Below is the first lengthy article I've read on the WCSB situation and includes information about available written records on the subject.
Current and former staffers have been joined by fans, community members and even city council in decrying the decision to end college radio in favor of simulcast jazz.
www.clevescene.com
Some thoughts after reading the article:
@TheBigA and others are correct when they say that the university has been losing money recently; however, this deal, not only per university president Bloomberg's words but also the written documentation, appears less to do with creating more funds for the university and more to do with Mrs. Bloomberg's vision for the university.
WCSB was actually the *second* college radio station that the Ideastream approached about running its jazz network. The Ideastream people had first approached the college owner of WJCU-FM but was rebuffed.
While I do not agree with protest signs that said that "Jazz is not a public service," (it was the first musical style birthed and developed inside the U.S.), I don't agree that having the style of college and community radio that WCSB provided was a bad thing. I live in Phoenix, AZ, and in the non-commercial sector of the FM band here, the only two radio stations run by colleges are public news/talk KJZZ and classical KBAQ. While Arizona State University does have a radio station, it is a campus-only outlet that has had to change its AM frequency because of FCC-licensed move-ins. In other words, Phoenix, with the possible exception of a brief period during the 1950s, has never had a station like WCSB or the other college and community stations like it dotted around the U.S.
Finally, the students do have some hope (though not much) that either Mrs. Bloomberg or the Board members will change their minds. The article notes that after student protest, the school did back on another change it had sought earlier unrelated to radio.