Laura Bloomberg: Go Back to Minnesota, You Have WCSB's Blood on Your Hands
- Fred
- Oct 3
- 12 min read
Updated: Oct 5
Cleveland State University shuttered its student run radio station this morning in favor of playing PBS's brand of jazz 24/7.
Cleveland State is literally hemorrhaging money, so part of me ALMOST understood the decision...
Well, until I read this quote at Signal Cleveland: "Ideastream will take over the financial responsibility for programming from Cleveland State, with no other payments being exchanged between the two entities, university officials told Signal. Both institutions have weathered financial difficulties. Last year, Cleveland State faced a budget gap once projected to hit as high as $40 million. Ideastream and other public media stations nationwide, meanwhile, are dealing with federal funding cuts. (Laura) Bloomberg said this deal wasn’t about money, adding that it is essentially “cost neutral” for the university. “This was not made for budgetary or financial reasons,” she said. “This is not a cut for CSU. This is an opportunity to grow our engagement.”
You silenced a bunch of college kids, and in return, they can apply for internships with PBS? (Translation: Free workers for Ideastream).
Laura Bloomberg, you suck.
That simple. You don't get it.
Before I could go off on an even angrier diatribe, I reminded myself that I am simply a free speech blogger. Arguably the biggest name in the history of Cleveland Radio, John Gorman, former Program Director at WMMS, weighed in more elegantly on Facebook:
"For months there were reports and rumors of an adjacent market entity negotiating with unidentified Cleveland market college radio stations for either a lease programming arrangement or a consummate sale.
Now, we know. Ideastream Public Media, possessor of FCC broadcast licenses of WKSU, WVIZ-TV and their many media affiliates assumed what is still undetermined dollar-amount lease broadcasting deal with Cleveland State University's WCSB, which was consummated and announced in a what most in the broadcasting industry feel was in an undiplomatic manner. The story, from Ideastream, is attached below. The announcement was coincidentally announced on the 15th annual World College Radio Day, though I doubt the timing was intentional.
As it often is with format and ownership changes, the WCSB staff was never provided the opportunity to bid their listeners goodbye. When they learned of the change, the new format ("Jazz NEO") was already in on the air.
The elimination of WCSB’s programming affects me personally. I enjoyed listening to and being an occasional guest on Ray Carr’s show and enjoyed Steve Trania’s Saturday morning folk show. Additionally, WCSB, in a prior incarnation (WCSU), was a early 1970s proving ground for many of the radio talents that helped make WMMS an international success, including Kid Leo, Mat the Cat, Betty Korvan, Ed Flash Ferenc, and Larry Bole.
The leasing or selling of college radio stations has been an ongoing trend since federal radio deregulation in 1996 with a substantial surge since 2010s following the rapid drop in FM and AM radio listening and the decline in student interest in college radio. Those factors led many school administrators to conclude that traditional FM broadcasting, in addition to its expense of equipment, maintenance, and other fees, is no longer relevant for students.
Confronting challenging financial decisions, universities prioritize core academic programs and often determine a school-owned radio station as a non-essential service. These schools eyed their FM licenses as valuable assets to sell for a one-time infusion of cash to take advantage of religious non-commercial broadcasters like the non-profit the Educational Media Foundation (EMF) and other non-profit religious and Christian National groups that are willing to lease or outright buy their station’s broadcast license - with many willing to pay above market costs.
In other cases, school radio stations, which are partially funded through average high five figure dollar contractual donations with independent music promoters, acting as pay-for-play mediator agents for music labels and artist management, will negotiate with other college stations to simulcast all or some of the host’s college radio’s programming for a predetermined fee. The station carrying the simulcast will also receive additional revenue for carrying the programming.
There’s found money and expenses saved by schools leasing or selling their radio station licenses. Examples include:
In 2010, Rice University sold its KTRU, to the University of Houston for $9.5 million.
In 2011, Vanderbilt University sold its WRVU to Nashville Public Radio for $3.3 million in 2011.
In 201l, Duquesne University: Sold WDUQ-FM to Essential Public Media in 2011 for $6 million.
In 2011, the University of San Francisco sold its KUSF to Classical Public Radio Network for $3.7 million,
IN 2011, the Akron Board of Education’s WAPS instituted a programming lease arrangement with the Struthers Board of Education’s Stuthers High School WKTL in Youngstown for an undisclosed sum.
In 2014, Georgia State University leased its daytime broadcast hours on WRAS-FM to Georgia Public Broadcasting for $150,000 for the first two years of the lease and a yearly payment of a minimum of $100,000in succeeding years. WRAS was one of the first album rock format stations in the U.S.
In 2021, the Akron Board of Education expanded its reach to Athens, Ohio – home of Ohio University – through an FM translator, W211BT, for $425,000.
In 2022, Genesee Community College in Batavia, NY sold its WGCC-FM to Family Life Ministries in 2022 for $55,000.
In 2025 the University of Texas at Tyler sold its KVUT to Scottie Rice's RCA Broadcasting for $100,000.
Terrestrial radio is dying. Consider that Nielsen, the ratings service rates less than 800 households to represent the estimated radio listening habits over 1.5 million in the five-county Greater Cleveland radio market (which does not include Summit county). Participating households are paid to participate and “rewarded” gift cards for restaurants and retail outlets. For struggling households, being a Nielsen household is added value.
I hope all WCSB announcers and support staff can migrate to either another area college station or an online broadcaster. This move was handled poorly, especially considering public radio’s current plight with the Trump administration and Congress’ decision to de-fund the system. A little diplomacy toward their staff, many which volunteer their services, would have softened the blow."
I used to listen to the Grumpy Old Man on Friday mornings at WCSB. He was a Professor at CSU and was downsized in 2024. Before he went off the air, he begged his listeners to continue to donate to WCSB, he said that they were an independent entity separate from the university..
So that begets the question: If WCSB was its own operation that existed through donations from Radiothons, how can the university sell it for no money? From Fox 8 News: "WCSB was funded by 'listeners, grants, underwriting and a university student general fee award,' reads an archived version of its website from early September."
Hopefully WCSB General Manager Alison Bomgardner can try to recover some Radiothon money and equipment and try to re-organize her troops for a student online station that currently doesn't exist. But technically Bomgardner is the GM of something that doesn't exist either, leaving her with very few real world options.
President Bloomberg obviously doesn't have any sort of practical post-WCSB plan for the students.
What did we learn at Cleveland State today? Real life lessons about getting screwed, courtesy of Laura Bloomberg.
Our favorite show on WCSB was Mudride. Coincidentally, it was the last full show played before the format switch.
Post-Script:
As an angry alum, I quickly slopped together a cut and paste article, sent it to the President, and watched as no one read it.
But as the morning progressed, a few others said goodbye:
Since this article will soon be put on the shelf and gather dust, here's a few more stories:
Sorry to tell you listeners, I did my last Millions of Dead Chickenheads show last night, #532. I did not know it would be my last, but the trustees of WCSB, including community leaders as well as CSU brass, turned over the content of the station to Ideastream. I was one of the last shows live on the air, they switched over at 11:15 am Friday. I first joined wcsb in Fall of 1982, and got my first show on the air in July of 1983, the first Millions of Dead Chickenheads was in the afternoon on Thursdays. I had been at a carrier current station, WKSR at Kent State while getting my BA in telecommunications, and when I came to law school at CMLS/CSU, I immediately wanted to join the station. They were a real broadcast station albeit only 10 watts, and had so much more equipment than had at WKSR! Back then you had to wait to get on the air after joining WCSB, and there was is a waiting list of students to get on. After I did afternoons from 83 to 86, I went to the overnight show after Joe Mack on Friday nights, 2:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. I had to go to safe harbor after Reagan and his FCC made a crackdown on indecent speech, swearing and stuff like that. I did that 5-hour show from 1986 till 1991, when the powers that be running the station decided that we had too much Rock on the station and they terminated me and Joe Mack. 9 hours of steady programming on a Friday night, they never were able to replace that to this day. I was asked to come back and do some retro weeks reunions, in 2003 and 2006. I then was recruited to come back by the program director at the time in 2015, and I went on the air with the same Millions of Dead Chickenheads show starting Tuesdays at 1:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. I moved to Thursdays from 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. in late 2016, and kept that slot for the next 9 years. I want to say thank you to all the listeners over the years, I really appreciated you guys welcoming me back into the radio scene in Cleveland, and I hope you enjoyed all the shows. The listeners were always what I was there for, not tickets or anything else. I wanted to play tunes for people and that's what I did. All my shows are on Canadian Dave's archives, and the playlists and MP3 links for the individual ones are on this page if you scroll down. I also have all 400+ playlists for the original MDC, if anyone has a question about back then. This page will remain as a historical site and reference point, you can post here if you have any questions or comments. This is Scary Ellen washing up, punching out for the last time.....
Where do I even begin?
Yesterday's show on WCSB 89.3fm was my last. It was everyone's last.
This is long, this is my story, this is my eulogy for WCSB (in part!)
Friday morning, the administration of Cleveland State University held a 15 minute Zoom call with the staff of WCSB to inform them the 49 year old, eclectic, freeform, grass roots radio station that served the community in Cleveland, Ohio USA - and after the internet began served the world - ceased to exist as we knew it. The University signed a deal that gave the airwaves, studio, name, radio frequency - everything - over to a smooth jazz station.
I began listening to WCSB as a teenager out in the suburbs of Cleveland and began to expand my musical horizons and hear all kinds of bands that nobody was playing anywhere.
I joined WCSB when I was 18, and started the See you in Hell show which ran from 1 - 6am on Wednesday mornings. My early days on WCSB were not without controversy- the Moral Majority of Cleveland launched a campaign to get my show off the air - I needed to change the show's name (Tales of Terror). I ended up leaving in 1986, when I moved to the NYC area.
I moved back to Cleveland in the late 90s, where I found myself drawn back to WCSB and got myself back on the air for a few years - until I moved to Switzerland.
Then the pandemic hit, and in 2020 my old friend Bob (of the This is Metal show on WCSB) asked if I could cover for him as nobody could get into the studio to do live on-air broadcasting. By this time, I was living in England, we were on lockdown, so I covered his show for a few months - and at the same time started doing a punk show. Bob started to do his own show remotely, but I stuck on doing my punk version of See you in Hell.
As the members were able to start going back to the on air studio and broadcast live, the station agreed to keep my remotely recorded show on the air, and it stayed in its time slot just after Scary's Millions of Dead Chickenheads Show.
My goal with SYIH was to bring the music I see over here in the UK to Cleveland. Until last November, I rarely played a band from the States. After the election, the music I played became more angry (as if it wasn't already!) and more pointed.
I spoke out. I used my voice, for whatever it was worth, to talk about things many of you were thinking.
And that - using your voice to speak out about what mattered to you, whether it was about the music, the world, a piece of fuzz between your toes - that is what WCSB was all about.
WCSB is a family. I was a member of that station for a giant chunk of my adult life, and never thought I'd be on the air there living on another continent, but I was. It is a community - it reflected the community of Cleveland, brought people together. It helped people discover new music from genres they already loved, and discover new types of music that resonated with them.
The new soft jazz people are hyping up the 50 years of WCSB. They don't have a claim to 49 of those years - that was all of us who were on the air, all of us who were listeners, all of us who understood the importance of college radio in the world of new/underground/emerging music. Who understood the importance of the cultural programming that appeared on the station pretty much since day one.
There's talk about what the former WCSB will go from here, I think there's a lot to be discussed on that.
As for See you in Hell, I'm not sure where I'm going to go. But I do think I'll be finding a new home. I produced 215 shows since I returned (this time!), and there's more left in me to do.
Photos are from when I visited Scary at the station during her show in 2017 - before I returned this time.
Thank you for listening, thank you for being a part of WCSB.....
Ideastream is just getting hammered on social media. This is one of the more pragmatic posts:
Post Script II:
Something is rotten in Cleveland....
From Local Artist Derf Backderf on Facebook:
"CSU provides almost ZERO money to the station. WCSB is funded almost entirely from listener donations. What about all those donors who made gifts during the last Radiothon, when CSU knew damn well they were going to pull the plug? Will there be a method to recover those donations?
•A mysterious $1M from Ideastream's Fowler Fund went to Cleveland State to seal this deal.
• Both CSU and Ideastream are hiding behind a bullshit NDA they put in place.
•CSU cut the signal the moment they informed the station management via a Zoom meeting.
•There is a meeting on Tuesday where CSB leaders will learn what will happen to the music library. Does the university even own this? They didn't pay for it.
•The WCSB Wikipedia page has already been changed."
Post Script III
There is a thread on Reddit that speculated that the cops raided, then shut WCSB down.
Not true.
Sometime between Thursday night and Friday morning, someone at the university de-activated all of the WCSB keycards. But the station runs 24/7 beyond the edge of campus, so when the keycards didn't work, someone inside the building simply let the students outside the building, in. There was no talk of the station being sold, only jokes about keycards not working.
If a student doesn't show up for his or her shift, the station defaults to automation and plays music from the archives.
I believe the President's Plan was to de-activate the keycards, then have a smooth, and quiet, switch from automation to Jazz.
Because she's a coward and didn't show up anywhere in person, she didn't know the students were at WCSB. She couldn't tell Live WCSB content from Automated content, if she even turned on her radio at all. And the students didn't know the station was sold, so they kept showing up like a normal day with normal CSU technical difficulties.
Mudride did their set, then the show after started her set. One of her friends allegedly called her on the phone live while she was playing a record and said "why are you playing jazz?" She replied "I'm not."
And everything after that was a blur. That's when the news of the sale got to the students in the studio that they were off-air.
Coincidentally, WCSB shares a parking lot with WEWS Channel 5. There was always a minimal security presence, but then, all of a sudden, there were a few more cops than usual, then a news crew. The cops were very nice and were talking to the kids. There was no "raid." The kids explained that the keycards weren't working.
At some point, the cops' attitudes shifted and they stood by the doors and told the kids they got word they couldn't go back in as they shuffled back and forth from the studio to cars in the parking lot. And that's what you see on the video above.
A PR black-eye for Cleveland State to be sure, but there was no Trump-ian Fascism as speculated on Reddit.
It doesn't fit the narrative that a free speech entity was shut down by PBS.
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