Homecoming with a Twist

The HBCU Radio Preservation Project celebrated an important marker on the path to preserving the legacy of HBCU radio in October. We began returning preserved audio back home to its respective campuses! We kicked off the returns with a celebration in North Carolina on October 1 at North Carolina Central University, with the return of just over 385 hours of preserved audio produced by the broadcast studios of three North Carolina HBCU radio stations: North Carolina Central University’s WNCU, Elizabeth City State University’s WRVS, and Shaw University’s WSHA, which broadcast for 50 years from 1968 to 2018.

The celebration included remarks from Adrienne Nirdé, Director of the NC African American Heritage Commission , and Associate Director Natalie Rodriguez, as well as Andrea Jackson Gavin, Program Director of the HBCU Digital Library Trust. From North Carolina we moved on to Savannah State University (SSU) for a return celebration that dovetailed with both the 50th anniversary of WHCJ and SSU’s homecoming. In addition to celebrating the return of 250 hours of recorded sound from the station, we had the opportunity to meet WHCJ alumni, and HBCU RPP Director Jocelyn Robinson went on-air with Station Manager Grace Curry and her esteemed predecessor and mentor Theron “Ike” Carter.

[Pictured from left to right: WNCU General Manager Lackisha Freeman, Phyllis Jeffers-Coly, HBCU RPP’s Assistant Director of Administration and Outreach, and Andrea Jackson Gavin, Program Director of the HBCU Digital Library Trust at the Return Celebration in North Carolina.]

Our return celebrations included the presentation of digitized sound on a hard drive in a stylized gift box featuring the stations’ call letters and commemorative plaques that recognize the commitment made by the stations along with archivists and library staff to preserve our shared history. Moving forward each institution will integrate the returned audio to their campus collections and work with us and our partners, the American Archive of Public Broadcasting and the HBCU Digital Library Trust, to determine how best to make the materials discoverable and accessible. The HBCU RPP has provided capacity-building mini-grants to support institutions with this critical step in the preservation process.