Campus radio

Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively by students, or may include programmers from the wider community in which the station is based. Sometimes campus stations are operated for the purpose of training professional radio personnel, sometimes with the aim of broadcasting educational programming, while other stations exist to provide an alternative to commercial or government broadcasters.

Campus radio stations are generally licensed and regulated by national governments, and so have very different characteristics from one country to the next. One commonality between many stations regardless of their physical location is a willingness to broadcast musical selections that are not categorized as commercial hits. Because of this, campus radio has come to be associated with emerging musical trends (c.f. alternative rock in the latter portion of the 20th century in the United States and elsewhere). Despite this, many campus radio stations carry a variety of programming including news (often local), sports (often relating to the campus), and spoken word programming as well as general music. Often the format is best described as a freeform radio format, with a lot of creativity and individualism among the disc jockeys and show hosts. A number of these stations have gained critical acclaim for their programming and are considered by the community in which they are embedded to be an essential media outlet.

Although the term campus radio implies full-power AM or FM transmission over the air, many stations experiment with low-power broadcasting or carrier current systems often to on-campus listeners only. Some stations are distributed through the cable television network on cable FM or the second audio program of a TV station. Some universities and colleges broadcast one or more Internet radio feeds — either instead of, or in addition to a campus radio station — which may differ in format significantly from licensed traditional campus radio.

Campus radio around the world

Canada

In Canada, radio stations are regulated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) which provides that "a campus radio station is a station owned or controlled by a not-for-profit organization associated with a post-secondary educational institution" (see the Campus Radio Policy). The CRTC distinguishes two types of campus radio: instructional (for training of professional broadcasters) and community-based campus (programming provided by volunteers who are not training to be professionals). The community-based format is the predominant one, colloquially known as "campus-community radio."

Campus radio stations broadcasting at full power are assigned a permanent frequency and call letters and, aside from a requirement not to compete directly with commercial stations, are full players in the Canadian broadcasting spectrum.

The first licensed community-based campus radio station was CKCU-FM (based at Carleton University in Ottawa) which first broadcast on November 14, 1975. Prior to this date, some developmental university radio projects had previously produced and aired programs on commercial radio stations, and CJRT-FM, a campus radio station of the instructional type, had been on air since 1949.

The CRTC places responsibilities upon campus radio stations in Canada through the use of conditions of license that stations must follow in order to keep broadcasting. Campus stations, for example, are expected to be leaders in the Canadian content system which mandates a minimum number of Canadian musical selections throughout the day. (In early 2005, Humber College's radio station CKHC-FM became the first broadcast station in Canada to air 100% Canadian content.) Other requirements generally made of campus stations include quotas of non-hit, folk and ethnic musical selections as well as spoken word programming.

Most campus radio stations in Canada are members of the National Campus and Community Radio Association.

India

India's first campus radio station, Anna FM at Anna University in Chennai, was launched in 2004. The campus station Gyanvaani is also operating. Several other stations have been licensed.

Israel

Campus radio also exists in Israel, where several colleges, universities and high schools have successful programs. One of the most famous is Kol HaCampus (Voice of the Campus/Campus Voice), broadcast out of Tel Aviv on 106MHz. More information can be found with the Israel Broadcast Authority.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, campus radio is generally referred to as student radio. University Radio York, founded in 1967, became the first student radio station in the country.

Some student radio stations operate on the FM waveband for short periods at a time under the Restricted Service Licence scheme, while others choose to broadcast full-time on the AM waveband using an LPAM licence. Neither licence provides for a reception area greater than four kilometres from the point of transmission. To counteract these licence restrictions and, in the case of AM broadcasts, poor quality audio, many stations simulcast on the Internet.

The Student Radio Association works on behalf of more than fifty UK-based member stations to further their development, encourage and facilitate communication between member stations and links to the commercial radio industry, and lobby for the membership's interests on both a regional and national level. The association organises and hosts the annual Student Radio Awards in conjunction with BBC Radio 1.

United States

College radio (as it is generally known in that country) began in the 1960s when the FCC began issuing class D licenses for ten-watt stations to further the development of the then-new FM band. Some colleges had already been broadcasting for decades on the AM band, often originating in physics experiments in the early 20th century. Most of the FM stations received higher-class licenses, typically a few hundred watts. A few got several kilowatts, and a small handful got licenses in the range of tens of thousands sometimes reaching up to full-power 100 kilowatt outlets. Still, due to strict class D regulations, some stations were prohibited from a wattage upgrade for possible signal interference with adjacent stations, such as KWUR 90.3 FM interfering with KWMU 90.7 FM in St. Louis, Missouri.

The earliest college radio stations carried news, sports, and music along with educational shows and sometimes distance learning courses. In the latter portion of the 20th century, many U.S. stations played what came to be known as "college rock" (later known as alternative rock), a type of rock music that had not yet hit the mainstream. Most stations have now diversified, with many following a very commercial-like music rotation during the weekdays, and having specialty shows on evenings and weekends. A few stations really go out on a limb, occasionally being described as a cacophony of randomness. College stations are typically considered to be public radio stations.

By the late 1970s, FM had taken off, and competition for channels for new stations was intensifying. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the newly-founded National Public Radio (NPR) convinced the FCC that the low-power stations were somehow a "detriment" to broadcasting, and class D licenses were no longer issued for applications made after 1979. Making matters worse, the stations were demoted to a second-class status, meaning that they would be forced off the air if any full-power station wanted their space.

Many stations were forced to upgrade their facilities at considerable expense to the students. Many other stations were eventually (and still continue to be) forced off the air, because they could not afford the upgrades at all, or not in time to avoid being locked-in by other expanding stations.

Many college stations in the U.S. have been folded into National Public Radio and affiliated regional networks. At WRUR-FM in Rochester, New York, officials from local public radio station WXXI met with University of Rochester administration in 2004. WRUR-FM formerly carried only student & local community volunteer DJ shows. Now WRUR-FM simulcasts some of WXXI-AM's content, including National Public Radio (NPR). Further reductions were made in student & volunteer DJ programming when automated broadcasting was introduced, filling in a good share of airtime that was hosted by live DJ's.

A very few stations have been added to the airwaves in very isolated cities with the return of the LPFM license to the U.S. The restrictions that U.S. Congress placed on LPFM stations as a result of the NAB's lobbying have seriously limited the effectiveness of this however.

One of the first college radio stations in the country is WRUC from Union College in Schenectady, New York. Their first experimental broadcasts under the call sign 2ADD were in 1920.