The History of College Radio

Almost as soon as there were radio stations, there were college radio stations. In 1948, to popularize FM radio, the FCC introduced class D non commercial education licenses for low-watt college radio stations. By 1967, 326 FM radio signals in the United States operated as “educational radio,” 220 of which were owned and operated by colleges and universities. The type of programming that these stations offered varied widely, from lectures and sporting events, to various kinds of musical shows, but toward the late 1970s, a new genre of college rock appeared on the scene. Record labels took note as college DJs discovered up-and-coming new artists, although they sometimes stopped playing those artists once they made it big.

Joining this week’s episode is historian Dr. Katherine Rye Jewell, a Professor at Fitchburg State University and author of Live from the Underground: A History of College Radio.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “College Days by Charles Hart, et al., 1919, in the public domain and retrieved from the Library of Congress. The episode image is “Don Jackson, a senior, delivering a news broadcast at the Iowa State College radio station,” photographed by Jack Delano at Iowa State College in Ames, Iowa in May 1942; photograph in the public domain and available via the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information.

Additional Sources:

• “The Development of Radio,” PBS American Experience.
• “Marconi’s First Wireless Transmission,” by Kath Bates, Oxford Open Learning Trust, November 28, 2018.
• “Marconi's first radio broadcast made 125 years ago,” by Jonathan Holmes, BBC News, May 13, 2022.
• “Radio's First Voice...Canadian!” by Mervyn C. Fry, The Cat's Whisker - Official Voice of the Canadian Vintage Wireless Association Vol. 3, No. 1 - March 1973.
• “History of Commercial Radio,” Federal Communications Commission.
• “Which college radio station was the first in the United States?,” About College Radio, Radio Survivor, Updated March 14, 2023.
• “About WRUC 89.7,” WRUC.union.edu.
• “Celebrating 90 Years of Broadcasting at Curry College,” Curry College.
• “What Is "College" Rock?” by Shawn Persinger, Premier Guitar, July 15, 2023.
• “When college radio went mainstream—and 20 bands that came with it,” by Matthew Everett, Yardbarker, November 7, 2017.
• “10 Legendary Bands that Wouldn’t Be Legendary without College Radio,” by Dave Sarkies, College Radio Foundation, September 21, 2020.
• “U2 Rock Fordham University: On the Ground at the ‘Secret’ Set,” by Jenn Pelly, Rolling Stone, March 6, 2009.
• “All that is left is R.E.M. Steeple – Celebrating the beginning of Athens’ legendary band,” by Joe Vitale, UGA Wire, April 5, 2020.
• “‘60 Songs That Explain the ’90s’: R.E.M. and the Leap From College-Rock Gods to Mainstream Icons,” by Rob Harvilla, The Ringer, September 29, 2021.
• “REM: The band that defined, then eclipsed college rock,” by Mark Savage, BBC, September 21, 2011.
• “History Timeline,” Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
• “History,” NPR.
• “Left of the dial: College radio days,” by Daniel de Vise, The Washington Post, June 26, 2011.
• “Technology and the Soul of College Radio,” by Jennifer Waits, Pop Matters, April 19, 2010.
• “The Enduring Relevance of College Radio,” SPIN, November 10, 2020.
• “College Radio Maintains Its Mojo,” by Ben Sisario, The New York Times, December 5, 2008.

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