From “Gen Z’s College Radio Revival:”

“I’m 21. I grew up in the age of algorithms. The way music is right now scares me because of the rise of AI. Not even AI made music (I hate it) but even just ‘Daily Mix, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5.’ It’s not made by someone. It’s made by an algorithm. I wish more of that stuff was person curated.”—Mari McLaughlin, WHRW (Binghamton)

“What attracts a lot of people to college radio is the idea of putting somebody on. Showing them a new song they haven’t seen before, outside of the algorithmic nature of streaming.”—Aidan Greenwell, WRFL (Kentucky)

I wrote “A Blackened Death Metal Band Has A College Radio Breakthrough” back in 2023:

“My understanding is, so the college radio stations started playing us and then one of these kids have like, graduated college and then started their own web radio stations. And so then they’re playing us on those, and then other people hear about it, and they’re playing us on their stations. And then some like real legitimate, like the one local radio station here, the Big Rock one has played us multiple times on it, which makes no sense to me.”

College radio will endure because the experience of music is youthful, it is life. I believe this because I see kids in Nirvana shirts, or hear them jamming Pearl Jam covers. Youthful zest isn’t flowing into Spotify, or other streaming music services, it’s a dead scene driving only by increasing profits for shareholders, and absolute race to the bottom. Meanwhile, “the kids” are still picking up guitars, playing with loop stations, setting up house shows.

Streaming music companies don’t stand a chance.