Big_Ben said:
Everyone said our college station sucked too...until we got new automation and flipped to Top40 (with way more variety than the other area T40s) and now we have a huge following and we're targeting the young demo that the college wants coming to our campus. DUH. To hell with the old "college format"...it's nothing like the industry that the students are training for. And there's a reason most college rock bands haven't blown up...they SUCK!
just my opinion
If that's what you guys are doing and it's working out for you, then great. Kudos all around. That being said, a college station doesn't have to take on a mainstream format in order to be successful, or to provide a good training ground for students interested in radio. Automation works with more than 400 or even 1,000 songs. Many college stations also do more than just music...they feature news, talk, arts, sports, I've even heard of religious programs on college radio.
A college station is meant to be educational in more ways than one: sure, it's a great way to kick off a future career in radio broadcasting. But it's also a chance to open one's horizons, and learn more about music, management, marketing, business skills, people skills and communications skills, and even issues like politics, sports, the arts which they might cover at their station.
At the college station I used to be involved in, we had some community volunteers doing on-air shifts whenever students weren't available. Most of them were alums of the station, and fairly recent ones at that. They had no problem finding a job in radio, even though our station has been free form for three decades. Not just that, but even though they have day jobs in commercial radio, they still do their weekly free-form show on our station. It's a chance for them to do something they can't do on the air in commercial radio and to give back to the community as well.
