Delete WardMaking a Public Comment
Council welcomes public comment before regular council meetings. Fill out the online form below for your chance to make a public comment at the next regular Monday Council meeting. Please read the revised rules and procedures.
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Public Comments
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Please stop this hostile takeover.Return WCSB to the students.
Independent and student-run media is important to our city and to our communities. CSU stripping WCSB of its programming not only silences the voices of the radio show hosts, but the voices of any artists that were played on those shows. Regardless of how the programming may change from its current smooth jazz focus, CSU students and Cleveland residents will never benefit from the current partnership the way they did with the student-run WCSB. Students having the airwaves means a great deal to many Clevelanders, and we see how seriously the students and independent hosts took on that responsibility. Independent and student-run media will always be more important and impactful than corporate media - where the purpose is to appease as many people as possible or risk hurting the bottom line.
In addition, the community needs transparency on what’s happening.
I’m writing to express how disgusted and disappointed I am with the recent actions taken by Cleveland State University and Ideastream Public Media. Without warning, consultation, or transparency, CSU handed over our station’s signal to Ideastream, effectively ending decades of student and community broadcasting. This was done under the label of a “strategic partnership,” but it was never about partnership, it was about control.
The implications go far beyond losing a frequency. CSU and Ideastream’s actions represent the silencing of a vital student and community voice, one that amplified independent musicians, artists, and activists across Cleveland. WCSB was a space that represented creativity, diversity, and authenticity. That has now been replaced by corporate branding and bureaucracy.
CSU has betrayed the trust of its students, alumni, and the larger Cleveland community. What they’ve done undermines not just WCSB, but the idea that public universities should protect freedom of expression and student media.
CSU and Ideastream should terminate their agreement and return the station back to student and community members.
I truly don't think people understand how much cultural and arts infrastructure WCSB provided to the community. And not just that, but WCSB provided community to people who otherwise may have difficulty accessing community.
As a terrestrial radio station with extremely diverse programming, WCSB was a Cleveland organization that exemplified accessibility and inclusivity.
The citizens most likely to not have Internet access in their homes, or have computers or smart phones, are poor people and disabled people. A terrestrial radio station is so important!
As Cleveland develops, I had hoped we could side-step some of the problems of conformity. I don't think doing the same thing that every other city is doing is good for us. We're worth doing better! We are worth not making the same mistakes other cities may have made with their irreplaceable FM cultural and arts jewels. I want better for us than to just throw away 50 years of community and student led programming for 1000 add slots and a board seat for the president of CSU!
I'm also extremely dismayed that a public university and a public media company did not seek any public comment or feedback before finalizing this very large and consequential deal.
WCSB is very important to me personally.
Listening to good music that I've never heard before is one of the greatest joys of my life! For over 30 years WCSB has done it for me!
WCSB is the radio station I listened to the most. I buy inexpensive old cars so I only have the radio in them.
While I didn't attend CSU, the college or university I chose to attend having a cool radio station was a "dealbreaker" for me. Back then, I simply wouldn't apply to any college or university that didn't have a student-led radio station. And I feel like, growing up in Euclid, a suburb of Cleveland, WCSB may be partly responsible for that, lol. But I'm so thankful that WCSB set that expectation for me!
Just last month I heard a band from Zimbabwe that I had never heard before on a WCSB radio show. I liked them, and they were playing at the Beachland the next week, so I went to see them! I don't want to be deprived of that type of immediate joy!!! And I don't want to deprive artists of revenue!
I want full return of WCSB FM radio station to the students and to the community. Students built WCSB starting 50 years ago. It simply wasn’t CSU's to give away, not really.
As a local Realtor I believe that WCSB is a historical institution that adds immeasurable value to Cleveland and Cleveland communities and it deserves our action to protect it. Thanks for your time!