College radio (also known as university radio or campus radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college or university.

Contents

1 History 1.1 United States 1.2 Worldwide 2 Formats 3 Distribution

History

United States

College radio began in the United States, where the FCC began issuing class D licenses for ten-watt stations in the 1960s to further the development of the then-new FM band. Most of these stations went on to get higher-class licenses, typically a few hundred watts. A few got several thousand watts, and a small handful got licenses in the range of tens of thousands.

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.

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.

Worldwide

The college radio concept first spread to Canada, which has the most similar broadcasting structure to the U.S. Unlike the U.S., Canada distributes the noncommercially-reserved channels throughout the FM band, instead of all channels 88 to 92MHz. In Canada, the distinction between a university and a college is different than in the United States, although both types of schools can and do have radio operations -- accordingly, the format is more commonly known in Canada as campus radio.

The concept has also spread to Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere, where it is more often called university radio. Frequently, a university radio station is the community radio station, and is open for everyone (not just students) to join the staff.

Formats

Many U.S. stations played what came to be known as "college 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 and university stations tend to play mostly non-mainstream music, can often be described as freeform, and also tend to express a lot of creativity and individualism among the disc jockeys.

Distribution

Broadcasts are distributed in several ways:

• radio (licensed FM or AM)
• carrier current or LPAM on campus
• cable TV on campus info channel
• cable FM
• second audio program of a TV station
• webcasting on the Internet

See also: indie radio