WCSB 89.3 Switches to JazzNEO

[TheBigA]

Thank God we have WRUW. At least the 15,000 watt station was saved.

That station is also owned by a university. What assurance do you or anyone have that the university won't take the first offer made for the station?

What commitment does Case Western have to broadcasting? How many students are involved? How much money? Lots of questions.

 

[inter1097]

Thank God we have WRUW. At least the 15,000 watt station was saved. Now, more than ever, this station needs our support. We also have WBWC but they are only heard on the West Side and have a rock format, not a freewheeling station like WCSB was. There is also WJCU, but they are hardly adventurous for the most part.

And there's WOBC out of Oberlin.

 

[b-turner]

radiofollower:​

A translator is NOT a 100 watt Low Power FM station. What I said is corrent and radiofollower, you are wrong. You are saying an AM station has a Low Power FM. Not true. They have a translator (not called a repeater). Michi might want to chime in. If you choose to educate yourself: REC Networks | REC Networks There is a ton of information on LPFM stations and Michi even operates one..

 

[Santa fe]

When WJCU went on the air (as WUJC) in 1969 they were licensed to John Carroll but operated and run by the Student Union.
This worked well for many years until something happened that caused the university to step in and take control, making the station part of the communications department and hiring a fulltime faculty administrator as it is today.
Seems to be working as they were recently named Best College Station in the World.

 

[davideduardo]

Keep in mind CSU recently sold the mansion they house the university’s president in for $1 million. This is estimated to save the university over $140,000 annually. So the radio station isn’t the only thing being cut.

That house is a couple of blocks away from where I grew up. It certainly is not a "mansion" although it is large and on a big lot. Like many of the homes along Fairmount and Shaker Boulevards and their side streets, it was built pre-WW II, and is costly to maintain. Further, unless a lot is spent on total remodeling, it is energy inefficient and designed for a different era.

High taxes due to the land value. Small, small closets and tiny kitchens were the rule for homes built in that era as life was different. Heck, some of them even had garages that were not connected to the house, an afterthought it appears. And there is nothing worse than having to shovel your way to the car early in the morning to try to get to work in the snow!

As funding cuts and declining enrollments lead to serious deficits for many universities, I wouldn’t be surprised if many more college stations are placed on the chopping block.

And, as said over and over, student interest in radio is severely declining.

 

[davideduardo]

When WJCU went on the air (as WUJC) in 1969 they were licensed to John Carroll but operated and run by the Student Union.

And for years it was a 10 watt station that could barely be heard in nearby Cleveland Heights!

This worked well for many years until something happened that caused the university to step in and take control, making the station part of the communications department and hiring a fulltime faculty administrator as it is today.

There is probably a story there, and I'll bet some of it involves fund raising.

Seems to be working as they were recently named Best College Station in the World.

By whom?

 

[inter1097]

And, as said over and over, student interest in radio is severely declining.

You'd think, but I believe the story channel 5 did said WCSB had 98 different personalities on the air every week.



One of their former DJs (Keith Newman) said people would choose to go to CSU because of WCSB which actually blew my mind a little bit.

 

[TheBigA]

You'd think, but I believe the story channel 5 did said WCSB had 98 different personalities on the air every week.

They're not all students

 

[radiofan2023]

High taxes due to the land value. Small, small closets and tiny kitchens were the rule for homes built in that era as life was different. Heck, some of them even had garages that were not connected to the house, an afterthought it appears. And there is nothing worse than having to shovel your way to the car early in the morning to try to get to work in the snow!

Back in the 1920s when the Cleveland State University President's house and garage were built, garages were built separately from houses to prevent fires that started in the garage from spreading to the house:

From Historic Garages to Modern Garages: The History Behind Where You Park Your Ride - Medford Design-Build

While doing research for permitting on a client’s historic home in Fairmont, we ran across this picture taken of it in the very early 1900’s. This was during the horse drawn carriage era, before modern automobiles. The concrete block with the owner’s last name on it is a step to step on while...

remodelmm.com

I lived in a house that had been built in 1929 and never used the garage, it would barely fit my VW Golf.

 

[Rusty Muck]

They're not all students

... and having that large amount of people involved with the station only adds to the liability. Even if it was operating completely under the communications department it would be impossible for a professor or group of professors to consistently maintain and monitor.

 

[Santa fe]

By whom?

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio -- John Carroll University’s radio station, WJCU 88.7 FM, has been named Station of the Year by the International Student Broadcasting Championship (ISBC), meaning it is recognized as the top college radio station in the world.
Cleveland.com, January 10, 2025.

When WJCU went on the air (as WUJC) in 1969 they were licensed to John Carroll but operated and run by the Student Union.

And for years it was a 10 watt station that could barely be heard in nearby Cleveland Heights!

As were so many college and school FM stations at the beginning, including WCSB. They likely used the Gates/Harris "College station in a box" kit that included the 10 watt "transmitter", which was basically just the exciter from a full power transmitter, the legendary Yard monaural console, a mike and a mike boom and two turntables equipped with massive viscous damped tone arms featuring the infamous GE Variable Reluctance stylus cartridges, guaranteed to ruin any vinyl record the first time you cued it.

I think WRUW had higher power from the start and I believe still has the most ERPs of any other school station in the area other than WKSU.

 

[TheBigA]

The other big part of this is that WCSB receives money from the Student Activity Fee. I don't know how much, but it's a portion of their budget. So every student is paying for the radio station, even though only a small number participate. This is increasingly why colleges are getting out of radio. Not because of the cost to the university, but mainly because of the cost to the students. Especially when there are so many non-students involved in the radio station. There are better ways to spend that money in ways that involve more students.

 

[thenetwork]

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio -- John Carroll University’s radio station, WJCU 88.7 FM, has been named Station of the Year by the International Student Broadcasting Championship (ISBC), meaning it is recognized as the top college radio station in the world.
Cleveland.com, January 10, 2025.


And for years it was a 10 watt station that could barely be heard in nearby Cleveland Heights!

As were so many college and school FM stations at the beginning, including WCSB. They likely used the Gates/Harris "College station in a box" kit that included the 10 watt "transmitter", which was basically just the exciter from a full power transmitter, the legendary Yard monaural console, a mike and a mike boom and two turntables equipped with massive viscous damped tone arms featuring the infamous GE Variable Reluctance stylus cartridges, guaranteed to ruin any vinyl record the first time you cued it.

I think WRUW had higher power from the start and I believe still has the most ERPs of any other school station in the area other than WKSU.

I was at the college radio station at the University of Toledo in the 80's (Then WERC) and we were (lucky to be) heard on 3 sources.

1) Via a 10-watter system in all the dorms. However they were never maintained and we were lucky ONE dorm could still pick us up with their remaining working system.

2) Via local cable company. Apparantly, we were on one of those old-school channels that displayed the time, temp and community bulletins. So we didnt get much of an audience there.

3) Via the overhead PA system in the student union...IF they remembered to put us ON the system at the start of the day and at a listenable volume.

But us elder teenagers didn't care. We were on the radio. We still probably had more listeners to our microscopic 600AM station in the 80s than most AM stations today.

 

[Yabadabado1]

I can remember back in the early 70s I found out Northwestern High school in Canal Fulton had their own student run station---Call letters WNWS, I think. I was in a different school district and Northwestern said if I could get approval from my school district to come there, I could get in their communications program and I'd be on the air. [Lots and lots of PSAs and I think 99% of them were for the US Army.] Anyways, my principal: "Not approving the transfer, we have everything you need here at good old Bullshit High." ME: "You do? Where's the school/student run station? Where's the communication class that would get me started on a radio career?" Lot's of sputtering and "You can't talk to me that way, do you want detention?" I just got up and left his office in a huff. Don't know when Northwest High shut down their station but nobody seems to remember it.

 

[davideduardo]

Back in the 1920s when the Cleveland State University President's house and garage were built, garages were built separately from houses to prevent fires that started in the garage from spreading to the house:

Yes, and also fear of gasoline fumes and the like. Where I grew up, a block north of Fairmount just east of Lee we had a garage at least 60 feet from the back porch. When there was snow forecast, we kept the cars in the driveway near the street.

I lived in a house that had been built in 1929 and never used the garage, it would barely fit my VW Golf.

Ours was barn-sized. But the doors were not wide enough for cars until my dad made three doors into two.

 

[radiofollower]

I think WRUW had higher power from the start and I believe still has the most ERPs of any other school station in the area other than WKSU.

Yes, WRUW broadcasts with 15,000 watts from a nice high spot on top of the Lakeview Towers Building in East Cleveland.

 

[skiwest]

I happened to be in Elyria last Sunday and decided to check 89.3. Surprisingly WCSB was coming in fine on my car radio.

 

[inter1097]

I happened to be in Elyria last Sunday and decided to check 89.3. Surprisingly WCSB was coming in fine on my car radio.

I live in Elyria.
In the 90's I used to listen to WCSB in mono mode to get a clearer signal Even then I'd get occasional interference from WKRW Wooster, and Yes FM Toledo.

 

[TheBigA]

Here's another example of where a university has handed over it's radio station to the public radio station. Penn State said it no longer wanted to spend money operating its radio & TV stations. So it has now made a deal with WHYY to take over the station. No big protests taking place. As I've said throughout this thread: Universities want to get out of the radio business. They don't see it as part of their core mission. They want to use that money for classroom education. That's what Penn State said in this story:

WHYY Philadelphia To Purchase WPSU State College Preventing Station Shutdown

Penn State University's Board of Trustees Finance and Investment Committee voted today to wind down operations of Public News/Talk/Classical 91.5 WPSU-FM State College PA and PBS affiliate WPSU-TV by June 30, 2026 after rejecting a proposal to subsidize a transfer of the licenses to WHYY...

radioinsight.com

 

[Rusty Muck]

I happened to be in Elyria last Sunday and decided to check 89.3. Surprisingly WCSB was coming in fine on my car radio.

I live in Elyria.
In the 90's I used to listen to WCSB in mono mode to get a clearer signal Even then I'd get occasional interference from WKRW Wooster, and Yes FM Toledo.

First-adjacent WNZN 89.1 (licensed to Lorain but with a transmitter near Huron) doesn't necessarily help, either. I also get occasional interference from Yes FM usually west of Westlake.