Not only do you get a unique entertainment experience when you tune into a college radio station, but you also support a student’s education.

College radio stations are useful because they teach skills in everything from broadcasting and advertising to engineering, programming, and even business skills.

Students have the opportunity to learn about broadcasting regulations in their area, FCC rules, and what it takes to become a journalist in today’s environment. Many people find that it is helpful to work in college radio to develop their talents at university.

Is College Radio Dead?

In addition to traditional radio stations, many college campuses today offer the opportunity to produce things like articles, podcasts, original shows, and news as part of their radio broadcasting. All of these opportunities give students access to new writing and research skills.

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WUSF 89.7 FM

Tampa Bay’s flagship national public radio station, this radio channel is owned by the University of South Florida. The channel began in 1963, just 7 years after the founding of USF College.

In 1976, WUSF became the first public radio station in the country and the first in Florida to launch access to high-definition radio signals.

Today, WUSF 89.7 includes a variety of news and talk programs with jazz music at night. On weekends, it hosts a variety of programs and unique talk shows, including Radio Lab.

WSBU 88.3 FM

WSBU radio station, known as “rock radio 88.3” or “The Buzz”, is a non-commercial radio station, universally recognized in the United States. This station is licensed by St. Bonaventure University in New York.

Run exclusively by students, WSBU has about 200 volunteers who keep the station running.

KASC AM

KASC, also known as Blaze radio, is an AM station that serves all four campuses of Arizona State University. This college student station broadcasts 24 hours a day throughout the academic year.

The station broadcasts from the state-of-the-art radio studio of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. The station often features interviews with popular artists and professionals.

KEXP 90.3

KEXP-FM is not just a regular radio station, but a public radio station in Washington and Seattle that specializes in indie rock and alternative music. KEXP’s student-run radio station hosts a variety of weekly programs dedicated to different musical genres such as world music, blues, rockabilly, and electronica.

WCWS 90.9

Otherwise known as WKWO or “WOO”, this station in Wooster, Ohio is a fantastic public college radio station. Offering access to a variety of amazing content, it is one of the most versatile student radio stations on our list.

Today’s listeners can easily tune in to everything from lectures and talk shows to indie rock, up-and-coming music presentations, and local sports coverage.

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While radio as a whole is threatened by financial difficulties and changing consumer preferences, student radio continues to thrive, and many stations have grown since the first adopted online streaming.

WSBU-88.3 FM St. Bonaventure, St. Bonaventure, New York

WSBU 88.3 FM operates a 165-watt station that broadcasts 24/7. Under the direction of 16 student directors who oversee the station, 200 student volunteers keep this station running at number one according to the Princeton Review.

History is on the side of this station, which has survived six name changes and has remained in existence since 1948. “The Buzzworthy, a print and online magazine that comes out several times a month, has also become a household name. Hip-hop and indie rock acts such as the Mountain Goats or Peter Bjorn and John are often featured on WSBU.

WICB 91.7 FM Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY

Ithaca College Radio began in 1941 in the dressing rooms of the Little Theater in Ithaca. The hosts didn’t have great equipment, but you could listen if you were within earshot of the speakers in the sound system in the neighboring rooms. Today, WICB uses a 4100-watt antenna with a traditional audience of 250,000 people, and the online audience is much larger. In 2008, the station won MTVu’s Woodie Award for Best Student Radio and was ranked number one among the most popular student radio stations in the Princeton Review’s 2014 rankings.

WICD is a little more mainstream than the other stations on the list, but has programs scheduled for contemporary rock, jazz, hip-hop, specialty, and my favorite, “The Hobo’s Lullaby.”

WERS 88.9FM Emerson College, Boston, Massachusetts

WERS is non-commercial and touts itself as Boston’s discovery station, helping listeners find their next favorite artist. Accordingly, WERS stays off the beaten path and embraces an eclectic mix of local, independent talent and rediscovered and obscure classics.

“Standing Room Only” on Saturday and Sunday mornings provides some of that eclecticism by offering the most popular musical theater broadcasts in New England. If you’re looking for old hits and independent new artists, WERS is the place for you.

WGRE 91.5 FM DePauw University, Greencastle, IN

WGRE was established as the first educational radio station in the country as a 10-watt radio station in 1949. It is now the largest student organization at DePauw, with more than 200 student DJs. For 14 years, the station has been ranked in the top ten of the Princeton Review’s college radio stations. This year they were #2 on the list.

WASU 90.5 Appalachia, Boone, North Carolina

WASU only accepts students who are seriously considering a career in broadcasting, and it shows. Affectionately known as “The Appendix,” this station is known for finding quiet indie rockers before they become big. The station won MTVu’s Woodie Award in 2012.

KPSU 98.1 Portland State University, Portland, Oregon

This nonprofit, student-run freeform radio station has been a favorite in Portland since it first went on the air in 1994. KPSU currently does not operate on citywide FM radio, thanks to a user-friendly website where listeners can interact with DJs and the community, but is fully streamed online. The station puts no restrictions on the programming of its 65 (mostly student) volunteer DJs and, as you might expect, often helps to “keep Portland weird.”

WRHU 88.7 FM Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York

WRHU is a powerhouse of rising broadcast stars, taught by some of Manhattan’s finest. More than 200 current students help run the station, which broadcasts to New York City, Long Island and Connecticut. Covering NHL games and conducting in-house interviews with people like Jack Johnson and Janet Jackson, every student who works at the station must take a 10-week, non-credit course to ensure they are technically proficient on the air. WRHU is ranked 5th in the category of “best student radio station” Princeton Review.

WKNC 88.1 North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina

WKNC’s 25,000-watt transmitter serves the entire Raleigh-Durham market, focusing on electronica, hip-hop, indie rock, metal and North Carolina music. The station is non-profit and student-run, and it tries to fulfill its mission of playing “music that doesn’t suck.” Local collaborative events like “Local Band, Local Beer” make WKNC a cultural force in the greater community.

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Commercial radio

Corporate property, broadcasting mostly pop stars, Top 40 hit makers and other mainstream. Various indie bands are occasionally found on the air of an average commercial station, and those are only allowed into rotation if the band has built up a large fan base or has been picked up by other stations (which is the obvious way to get into the rotation of such stations).

University radio station

Combines features of a public radio station, online radio and indie radio. Belongs to universities and serves as a training ground for future generations of broadcasters, where hosts and DJs practice their skills. These stations are much more likely to play independent music.

Non-commercial and community stations

These are public stations that typically support indie music (e.g. Think NPR, BBC, CBC in Canada). This is where the target audience for non-commercial music resides, as listeners of such stations are people who spend money on something they love and appreciate.

Satellite radio stations

Owned by various satellite broadcasting companies. For example, SiriusXM broadcasts not only music, but also various talk shows, sports and news programs, and provides subscribers with access to Pandora, Spotify and iHeartRadio.

Internet Radio

Internet radios should not be forgotten either. Most of them have a very small and useless audience, but it’s worth a try – after rotating on a dozen of these radio stations, you’ll feel a little more confident when communicating with representatives of larger radio stations.

To get on one of the radio stations, you will need to establish contact with the managers of these stations, music directors or program producers. Finding their contacts is not so difficult: you can look in the section on the sites of stations, and if such information is not found on the site, then use Google by searching the database of radio stations. The main thing that you should do before throwing your letters at the radio is to listen to its air – this way you will understand how much you fit the format of the station and how much you want your music to be played on the air of the selected radio.

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Since the Internet does not and cannot have the same format restrictions as traditional radio, all Internet radios without exception like to play experimental, strange and obscure music, so turn them on without prejudice and bias.

Dublab

One of the oldest online radio stations that started as pirate radio at the University of Southern California. Dublab’s founder, Mark McNeil, who studied music business there, launched the university’s internet radio streaming service in 1998. UUK management soon shut down the pirate station, but McNeil realized it had potential – and Dublab launched independently in 1999. The birth of the radio station coincided with the hype around the Internet and big investments, and McNeil and his colleagues almost received several million dollars from venture capitalist Doug Ahlers. But just then the dot-com bubble burst, and Dublab had to manage without investment.

NTS Radio

The British station responsible for the emergence of the new wave of internet radio. Since launching in 2011, NTS has had many followers and imitators. NTS’s motto is Don’t Assume. It means that there are no genre and geographical restrictions on the radio, anything can be played here and you should be open to any music.

Radar Radio

London radio dedicated to new British music. It airs a hundred different programs and music of various genres – grime, afrobeat, techno, rap, house, whatever. Sometimes big musicians like Skepta or Maya are interviewed and even play live, but the center is still young people. Radar helps the new generation of musicians and DJs to be heard. The radio even has an educational mission: the staff organizes workshops for DJs and radio hosts and invites very young people with no experience to do shows.

Pedro Basement Broadcast

Radio featuring music from the extensive collection of legendary French DJ and techno musician Laurent Garnier, author of Electroshock. Pedro Basement Broadcast broadcasts music 24 hours a day without interruption. Dancehall, house and techno, indie rock and old instrumental jazz – Garnier puts on everything. The fact that almost all of the music on PBB comes from his personal collection adds an element of intimacy: it’s as if one curator is choosing all of his favorite music for you personally.

SomaFM

SomaFM differs from all the radio stations listed above in that it’s not one radio, but a whole cluster of different themed channels. Instead of putting programs on the air one after another, the creators of SomaFM offer listeners to choose what to turn on. There’s alternative rock radio, 1970s radio, metal radio, and so on. SomaFM exists entirely thanks to listeners and their donations.

Newtown Radio

Newtown Radio was founded in 2009 in Brooklyn. The original idea was to feature music made in Brooklyn and the surrounding boroughs, but in the process Newtown grew to become one of the largest American internet radio stations – and now it simply features cutting-edge independent music from around the world. You’re just as likely to hear Mac Demarco, Real Estate and The Drums, some weird house producer, or Beastie Boys and disco. Besides radio itself, Newtown employees are engaged in organizing concerts and festivals – in general, for nine years of existence they have earned a place in the American music world.

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