Mornings

[Roger]

Does must college radio station have no programing on in the morning.

 

[EJ204]

The answer: College radio station does must have morning programming if someone is willing to do it.

There's no FCC rule that a radio station has to sign on at a certain time of day. However, 20 or 30 years ago, I think college radio was more popular than today. I know my old station used to be on the air from 7am to 2am everyday.

Sometimes the program director had to ASK for volunteers for some morning shifts, especially weekends and during the summer. But he'd find them. Today, that same college station signs on and off at random, depending on whether somebody wants to do a given shift.

It's funny. The sign off was recorded years ago, so it ends with "Good Night." These days, the sign off is often played in the middle of the day, even though the voice still wishes us a good night.

 

[Dancerev889]

It depends on the station. The station I program runs 24/7. We have a morning show and I can tell you that our station has more listeners than ever before. We gear towards a younger audience and market to them as well.

 

[aaronread]

Most "college radio" stations don't have live DJ's in the mornings, this is true. But a lot of stations have put automation systems of some kind in and they'll have programming of some sort on the air in the mornings. Depends a lot on the station.

Assuming it is a licensed, non-commercial FM station, they have tremendous leeway about when they must be on the air. But there is a little-known clause in 73.561(b) that requires them to be on the air at least 12 hours daily. If not, they are required to enter a share-time agreement with a third-party if approached. If they refuse, the FCC can split the license in half at renewal time.