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While the radio silencing of KUSF has riled DJs, volunteers and “older” radio listeners, an informal survey of more than 20 students lent credence to the university’s claim that the radio station didn’t really serve students.
Turns out the kids today don’t listen to the radio. What’s more most of the students at USF didn’t even know that the USF had a radio station!
USF is planning to take KUSF online but it’s not clear that students are going to tune in any more because the "radio" is streaming on the web. The general consensus is that if students are going to their computers for music, they’ll probably skip KUSF’s eclectic mix of head banging and ragtime and click on their favorite playlist on iTunes instead.
© The Bay Citizen, 2012
Kevin Jones
This is a poor example of "journalism." For one, it should be noted that school is still on winter break, so this isn't even an accurate sampling of students. Also, when television reporters use "man on the street" interviews for video packages, it's typically squeezed between a real report and quotes aren't cut short.
Really disappointing.
Dylan Thomas
Ya, this is pretty silly.
How many students go to Music Department performances?
How many students attend campus Art exhibits at the end of the semester?
How many students attend other, even more obscure extra-curricular events?
Should we cancel those programs too? No, of course not.
College radio is always slighted with the "students don't even listen to it" tag. The point of college radio is not just for students to listen to it. It's a learning experience. There were as of two days ago 200 students and community members making media at KUSF of national import, followed by an estimated 50,000 radio listeners in SF in nine languages every week.
I helped run a similar station, KDVS at UC Davis when I was in college. Running such an organization gave me work and life experience that no other campus program ever could have. Among many other things, I helped managed a staff of people and helped put together a fundraiser that raised 75k in one week. It impressed the hell out of job interviewers when a 23 year old college grad was telling them that. Hell, one of our station alumni is an ASTRONAUT!
Oh well, I guess USF would rather give students some bogus internships with some Classical media conglomerate.
SHAME ON YOU USF.
Bailey Pennick
I would like to address the passion for this issue for the seemingly "dying breed" of student radio. While I am sure that it is true that people did learn and listen to the radio station, this quick poll was originally intended to show the "reactions" to the abrupt news of KUSF's closing, but what we found was more of a trend within the student body, NOT because it was the school's radio station, but just because it was radio in general.
How many college students outside of the rural or Los Angeles areas have a car?
This seemingly pointless question means the world to the issue of radio within the lives of young people because it is basically the only vessel that radio still exists in their lives. Within this increasingly digital world, the need for instant gratification goes beyond the microwave. Music has necessary for every day activities including walking to class. While that comforts me because it proves that music is growing and expanding within this itunes generation, it does shake up the job of the deejay and the radio presence within our lives. I do not believe that the radio station should have been cut from the budget, and I definitely do not agree that it should have been shut down in such a blunt manner, but those opinions are not for this piece. I do not go to USF, so I could not include my lament.
This was not an opinion piece, or a slight at radio, it was just a comment on the day that the music died at the University of San Francisco.
mattymatt
This still doesn't answer the question of what radio is.