Kent State Radio Workshop, Chestnut Burr, 1942 |
After a student petition was submitted in the Spring of 1935 requesting a radio broadcasting course, the university answered the next fall, offering Speech 374, Radio Speaking.
The Radio Speaking class began in a small room in the basement of Kent Hall. With close to little or no equipment, students improvised to find methods to help them practice their radio skills. Though physical conditions were dismal in the beginning, Kent State radio possessed a different electrifying outlet from day one--its broadcasting faculty.
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6 reasons Kent needs a station (Opal Boffo 1946)
- Perform a fine public service to this general community
- Afford a splendid training ground for students enrolled in the university course in radio
- Utilize and advertise every department in the university
- Teach by radio
- Act as a proving ground for new talent
- Really put the university on the map as an up and coming educational institution
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Opal Boffo, Chestnut Burr,1946
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Walton Clarke, Chestnut Burr, 1951
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Under the tutelage of Harry Wright, Kent State students would broadcast numerous shows in 1936-37 over the airwaves of WJW and WADC in Akron. With Wright looking to enhance his students' radio talents and the university eyeing the medium as a source of publicity, in 1937, the program needed a definitive direction. President Engleman formed the Faculty Committee on Radio Activities, and by 1938, the committee became so busy that it had five full-time members. "In October of that year, Kent State received more radio coverage--more media coverage--than at any time in its history" (Fred Endres, Pathways).
"From the campus on the hilltop, the Kent State University Radio Workshop presents..." Wright announced that in 1940, the university would open auditions for the Kent State Radio Workshop. A separate entity from the Radio Speaking Class, the workshop would serve as an extra-curricular activity. More than 200 students auditioned, and 66 were granted talent positions with KSRW.
Student numbers were on the rise in radio, and so was the amount of funding allocated to the program. In 1940, the Radio Workshop moved out of the basement in Kent Hall to the third floor. In a newly remodeled facility with a price tag of about $10,000, KSU radio students practiced with some of the best equipment in the nation at that time. Students made regular appearances on WAKR in Akron, WHBC in Canton, and WGAR in Cleveland. From the basement to the third floor, from campus to Cleveland radio--in the 1940s, Kent State Student Radio was moving up in the world in more ways than one.
"All things considered, it appeared that the immediate post-war period would be a fertile and appropriate time to develop an academic program designed to help college students prepare for careers in radio broadcasting." -Walton D. Clarke |
Students flocked to universities across the nation following World War II. Kent State was infiltrated not only with students eager to learn, but students eager to learn about the popular medium they identified with so closely: radio.
With numbers growing, part time radio
faculty member Opal Boffo argued that Kent State was in need
of its own outlet to help students hone their skills
on the airwaves. In a 1946 memo to E. Turner Stump, head
of the school of Music and Speech, she outlined six reasons
why the university should have its own radio station.
Mr. Stump must have agreed with at least a
few points in the memo, because on April 6, 1949, WKSU-AM
was on the air. Student Bob West hosted a 15 minute
jazz program followed by a 15 minute news segment delivered
by Clem Scerback. Radio not only had a definitive place
on campus, but also within the School of Speech. A
year earlier, President George Bowman created a Division of
Radio within the school. |
WKSU-FM, Chestnut Burr, 1959 |
