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I have listened to WCSB for most of my life, and it informed and enriched this life as it has for so many. The oblivious reasoning from Laura Bloomberg and Kevin Martin reflect an utter disregard for the community at large, and the many spaces of public life and public thought contained in community radio. WCSB provided direct connections to music that would be otherwise difficult to hear, events in our various forms of community, voices, ideas, challenging views that lead always to enrichment. What does not lead to enrichment is the silencing of everything but the most sterile community forums.
This has left a palpable emptiness in each day as my hand naturally heads to the left of the dial at 89.3
Everybody can use a little weird.
Thank you,
Rebecca Green
I am not a citizen of Cleveland, but have listened to WCSB for many years and have had friends who have been impacted by its shutdown.
WCSB was a cultural beacon of the community and a voice of the students of CSU. Taking it down is not only a great loss of culture (of which being a mixing pot of cultures makes Cleveland great), but also shows that the voice of Cleveland students can be bought and sold
Student organizations should be able to speak on behalf of eachother and speak freely without fear of being sold to the highest bidder or lose their voice to some corporate entity.
Do what’s right, return that voice to the hands of CSU students.
Thank you,
Layne Stitzlein, Concerned Citizen
Laura Bloomberg, her administration/board, and Ideastream (Kevin Martin largely) pulled the rug under every programmer on WCSB. She thought it was a kind idea to send an email to all of the university before the zoom meeting in which she stated “WCSB programming is now the purview of Ideastream”. No plan or time for programmers to make a [still, would be a reluctant] good-bye. Key-cards de-activated and police escorting students out of the station right afterwards. She says that students can figure out ways on their own to reach the public (podcasts, live streaming), but 89.3 FM is how we reached those people (with the internet stream as back-up for those not in Cleveland). There was no immediate (and still no) plan by her administration to remedy or help with this. As she said in her appearance on The Sound of Ideas forum this past Tuesday, “I'm not a media person”. The only thing that this does for students, is a few (unannounced!) internships, and a seat on the board of trustees for herself (and ad spots for CSU). By the way, she's only been with CSU/Cleveland itself since 2021. In the same forum, she said that losing WCSB was a “tremendous loss”.... Dr. Bloomberg… weren't you the one that signed off on this “strategic” plan?
Kevin Martin, on the other hand, keeps bringing up “the study" that said “people want jazz on terrestrial radio”... did that study say “Would you support (without notice) taking over a student-community radio station of 50 years and replacing it with 24/7 Jazz?”. He also keeps bringing up that “it's not smooth jazz”... which many in the community have stated is what is played. That is false, it's “Nothing but Jazz 24/7”. Jazz is fine and cool, but Ideastream took a 24/7 variety of different voices and made it entirely a jazz-focused station. WCSB had EIGHT different Jazz programs before the takeover. Hmmm…. would WVIZ PBS watchers enjoy it if the channel just became a 24/7 run of Antiques Roadshow? I don't think so.
Both Bloomberg and Martin have also stated recently how the station was just a student club…. not true. WCSB had hosts that were students, alumni, and community members. Martin even said this past Friday at the City Club of Cleveland, that it was like a “chess” or “drama” club.... We had listeners from different ages. JazzNEO seems tailored mainly towards just an older audience, and when talking about his “study”, Martin brings up how an older audience wanted to hear Jazz on the radio. Did he forget the part that we were a college (and community) station for nearly 50 years?
Hopefully the 50 years of WCSB can be honored and the student/community voices will be heard on FM again. As many have supported this cause, WCSB was a legacy of people who wanted their voices and a variety of music genres to be heard, from multiple different ages and backgrounds (not just a “student club”). I love public media, but Ideastream (CSU also --- this is a partnership overall!) has messed up big time.
I don't write things like this very often, but I appreciate that our city council has taken up talking about the issue involving WCSB 89.3 and Ideastream that has disturbed our media ecosystem of the greater cleveland area and I implore this council that represents me and my city to do anything that can be done to undo this action committed by CSU and Ideastream.
As both a homeowner in Cleveland and a former DJ and manager at WCSB, this issue is one of the few that take personal in town that I have found increasingly alienating to its own working class population, in favor of corperate and monied interests.
WCSB, whether you've listened in or not, is one of the few truly original cultural institution this city has to offer and is considered highly across not only our community, but the global community of independent broadcasting. In just doing my small show for 3 years, I had listeners tune in regularly from big cities America and across the globe. This ranged from niche music genres, such as Psych Rock, Ambient Electronic, or Doom Metal, all the way to ethnic music genres that have almost no airspace such as Arabic music, Slovenian music, Hungarian Music, and Polish Music, among others. People recognized this station for its highly regarded quality AND quantity of culture that we distributed, through the commitment of a large population a volunteer DJ's who did what they loved most for - Finding good music that you couldn't find easily anywhere else. And they did this for free, mind you, for the benefit and for the recognition of our city.
Disregarding the abominable behavior and dismisable demeanor both Ideastream and CSU dealt with this issue and with the volunteers and patrons of WCSB, I think another issue is that I just don't see what the need is for a single non-commercial broadcaster, such as Ideastream, to own not one, but three different fm signals within the same area. That's just monopolizing a scarce resource that, as a noncommercial frequency, is primarily for the public good and not for profit. I don't see them doing this takeover for the benefit of the majority of Cleveland citizens - In fact, I see it as just benefiting a small minority of citizens who do not care about sustaining the history and culture of Cleveland, but wish to sterilize it into what they want to see, with large donations and no considerations. Ultimately, I think if this trend continues, people will just abandon radio instead, as it turns into a homogenous curation of things they're not interested in and a sterile and alien culture and community they're not committed to uplifting and supporting. I'd argue this issue is, in a way, a microcosm of the identity crisis Cleveland, as a whole, has been having for the last 10 years. And as a proud Clevelander, I would hate for people to abandon Cleveland.
I'm not really sure what could be done to change this action, if the council would agree to take this cause up, but any action is a step in the right direction. I know how poorly the "Modell Law" worked when push came to shove with the Cleveland Browns, but maybe something along those lines would work when it comes to limiting non-commercial broadcast affiliations within the county area, in order to promote a vibrant community and dissway monopolizing actors. I dunno though, thats just a thought - I'm artist, not a lawyer. If I was one, I'd probably down in city council, arguing with a ton more vigor and wit than what the written word has to offer me this late at night.
But if I can say just one more thing, on a personal note - Besides what WCSB means to the community and what it means for our culture of Cleveland.... I've lived in many through many different situations and environments, from Westlake, to Florida, to New York City. Worked with people along all walks of life, from carpet installers just trying to make their mortgage, to actors who were just waiting to quit their barista job after landing a gig that gets them famous. I even lived in hospital for about a year after falling off a roof and met a potpourri of individuals, both patients and as providers who varied as wildly as can be. All these things I've seen, and lived through, and I'd still say that WCSB was the only place I've been a part of that I felt like I truly belonged when I was there. It was like a home, to me, and to countless other former DJ's and listeners. Like our own little island of misfit toys, where we could be ourselves and not worry about being different. It was something we loved for its unique and quintessential timber of its own being. Something that we cared for and nurtured, supported and believed in. An identity we celebrated when times were good and place we could commiserate when times were not so good. We love this place - I loved this place. It was our home, our eclectic, sporadic, utterly oblique, unique, beautiful home.
Please, help us, our listeners and supporters, and the larger community who doesn't even know what they lost. Please help us get back our home.
Thank you,
DJ No Refund
The takeover and takedown of the station by CSU, and more specifically President Bloomberg, via a covert deal with Ideastream has altered the way in which I feel connected to the people within this city. More than anything I wish to argue that the station’s broadcasting acted as a public service to the people of Cleveland. A service that has been ended without any consultation or proper amendment within the station or by anyone within the community. Please do not let community voices and initiatives end by way of greater corporate enterprise and sheer willpower. Stand to rekindle the loss of a great station and pillar of our community for the people of our city to enjoy once again.