Live from the Underground: A History of College Radio

by Katherine Rye Jewell

Overview

Bands like R.E.M., U2, Public Enemy, and Nirvana found success as darlings of college radio, but the extraordinary influence of these stations and their DJs on musical culture since the 1970s was anything but inevitable. As media deregulation and political conflict over obscenity and censorship transformed the business and politics of culture, students and community DJs turned to college radio to defy the mainstream—and they ended up disrupting popular music and commercial radio in the process. In this first history of US college radio, Katherine Rye Jewell reveals that these eclectic stations in major cities and college towns across the United States owed their collective cultural power to the politics of higher education as much as they did to upstart bohemian music scenes coast to coast.

Jewell uncovers how battles to control college radio were about more than music—they were an influential, if unexpected, front in the nation's culture wars. These battles created unintended consequences and overlooked contributions to popular culture that students, DJs, and listeners never anticipated. More than an ode to beloved stations, this book will resonate with both music fans and observers of the politics of culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469676210
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	11/07/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	480
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Katherine Rye Jewell is professor of history at Fitchburg State University.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Detailing the evolution of what was once an extracurricular school activity into a daring pursuit of generation-defining programming, Live from the Underground vividly places you in the control room of a college radio station, behind the mixing board and turntables, ready, with teen spirit, to change the world with every spin of a new record."—Bill Stephney, Broad Market Media

Without college radio, indie labels like Sub Pop would not have thrived, and bands like Nirvana might not have gained initial traction. Katherine Rye Jewell has offered us a uniquely valuable reference that covers an impactful but overlooked moment in US cultural and musical history."—Bruce Pavitt, Sub Pop Records

Editorial Reviews

09/18/2023

Jewell (Dollars for Dixie), an associate professor of history at Fitchburg State University, chronicles the rise, fall, and legacy of college radio in this sprawling and richly detailed account. Describing how college radio stations navigated America’s changing cultural landscape in the second half of the 20th century, Jewell explains that while college radio’s noncommercial status “offered useful cover for DJs seeking the weird, the unheard, or underappreciated,” other proponents of the format, including some station managers, “wanted to cultivate a professional sound that emulated commercial rock radio, except with a few new cuts thrown in for the youngsters.” These contrasting views shaped a patchwork network of stations that engaged with such issues as feminism, antinuclear politics, and civil rights, often in left-leaning ways (for example, broadcasting public service announcements for abortion clinics or playing “anti-Reagan hardcore punk” music). While financial pressures and the internet hastened college radio’s decline in the new millennium, Jewell attributes “the real fracture” to a culture of higher education that promoted less artistic exploration, and a shift toward mainstream radio trends. Jewell offers both an animated homage to college radio as a microcosm of American culture and reassurance for readers that the medium isn’t dead. It’s a fascinating deep dive. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Jewell . . . chronicles the rise, fall, and legacy of college radio in this sprawling and richly detailed account. . . . [Live from the Underground] offers both an animated homage to college radio as a microcosm of American culture and reassurance for readers that the medium isn't dead. It's a fascinating deep dive."—Publishers Weekly

A meticulously researched book."—Boston Globe

The large and small stories told [are] valuable . . . Jewell follows the interesting tension in the college radio idea of musical, social, and political communities. Without commercial pressure, they could stand outside dominant commercial culture."—Brooklyn Rail

Offers a deeply researched, insightful account of college radio from its beginnings up to the present day. . . . Live from the Underground will be influential on future histories of radio and broadcasting. Jewell expertly shows how to source rich narratives about ephemeral media."—American Journalism

Deeply researched . . . Jewell tells some wonderfully obscure tales. . . A pleasure for fans of alt-rock and its dissemination in the face of corporate and academic resistance."—Kirkus Reviews

An interesting and insightful look at how this nationwide phenomenon has sculpted American culture. . . . Live from the Underground teaches us the importance of listening to college broadcasters while supporting their experimental stations as sites of free speech and free expression critical to our Democracy."—Midwest Book Review

From breaking explosive news stories and discovering the next exciting underground music scene to challenging the status quo by allowing ALL voices to be heard, college radio continues to be a vibrant cultural force.  Katherine Jewell provides an entertaining, authoritative, and in-depth look at this unique medium and all it has to offer."—Jim Bolt, Founder, KSSU Student-Run Radio, Sacramento State

Jewell (history, Fitchburg State Univ.) deftly chronicles college radio's story . . . Although music is central here, this monograph shines by illuminating the intricacies of stations' various allegiances to governing bodies (parent institutions, funders, the FCC), their audiences (campus, the broader community), and their staff (fomenting creativity, professional skills, or both), while revealing the profound connections between DJs, artists, industry, politics, and culture."—CHOICE

From the Publisher

2023-10-21
A history of America’s left-of-the-dial college radio stations.

If you know the Replacements’ paean, you’ll know that college radio gave many alternative acts their start. History professor Jewell, a veteran DJ with a penchant for the “indie-rock scene” of her college years, notes that by the 1980s, the network of college-affiliated, mostly student-run radio stations numbered about 1,200. Soon after, as an entity, it “had earned a national identity that evoked generational dissatisfaction with pop culture even as it remained deeply conversant with it.” Some college administrators didn’t quite know what to do with the broadcasters and their “none of the hits, all the time” ethos, while others smelled money in the much-coveted FM bands that the stations controlled. (So it is, Jewell observes, that most college stations now stream over the internet, their FM airwaves having been sold off long ago.) The author, who considers 1978 to be the ground-zero year when “college radio” emerged as a genre, tells some wonderfully obscure tales—such as UCLA’s attempt to buy then-faltering KROQ, which turned around and presented playlists that were heavily influenced by what was happening on college radio, thus becoming a station without pedigree until emerging as “a launchpad to commercial success for underground artists in the 1980s.” Another anecdote from Jewell’s deeply researched files concerns Sean Hannity, who was noxious even back when he was a student DJ on UC Santa Barbara’s station—and who, fired for his calumnies, recruited the ACLU to defend him, an affiliation he probably wouldn’t want to admit today. College radio continues to be “a site of struggle over the sound of America,” Jewell writes, even if it may be a shadow of its golden-age self.

A pleasure for fans of alt-rock and its dissemination in the face of corporate and academic resistance.

Kirkus Reviews