WKSU-FM Basketball Broadcast, Chestnut
Burr, 1959 |
Building...on
top of success
"It was a real boost to the students, who now felt
a greater community responsibility; they were really on the
air. Hence the numbers of students increased and continued
to increase." -John Weiser
Radio was flying high on the airwaves from the late 1940s
into the fifties for Kent State University--but
Walton Clarke was determined to have it flying from
Kent State University. Hence, the inception of WKSU-FM
in 1950.
The station, better known to students as "Wicksue Foom," had
its own transmitter and was broadcasting five hours a day, five
days a week. WKSU-FM was the talk of the town--literally.
Through the decade, students took pride in bringing the
community diverse programming, beginning with all-night coverage
of the Eisenhower/Stevenson presidential election in 1952.
The station took a shot at 39 KSU basketball games in 1953,
and finally in 1955, tackled its first away football game. |
WKSU-FM, Chestnut Burr, 1958
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With the popularity
of broadcast journalism increasing, finally in 1960, the university
erected the Music and Speech Building where KSU radio would
ultimately make its home. But capital wasn't the only
thing building at Kent State--or in the country. With
an unpopular war in Vietnam and an unfavorable conflict in
Korea, the 1960s was a time of building tension that made
way to the even more volatile 1970s.
While Kent State University had been placed
on the national map for boasting some of the best college
broadcast facilities in the nation at that time, it would
soon earn a permanent place on the nation's historical timeline.
May 4, 1970, is often referred to as "the day the war
came home." The infamous shootings that took place
on a campus once a bustling atmosphere for studying journalists
brought members from seasoned media outlets all over the world.
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| WKSR library, Chestnut Burr,
1980 |
WKSR Call Letters, 1970 |
In 1974, WKSU-FM
gained National Public Radio status and would soon become a
service of Kent State University separate of student media.
The creation of the professional NPR outlet 89.7, WKSU-FM,
gave birth to the new student radio outlet, WKSR.
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A Happy Medium
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The 1980s brought
balance to outside conflict, as well as to divisions within
Kent State's Journalism program. WKSR, along with its
television counterpart, TV2, was placed under control of the
JMC media board. This followed a 1987 merger between
Telecommunications and Journalism.
The 1990s saw an even greater interest in television,
casting somewhat of a shadow on the radio airwaves. But
WKSR was not about to be sent back to the basement of its beginnings.
The modern version of the station embraced the emergence
of the campus television signal, and to this day, WKSR broadcasts
on channel two on campus, channel 16 Time-Warner Cable off-campus.
From the days of jazz and blues during its
first broadcast in 1949...to the days of rhythm and blues, more
popularly known as R&B today--Kent State Student radio spans
seven decades of American culture. Seven decades of signals
passed, and still a dial pointed optimistically toward the future...
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| WKSR Studio DJ, Chestnut
Burr, 1980 |
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| WKSR Studio, Chestnut
Burr, 1980 |
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