Award-winning KRFH launched in 1990 and is a completely student-run station. It serves a laboratory for broadcast journalism majors and minors, as well as those just wanting to learn the ins and outs of radio and experience of being on the air making their own content and deciding their own format.
Students enrolled in the KRFH Workshop go on-air for an hour once a week and students enrolled in the Advanced Workshop get two hours per week, dedicating their energy to putting on their own radio programs while earning units toward their major or minor. “There’s so much enthusiasm from these students,” says Zoe Walrond, the program’s faculty advisor. “They’re 100 percent committed to this. It’s like a cult, they love it.”
KRFH broadcasts are fed through a carrier current and are aired regularly in the Depot and various campus locations. The station also is heard on http://www.KRFH.net and delivery is provided by StreamGuys of Arcata, whose originators are KRFH alums.
The Fall 2009 program schedule featured shows like DJ Chicken Wing’s “Clucking Hour of Power” on Tuesday afternoons, Local Lixx, a Thursday evening show, broadcasting local bands that might never get played on terrestrial radio and DJ Green Jeans’s “The Rabbit Hole” which featured music from the ’60s to the ’90s on Friday nights. In total, there were 86 programs last fall.
Students are required to get involved behind the scenes as well. There are several areas where students can contribute, such as public relations, underwriting, production and IT with a seasoned KRFH student serving as manager over each department. The station is overseen by a student program manager who sets the program schedule and makes sure that everyone gets airtime. “This is a phenomenal opportunity for students,” says Walrond. “There aren’t many colleges that have radio stations that are completely managed and operated by students.”
Although KRFH is a student-run station, on air personalities are still required to adhere to Federal Communications Commission guidelines. Before going on the air, they sign a contract of responsibility, agreeing to follow broadcast rules and refrain from using any language that is considered obscene by the FCC. They are, however, allowed to broadcast more controversial content during safe harbor hours between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Just recently, KRFH students took best newscast in the College Broadcasters Inc.’s National Student Production Award competition.
Three Humboldt State seniors, Myles Cochrane, Channing Washington and Elizabeth Westwood, prepared and delivered the newscast in a 1930’s radio style. “Myles’s story was the centerpiece,” said Walrond, “a well-produced update on the arrest of a Somali pirate and the possibility he would be tried in the United States. A music bed under his story added tension.”
Students enrolled in the KRFH Radio News Workshop produce newscasts that air weekdays at 3, 5 and 7 p.m.
The station is also used as a platform by bands from across the country trying to get their music heard. Bands from Brooklyn, San Francisco, Massachusetts and even Salt Lake City and Fairbanks, Ala., have sent their CDs to KRFH in hopes of being played. “We get about 10 CDs a week,” says Walrond. “You never know who might be discovered on KRFH.”