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How to solve the campus radio dilemma

Take a look at CHRW’s old magazine — a cool, irreverent little publication called Airshift that ran from 1981 to 1996. Inside, you’ll find local bands, feature articles, calendars and an incredible enthusiasm for the campus radio scene.

The March 1982 issue (see sidebar) has an article about the history of campus radio (page 8). In it, Pat Nagle writes about how campus stations started picking up the new FM signal and created their own broadcasts. The stations overcame technological barriers with rampant support from student councils, an army of volunteers and an insatiable desire to harness the power of radio waves.

“Campus radio clubs and fledgling stations sprung up on campuses all across the country. These groups were often supported by increasingly active student councils and relied almost exclusively on volunteers,” Nagle wrote.

Where are we now?
Today the situation is much different. The medium remained stagnant while the technology and culture surrounding it evolved. People are very individualistic these days, wanting exactly what they want and little more. The internet itself represents the fragmented nature of how society consumes: give me one article, not the whole newspaper; give me the definition, not the dictionary.

How does radio remain relevant when their product is counter-intuitive to how people consume?

CBC Radio 3 was redesigned earlier this year

All campus radio stations would benefit from a long study of the CBC Radio 3 model. Its recent upgrade allows for custom playlists, web streams and a library of podcasts — all on demand. CHRW already takes advantage of some of these, like huge music archive and constantly updated show archives.

But it’s hard to compare to CBCR3. Its blog style front page lets users post comments, interact with the DJs and give feedback. A mandatory profile registration brings users inside the community and recreates what used to happen at campus radio stations back in the day. When you’re looking to build a community around anything, the internet is an incredible tool.

Campus radio stations face a lot of challenges when it comes to building an online presence. Namely manpower and money, which are always in short supply for campus media of all kinds, including the Gazette. So while CHRW employees tell me a new website is in the works, they face an incredible hurdle. I would consider anything short of blogs, on-demand content and user profiles a missed opportunity.

But this requires a renewed mandate from the student council, students and the community — one that emphasizes innovation and upgrade. This simply can’t happen without more money, so the University Students’ Council needs to unfreeze the budget so the station can beat inflation and become more financially flexible.

To win over student hearts and minds, the USC needs to sponsor an information campaign about how and why campus radio is important. Work with the National Campus and Community Radio Association to understand better why the radio is important. This fits with the USC’s renewed mandate for service-oriented programming. CHRW’s bottom line is irrelevant if it provides a service to students, and it can only do that in the long term by upgrading.

So consider this a challenge for campus stations and the students who pay for it. Campus radio has a long, proud and important history. But it’s time for change. The powers that be need to invest in our campus radio station to give its employees the financial support to achieve the goals they’ve already recognized. The product needs to be adapted to the consumers. Keep the FM side and expand its online counterpart. This will allow campus radio everywhere to remain as relevant as possible for years.

A map of campus and community radio stations in Canada, courtesy of the NCRA

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