College Radio Station Research Articles

Análisis de las herramientas de producción radiofónica en las radios universitarias españolas

Una de las partes fundamentales para analizar cualquier estación radiofónica es conocer su equipamiento tecnológico, y si hablamos de emisoras universitarias esto adquiere aún mayor valor, por su potencial formativo de futuros profesionales de la comunicación y por su capacidad de experimentación e innovación innata a estas instituciones. El objetivo de este estudio es conocer las herramientas de producción técnica utilizadas por las emisoras universitarias españolas. Con este propósito hemos planteado una investigación de tipo cuantitativo para señalar los instrumentos más usuales en las emisoras universitarias y compararlos con los que se utilizan en un contexto real laboral. La conclusión principal es que las estaciones universitarias están dotadas de medios técnicos profesionales que podemos encontrar en una emisora de radio convencional, y que permiten al alumnado la manipulación del sonido y el descubrimiento de las posibilidades del lenguaje radiofónico. De esta manera, los productos radiofónicos elaborados por los estudiantes implicados en las emisoras contribuyen a reforzar su trayectoria educativa y formativa.

Blogs como recurso de una radio universitaria. El caso de Uniradio-Huelva

This study arises from the analysis of the communicative model used in the radio programmes of a university radio station, Uniradio-Huelva, considered as a public service for citizens, through 40 blogs that are associated with the radio programming. The aims of the study are to analyse the influence of the radio from an educational and social perspective and to determine the programmes level of broadcast according to whether the programme has a blog or not. The research methodology belongs to the qualitative paradigm and it is based on real descriptions of situational context and incorporating, as a fundamental component, the content analysis of textual productions (printed or electronic) that are part of the radio’s identity. The research design is that of a case study. The content analysis was carried out through a content analysis grid adapted to the structure and characteristics of the content published online.

Managing college radio: Understanding American college stations through their management practices

Abstract Effectively managing any media organization is a difficult task. College radio stations face challenges both common and unique to their professional counterparts, and are often led by students with little or no previous management experience. This study examined management practices of student-led FM college radio broadcast stations in the United States and provides a contemporary review of the programming, practices and challenges associated with today’s campus stations. Results indicated that college stations today function at a great variety of levels, from subsistence to abundance. The importance of student management teams was recognized, with primary concerns surrounding funding and lack of support from various constituencies. Concluding comments from leaders of student-led stations around the United States addressed numerous areas of concern and cited several benefits of college radio, both for students interested in media careers and for those simply looking to improve their speaking, writing and leadership skills.

La radio universitaria como formadora de profesionales. Análisis de la relación entre los títulos de grado y la radio universitaria española

College radio is subject to constant transformation. The rise of information and communications technologies has allowed its development and modernization as well as the proliferation of new professional profiles. This research aims to analyze the connection of the Spanish university stations with the relevant qualifications. To do this, we use a comparative methodology based on examination of descriptors and specific principal subjects of degrees such as Audiovisual Communication and Journalism, although we will be using other degrees that are acquiring more responsibilities in a radio station, such as the degree in Information and Documentation. In conclusion, structural weaknesses in the university environment are observed, but future possibilities are detected as well: A college radio station is a place of convergence between the training of students from different degrees and reality itself, a versatile medium that provides the relevance of being the first professional contact of college students with the labor market.

La radio universitaria en España: comunicación alternativa de servicio público para la formación

El presente artículo recoge la realidad de las emisoras universitarias españolas. El objetivo de esta investigación es trazar un panorama del fenómeno en España, partiendo del análisis en detalle de distintos parámetros como la forma de emisión o las estructuras organizativas. Los principales resultados recopilados trazan una “radiografía” del fenómeno caracterizado por una marcada heterogeneidad.

From wireless experiments to streaming: The secret history and changing role of college radio at Haverford College 1923–2014

Abstract The 1920s were boom years for college radio, with at least 90 college radio stations in the United States by January 1924. This period was also the heyday for radio at Haverford College, a small, all-male Quaker College near Philadelphia. Its first radio station, WABQ, was launched by students in 1923. In the early years of the station, students embarked on a series of ambitious projects, including international wireless experiments. WABQ was sold to a commercial radio group and in its wake other stations (WHAV and WHRC) formed at Haverford. In the 1940s the station was part of one of the first intercollegiate radio networks. By the 1980s WHRC was a campus-only AM carrier-current station. As technology evolved WHRC abandoned carrier-current for Internet-only broadcasting and by 2009 even this netcast faded away. Following some experiments with transforming the station into a podcast-only DJ club in 2009–2010, WHRC was again resurrected as a streaming radio station in 2012. This article covers the more than 90-year history of radio at Haverford College from the 1920s to the present. It draws from historical documents and interviews with WHAV and WHRC participants from the 1940s through 2014. The story of Haverford College radio adds another voice to the currently very limited literature documenting both the very early history of college radio and the evolution of college radio in general.

Youth in South Africa Bond with Radio

South Africa’s youth have found voices through radio as a result of liberalization laws enacted during the post-apartheid democratic period under Nelson Mandela. Today, youth communicate their concerns thanks to the dynamic duo with radio, a medium that penetrates the hinterland and is received in rural areas. To youth, radio is a companion they trust. They listen to radio programs that are produced and presented by children from the children’s perspective. Partnerships such as the Children’s Radio Foundation (CRF), United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), German-South African partnership, and government and local entities support youth radio through training and by providing necessary resources. Community and college radio stations, too, have been pivotal in embracing youth radio. Additionally, youth radio participates in simultaneous international live broadcasts with stations in Accra (Ghana), Nairobi (Kenya), and Chicago (United States). Youth radio success is further exemplified by 2009 and 2010 UNICEF Children’s Radio Broadcasting Award. The drama, “Shuga Radio,” leads in the category, while discussion groups express youth interests. Meanwhile, youth radio-motivated Kwaito music has won the minds of listeners.

Book Review: African Americans in Television: Behind the Scenes

African Americans in Television: Behind the Scenes. Gregory Adamo. New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2010. 200 pp. $119 hbk. $32.95 pbk.Gregory Adamo, an assistant professor at Morgan State University in Baltimore, goes behind the scenes of the television production industry to describe the experiences of African American producers and writers early in the twenty-first century. The account is based on interviews with seventeen industry professionals between 1998 and 2005, and it describes the hurdles they face in a business where success depends as much on who you know as what you know.Adamo, a former general manager of a college radio station in New York, began this project as part of his doctoral work at Rutgers University. He focuses on what he calls the new normal, the time in the late 1990s and early twenty-first century when black shows became a standard part of the network TV repertoire. Adamo argues that the success of shows like Sister, Sister and Everybody Hates Chris was due to five factors: the Fox network's strategy to gain viewership by appealing to an urban market, the creation of the UPN and WB networks in 1995, the expansion of cable channels, the mainstreaming of hip-hop culture, and the African American writers themselves, who, seeing the opportunities, seized them.It is the last point on which this book is primarily focused. Through the interviews, Adamo tells how these writers and producers started in show businesses and fought their way to positions of influence. Although Adamo is white, he says that the interviewees spoke candidly about their experiences within the Hollywood system. Some of the revelations are not surprising: college connections and internships do matter; network executives are reluctant to take risks with unknown talent and unorthodox ideas; and well-placed mentors can steer novices to success. These keys to employment and promotion are true regardless of race.The strength of this book lies in its description of less obvious aspects of the black experience in Hollywood, particularly those issues on which the interview subjects disagree.One of those issues is the role of affirmative action in aiding the careers of black television industry professionals. Rose Catherine Pinkney, senior vice president of Comedy Development at Paramount Communications, tells Adamo that she is proud that she is a product of affirmative action because her experience is proof that such programs can work to provide the industry with talented workers. But Shirley Salomon says that she was offended when she found out that she was hired as a director's assistant on the soap opera One Life to Live primarily because she was a minority. …

Historical Constitution of Public Radio Stations in Brazil

Educational, state, cultural, and university radio stations have already developed over more than 70 years of history in Brazilian radio broadcasting. Currently, there are hundreds of stations transmitting across the country, from the North to the South. Some of them—that in the 1990s included 100 broadcasting stations and among these, the oldest and nationally referenced—up to this decade operated and were referenced as a component of the educational radio system. Mainly from this period on, most of these stations began to call themselves public. And, especially due to their programming, they have been attempting to define themselves within the profile of public radio stations. The purpose of this article is to uncover the historical construction of this group of radio broadcasting stations, by means of a timeframe, from the advent of the non-commercial segment in the 1930s until today. It reconstructs referential models and presents main threads and features of the programming of these stations throughout these seven decades. In this way, it will also evince how Brazil is constructing its model of public radio.

Psychosocial and Behavioural Factors Associated with STD/AIDS among Dental Students in Lagos Nigeria

Background: Sexually transmitted infection (STI) including the Human immune deficiency Virus infection (HIV) cause great morbidity among young adults in Africa. Aim: The study aimed to identify psychosocial and behavioural factors associated with Sexually transmitted infection (STI) including the Human immune deficiency Virus infection (HIV) risk among dental students in the clinical years of the Faculty of Dental Sciences at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Lagos Nigeria. Methods: A convenience sample was selected from 92 enrolled dental students in the clinical years with 61(66%) returning fully filled questionnaires. A standard youth survey developed by FOCUS was used to collect data. Categories considered included sociodemographic factors, knowledge of HIV/AIDS prevention, sexual practice and self-efficacy. Results: Majority of respondents seen were females (59%). All respondents were religious with the majority (67%) being Christians . There was a fair to high knowledge of STI/HIV/AIDS prevention among this group, with about 50% apparently understanding what safe sex means and over 80% reporting correct knowledge of prevention of HIV/ AIDS. Possible risk factors in this group were low numbers presenting for voluntary testing, fair use of condoms and not listening to the University radio station. Low risk factors were high knowledge of prevention, high level of education, highly educated parents, high income earning parents, involvement with extracurricular activity e.g. sports, drama etc, abstinence and avoidance of multiple partners. Conclusion: There is a need for consideration of psychosocial factors apart from biological factors in health promotion programmes for these groups. These is also a need to prepare them for professional activities in counselling younger groups and fellow non-medical peers as well as protecting themselves from HIV/AIDS

Reviewing Net-only College Radio: A Case Study of Brooklyn College Radio

This article explores the history and development of college Net-radio and analyzes the factors underlying Net-only college radio's growing popularity. It reports on an ethnographic study conducted in 2005 about one of North America's first Net-only college radio stations, City University of New York's (CUNY) Brooklyn College Radio.

Does indie mean independence? Freedom and restraint in a late 1990s US college radio community

This article investigates the role that one non-commercial college radio station in the Los Angeles area played in the broader music community during the late 1990s, when formerly alternative rock music was getting played on commercial radio. By instituting a radical indie (independent of corporate control) only policy for rock-related music being added to the station, this radio station defined itself even more strongly as an oppositional practice against commercial radio. At the same time, the definition of indie was being contested as both an aesthetic and economic term, both at the station and within the broader music industry. Based on participant observation and interviews, this article interrogates this station's radical indie music policies, uncovering the challenges faced when an organisation has rules based on contested terminology. Although the radio station's formatting rules were designed to foster a spirit of independence from the corporate music industry, they often led to feelings of disempowerment among DJs. Along with the mainstreaming of alternative practices in the 1990s came an increasing vigilance among underground communities, who sought to keep their subcultures pure and untainted by corporate interests, yet as this article highlights, it is very difficult to remain isolated from commercial culture.

‘Amerrrika ist wunderrrbarrr’: promotion of Germany through Radio Goethe’s cultural export of German popular music to North America

AbstractMuch has been written about the cultural, social and political impact of German popular music within the country, but the role of German popular music outside of Germany has not been sufficiently examined. The research presented here is designed to investigate an example of Germany’s export of contemporary popular music as state-sponsored promotion of its national (pop) culture. San Francisco’s weekly radio programme Radio Goethe – The German Voice, which distributes popular music from German-speaking countries to English-speaking audiences, is explored. The main purposes of this programme are to portray a modern Germany to a foreign audience and to arouse interest in the country. The weekly 60-minute series began airing in 1996 and is sponsored by the German federal government. Radio Goethe is carried by over thirty college radio stations in the USA, Canada and New Zealand, and in 2004 the German creator and host of the series received a Federal Cross of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz) for his intercultural work. This article briefly documents the history of the series and critically examines the presentation, style and language of the music. The results of qualitative research on the meanings that listeners assign to the music – based on questionnaires and focus group interviews with American members of the show’s audience – are presented. This case study is framed within existing debates about the relationships between popular music, national identity, cultural representation, and state-supported music export. Data from interviews with the founder of the show and the cultural ambassador of Germany in San Francisco are analysed to clarify the goals of and assumptions behind the radio series.

Reinventing the Wheel vs. Grinding the Same Old Axe: An Ethnographic View of the Students and Community Members at a Massachusetts College Radio Station

Using the notion of an ‘ideal public sphere’, this article explains and analyzes the democratizing impulses and the clash in intentions as students and local community members negotiate for access to the airwaves at WMUA, a unique hybrid college radio station in Western Massachusetts. Undergraduate students technically control the station, but many of its actual practices fit a Community Radio model that disproportionately favours community members. Students use their WMUA for their own entertainment or see it as a place to gain on-air experience and build resumés. Community members, however, use their WMUA to produce empowering content for audiences beyond the University. With institutional memory and cultural capital, they largely control WMUA’s structure. With data from long-term ethnographic research, this article critiques the normative Habermasian public sphere by showing how regulatory practices limit individualistic, developmental goals of the students, even as these practices facilitate the outside community’s progressive agenda.

Indie to an Extent? Why Music Gets Added to College Radio Playlists

Surveys were distributed via e-mail to student-run college radio stations across the country to determine what influences college radio programmers to add music to their playlists. Inquiry was structured in two ways, a quantitative, aggregate data analysis, based on the Theory of Planned Behavior and a case-by-case, qualitative analysis. A regression analysis provides some evidence that if promotional material was received concerning music which was new or unique then the music was more likely to be added. Through qualitative data analysis it was revealed that programmers cited the quality of the music as an influential reason to add a specific song as well as other emergent themes including, “assistance from the label” and “well reviewed music.” Overall, this study suggests that, despite student-run college radio's reputation of independence, the record industry still plays a role in college radio programming and has influence when it comes to getting music aired.

Centers of the United States

David Richeson (richesod @dickinson.edu; Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA 17013) received his B.S. from Hamilton College and his Ph.D. from Northwestern University. His current research interests include dynamical systems, topology, and the history and applications of the Euler characteristic. He enjoys spending his free time with his wife and young son and on the air at WDCV-FM, the Dickinson College radio station.

Aboriginal Cultural Capital Creation and Radio Production in Urban Ontario

This paper addresses the production of local subjects through radio production, challenging the common assumption of a straightforward conceptual link between de-traditionalization and media globalization. It examines the directions several urban Aboriginal cultural producers in Canada are pursuing to confer meaning on their futures, questioning whether Native modernities are necessarily replacing traditions. Focusing on several First Nations radio shows issuing from university radio station facilities in London and Toronto, Ontario, the paper offers insights into the ways Native radio producers are culturally mediating neo-traditional (new-old) versions of Aboriginality over the airwaves. The article highlights the interdependence of Aboriginal public spheres, radio mediation, and popular sovereignty.

College Radio Streaming and Legal Uncertainty

This research examines attitudes of college radio station general managers toward Internet webstreaming. Managers curtailed the practice in 2001 in response to demands from record companies and artists for payment of fees for streaming copyrighted recordings. Despite the legal and economic uncertainties surrounding the issue, approximately two thirds of the managers indicated they continue to stream their stations. The survey revealed that most general managers-whether full time or part-time-want their stations to stream, and they regard streaming as a valuable technology for extending station presence.

College Radio Station Web Sites: Perceptions of Value and Use

It seems everyone has a favorite Web site these days. There are thousands of sites that appeal to our need for entertainment, information, news, gossip, escapism, and the list goes on. There are even World Wide Web sites that will allow a user to find a long lost high school friend (snowball.com, 2000) no matter where in the world she or he may be. The emergence of the World Wide Web has made our world smaller and the Global Village the Canadian seer Marshall McLuhan (1964) envisioned is upon us. Traditional media have embraced the Web and there is an audience for these sites. Users of media pages have the ability to read electronic versions of hometown newspapers, listen to distant radio stations via audio streaming, and go to television sites that provide streaming video and information about local communities (Bates, et. al., 1996). The technology, in many instances, can be as entertaining as the information. In June 2000, at least 350 colleges and universities had Web sites for their radio stations (M.LT., 2000) and that number is still growing. Apparently these institutions, for whatever reason, are finding value in the integration of Internet sites with their broadcast outlets, and people are surfing these sites. Advisers of these stations, in many cases, may be at a loss as to what content to put on the sites. To this point, no one has asked what people like about college radio sites, or why people use them. Literature review Student-run college radio is seen as the training ground for those students trying to establish careers in the broadcasting industry (Brant, 1981; Thompsen, 1992; Pesha, 1997). Sometimes viewed as unprofessional, college stations have the reputation of playing music that is left of center (Esparza, 1999). College radio also has the perception as being raw and cutting edge. College radio Web sites are often leaders in programming trends like promotional activities and use of innovative Internet technology (McClung, 1999a). The student body is an integral part of any campus station and these stations and their accompanying Web sites are generally staffed and run by students. These Web sites offer a particular challenge for the faculty and advisers who are charged with overseeing the operation of these pages. Cyberspace has been a challenge for journalism and mass communication programs around the country on several fronts. Legal and ethical issues are at the forefront of curricula consideration (Smethers, 1998). Programs are also working to teach students Internet design issues and strategies. Of course, there is always the issue of content. Do the people who are teaching the Internet component of mass communication know what audiences are using student cyber-media for? College students naturally make up the core audience of a broadcast facility on a campus and generally college radio audiences are teens and people in their early to mid-twenties. That is not the case with the college radio station Web site, however. While the core audience (50%) of a college radio station Web site ranges in age from 18 to 25, nearly 45 percent of users of these Web pages are from 26 to 40 years old (McClung, 1999b), an age range that is considered to be non-traditional for college students. While this age range doesn't fit the typical college radio station user profile, it is more typical of an Internet user (Pitkow, 1999). With the noted differences in age ranges across both mediums, the question is raised, Why are older users heading to college radio station Web sites? The genesis of mass media research deals mostly with mass media effects, however there were a few researchers in the 1940s that began looking at how audiences used the media. Based mainly on psychological constructs, these studies were contributing to the groundwork that would become the uses and gratifications theory. Cantril (1942) found sets of appeals to audiences in radio quiz programs and each set had unique audience gratifications. …

The New York James Joyce Society

As a married graduate teaching assistant with a child and working on a masters degree in English, my principal income in 1958 was only about twenty percent of what it had been in my former calling, the used car business. What psychic income there was in the automobile business died with my father the year after I got my B.A., and when I returned to graduate school, I needed even more urgently to continue working part time as a singer and producer of radio commercials until I could land a full-time teaching job. At Temple University I took Joyce with Mabel Worthington, who at the time was working on an index for her co-authored book with Matthew Hodgart, Song in the Works of James Joyce. Since I had access to a studio in the Temple University radio station on Tuesday nights (making singing commercials for the Clements agency), and to professional Philadelphia actors who could do Irish accents, I offered to make a demonstration tape of a chapter of Ulysses with the actual music referred to in the text as background for Bloom’s thoughts. Mabel agreed to accept it in lieu of a term paper and I was on the way to a career glossing Joyce’s musical references. When I completed the M.A. at Temple I got a job at the State University of New York, College of Fredonia, and a scholarship to complete my Ph.D. at Buffalo, a major Joyce manuscript repository, where I was privileged to work with Tom Connolly. Fredonia’s specialty in the New York State system was music, and many of its undergraduates were card-carrying members of either the musicians union or the American Guild of Variety Artists. The campus radio station was right next door to my office, and after I smoozed around for a month or so with the student staff and faculty director, I thought