On day two of our LA shoot, we sat down with Jennifer Waits, a college radio historian and the co-founder of Radio Survivor, a website dedicated to documenting the importance of radio in the past, present and future. Jennifer is a seemingly endless source of college radio knowledge, and we really only scratched the surface in our one-hour discussion. Even so, we had a great discussion that ranged from the early days of college radio to her time working at several college radio stations and the future of the medium.
As an undergraduate, Jennifer began her lifelong connection to college radio by working at WHRC, the campus station of Haverford College in Pennsylvania beginning in 1986. The station is one of the oldest college stations in the US, so naturally it has a long and interesting history that we explored in our interview. She has detailed memories of her time there, many of which she has documented on the Radio Survivor website.
Jennifer has also visited over one hundred college radio stations, so she has very unique insights into the similarities and differences in campus stations across the country. As you might expect, there are always constants, like every surface being covered in stickers and that one weird couch that every college radio station seems to have.
Finally, we talked about the present and future of college radio. In all our conversations, Jennifer has been adamant that college radio is not dead. While that is a convenient narrative, she has traveled to stations and seen firsthand that there are thousands of students who are still enamored by radio and who keep their stations alive through their hard work. It was a hopeful way to end the interview, which I’m sure won’t be our last with Jennifer.