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Radio Survivor

A year-and-a-half ago high school, col­lege and com­mu­ni­ty radio sta­tions shut their stu­dio doors in response to safe­ty mea­sures to pre­vent the spread of COVID. They quick­ly scram­bled to find ways to stay on air, broad­cast­ing archived pro­gram­ming, allow­ing DJs to pre-record or even broad­cast live from home. We’ve ded­i­cat­ed sev­er­al episodes to learn­ing how dif­fer­ent kinds of sta­tions in a vari­ety of regions con­front­ed the emergency.

What­ev­er meth­ods were employed, today – with the pan­dem­ic still ongo­ing – it’s heart­en­ing to lis­ten around and note that most sta­tions seem to have sur­vived this peri­od. There’s no sense that more sta­tions closed down than in any oth­er 18-month peri­od. In fact, on Octo­ber 1, col­lege sta­tions from around the world will join togeth­er in cel­e­brat­ing the 11th annu­al Col­lege Radio Day, fea­tur­ing Ambas­sador Weird” Al Yankovic.

We take this oppor­tu­ni­ty to sur­vey radio’s remark­able sur­vival sto­ry. Just as inter­net tech­nol­o­gy, like Zoom calls, rev­o­lu­tion­ized the abil­i­ty to move work, school and oth­er activ­i­ties into the home, it also let sta­tions stay con­nect­ed with pro­gram­mers and vol­un­teers in a way that would have been sig­nif­i­cant­ly more chal­leng­ing even just a decade ear­li­er. Of course, we’re not argu­ing this is a net plus – too many lives have been lost or altered for­ev­er due to this dis­ease. As well, work­ing or DJing from home isn’t a boon for every­one, on top of the fact that closed stu­dios severe­ly impacts the col­lab­o­ra­tion and cama­raderie that is at the heart of so many sta­tions. Yet, it’s worth reflect­ing on why and how grass­roots radio with­stood this unprece­dent­ed chal­lenge, con­tin­u­ing to serve lis­ten­ers and com­mu­ni­ties and help them through this crisis.