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A topic for discussion.

R

radio_man_jake

Hello all,

Not sure if this topic has been discussed on this board in the past, but lately I've been very curious as to how many college and other "educational" stations open their facilities to community volunteers.

I would love to hear about your station, and if you allow volunteers to do shows. If so, what is the ratio of students to community members at the station? And if your station isn't available to community members, why not?

IMHO, in an era where radio is dominated by Clear Channel and its ilk, and with the prospects for new LPFM windows being quite bleak, more college stations should give a voice to niche audiences in their respective communities. Because if they don't, who will?

Your thoughts...?
 
> Hello all,
>
> Not sure if this topic has been discussed on this board in
> the past, but lately I've been very curious as to how many
> college and other "educational" stations open their
> facilities to community volunteers.
>
> I would love to hear about your station, and if you allow
> volunteers to do shows. If so, what is the ratio of students
> to community members at the station? And if your station
> isn't available to community members, why not?
>
> IMHO, in an era where radio is dominated by Clear Channel
> and its ilk, and with the prospects for new LPFM windows
> being quite bleak, more college stations should give a voice
> to niche audiences in their respective communities. Because
> if they don't, who will?
>
> Your thoughts...?
>
Well, here in Canada and more specifically Calgary, CJSW 90.9FM is entirely volunteer run with a small paid staff of 4 and a summer staff.

Anybody is allowed to volunteer but can only become a member of the station after they complete 3 hours of basic training. Members are allowed to work sponsored events, train in various areas and even hosting shows.

All members must do at least 2 hours of volunteer service a month, even the on-air hosts must help out at the station.

(disclaimer, I volunteer at the station)...<P ID="signature">______________

Canada TV and College Radio</P>
 
The station I am a part of, WUSB 90.1 FM in Stony Brook, NY, is licensed to the State University of New York. As per the station's governing documents, the executive board (Program Director, which is what I currently do at the station, plus Music Director, News Director, etc.) are full-time undergraduate students. However, our station is open to community volunteers who complete a radio training course that is run by our General Manager. We hold the course in the fall and spring and it is approximately a semester long. The only fee attached to the course is the cost of the training manual, which is not expensive.

Currently, our station probably has a 3:1 ratio of volunteers to students, though most of the volunteers were at one time Stony Brook students themselves or have some sort of affiliation to the university today. There was also a lack of interest in the station among students for a number of years, which was unfortuante, but in the past couple of years there has been a surge of interest, especially as more and more students who still listen to radio turn to non-commercial radio to hear what they like. Students have priority over non-students in programming decisions but we've really carved a niche by getting volunteers involved...many of them bring unique tastes to the table and many also have the time and money to build awesome music collections, do research if they are doing a public affairs show, etc., plus, we get a lot of non-student listeners as a result.

> Hello all,
>
> Not sure if this topic has been discussed on this board in
> the past, but lately I've been very curious as to how many
> college and other "educational" stations open their
> facilities to community volunteers.
>
> I would love to hear about your station, and if you allow
> volunteers to do shows. If so, what is the ratio of students
> to community members at the station? And if your station
> isn't available to community members, why not?
>
> IMHO, in an era where radio is dominated by Clear Channel
> and its ilk, and with the prospects for new LPFM windows
> being quite bleak, more college stations should give a voice
> to niche audiences in their respective communities. Because
> if they don't, who will?
>
> Your thoughts...?
>
 
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