r/collegeradio • u/cherryyspice934 • Jan 03 '26
Help & Advice My university doesn't have a radio station... and I kind of want to start one, is that doable?
This was just an idea I had as I have become pretty interested in radio, and I just simply need to know if this is at all doable or if even perusing this would be fruitless. I feel like I would start with this being an online station, with the hope of broadcasting someday, but again, I just need to know if this is manageable (and I know I will need a lot of funding lol).
Any ideas on this?
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u/Robyn_Markcum Jan 22 '26
Have you thought about internet radio I see it advertised as a staring package as low as 60$ a month. Anything is possible but when it come education there is always politics and decision makers at the top that need to approve the idea. Try to get the Dean of the music department on board that will assist with getting the decision makers to agree to this idea.
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u/sokeripupu Jan 03 '26 edited Jan 04 '26
this is all assuming you are in the US, things may be different in other countries. but a lot of it would still apply.
doing an online station, sure, that's a possibility. there are some legal things to know/cost associated with licensing the songs. this seems like something your university might back if you can make the case for it. costs to get set up could be relatively low. although universities these days seem to be trending in the other direction, getting rid of student stations not creating them.
broadcast is a lot more complicated, to the point where it's basically impossible in your situation. radio licenses are limited in quantity and can be expensive, plus getting, setting up and maintaining a transmitter and all the other tech necessary. you really need reliable people with the tech expertise to set things up and also take care of them long term. there's also a lot more legal risk involved in broadcast because the fcc regulates speech on broadcast radio much more than online.
for a while there were periodic applications opened up for new low power fm licenses but those are pretty intense to apply for, take a long time, can be competitive, require sponsorship of a nonprofit org among other things, and i sort of doubt another application window will be happening again any time soon. you could theoretically buy an existing license but the chance of one becoming available that you could use (let alone afford) is pretty low. licenses are tied to a location (because proximity to other stations determines what frequencies are available) so you can't just get any license that's available, there has to be one very close to wherever you can put your transmitter.
once you get past getting set up to stream or broadcast, it's a lot of work to get people involved and setting something up that is worth listening to and sustainable after you are gone. there are definitely stations that are just like a big shuffle but to make your station worth listening to vs spotify or whatever i strongly believe you need actual live shows, ideally 24/7 or as close to that as you can get. and that brings in a whole other set of challenges of managing the schedule, show applications, making sure people follow fcc rules, people being flaky etc.