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[Watch in the player above: Cleveland State University reshapes degree program offerings]
CLEVELAND (WJW) — Cleveland State University’s student-run radio station, which has been broadcasting at 89.3 FM since 1976, is now under the Ideastream umbrella.
WCSB, known for its alternative music and ethnic and public affairs programs, is now the analog signal for Ideastream’s 24/7 jazz station JazzNEO, according to a Friday news release from the university. Previously, JazzNEO was only available via HD radio.
Ideastream and CSU are expected to develop paid and for-credit learning opportunities like new journalism and media internships. Students will also be able to make use of the broadcaster’s Idea Center at Playhouse Square.
“The decision to have Ideastream oversee WCSB programming is one step forward in our Cleveland State United vision, the strategic plan for our university launched earlier this year,” CSU President Laura Bloomberg said in the release. “CSU is uniquely embedded within the city of Cleveland, which provides students with opportunities to benefit from strategic partnerships like this one. We look forward to working with Ideastream to expand access to experiential and work-based learning.”
Trustees from the university and Ideastream Public Media finalized the agreement Friday morning, according to the release.
WCSB General Manager Alison Bomgardner, in a statement to the station’s Facebook page, said university administrators told her in a Friday morning meeting that “the station as we know it, as a student-run organization, is now defunct.”
The station is expected to retain its call letters, according to CSU.
The university will retain the station’s Federal Communications Commission license, while Ideastream will assume programming “effective immediately,” Bomgardner said Friday.
“But this is not the end. With the 50th [anniversary] right around the corner — 50 years of community, of DJs, listeners and creatives coming together at this station and our locations past — we will continue to celebrate WCSB, not only with the 50th, but we will continue on-air until Cleveland State University and the Center of Campus Engagement can take us out of this station,” she said Friday.
The website was taken offline later that afternoon, and JazzNEO could be heard at 89.3.
WCSB was funded by “listeners, grants, underwriting and a university student general fee award,” reads an archived version of its website from early September.
Cleveland State in the Friday release said it has identified “a small number” of WCSB nationality programs and is now working with Ideastream to continue them on a “near-term basis” until they can find new platforms.
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Justin Dennis
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