MAY 16th - HIGH SCHOOL RADIO DAY

On May 16th, in just 5 days U.S. high school radio stations in the U.S. will join to inaugurate the first-ever High School Radio Day. So far there are only 28 stations participating, But you must remember how very few such stations still exist. One of the goals of the organizers is to raise a awareness of the ones that still exist.In fact, the date also commemorated the sign-on date of the first high school radio station; WNAS in New Albany, Indiana

Strictly speaking, there are 128 "high school" radio stations in the U.S. but not all of them have even a single high school student at the mic. Only a fraction of those are operated in any way by high school students. Radio stations are licensed only as commercial, and non-commercial. So my designation here is strictly by licensee. But even if you counted all 128 stations, that's 0.9% of the total licensed stations in the U.S. —no matter how you slice it, less than 1% of American radio stations are licensed by high schools. More here.

However, when you go to highschoolradioday.com the first thing you hit is a splash page with a flash script playing a clip of a Rage Against The Machine song that was a single in 1992. While [obviously] I am pro-radio... this is part of the problem. Radio is fighting an uphill branding battle that leaves the platform looking dated next to say...an iPhone. Opening with a 20-year-old single... not helping.