WCSU Jazzy 88.9 Return Ceremony

Historic Audio Returned to CSU

The HBCU Radio Preservation Project recently celebrated a milestone: the ceremonial return of 24 hours of newly digitized, original programming from WCSU 88.9 — Central State University’s historic radio station, the first federally-licensed HBCU station in the U.S. (1962) and Ohio’s only minority-owned non-commercial public radio station.

Pictured, left to right: Project Fellow Dana Green, CSU Vice President for Institutional Advancement Rebecca Kocher, WCSU General Manager Charles Fox, Project Director Jocelyn Robinson, and Field Archivist Chinyere Neal.

[EXPLORE WCSU’S STATION PROFILE]

Alongside the audio, 12 oral history interviews — including conversations with current CSU President Dr. Morakinyo Kuti and former President John W. Garland — are now preserved and accessible. The project hosted this return celebration at WYSO’s Union Schoolhouse on May 13 — and as a bonus, brought nearly all of WYSO’s talent under one roof, something that rarely happens.

This is the kind of work the HBCU Radio Preservation Project exists to do: safeguarding irreplaceable audio before magnetic tape deteriorates, memories fade, and history disappears.

With Mellon Foundation support and partners including NEDCC, the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State, and the American Archive of Public Broadcasting, the project is building a lasting infrastructure for HBCU radio preservation through 2027.