Author Archives: jenniferwaits

Tuning in to College Radio Materials on World Radio Day 2026

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On February 13, World Radio Day acknowledges the importance of radio around the globe. The annual event has been taking place for a little over a decade, dating back to a 2011 proclamation by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Member States and adoption by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012. The theme for World Radio Day 2026 is “radio and artificial intelligence.” UNESCO encourages radio stations to participate in the day and offers suggestions that align with the theme. One of the highlighted topic areas is memory and AI.

“Radio stations have thousands of hours of archives, often underutilized because they are difficult to index, browse or restore. AI can transform this dormant memory into an active resource, harnessing transcription, keyword searching, automatic summary and thematic upgrading. When direct reporting is impossible, coverage can be enhanced by historical archives.” – UNESCO

The Internet Archive’s Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC) serves as this type of active resource, allowing visitors to dig into radio history. In recognition of World Radio Day and the second anniversary of the launch of the college radio sub-collection within DLARC, here are some recent additions and highlights from the DLARC college radio and community radio collections.

Cover of ‘zine from Barnard College radio station WBAR. Source: DLARC College Radio from the Barnard Archives and Special Collections

Radio Station Playlists

For much of college radio’s existence, the record of what was played was logged on paper playlists. Handwritten DJ playlists don’t always get saved, with station summaries of airplay or featured music more commonly found. These tops lists, radio surveys, adds lists, and airplay reports are compiled by radio stations and sent to record labels, musicians, trade publications, local newspapers, and zines. Results of the combined reports can be found in charts and lists published in CMJ New Music Report, Gavin Report, Rockpool, and similar publications.

DLARC College Radio recently received a large collection of digitized paper radio station playlists from the band Get Smart! Band members meticulously saved communication from college, community, high school and public radio stations that played their records in the 1980s. Representing stations from all over the United States and Canada, the playlists in this collection are mainly monthly summaries of the albums and artists that a radio station was playing. Sometimes they include commentary from station music directors or handwritten notes to the band. One thing that I love about these lists is that they are often printed on colorful paper, from a very 1985-feeling hot pink WHRB list from Harvard to an autumnal orange list from high school station KRVM-FM. 

Airplay list from UC Berkeley’s college radio station KALX-FM from 1982. Source: DLARC College Radio (donated by Get Smart!)

Additionally, a representative of the now-defunct Cleveland College Radio Coalition donated a collection of digitized copies of playlists, program guides and more. The group was formed in 1982 in order to help increase awareness for the college radio stations in Cleveland, Ohio and also produced a joint program guide.

Cover of the Spring 1983 joint program guide produced by the Cleveland College Radio Coalition. Source: DLARC College Radio (donated by Mary Cipriani)

Other newly added playlists include a batch from Bowling Green State University’s college radio station WBGU-FM in Bowling Green, Ohio. They form the bulk of a new WBGU-FM collection, which currently features flyers, program guides, correspondence, and training materials from 1995-1997. 

You can peruse the entire collection of college radio playlists in DLARC College Radio.

Radio Station Stickers

Other new additions to DLARC College Radio include promotional stickers produced by college radio stations.

Selection of stickers from WVCW, the college radio station at Virginia Commonwealth University. Source: DLARC College Radio

KVRX-FM collection from UT Austin

One of DLARC College Radio’s newest collections is from KVRX-FM, the student-run college radio station at University of Texas, Austin. The Internet Archive digitized a wide variety of KVRX materials, including ‘zines, DJ notebooks, record reviews, organization documents, posters, and newsletters, spanning the years 1986 to 2025.

Cover of an issue of The Call Letter, an early newsletter from KTSB 91.7 cable FM, the predecessor to KVRX-FM at University of Texas, Austin. Source: DLARC College Radio (digitized from KVRX’s on-site collection)

Audio Transcriptions

Finally, in keeping with this year’s World Radio Day theme related to AI, the college radio collection has been enhanced by an AI-generated transcription tool within the media player of select audio items. This means that not only can one listen to recordings from college radio stations, but one can also read transcripts from radio shows, interviews, oral histories, and more. Audio with AI-generated transcripts in the DLARC College Radio collection includes:

The Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications is funded by a grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) to create a free digital library for the radio community, researchers, educators, and students. DLARC invites radio clubs, radio stations, archives and individuals to submit material in any format. To contribute or ask questions about the project, contact: Kay Savetz at kay@archive.org. Questions about the college radio sub-collection can be directed to Jennifer Waits at jenniferwaits@archive.org.

Happy College Radio Day! Explore Student Radio’s Past and Present in the DLARC College Radio Collection

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The 15th annual World College Radio Day takes place on Friday, October 3, 2025, with stations from around the globe celebrating and bringing attention to student radio as an enduring form of media. The first licensed college radio stations launched in the United States in the 1920s and since that time student radio practitioners have been innovators in technology, music discovery and radio programming.

By nature, radio has traditionally been an ephemeral endeavor, with many shows never recorded and lost to the ages. While some stations meticulously save paper materials like internal newsletters and promotional materials sent by bands and record labels, many others regularly purge these bits and pieces of day-to-day operations. College radio has added challenges due to ever-changing groups of students, tight budgets and space constraints. In light of these factors, many college radio stations aren’t able to save and archive as much as they would like.

Spring 1988 DJ Comment book from Mount Holyoke College’s radio station WMHC. Source: DLARC College Radio (digitized from the Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections Repository)

The Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications launched a dedicated college radio collection in February 2024 in an effort to preserve the materials associated with college radio culture. It now contains over 9,000 items from student radio stations and student radio trade organizations from across the United States and Canada. The wide-ranging collection includes radio station flyers, music charts, playlists, zines, program guides, organizational documents, correspondence, meeting notes, recordings of artist interviews, oral histories, scholarly articles, clippings, photos, training manuals, scripts, magazines and more. It is especially exciting to me that these items now exist in a central place online, so that college radio fans, participants, scholars and alumni can search and find materials from a variety of stations.

Recent additions to DLARC College Radio include college radio collections from Haverford College, Mount Holyoke College, Lehigh University and Virginia Commonwealth University. We have also added program guides/zines from several campus and community radio stations in Canada, including CiTR Discorder (from 2009 to 2023), CFUV Offbeat Magazine (1986-2002) and various CKUT program guides and magazines.

Cover of May 1946 issue of IBS Bulletin. This was a publication produced by Intercollegiate Broadcasting System. Source: DLARC College Radio/Samuel T. Arnold Papers (OF.1CA.A2), Box 7, Folder 112, Brown University Archives

We have been regularly adding items to DLARC College Radio from Yale University’s archives, including materials from Yale’s independent student radio station WYBC and from The Ivy Network. Formed in 1947, The Ivy Network was initially started by members of college radio stations at Ivy League schools, including those at Dartmouth, Yale, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and Princeton. The Ivy Network was “designed to further the aims and purposes of the member stations, to gain the advantages which the free exchange of information, ideas, and advice will bring, and to obtain advertising on a national scale,” according to its policy document.

In honor of College Radio Day, we invite you to explore and contribute to the growing collection of student radio materials in DLARC College Radio on the Internet Archive.

Here are some highlights:

The Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications is funded by a grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) to create a free digital library for the radio community, researchers, educators, and students. DLARC invites radio clubs, radio stations, archives and individuals to submit material in any format. To contribute or ask questions about the project, contact: Kay Savetz at kay@archive.org. Questions about the college radio sub-collection can be directed to Jennifer Waits at jenniferwaits@archive.org.