Love to College Radio on College Radio Day 2025
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 […]
Podcast #345 – Catching up with Community Radio at the Grassroots Radio Conference and NCRC
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 […]
2026 “Best College Radio Stations” List from Princeton Review
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 […]
Podcast #344 – Music in Orbit: Satellite Radio in the Streaming Space Age
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 […]
Radio Station Visit #178: CJSR-FM at University of Alberta
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 […]
Radio Station Visit #177: WBGU-FM at Bowling Green State University
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. […]
Radio Station Visit #176: WONY at SUNY Oneonta
One version of my radio nerd dream vacation includes a cross-country road trip, with numerous stops at college radio stations along the way. With family in tow, it’s a tough sell; however over the years I’ve been able to convince them to indulge me in my obsessive quest to tick off more spots on my […]
Radio Station Visit #175: KUCR at UC Riverside
On a Sunday morning, when most college students were likely asleep, KUCR Music Director Diya Anantharaman cheerfully greeted me at University of California, Riverside’s college radio station. Off-the-beaten path, KUCR 88.3 FM occupies a couple of low-slung aging buildings that are adjacent to residence halls and apartments near the northern edge of campus. Headquarters for […]
2025 Princeton Review List of “Best College Radio Stations”
What are the best college radio stations? That’s an impossible question to answer, but each year Princeton Review publishes a list based on student surveys about station “popularity” taken at hundreds of college campuses. I’ve been monitoring these lists for nearly 20 years and am always intrigued by how the collection of schools shuffles from […]
Podcast #343 – Catching up on College Radio and Podcasting News (March 19, 2025)
Eric, Jennifer and Paul return with a new episode of Radio Survivor, recapping some of the latest news from our travels. Jennifer shares highlights from the annual student media conference hosted by Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS) and from her visits to college radio stations in New York City. Just back from South by Southwest, Paul […]