The 13th annual World College Radio Day will be celebrated on Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. This year’s theme is “Where All Voices Are Welcome.”
This year, World College Radio Day will unite more than 700 college radio stations from more than 50 countries to bring awareness to the value they bring to the broadcasting medium.
“Now, more than ever, we need to remind everyone that college radio is a place for all voices, where every person is respected and encouraged to speak up and join the conversation,” said founder Dr. Rob Quicke, who is also director of the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism & Mass Communications at Marshall University, in a press release. “This year’s theme resonates deeply with our students and listeners, and I’m excited to hear the special content that the students will produce for this year’s event.”
In celebration of the day, there will also be a live, 24-hour Global Marathon — hosted by Live365.com — where college radio stations around the world take turns to broadcast special content. The marathon will begin at midnight EST on Friday, starting in Fiji, Philippines, Malaysia and China, before ending in Canada, USA, Mexico and Argentina. Past ambassadors of the marathon include Julian Lennon, The Black Keys, Joan Jett, Wyclef Jean and “Weird Al” Yankovic, among others.
“College radio is really a place where all voices matter. No matter who you are, what you identify as, or what you do with your life. You’ll always have a place in college radio,” said College Radio Day Board member Amelia Turnbull, a student at 91.1 The Globe at Goshen College in Indiana. Turnbull and 11 other students make up the national College Radio Day Board that helps organize the annual event.
The College Radio Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit based in New Jersey, organizes the yearly event. Per the foundation’s website, the organizers of College Radio Day believe college radio is “one of the last remaining bastions of creative radio programming, free from the constrictions of having to be commercially viable, and a place where those involved in its programming believe passionately in its mission.”
All college and high school radio stations (AM, FM or online) can participate in the day’s programming for free.
