Another advantage of campus radio, said Dr. Roderick Paige, the former U.S. Secretary of Education, is the station’s unique ability to advance an institution’s educational agenda.
“These stations are powerful leadership tools that can help the university define what [in terms of issues] is important to the university. The public is going to have some type of opinion. HBCUs should participate in cultivating it,” Paige said, adding “if you don’t participate in that shaping of the point of view, you’ll get shaped.”
According to AAPRC, there are approximately 1.5 million listeners of Black public radio stations nationwide. Another 1.5 million listen to general audience public radio.
In the future, public radio will need more people of color in programming, management and behind the microphone, said Bruce Theriault, senior vice president for radio for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a consulting firm for nonprofit organizations, suggesting HBCUs could fill those voids.
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