Note: This is a copy of my letter to Cymbal’s college radio community. It’s reposted here to let our users know what we’re working on, and what our priorities are.
Hi there,
I’m writing you today because you are, now and forever, the charter schools for Cymbal’s college radio vertical.
College radio became a common institution in America in the 1960s when the FCC started issuing 10-watt licenses, meaning a college could establish a station that could only be heard for a mile or two out. For decades, these stations represented free-form radio programming that would have been impossible on a larger, harsher stage. Student advocacy of alternative, outsider, and emerging music found a true home on college radio stations, and became important, if provincial, voices in music. Campus DJs captured the attention of Rolling Stone, which charted the top songs on college radio on the back page of the magazine, and spurred the creation of CMJ, a community and institution for student radio.
American radio began to change dramatically in the 90s and early 2000s when mass media corporations began to acquire local stations en masse and enforce national programming. After a short campaign, American commercial radio became largely homogenized. Payola from coast to coast.
But college radio persisted, and has to this day remained a bulwark for original curation. Still, challenges remained: Since college radio stations, by design, had limited reach, and the addition of digital broadcasting did not solve the problem of discovery. Important and influential independent programming still struggles to find an audience.
This is an important problem for Cymbal. On one hand, you have college stations, the country’s richest source of nontraditional radio; and on the other, you have our community, hungry for meaningful music and the voices that support it.
We want to give college radio the influence that it’s always deserved, because a variegated community that empowers organizations that stand by their sensibilities is a home for anyone who cares about music. Gabe and I expanded on this idea in a recent piece with CMJ.
Our charter stations are these:
- The College of William and Mary’s @WCWM
- Boston University’s @WTBU
- Middlebury College’s @WRMC
- The University of Miami’s @WVUM
- McNeese State’s @KBYS
- Oakland University’s @WXOU
- Tufts University’s @WMFO
- The University of Texas at Austin’s @KVRX
- The University of Georgia’s @WUOG
- The University of Pittsburgh’s @WPTS
- Yale University’s @WYBC
- North Carolina State University’s @WKNC
- Vassar College’s @WVKR
- Hamilton College’s @WHCL
- Oberlin College’s @WOBC
- Princeton University’s @WPRB
- The University of Southern California’s @KXSC
I’m very proud at the variety and representation of stations on Cymbal, but more importantly, I am inspired by the opportunity to change the dynamic of influence in the music industry by empowering you, the college radio stations, to share music that matters the most to you, and to your communities.
I would encourage you to spread the word on your campus, either by encouraging your classmates to follow you, or working with student publications to announce your account. I also recommend you design your social strategy on Cymbal to highlight your DJs and their unique tastes. We will do everything in our power to drive followers and attention to your accounts. Please carry this influence purposefully.
Thank you for joining us on this experiment.
Charlie
P.S. If you’re in New York next week, come to our CMJ showcase!
