KSUA
Encyclopedia
KSUA is a College radio station broadcasting a Non-commercial educational
format. Licensed to Fairbanks, Alaska
, USA, (though most of their legal IDs
continue to refer to College, Alaska
, which their previous frequency was licensed to), the station serves the Alaska Interior area. The station is currently owned by the University of Alaska Board of Regents, on behalf of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
. KUAC, the Fairbanks North Star Borough's
public radio station, went on the air October 1, 1962, operating out of the Constitution Hall
studios KSUA now occupies. KUAC was the first non-commercial radio
station in Alaska, and also the first FM station serving the Interior. They would blaze the trail for the other stations to come, although it would not be until 1981 before Fairbanks gained its second FM station. Eventually, KUAC moved their broadcasting facilities into their current home in the basement of the Great Hall.
KUAC was joined a decade later by KMPS-AM, the precursor to KSUA, which came online March 5, 1972. KMPS was a "Progressive rock
" station broadcasting on a carrier current
; only people in the dorms and other campus buildings wired into the system could hear its signal. KMPS, like the succeeding KSUA, was owned and operated by the students of UAF, through a governing body called Student Media, Inc. (SMI), a non-profit corporation. KMPS quickly tired of its limited listener base, and by the mid 1970s, the push to become an open-air broadcaster had begin. In 1981, the process that would soon lead to KSUA had begun.
of 103.9 MHz. Rising out of the freshly reformatted KMPS, KSUA had a new transmitter and a license from the FCC, but was still operated by SMI. Playing what is referred to in the radio industry as the "Album-Oriented Rock
" or AOR format (focusing on 'deep albums tracks' in addition to more popular singles), KSUA-FM began as one of the few commercial college stations in the country. The early KSUA operated with relative autonomy, with few direct ties to the University, as a culture had existed since the 1940s
at UAF of providing student services independent from the university proper. The on-air staff included students as well as seasoned radio professionals, and business affairs were handled by a management and sales staff. The enterprise was transformed from an educational service into a source of revenue generation similar to a for-profit operation.
KSUA quickly became the most popular station in the Greater Fairbanks area, with a format of playing a wide range of music that included Classic Rock
, Alternative
, Heavy Metal
, Industrial
, traditional Chicago
and Delta Blues
, Grunge
(well before the genre became widely recognized) and a host of Independent
recording acts. The station served as a launching pad for 'Glenner and Jerry' (aka Glen Anderson and Jerry Evans), popular local announcers who enlivened the morning show format in Fairbanks, and who still work in local radio today at different stations. They would leave the station in 1987. The station's first general manager, Patrick Sutherland, also left the station in 1987 and went on to earn a Ph.D. in Mass Communication from Ohio University
. Other notables, particularly during the 1989-1991 timeframe, included Rich Waugh (who also served as the station's general manager for a time), Lynn Berringer, Jae "Little Wing" Marshall, Jim Alexander, Andrew "Andy" and Chrys Cassel (airname Krys Kastle), Troy Lewis, David Gamelin, Bob Hartley, Brett Brown, Jody Paulson, David Patty, Robert "Rockin' Rob" Atkinson, Walter J. (Wasdyke), Wayne Fralick, "Madman" Mike Crosby, Mr. ZoSo, Su Lasalle and local blues guru Roger Leff. Andrew Cassel and Lasalle succeeded Waugh as general mananger, respectively. Many of the aforementioned individuals still work today in Fairbanks radio.
KSUA's fortunes began to decline in the late 1980s
. KFAR
, the predominant commercial station in Fairbanks, had a format for many years in the 1970s
and 1980s of top 40 music and local news and talk. Bill Walley, the station's owner, had resisted expanding into some of the more contemporary music trends and radio formats which had emerged during the 1980s, and in fact had in part seeded KSUA during its push to become an open air station. A combination of Walley starting KWLF
in 1987 and hiring away Anderson and Evans, and the decline of the Alaskan economy
during the same period, saw KSUAs status as a commercial radio entity take a sudden sharp downturn. As Fairbanks's radio market expanded with a flood of new stations in the early 1990s, acute financial troubles began to plague KSUA. The station's advertising revenues steadily declined amidst an increasingly competitive broadcasting landscape. KSUA was eventually unable to meet its payroll demands to both management and on-air staff. The formerly-paid DJs were asked to volunteer, but in protest, one of them filed a wage claim with the Department of Labor, and KSUA was forced to give out almost $45,000 in unpaid wages. Out of money, KSUA went dark March 8, 1993.
on Upper Campus.
When KSUA came back online, they had new equipment, were under new management, a volunteer basis, and a brand-new format: 'edgy' Alternative rock
! The new KSUA came on the air on December 2, 1993, playing the same song the station had shut down with: Pearl Jam
's "Alive."
When KSUA first went open air, the portion of the FM spectrum below 96 MHz was reserved in Alaska
by the military. Due to the efforts in Congress
by then-Senator
Ted Stevens
, this had changed by 1987, and radio stations began appearing on that portion of the dial. KUAC and KSUA, as well as other public radio stations in Alaska such as KSKA, had been placed on a frequency in a section of the FM band typically reserved for commercial radio. Now that the station was operated on a volunteer basis, Borealis Broadcasting, a major local media company previously part-owned by Bill Walley until his death in 1991, wanted its frequency for a new commercial station. Borealis ended up purchasing the 91.5 frequency from a small local Christian station that had once used it, and 'trading' it to KSUA for their old frequency, which they used for their new station KUWL. KSUA got a non-commercial frequency, stronger broadcasting equipment, and $10,000 out of the deal.
hockey. Veteran broadcaster Bruce Cech is the play-by-play announcer for all Nanook hockey games. KSUA streams all games live on their website, ksua.org. KSUA is the only radio station to provide Nanook hockey game coverage as no commercial radio station throughout the Fairbanks radio market airs their games.
Non-commercial educational
The term non-commercial educational applies to a radio station or TV station that does not accept on air advertisements , as defined in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission . NCE stations do not pay broadcast license fees for their non-profit uses of the radio spectrum...
format. Licensed to Fairbanks, Alaska
Fairbanks, Alaska
Fairbanks is a home rule city in and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska.Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska, and second largest in the state behind Anchorage...
, USA, (though most of their legal IDs
Station identification
Station identification is the practice of radio or television stations or networks identifying themselves on air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name...
continue to refer to College, Alaska
College, Alaska
College is a census-designated place in Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, United States. It is part of the Fairbanks, Alaska Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 13,493 in 2007....
, which their previous frequency was licensed to), the station serves the Alaska Interior area. The station is currently owned by the University of Alaska Board of Regents, on behalf of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
Prehistory of KSUA
KSUA-FM didn't go on the air until the mid-1980s, but the station's roots stretch back for two decades before that, to the first UAF radio station, KUAC-FMKUAC (FM)
KUAC is a non-commercial FM radio station in Fairbanks, Alaska, broadcasting at 89.9 MHz. The station is operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks...
. KUAC, the Fairbanks North Star Borough's
Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska
-Demographics:As of the 2000 census, 82,840 people, 29,777 households, and 20,516 families were residing in the borough. The population density was 11 people per square mile . There were 33,291 housing units at an average density of 4 per square mile...
public radio station, went on the air October 1, 1962, operating out of the Constitution Hall
Alaska Constitution
The Constitution of the State of Alaska is the constitution of the U.S. state of Alaska. It was ratified in 1956 and took effect with Alaska's admission as a state on January 3, 1959.-The statehood movement:...
studios KSUA now occupies. KUAC was the first non-commercial radio
Public broadcasting
Public broadcasting includes radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing and commercial financing.Public broadcasting may be...
station in Alaska, and also the first FM station serving the Interior. They would blaze the trail for the other stations to come, although it would not be until 1981 before Fairbanks gained its second FM station. Eventually, KUAC moved their broadcasting facilities into their current home in the basement of the Great Hall.
KUAC was joined a decade later by KMPS-AM, the precursor to KSUA, which came online March 5, 1972. KMPS was a "Progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
" station broadcasting on a carrier current
Carrier current
Carrier current is a method of low power AM radio transmission that uses the AC electrical system of a building to propagate a medium frequency, AM signal to a relatively small area, such as a building or a group of buildings...
; only people in the dorms and other campus buildings wired into the system could hear its signal. KMPS, like the succeeding KSUA, was owned and operated by the students of UAF, through a governing body called Student Media, Inc. (SMI), a non-profit corporation. KMPS quickly tired of its limited listener base, and by the mid 1970s, the push to become an open-air broadcaster had begin. In 1981, the process that would soon lead to KSUA had begun.
Commercial Years
On September 6, 1984, KSUA-FM came on for the first time, on a frequencyFrequency
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency...
of 103.9 MHz. Rising out of the freshly reformatted KMPS, KSUA had a new transmitter and a license from the FCC, but was still operated by SMI. Playing what is referred to in the radio industry as the "Album-Oriented Rock
Album-oriented rock
Album-oriented rock is an American FM radio format focusing on album tracks by rock artists.-Music played:Most radio formats are based on a select, tight rotation of hit singles...
" or AOR format (focusing on 'deep albums tracks' in addition to more popular singles), KSUA-FM began as one of the few commercial college stations in the country. The early KSUA operated with relative autonomy, with few direct ties to the University, as a culture had existed since the 1940s
1940s
File:1940s decade montage.png|Above title bar: events which happened during World War II : From left to right: Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching "Omaha" Beach on "D-Day"; Adolf Hitler visits Paris, soon after the Battle of France; The Holocaust occurred during the war as Nazi Germany...
at UAF of providing student services independent from the university proper. The on-air staff included students as well as seasoned radio professionals, and business affairs were handled by a management and sales staff. The enterprise was transformed from an educational service into a source of revenue generation similar to a for-profit operation.
KSUA quickly became the most popular station in the Greater Fairbanks area, with a format of playing a wide range of music that included Classic Rock
Classic rock
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...
, Alternative
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
, Heavy Metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
, Industrial
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
, traditional Chicago
Chicago blues
The Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois, by taking the basic acoustic guitar and harmonica-based Delta blues, making the harmonica louder with a microphone and an instrument amplifier, and adding electrically amplified guitar, amplified bass guitar, drums,...
and Delta Blues
Delta blues
The Delta blues is one of the earliest styles of blues music. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, a region of the United States that stretches from Memphis, Tennessee in the north to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the south, Helena, Arkansas in the west to the Yazoo River on the east. The...
, Grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
(well before the genre became widely recognized) and a host of Independent
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
recording acts. The station served as a launching pad for 'Glenner and Jerry' (aka Glen Anderson and Jerry Evans), popular local announcers who enlivened the morning show format in Fairbanks, and who still work in local radio today at different stations. They would leave the station in 1987. The station's first general manager, Patrick Sutherland, also left the station in 1987 and went on to earn a Ph.D. in Mass Communication from Ohio University
Ohio University
Ohio University is a public university located in the Midwestern United States in Athens, Ohio, situated on an campus...
. Other notables, particularly during the 1989-1991 timeframe, included Rich Waugh (who also served as the station's general manager for a time), Lynn Berringer, Jae "Little Wing" Marshall, Jim Alexander, Andrew "Andy" and Chrys Cassel (airname Krys Kastle), Troy Lewis, David Gamelin, Bob Hartley, Brett Brown, Jody Paulson, David Patty, Robert "Rockin' Rob" Atkinson, Walter J. (Wasdyke), Wayne Fralick, "Madman" Mike Crosby, Mr. ZoSo, Su Lasalle and local blues guru Roger Leff. Andrew Cassel and Lasalle succeeded Waugh as general mananger, respectively. Many of the aforementioned individuals still work today in Fairbanks radio.
KSUA's fortunes began to decline in the late 1980s
1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
. KFAR
KFAR
KFAR is a commercial radio station programming news/talk in Fairbanks, Alaska, United States, broadcasting on 660 AM. It airs Fox News Radio and carries national radio programs thru Compass Media Networks, Premiere Radio Networks and Westwood One, amongst others. Of the two AM news/talk stations...
, the predominant commercial station in Fairbanks, had a format for many years in the 1970s
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...
and 1980s of top 40 music and local news and talk. Bill Walley, the station's owner, had resisted expanding into some of the more contemporary music trends and radio formats which had emerged during the 1980s, and in fact had in part seeded KSUA during its push to become an open air station. A combination of Walley starting KWLF
KWLF
KWLF is a commercial radio station in Fairbanks, Alaska. KWLF airs a Top 40 music format.-External links:*...
in 1987 and hiring away Anderson and Evans, and the decline of the Alaskan economy
Boom and bust
A credit boom-bust cycle is an episode characterized by a sustained increase in several economics indicators followed by a sharp and rapid contraction. Commonly the boom is driven by a rapid expansion of credit to the private sector accompanied with rising prices of commodities and stock market index...
during the same period, saw KSUAs status as a commercial radio entity take a sudden sharp downturn. As Fairbanks's radio market expanded with a flood of new stations in the early 1990s, acute financial troubles began to plague KSUA. The station's advertising revenues steadily declined amidst an increasingly competitive broadcasting landscape. KSUA was eventually unable to meet its payroll demands to both management and on-air staff. The formerly-paid DJs were asked to volunteer, but in protest, one of them filed a wage claim with the Department of Labor, and KSUA was forced to give out almost $45,000 in unpaid wages. Out of money, KSUA went dark March 8, 1993.
Transformation, transition, and growth
The station stayed off the air until the end of 1993. During its downtime, SMI was dissolved, and the license for KSUA was transferred to the UA Board of Regents, to be held in trust for the students of UAF, and in September a ASUAF bill, the "Governance Agreement For The KSUA Media Board", was passed, recreating KSUA as a non-commercial, educational station, under the authority of the new KSUA Media Board. The station's chief engineer brought the broadcast studio up to FCC standards, and after serious difficulties with the transmitter, a new antenna was purchased, placed on the Moore Residence HallTerris Moore
Terris Moore was an explorer, mountaineer, light plane pilot, and the second president of the University of Alaska....
on Upper Campus.
When KSUA came back online, they had new equipment, were under new management, a volunteer basis, and a brand-new format: 'edgy' Alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
! The new KSUA came on the air on December 2, 1993, playing the same song the station had shut down with: Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
's "Alive."
When KSUA first went open air, the portion of the FM spectrum below 96 MHz was reserved in Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
by the military. Due to the efforts in Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
by then-Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Ted Stevens
Ted Stevens
Theodore Fulton "Ted" Stevens, Sr. was a United States Senator from Alaska, serving from December 24, 1968, until January 3, 2009, and thus the longest-serving Republican senator in history...
, this had changed by 1987, and radio stations began appearing on that portion of the dial. KUAC and KSUA, as well as other public radio stations in Alaska such as KSKA, had been placed on a frequency in a section of the FM band typically reserved for commercial radio. Now that the station was operated on a volunteer basis, Borealis Broadcasting, a major local media company previously part-owned by Bill Walley until his death in 1991, wanted its frequency for a new commercial station. Borealis ended up purchasing the 91.5 frequency from a small local Christian station that had once used it, and 'trading' it to KSUA for their old frequency, which they used for their new station KUWL. KSUA got a non-commercial frequency, stronger broadcasting equipment, and $10,000 out of the deal.
Sports
KSUA provides live play-by-play coverage of University of Alaska NanooksAlaska Nanooks
The Alaska Nanooks are the University of Alaska Fairbanks sports teams, derived from the Inupiaq "nanuq." The school colors are blue and gold. The Nanooks compete at the NCAA Division II level for all sports except men's ice hockey...
hockey. Veteran broadcaster Bruce Cech is the play-by-play announcer for all Nanook hockey games. KSUA streams all games live on their website, ksua.org. KSUA is the only radio station to provide Nanook hockey game coverage as no commercial radio station throughout the Fairbanks radio market airs their games.