The institutional ethos of many...one might say "most"...of the "prototypical" college radio stations is that they provide an alternative to commercial radio. This ethos largely grew out of the early days of these stations, in the mid 1970's - just before FM was to come into its own as a viable broadcast service in competition with AM. At the time, bands like R.E.M. were considered "alternative", and thus got heavy play on college radio. But that was a reflection of just how staid and conservative (for lack of a less-politically-charged word) most commercial radio was.
Then in the late 1980's and early 1990's, the grunge movement came around...and a lot of struggling commercial stations realized that these "dinky little college radio" stations were getting real audiences by playing "alternative" music. One could argue this is how the "alternative" genre actually became a genre, instead of a programming statement.
The problem is, with the mainstream suddenly playing all the bands that were considered "alternative", college radio suddenly had to go much, much further outside the mainstream to continue adhering to the original ethos of being an alternative to commercial radio. And that was their downfall; instead of fostering out-of-the-mainstream genres and bands and moving them into the mainstream...college radio became a wasteland of "indier-than-thou", where DJ's actually compete to see who can play artists that the audience cares less about.
In other words, college radio found a good beach to surf on, and caught a few great waves. Then, when their beach got crowded, instead of finding another good beach...they moved inland to a small lake and started bitching about how there's no waves. :
The core problem of course, is accountability. There is precious little of it at most college radio stations. One might argue there's not much accountability at most
colleges, period. But without that accountability, it's very easy for bad habits to get entrenched very quickly whether the DJ's are mostly students or mostly community volunteers.
Today the problem is compounded because most incoming students are barely aware that radio exists as a medium, what with competition from iPhones, Pandora and whatnot. It's depressing how few of my students even OWN a radio besides the one in their car. It's not easy to get them excited and interested in radio without ceding an awful lot to their egos. That tends to mean you get some of the worst aspects of "college radio" - fragmented programming, poor technical operations, rambling/mumbling stopsets, etc. But depending on your college they may only want you to provide a "student activity" which means a "fun thing for students to do"...and letting them be "in charge" and stroking egos is often "fun". Plus, if you try to whip 'em into shape, they just quit.
Similarly, it's hard to attract skilled community volunteers that'll tolerate being whipped into shape. Not when you can't pay them, nor can you offer a big signal in a major market (which very few "college radio" stations can do). And the college usually doesn't want to pay for staff...not unless it's a public radio outlet which is another kettle of fish entirely.
