There may be a bright future for College Radio, but it won't be with so many stations continuing to provide a smorgasbord of anything goes, block programming. Although it's difficult to do, it would be better for each station to pick a direction and go with it. The achilles heel is that if the owner (college/university) chooses a direction or specific format that very few students enjoy doing, they'll have very few student volunteers wanting to go on air unless they pay them. With money tight, that is not a workable solution for many, if not most.
I agree, John. In fact, I think the headline atop my op-ed — “At colleges, elsewhere, radio days aren’t numbered” — is more than a little bit misleading.… My piece actually was intended as a warning call to radio and college radio concerning future relevance and purpose. In contrast, reading only the headline (which, of course, was written by a newspaper copy editor, not by me), one might be given the impression that all’s rosy in college-radio land (which, of course, is far from the case, on the whole, I believe).…
Your recommendation for a more specific direction, format-wise, I feel is right on the mark. Moreover, despite your doubts, I think it could be a viable (and much better) long-term solution, under many circumstances. For commercial and noncommercial radio alike, most critical are: Mission, purpose and relevance. (Relevance feeds purpose, and purpose drives the mission.)
To take the analogy a step farther … for college radio, specifically, irrelevance (in terms of a non-compelling format for the times — and a resulting scant audience, possibly) serves very little purpose (to listeners —
the public — and in terms of providing any meaningful, professional, life-enhancing experience for students). In turn, serving no real purpose does little to fulfill a college radio station’s mission (unless that mission is only to be a “club” — but then the station most likely isn’t fulfilling its public-interest obligation as a broadcast licensee).
Each is intricately intertwined, I feel. So, instead, today a college radio station’s
purposeful mission could involve, in part, enhancing institutions and offering more valuable educational opportunities to students (though likely
not via disc-jockey training — because, for the most part, those jobs no longer exist). Rather, potentially
transformational moments for students might come through education and experience in multimedia news and sports broadcast journalism (areas in which successful careers might still be viable for certain savvy students). Conveniently, such content (news, in particular) also would help stations meet public-service mandates.
Some cry foul when I make my case (“What? No obscure music playing on the radio?! Why it’s nothing short of sacrilege!”). But, in 2013, the counter-argument might be made largely by those perhaps most interested in kickin’ back, playing tunes (sometimes mainly for their two friends listening back in the dorm) … and eventually crying in protest when a college makes the decision to sell its license.
Mission. Purpose. Relevance. (And transformational experiences.)
Best,
Mike
