabbit hole this week, I found an intriguing tale of an early “broadcast” of a college football game through the use of a telegraph in 1903. According to the University of Michigan Amateur Radio Club, On October 31, 1903, the University of Michigan Football Team traveled to Minnesota to […]
Over the next few days, the station where I volunteer, Foothill College radio station KFJC-FM is broadcasting live from a music festival several thousand miles from home. With a fixation on underground music and a growing obsession with undertaking ambitious remote broadcasts from afar; my KFJC cohorts continue to amaze me (see my tech-heavy account […]
On this week’s Radio Survivor Podcast/radio show, I’m pleased to share two of my most recent college radio station tour reports. In the episode, Paul Riismandel and I chat about my visits to WIIT at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and WKCR at Columbia University in New York City. Both stations are super interesting, […]
Jennifer Waits takes us on tours of two storied college stations, with deep roots in their communities. WIIT-FM is the student station at the Illinois Institute of Technology, housed in the modern Rem Koolhaas designed McCormick Tribune Campus Center situated at the intersection of Chicago’s Bronzeville and Bridgeport neighborhoods. WKCR is Columbia University’s station, with […]
College radio history is near and dear to my heart and I appreciate it when stations celebrate their origin stories. With many stations purporting to be the “first” at this or that, I’m always eager to dive into long-lost documents in order to sleuth out the veracity of station lore. As any historian or journalist […]
While touring through the “On the Radio” radio history exhibit at SFO Museum on Monday, I was reminded of a couple of college radio connections. Curator Daniel Calderon pointed out to me his “nod” to college radio in the FM radio portion of the exhibit. According to the exhibit notes, “As FM searched for its […]
