WKSU (89.7 FM broadcasting) is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Kent, Ohio, United States, featuring a public radio format. Owned by Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media, WKSU's primary signal encompasses the Akron metro area, Greater Cleveland and much of Northeast Ohio as the regional affiliate for National Public Radio (NPR), American Public Media, Public Radio Exchange and the BBC World Service. The station's reach is extended into the Canton, Mansfield, Lorain, Ashtabula, Sandusky, New Philadelphia and Wooster areas via a network of five full-power , two low-power translators, and one on-channel booster.
Founded by Kent State University, the station had its origins as a radio training workshop on the university's campus that provided programming for commercial radio stations, and save for a brief hiatus due to World War II, continued into WKSU's 1950 establishment as one of the first educational FM stations in the United States. An NPR affiliate since 1973, WKSU evolved from a university-operated station into a public radio and classical music outlet, with additional emphasis on folk music during the weekends. WKSU's influence extended into Cleveland, where from 1978 to 1984, it was the NPR information station of record for the entire region. After a public service operating agreement with WCLV owner Ideastream took effect on October 1, 2021, this distinction was again made official as both stations combined programming and personnel, with WKSU as the surviving entity.
WKSU's studios are currently located at the Idea Center in Downtown Cleveland, while the station transmitter is in Copley Township. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WKSU broadcasts over four HD Radio channels, is simulcast over WCLV's third HD subchannel and WVIZ's 25.7 audio-only subchannel, and is available online.
Programs did not air on terrestrial radio between 1943 and 1945 due to World War II, but the Radio Workshop remained in operation to assist in war effort purposes; this included a listening hour of classical music selections played for military personnel stationed on the campus. When the Radio Workshop was able to resume regular operations, WAKR began airing the workshop-produced programs on January 13, 1945, and continued to do so through 1950, airing on Saturday mornings. The Radio Workshop also signed on "WKSU", an unlicensed carrier current station at , on April 4, 1949, carrying newscasts and rebroadcasts of the workshop's WAKR programs for the immediate university campus.
The station suspended operations in June 1960 following the completion of Kent State's Music and Speech Center; Walton Clarke and WKSU-FM operations director John Weiser had been involved with the center's planning and construction process as early as 1954. A closed-circuit television station—also bearing the unofficial "WKSU" calls—remained in operation. On January 13, 1961, the university announced that WKSU-FM would soon return to the air following a $27,000 investment, with hopes of establishing a full-time operation daily from 8 am to 11 pm, but the initial choice of was challenged by a Cleveland FM station over potential interference. The FCC approved a frequency change to and a power increase to , on December 20, 1961; the former frequency was quickly reused by WZIP, the Municipal University of Akron's radio station which signed on the following year.
WKSU-FM resumed operations in mid-March 1962 with an eight-hour broadcast day, de-emphasizing rock and roll in favor of additional classical music programming, and jazz; the station also affiliated with the National Association of Educational Broadcasters. WKSU began broadcasting the university's annual "Campus Day" parade and all home Kent State Golden Flashes sporting events were carried live. A third iteration of "WKSU-AM" at emerged in 1964 again as a WKSU-FM simulcast but adopted a separate programming schedule on January 18, 1965. Both stations were placed under the supervision of a student-faculty advisory board, with students encouraged to submit programs ideas for WKSU-FM to the board via an application process.
After Kent, Ohio, was placed under a state of emergency on May 2, 1970, following a series of riots in the city and on the campus, WKSU-FM was used for a rumor control center for the student body dubbed "News Rap". Called in to restore order, the Ohio National Guard directed WKSU to broadcast a notice the morning of May 4, 1970, banning all outdoor gatherings under threat of arrest, directly preceding the guard opening fire on demonstrating students at 12:24 p.m. that day. WKSU news director Greg Benedetti's written eyewitness account of the shootings was printed in newspapers internationally via the Associated Press. In conjunction with the university, WKSU established an online archive of recordings and transcriptions related to the shootings on April 29, 2010, marking its 40th anniversary.
Following the closure of part-time Cleveland NPR member WBOE () by the Cleveland Board of Education on October 7, 1978, WKSU-FM effectively began doubling as the de facto NPR member in Greater Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, with Cleveland earning the dubious distinction of being the largest metropolitan city in the United States without a dedicated NPR-aligned outlet. In July 1980, the station expanded its signal to reach over a million potential listeners in Northeast Ohio thanks to a grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) increasing its power to 12,000 watts. An additional power upgrade for WKSU-FM was filed with the FCC in early 1982 and contested by the Cleveland Public Library system, which had attempted to acquire WBOE's license and was competing with Cleveland Public Radio, who sought out a replacement license for . Incidentally, the director for the Cleveland Public Library was not opposed to WKSU-FM's power increase request. A settlement between the Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland Public Radio and the Cleveland Board of Education by September 1982 cleared the way for WBOE's replacement, WCLV, to begin broadcasting on September 8, 1984, ending WKSU-FM's status as the unofficial NPR member of record for the entire region; WKSU-FM and WCPN management expressed optimism that both stations could remain viable and help increase awareness of public radio.
WKSU's increased visibility and NPR carriage resulted in the station slowly streamlining their block programming format, as well as lessening the need for volunteers and student assistance. The summer of 1981 saw a schedule revamp with a reduction in folk music on weekend mornings and a later start time for Fresh Air, resulting in a debate during a Kent State Student Senate meeting over who was directly responsible for WKSU's programming policies. Fresh Air was cancelled on December 30, 1981, with jazz programming taking its place; the move was controversial among the student body as a memo issued forbidding any "lobbying" over the show's future was read on-air during the final program. A WKSU spokesperson attributed the cancellation to the program losing money and audience, becoming "something different, other than what it had been." John Perry later said of the show's ending, "...it had a little bit of an audience, just not a supportive one." WKSU-FM stopped hiring students and WKSR staffers at this time, with WKSR program director Doug Piper calling it "a conscious decision" after years of past practices of WKSU-FM hiring "only the good" from WKSR, which operated primarily as a training ground. Jazz and blues fare were fully removed from the schedule on June 27, 1990, along with a late-night new-age music program, as WKSU opted to focus entirely on classical fare and folk music; the station's blues music library was subsequently donated to WCPN.
]]WKSU-FM's administrative offices moved to Wright Hall, which was originally built as a dormitory, in 1977 after six floors of the building were turned into office space. General manager John Perry had made known intentions for WKSU-FM's operations to be consolidated into one facility, saying, "we want to take the assets of the area and have them represented nationally". As Kent State's student population began to grow in the mid-1980s, Wright Hall was reconverted back into dormitories, forcing the station's offices into leased space at a former restaurant east of the campus in 1987. The station's studios remained at the Music and Speech Building but were under pressure to move by 1990 as the university needed additional classroom space, while WKSU and WKSR encountered space issues at said building as early as 1983.
WKSU-FM began a long-term $1.5 million fundraising drive in November 1987, initially to purchase the leased building and move all operations there but opted to construct a new facility on the campus proper by the end of 1990. Groundbreaking for the new $2.1 million building at the northeast corner of Loop Road and Summit Street took place in September 1991. Matching grants awarded to WKSU by the Kresge Foundation and the GAR Foundation totaled $200,000 but were contingent on the station raising the same amount by June 30, 1992, which it did via multiple fundraisers, an art auction, a golf outing and selling engraved bricks at the entrance one of which was used for a marriage proposal. WKSU-FM completed the move to the new building on December 3, 1992, with a dedication event held that evening; capital campaign chairman Howard Flood noted during the dedication that no other college-owned radio station had ever successfully completed such a fundraising effort consisting entirely from private sources. Recognized as a student organization earlier in 1992, WKSR remained at the Music and Speech Building and abandoned carrier current AM by 1999 in favor of internet radio, rebranding as Black Squirrel Radio in 2005.
The station's website was launched in 1994, and began offering on-demand streaming starting in May 1995 with the Akron Roundtable program. WKSU-FM additionally launched three distinct programming streams over their website in August 2005—WKSU's on-air feed, "The News Channel" and "The Classical Channel"—along with a stream on the station's separate website for Folk Alley. These internet-only streams were created as prototypes for potential digital subchannels using the HD Radio in-band on-channel standard and eventually were launched as such, while also appealing to listeners that had a preference for either all-classical or all-information programming. By 2010, WKSU was the only radio station in the state to offer three distinct HD subchannels, while general manager Al Bartholet also noted that internet radio could be the future of the medium should a workable business model be found. In 2011, WKSU employed a staff of 35 people and boasted an audience of 180,000 listeners while WCPN employed 150 people and served 300,000 listeners.
The Kent State Folk Festival typically featured several performances by both legendary and up-and-coming folk artists. Later line-ups included Bob Dylan, Donovan, Avett Brothers, Doc Watson, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Dawes, Judy Collins and Arlo Guthrie.
With WKSU-FM's involvement in the Kent State Folk Festival, a day of free concerts throughout the city of Kent was created.
Kent State University and WKSU donated FolkAlley.com and the radio show to the FreshGrass Foundation—publishers of No Depression—on March 7, 2019, having successfully operated as a fully self-sustaining entity throughout Kent State and WKSU's stewardship. The donation ensured a reliable access to resources for the show and the website, with WKSU no longer responsible for operational costs. WKSU's HD2 subchannel simulcast of FolkAlley.com remained in place.
WKSU-FM launched multiple regular news segments including weekly interviews with Plain Dealer sports writer Terry Pluto, Quick Bites stories on food and eating and Exploradio reports on research and innovation. Amy Reynolds, dean of the university's College of Communications and Information, began hosting Elevations, a five-minute interview program on Saturday mornings. During a Kent State University Board of Trustees meeting in late 2015, chairman Dennis Eckert advocated for WKSU-FM to offer more locally based programming to national distributors like NPR to help boost the university's name awareness; WKSU-FM continued to produce Folk Alley for syndication and the station's news department frequently filed reports for NPR's news programs.
In a cosmetic move, WKSU-FM's call sign changed to WKSU on June 23, 2016, removing the "-FM" suffix. Call Sign History , fcc.gov. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
in Downtown Cleveland]]Elizabeth Bartz, a former member of WKSU's community advisory council, found out about the merger proposal just before her term expired in May 2021 and voiced her disappointment in the lack of communication with Kent State president Todd Diacon. Diacon countered by stating privacy had to be maintained in the event that the proposal—directly involving WKSU employees—did not come to fruition. Former WKSU general manager John Perry interpreted the proposal as "a deep alignment" between the two entities that had a "potential upside" despite the likely changes, while Perry's successor Al Bartholet expressed concern about WKSU having their focus on Kent and Akron diminished in favor of Ideastream's Cleveland orientation. Bartholet's concerns were echoed by Bartz, who felt that WKSU was a "treasure (that) is leaving Northeast Ohio" and would "be second to ideastream". Former radio executive John Gorman noted that WKSU's news department had for decades been a strong contributor to NPR, while WCPN had only recently established a fully staffed newsroom with coverage that "pales in comparison". A press release on Ideastream's web site concurrently stated that WKSU had been in operation for 71 years, "almost twice as long as WCPN".
The deal was approved by the board of trustees on September 15, 2021, with no money changing hands. WKSU general manager Wendy Turner hailed "the logic of this convergence (that) stares us right in the face", Diacon expressed confidence in enhanced journalism, reporting and public affairs and WKSU news director Andrew Meyer felt the merger would help bolster manpower and resources for the station. Under terms of the proposal, WKSU became Cleveland and Akron's lead NPR station under Ideastream management, retained all local shows and inherited WCPN's local productions The Sound of Ideas and the City Club of Cleveland's Friday Forum. The second phase of the changeover on March 28, 2022, had WKSU drop all music programming while WCPN changed call letters to WCLV and format to classical music. WCLV's prior facility changed their calls to WCPN and became a WKSU repeater for Lorain County and the western portion of Greater Cleveland. WKSU applied for on-channel boosters to address reception issues in Cleveland proper, which it was eligible for on the condition that drop all news-related programming. With the addition of to the repeater network, WKSU boasted a 22-county coverage area and potential audience of 3.6 million people, the largest collective footprint for an FM radio station in Ohio.
WCPN morning host Amy Eddings (who had joined that station in 2017) was transferred to WKSU in the same capacity, while existing WKSU hosts Amanda Rabinowitz and Jeff St. Clair were retained for what Ideastream billed as "expanded news breaks" throughout the weekday. An internship program for Kent State journalism students has remained in place; Ideastream president/CEO Kevin Martin noted, "what's important for not only Northeast Ohio but all of Ohio, with the decline in print journalism, is to really build up the next generation of journalists and to take on... that priority."
WKSU's local programming includes The Sound of Ideas, an hour-long current events talk show hosted by Rick Jackson and Michael McIntrye. Local inserts on Morning Edition, Here and Now and All Things Considered are hosted by Amy Eddings, Jeff St. Clair and Amanda Rabinowitz, respectively. WKSU originates the live broadcast of the City Club of Cleveland's Friday Forum during the noon hour. BBC World Service programming airs in overnights.
Additionally, WKSU is simulcast over WCLV's HD3 subchannel and over WVIZ's 25.7 subchannel in an audio-only format.
WKSU previously established a news bureau at the United Building in downtown Akron, sharing space with PBS member stations WNEO–WEAO (of which Kent State University is a part-owner) and Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC. The arrangement was made in 2008 after WKYC ceased production of a daily Akron-oriented television newscast on local cable. After the United Building was slated for conversion into a boutique hotel, WKSU relocated the Akron bureau to the Akron Beacon Journal newsroom. WKSU had also operated a separate bureau in downtown Cleveland prior to the Ideastream merger from WKYC's newsroom.
|
|