On World College Radio Day, five decades of student-run airwaves were silenced.
Friday, October 3, 2025: 89.3, WCSB broadcast its final breath. Now, this once underground stalwart is truly underground.
On that October morning, Cleveland State University (CSU) trumpetted a unanimous approval of a new agreement with Ideastream Public Media. The new contract gave all programming authority to Ideastream. Despite their monopoly on classical music — they have two redundant stations, Ideastream wanted a broadcast home for their “smooth” JazzNEO format. Ideastream, the Northeastern Ohio platform for NPR and PBS, killed Cleveland State’s radio station.
WCSB was dead.
There was no warning. Still, some WCSB associate producers noticed a seeming tech glitch just a day prior: Campus Viking Cards were de-activated. With only hours notice, the engineers of WCSB were notified to turn off their transmitter. Within an hour of cut transmission, armed police arrived to escort the student volunteers out of their Cole Center studio. The tearful gathering of a few personal effects was captured on the local television prior to the student’s unceremonious exit.
https://youtu.be/Db88i0bDrlY?si=6xr2yD1KRI8-tdJG
For WCSB, the dream of free airwaves — the conduit of cool in the world’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Capitol — succumbed to its corporate demise. Death had come to WCSB.
WCSB was a listener-supported Cleveland icon known in the music community for its diverse and edgy programming. Rock, soul, reggae, electronic, metal, punk, and ethnic programming: WCSB’s shows crossed all genres. WCSB’s live production, like Herb Irvin’s “Anti Urban Contemporary Thang” or Tommy Fox’s “Rudi’s Hi-Fi”, mixed disparate tracks into a musical narrative. Unique to college radio, each WCSB DJ cultivated a unique musical gestalt. True, college radio at WCSB could be chaotic, and to the CSU administration, WCSB probably looked like the Scooby Doo gang. However, in peak WCSB rhythms, music flowed like a single, unified artistic statement. Eager music heads often listened with noting pencil and checkbook in hand. WCSB, a vibrant institution of nearly 100 active members, was solid, musically and financially.
Cleveland State, however, remains cash strapped. Once the teeming hub of urban education in Northern Ohio, the university now struggles with enrollment in the post-COVID college marketplace. With a millennial boom in campus construction, an empty basketball arena, and unoccupied dormitories, CSU overspent. Surprisingly, CSU’s budget woes were not the immediate impetus of its decision. WCSB was a tiny fraction of Cleveland State’s hemorrhaging budget. The university administration saw WCSB as a part of its new strategic vision. In essence, CSU wanted to collaborate with the corporate community. CSU’s goal: Work readiness upon graduation.
But what better way to prepare for the world of work than running a radio station? WCSB members and alumni prominently work in manufacturing, law, education, and art. Rather than cultivate the collective resume of WCSB’s existing assets, CSU closed WCSB. Cleveland State — undervaluing the power and reach of its arts community — chose corporate programming over its own students and alumni. The now shuttered WCSB studio space still houses an estimated 100,000 pieces of music, mostly vinyl. The once-closely curated shelves, custom mixing boards, turntables, and professional-grade microphones gather dust. Now, former station members worry about theft for pawn in the booming used LP marketplace.
Persistent protests, petitions, city council resolutions, public debate, and critical social media coverage has not altered CSU’s course. Despite the outcry of Cleveland’s music community — including notable, well-heeled fans in the legislative, business, and arts circles, CSU’s president, Laura Bloomberg believes she has made the right decision.
The death of WCSB is not isolated. Pow Magazine’s Dennis Gonzalez says he has seen this all before. In 2011, KUSF was taken over by Classic Public Network in a secret, 3.75 million dollar deal. The University of San Francisco said the abrupt end to KUSF’s decades of alternative programing was needed for USF to keep its academic focus. Inside Higher Ed (2025) reports that ” A long line of student-run FM stations that have gone silent over the past decade, including WMWM at Salem State University; WNKU at Northern Kentucky University and KEWU at Eastern Washington University.” Clearly no community radio stations are immunue to the looming threat of closure or sale.
Take stock and lawyer-up college radio communities, for you are not safe. The recent trend of nonprofit takeovers of college-run stations, begs the question: “Is your college radio station next?”
Now, threats of lawsuits circulate through the whispers of the bereaved.
Here’s the key points:
- CSU and Ideastream sign a non-disclosure agreement barring public discussion of negotiations
- Ideastream approached CSU about taking over programing of WCSB
- CSU and Ideastream privately negotiate for 6 months
- CSU seeks corporate partners for paid, college credit earning internships
- Ideastream seeks free access to WCSB’s fm signal for broadcast of its JazzNEO program
- Ideastream seeks programing for select ethnic programing — WCSB’s largest donors
- Laura Bloomberg gets a seat on Ideastream board of trustees
- CSU gets 1,000 annual on-air promotional spots
- CSU and Ideastream sign a 8-year contract
Now dubbed XCSB, the exiled students and associate producers continue to organize and create. Some consider resurrecting the 24-hour online stream that was WCSB. Other DJ’s have organized happy hours and events. To honor its 50 years of college radio XCSB is presenting the Dead Milkmen on Saturday, January 10-11. With ticket sales boasting near instantaneous sell outs, a portion of each ticket is going directly to XCSB. The goal: Future operations of a student-run station.
Read further for artist and community reaction.
“The entire staff at the Beachland were shocked and devastated when we got the news. We immediately realized that the whole musical landscape of the local scene had changed for the worse in an instant. As an independent music venue that books hundreds of up-and-coming acts both local and national, WCSB played and promoted the kinds of acts we book, whether they were indie rock, blues, roots rock, hip hop, or metal. WCSB listeners discovered new bands and new sounds and that helped venues like ours survive.“
Mark Leddy, Co-owner and talent Buyer, Beachland Ballroom & Tavern
“To me, WCSB meant everything that is exciting about experiencing music.”
Pete Gulyas, Blue Arrow Records
“I can’t imagine Galaxie 500 or breaking through were it not for the college radio stations that supported us in the early days…I was a college DJ myself…and it was an education.”
Dean Wareham, Galaxie 500, Luna, Dean & Britta
“The once strong college radio presence in Cleveland has been a major asset and driving force to the local music scene. Small independent clubs and local artists rely on college stations as they’re sometimes the only vehicle for promotions and exposure…We will definitely feel the loss.”
Kathy Simkoff, Owner, The Grog Shop
“College radio is very much necessary because that’s the place to hear music diversity! Old blues records, punk, soul, whatever you dig you can find it on college and other listener-supported radio. Cleveland progressive radio hosts like Doc Nemo and Martine Perlich were super important to me. So was WCSB”
Jeff Magnum, original Dead Boys bassist
“Such a huge loss of such an important station… It meant so much to all of us.”
Steve Wynn, The Dream Syndicate
“Myopic, tonedeaf, and glib”
Steve Peffer, 9 Shocks Terror, Owner Hausfrau Records
“I was just listening to the undercurrents punk rock show last night, thinking about what college and community radio mean to me. I’ve learned so much from college radio DJs. To share music you love, free from corporate influence, is personal and deeply meaningful. This is a gift to the listener and chance for us to expand our musical horizons! It’s safe to say my life was changed by college radio.”
Josh Richardson, Flavor Crystals
“What would college and community radio be without the students and the local volunteers? Just another corporate radio station, the exact thing that millions of us escaped from when we found our favorite college station.”
Brent Rademaker, The Beachwood Sparks
“The consolidation of radio stations music industry has killed independent music”
Randall Neiman, Spectrum, Fuxa, Windy & Carl
“My own experience on collage radio is still my favorite thing that I did in my formative years. Learning to speak on air, construct programs and expose new and challenging music and information and making all kinds of mistakes along the way was essential to my development as well as my feeling of community at my school. It would be pure folly to take away such a rich experience from the students, as well as Cleveland at large.”
Robert Campanella, Engineer and Artist, The Warlocks, Brian Jonestown Massacre
“The only true allies musicians have left are those who are just as passionate about discovering new music as the artists themselves.”
Beans, Author and Artist, Anti-Pop Consortium
“This kind of practice you are describing repeats the larger patterns that generate massive wealth concentration and inequality ie theft of labor and culture”
John Davis, Folk Implosion
“If independent radio has a future, it has to be completely independent: community-based, volunteer-run, listener-supported, responsible to no one but its audience. Fortunately, the FCC’s carve-out for low-power stations combined with the expanded reach of online streaming make this arguably easier than it’s ever been. Here in Rochester, NY, where I live, we’ve got several such stations, including WAYO 104.3, where I did a show for years. They do an amazing job of bringing together people from every part of our deeply segregated city and giving them a voice, which makes for a truly eclectic mix of programming that, most importantly, is not vulnerable to being shut down by jackbooted thugs sent by the station’s owners or sold out from underneath the people running it!“
Peter Hughes, The Mountain Goats
References:
Knott, K. October 27, 2025. Fighting to Control the Campus Airwaves. Inside higher ed. Retrieved from: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/free-speech/2025/10/27/battle-future-college-radio
Cipriani, M., October 20, 2025. Special Report on what Happened at Cleveland State WCSB: Part One.College Radio Foundation. Retrieved from: https://www.collegeradio.org/special-report-on-what-happened-at-cleveland-state-wcsb-part-one/
Brooks, J. June 7, 2012. After 16 months, fCC approves sale of KUSF. KQED. Retrieved from: https://www.kqed.org/news/67447/usf-says-kusf-sale-approved
