Radio stations at historically Black colleges and universities have always played a special role in connecting the schools to their communities. Students receive training at the campus stations and many have public affairs programs that give voice to people and issues not heard in other media. A new effort is underway to preserve the rich history and the programming these stations produced that documents the Black experience from the days of using reel-to-reel recorders and eight-tracks to MP3s.
WSHA at Shaw University in Raleigh was the first HBCU-owned radio station when it went on the air in 1963. Currently, 29 of the country鈥檚 104 HBCUs have radio stations with mainly jazz, R&B and public affairs formats. Seven are in North Carolina.
The stations have served as advocates for social change through interviews with prominent civil rights and political leaders from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Rev. Jesse Jackson to former President Barack Obama. But many of those recordings are at risk of being lost due to deterioration, outdated formats or a lack of storage space.
鈥淎 lot of times they get thrown out,鈥� said Dr. Jocelyn Robinson, founding director of the Ohio-based HBCU Radio Preservation Project and archives director at WYSO, a project partner.
Robinson鈥檚 goal is to help HBCU radio stations preserve their archival cassette tapes, reels, 8 tracks and other recordings.
鈥淚n most cases, there was no relationship between the radio station and the institutional archives at the library, so that material wasn't being transferred over to the library,鈥� Robinson said. 鈥淎s those formats became obsolete they were no longer able to be played back. If you can't play something back, you're not keeping it because you need that space for other things.鈥�
Robinson says she realized the significance of HBCU radio recordings when she came across recorded voices at Wright State University's WYSS station, where she was working on a graduate degree in archives administration.
鈥淲YSS鈥� collection had all these incredible Black voices from Kwame Ture to Florynce Kennedy to Alice Walker and Gwendolyn Brooks,鈥� Robinson said.
鈥淚 thought, you know, I know that quite a few HBCUs have radio stations and I thought, you know, if this little radio station at this private liberal arts college has these voices, what might our institutions have in terms of their archives?鈥�
So, in 2019, Robinson secured a $15,000 grant from the National Recording Preservation Foundation to survey the HBCU stations' audio files. She used that information to get other funders interested. Donors contributed about $350,000, which allowed Robinson to implement a pilot program to identify, sort and digitize audio recordings at four HBCU radio stations. WRVS at Elizabeth City State University was one of them.
鈥淚 saw committed folks from both the archives in the library as well as the general manager at the radio station who said, 鈥榊eah, our material is important. Let's join together and preserve it.' But Elizabeth City is really unique in that they had a lot of legacy equipment, old cart machines and playback equipment that is vital when you鈥檙e looking at some of these old formats and they had the old formats too, DATS and carts and cassettes and such,鈥� Robinson said.
Elizabeth City State University's WRVS was northeastern North Carolina's first public radio station when it went on the air March 18, 1986, at 6:00 a.m. The audio from that first broadcast was identified and digitized. WRVS started with 10,000 watts and is now a 41,000-watt station, that aired news, sports, gospel, jazz and R&B programming. Station General Manager Melba Smith says the station's archives were filled with historical treasures.
鈥淎s an institution of higher education, we are given the opportunity to bring numerous notable guests to our campus 鈥� musicians, educators, activists. And so, a lot of times they come to the campus radio station to do on-air interviews,鈥� Smith said. 鈥淎nd guests to our commencement ceremonies, they are individuals who are of great respect in the Black community, not just locally, but nationally known as well.鈥�
During ECSU鈥檚 136th commencement exercises, Benjamin Ruffin was the keynote speaker. Ruffin was a civil rights activist, business executive and the first African American to chair the UNC Board of Governors. WRVS' recordings such as this were sorted and assessed by project team members to see what was salvageable. Smith says a lot of those tapes and reels were in poor condition.
鈥淪ome were located in the closet in the back of our station,鈥� Smith said. 鈥淲e identified items that were riddled with mold, riddled with mildew, some were cleaned and some of them had to be spliced and put back together. Others were inoperable.鈥�
But Dr. Robinson, who was hands-on at the site said, 鈥淓lizabeth City is a place where we've really found some amazing audio 鈥� women's basketball games with St. Augustine. There's been commencements with the university's choir singing and a public affairs show that's on the air. All sorts of things, but the sporting events were really one of my favorites. It鈥檚 almost like you're there.鈥�
At no charge, the WRVS recordings were boxed by the preservation team and sent to the project鈥檚 partner, the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Massachusetts, to be digitized and returned to the station. The same was done for the other three HBCU stations in the pilot initiative at South Carolina State, Fisk and Savannah State universities.
Because of the success of the pilot program, Robinson says they received a four-year, $5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to expand the project to assist all HBCU radio stations in preserving their audio content.
鈥淭he intention had always been for the project to address all stations," Robinson said. "And not only that but to create a model that could be used by any radio station anywhere, particularly tribal stations and rural stations and community-based stations that may not have the resources to have an archivist to work with their materials.鈥�
Smith says WRVS fits that description.
鈥淗ad Dr. Robinson not approached WRVS, we would not have been able to pursue this project in this form,鈥� Smith said. 鈥淲e are a very small staff and we operate off of limited resources and funding opportunities. So, to document and preserve the legacy of WRVS may not have happened."
Smith says they had more than 65 hours of audio recordings from cassette and reel tapes digitized. They plan to make the content available on their website and at the American Archive of Public Broadcasting. Robinson views the archival recordings as an important part of American history.
鈥淵ou know HBCU radio is not just the voice of its campus community, which it very much is,鈥� Robinson said. 鈥淚t's the story of a campus community and it鈥檚 the story of a community that supports that campus. Those are our stories so, it's all worthy of saving.鈥�
Robinson says their continuous support for the HBCU radio stations will include additional audio preservation training, grants to attend preservation conferences and other resources. And although officials at Shaw University sold WSHA鈥檚 license in 2018, Robinson says they will help them preserve their files as well.
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