College Radio - It Isnt A Right Print E-mail


College radio stations are so common and prevalent that most students just assume that having one is a right. Not so fast. Often universities just dont feel like spending the money to set up and maintain them, and sometimes, theres just not enough support from the students themselves.

Thats what happened at the University of North Florida. Various students at the university tried for fifteen years to get a station going and just couldnt manage it until 2010. Thats a lot of different students giving it a try! There were financial problems and no body really seemed interested, but for some reason, it became a cause. Finally, whats known as Osprey (school mascot) radio is on the air and all because of a little known law that was passed called The Local Community Radio Act. Of course, that was sort of political too. Mainstream radio has been suffering in recent years because of satellite and internet streaming type stations so what used to be almost impossible to do was made a little easier - getting on the dial. And thats how UNF got a station. These days, it isnt just a matter of a little bit of equipment and a place on the dial. These stations are expensive to set up and it cost UNF about a half million dollars to build and set up their studio. So, the fight was won and now the station is meeting with good success. Students who work on the station have done some innovative marketing like getting their station played on all the campus shuttle buses and designing nifty logos and marketing tools.

While providing the traditional campus mix of music and a little news, its proof that creating these stations also adds to fantastic experience for the future.


 
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