Sac State Station KSSU Celebrates its 30th Anniversary
by Alex Cosper, March 2022
Student-run radio station KSSU at Sac State is celebrating its 30th anniversary on the air. The station was put on the air
as a project by Sac State grads Jim Bolt and Chris Prosio in the early nineties. Today the freeform station broadcasts
on 1580 AM and streams from its website KSSU.com. This video features my interview of
KSSU on-air host Pablo Baxter in 2013. Actually, we interviewed each other about our radio experiences.
When I attended Sac State in the early 80s, there was no student-run station on campus anymore. There had
been the legendary student-run KERS FM in the 60s and 70s at Sac State, but when funding dried up in 1974 the
station disappeared.
I would've loved to have been involved with a college station, since my radio experience
actually started at my high school radio station, KRAT at Rio Americano High in 1980. Still, I majored in
Communications, which led to my internship at KWOD, where I eventually became program director and midday host
in the early 90s.
Several well known Sacramento radio personalities started at KERS. Among the most successful was Rick Carroll,
who went on to work at KXOA AM then KROQ in Los Angeles. At KROQ Carroll developed what became known as the
"Rock of the 80s" format, in which he consulted stations around America for his new wave and modern rock format.
In Sacramento KPOP was consulted by Carroll for a short period in 1983 before the station transformed into a
top 40 station then rocker KRXQ. Carroll died in 1989 while still programming KROQ, the most influential
modern rock station in the nation at that time.
A long list of radio personalities who gained airshifts on Sacramento airwaves in the 60s, 70s and 80s got
their start at Sac State station KERS. They worked at top 40 stations KROY and KNDE, as well as
rock stations KZAP and Earth Radio KSFM. The point is that Sac State was an incredible launching pad for
numerous radio careers when it had a student-run station.
While my radio career was developing at alternative station KWOD, another alternative station was rising
at Sac State. In December 1990 the Sac State Hornet reported that the campus finally had a student-run
radio station again, but with limited coverage for residence halls. The station was put on the air by Jim Bolt
and members of the Associated Broadcasting Club. It was called "The Edge" with call letters KEDG,
broadcasting on Sacramento Cable station KCBL 88.7 FM. It started with a series of daytime shows.
The following September the station began broadcasting on the AM dial at 530. The 3-watt station shifted its
call letters to KSSU in 1991 at 1580 AM and 89.7 FM. The format was mainly alternative
music similar to tracks played on KWOD. It was around the time Nirvana gained massive attention with the song
"Smells Like Teen Spirit." Like other college stations, KSSU had specialty programming that changed throughout
the day.
KSSU began streaming live online in 2004 as broadband had finally evolved to the point of supporting
audio and video without slowdowns, glitches and interruptions typical in the dial-up era. In 2009 KSSU
was named "Station of the Year" and "Best Student-Run Station" by College Music Journal (CMJ), which also
awarded the station for "Best Use of Limited Resources."
Today KSSU still broadcasts live on 1580 AM while streaming online. It's interesting that college radio
and public radio actually pre-dated commercial radio, which emerged in the 1920s. College radio in many ways
serves purposes that commercial radio can't. While commercial stations are typically run by for-profit corporations
with tight programming, college stations don't have to compete for market share or advertising dollars. It's still a
wide-open format that allows for curious exploration beyond the mainstream.
A college station has a chance to be the place where campus and social history is written and archived, creating time
capsules of buried treasures for the future. It's also a place where local talent can be showcased and elevated.
While most of the commercial dial is cluttered with predictable corporate programming, KSSU offers a much more diverse
and creative alternative.
