College Radio Tidbits: Shiny New Studio at Boise State, HD Program Guide Test in Boston, and WSHU's Student Radio Roots

A few college radio-related stories to share:

Boise State Radio Station "The University Pulse" Gets Shiny New Studio
An article in Boise State's student paper The Arbiter lauds the architecture of the new student union building on campus, including the glistening studio for college radio station, The University Pulse:

"...the new Pulse studio is a beautifully designed, glass-enclosed space near the SUB's redesigned patio entrance. Student producers are often found within, recording radio programs and interviewing all manner of people from nationally touring bands to politicians... The new studio in the SUB is, 'probably the best asset the Pulse has,' said Dustin Verburg, Program Director of the University Pulse student radio station."

Ouch. That's kind of sad that the new studio is a station's best asset. What about the music? The DJs? The shows?

HD Radio Electronic Program Guide Testing at Emerson and UMass Stations
It's primarily a crew of commercial stations in the current testing of an electronic program guide for HD Radio in Boston, but Emerson College station WERS (they have 2 HD channels) and the public radio station at University of Massachusetts (WUMB) are also participating. According to the WUMB website, they've been broadcasting in HD since 2004. Who knew?

WSHU's College Radio Roots
An article in the Stamford News recounts public radio station WSHU's more student-oriented past. According to the piece it used to be a campus-oriented club, but has shifted to being a more professionally-oriented station. According to General Manager George Lombardi:

"'Once I came on board as general manager, it took us a year to join NPR and to qualify for funding and we began to put together the kind of professional programming without draining the University to become what we are today,' he says. 'Over time, our success in fundraising and building an audience, the University looked to us to become self-sufficient, which we did.'

Not that students don't help out -- they still act as interns and help with public address systems, but the station is its own entity now and is no longer considered a college radio station.

They currently broadcast on both AM and FM, offering both classical music and news programming throughout the day."

This raises an interesting question...can a station be both a college radio station and "its own entity"? I think so....