Long before the days of freeform, sessions, endless fund-drives and NPR, almost every college in America had its own radio station – run by students as part of its curriculum. Some you could only hear on campus and some you could hear all over the state. Radio in the 1940s was still very much a career move, where Broadcasting was a major and one could take working in Radio seriously, as it promised interesting people, a chance to travel, make a name for yourself or become a Radio Station Manager.
Since the late 1960s however, College radio started becoming a runner-up to Underground FM and its popularity started to take on more serious overtones. It was still a place you could learn to become a Disc Jockey or news reader, but the days where Acting for Radio was becoming a thing of the past.
And because FM in general was becoming the go-to place for music, since all new cars manufactured in the U.S. since the mid-1960s had FM radio installed as part of the package, College Radio was becoming a format with even Record companies tailoring Promotion Departments and even popularity charts on what the average student was listening to. And more often than not, it was poles apart different than what mainstream (AM) radio was offering.
Since that time, the sputtering adenoidal voice has been replaced by the moderately slick one. Billboard Magazine Charts (the industry bible) list College Radio as a potent sales tool. College Radio is either all news or all Music – and some College Radio stations have been known to employ “consulting firms” to gauge listener responses. Fund Drives, which go on several times a year have become very cleverly crafted ones – much research goes into what the College Radio audience likes and wants, even what they want to spend their money on.
Yes – a long way from the days of nervous, cracking voices and cringe-inducing scripts. Nonetheless it was, for a time, the only place you could learn anything about Radio as a potential job skill.
As a reminder of what it sounded like, here is a segment of a daily program, Beaver Coed Weekly, produced by the Students of Oregon State University on April 23, 1949. Everything about this presentation is different now – bears no resemblance whatsoever to 2025. But it was part of our culture at the time, strange though it may seem. People listened and they took it seriously. Nothing of what you take for granted now existed then – it’s a glimpse into a far-off distant world, another galaxy.
Buckle up.
