Independent College Radio is Saving Boston from Corporate Radio

Community and independent college are types of radio service that offer a third model of radio broadcasting beyond commercial and public. Community and independent college stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popular to a local/specific audience but which may often be overlooked by commercial/mass-media and so-called "public" broadcasters. 

A new Facebook page - Boston-area Independent College Radio - has been created with the intention of bringing greater awareness to Boston-area (and beyond) independent college and community radio stations. 

DJ's are encouraged to share news and supporters learn what is happeing on the independent student airwaves, web streams and podcasts.

If you produce/host a Boston-area independent college radio program, or are involved in station management
1. Share the page/group with your listeners.
2. Post your program event URL's
3. Share program information
4. Share station information.
5. Grow listenership.
6. Save the world from corporate radio.

If you are a listener, give the page a couple days for DJ's to join and start posting content. Share news of this new page with friends involved in Boston-area college radio by forwarding this article and/or the Facebook event.....unless you're a fan of corporate radio.

World College Radio Day, October 1, 2013

World College Radio Day was founded in 2012 as a response to the phenomenal international interest in College Radio Day, which began in the USA in 2011 (in the USA the event is still known as College Radio Day). Recognizing that student radio stations around the world wanted to unite for this annual event, Rob Quicke, Tiziana Cavallo and Guillermo Gaviria founded World College Radio Day to take the mission and unifying message of College Radio Day around the world.

Click here for more information.

New England in general and the greater Boston area in particular are very fortunate to have so many independent college radio stations. See an extensive listing in "Community and independent college radio stations".


Independent college radio producers, hosts and fans are invited to join
"Community and Independent College Radio." Upon joining, hosts are asked to take a moment to add their program information in "Community and Independent College Radio Members' Programs" - in the files area.




SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL INDEPENDENT COLLEGE RADIO STATION!

For those who may have missed the announcement earlier in the week, we are in the middle of National College Radio Week. To honor it, NEFolk has turned on for this week reminders of all independent college radio programs in its  Calendar (reminders are normally off, turned on only when a specific program has a "special").

We urge you to break  new ground and sample some of the finest folk, Celtic, bluegrass, old time and acoustic blues programming available.

Like community radio, independent college radio stations welcome members of the community. Get involved, you'll have a great experience.

If you are listening to corporate or so-called "public" radio you only have yourself to blame, there is a third model. Seek out independent college (and community) radio stations. For a complete listing of independent college and community radio stations in the Northeast, click here. 

The Lasting Impact of College Radio Participation 

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Jennifer Waits

WHRC at Haverford College – the Station that Changed My Life (1987 photo by R. Waits)

Tuesday was the second annual College Radio Day and in light of that a number of people pontificated on the state of college radio. In apiece in Vice magazine, former college radio DJ A Wolfe interviews the Program Director atWIDR (Western Michigan University) and discusses the importance of college radio, saying:

“Anyhow, it’s National College Radio Station Week, and to show appreciation to the basements and studios where many of us in the music industry got our start, we’re talking with program director Kevin Yelvington of my alma mater, 89.1 WIDR-FM Kalamazoo, from lovely Western Michigan University. This sixty-year-old station was much more instrumental on my future than my actual undergraduate degree, so take note, colleges and universities across the country: We only went to your shitty school because of the radio station. Do not take it away…”

In the interview Yelvington also talks about how working at the radio station provides real world skills, saying, “It’s not that my education isn’t important, but I’ve learned so much here that’s applicable to the real world, because it’s in the real world and we’re facing very real problems here. In fact, if it weren’t for WIDR, I probably wouldn’t be doing as well in school as I am now, and maybe wouldn’t be going to school altogether.”

For those of you who have participated in college radio, how important was it to your college experience? What kind of influence or impact did it have on your future career?

Turn your radio on!

Fall 2008 concerts, workshops and radio interviews:

* October 30, 7:30pm ~ radio ~ Peggy Seeger on WICN w/ Nick Nobel (90.5fm, streaming @ wicn.org)

* October 30, 8pm ~ radio ~ David Massengill on WICN w/ Nick Nobel (90.5fm, streaming @ wicn.org)

* October 30, 8:30pm ~ radio ~ Jack Hardy on WICN w/ Nick Nobel (90.5fm, streaming @ wicn.org)

* November 1, 1pm ~ radio ~ The Folk Brothers on WMFO w/ Morgan Huke (91.5fm, streaming @ wmfo.org)

* November 1, 4pm ~ radio ~ The Folk Brothers on WGBH w/ Brad Paul (89.7fm, streaming @ wgbh.org)

* November 1, 8pm ~ concert ~ The Folk Brothers w/ very special guest, hosted by Naomi Arenberg ~ Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church, Somerville

* November 2, 3pm ~ radio ~ Geoff Bartley on WATD’s The Eclectic Picnic w/Brian Edwards (95.9fm, streaming @ www.959watd.com)

* November 11, 12-2pm (tbd) ~ radio ~ Mary McCaslin on WMBR w/ Eli Polonsky (88.1fm, streaming @ wmbr.org)

* November 14, 9am ~ radio ~ Mary McCaslin on WCUW w/ Troy Tyree (91.3fm, streaming @ wcuw.org)

* November 14, 4pm ~ radio ~ Geoff Bartley on WUMB w/ Dave Palmater (91.9fm, streaming at wumb.org)

* November 15, 4pm ~ radio ~ Mary McCaslin on WGBH w/ Brad Paul (89.7fm, streaming @ wgbh.org)

* November 15, 5pm ~ guitar workshop ~ Geoff Bartley ~ Nave Gallery, Somerville

* November 15, 8pm ~ concert ~ Mary McCaslin & Geoff Bartley, hosted by Dave Palmater ~ Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church, Somerville