WKSU (89.7 FM) is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to serve Kent, Ohio, featuring a public radio format. Owned by Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media, WKSU's primary signal encompasses the Akron metro area, Greater Cleveland and much of Northeast Ohio as the regional affiliate for National Public Radio (NPR), American Public Media, Public Radio Exchange and the BBC World Service. The station's reach is extended into the Canton, Mansfield, Lorain, Ashtabula, Sandusky, New Philadelphia and Wooster areas via a network of five full-power repeaters, two low-power translators, and one on-channel booster.
Founded by Kent State University, the station had its origins as a radio training workshop on the university's campus that provided programming for commercial radio stations, and save for a brief hiatus due to World War II, continued into WKSU's 1950 establishment as one of the first educational FM stations in the United States. An NPR affiliate since 1973, WKSU evolved from a university-operated station into a public radio and classical music outlet, with additional emphasis on folk music during the weekends. WKSU's influence extended into Cleveland, where from 1978 to 1984, it was the NPR information station of record for the entire region. After a public service operating agreement with WCPN owner Ideastream took effect on October 1, 2021, this distinction was again made official as both stations combined programming and personnel, with WKSU as the surviving entity.
WKSU's studios are currently located at the Idea Center in Downtown Cleveland, while the station transmitter is in Copley Township. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WKSU broadcasts over four HD Radio channels, is simulcast over WCLV's second HD subchannel and WVIZ's 25.7 audio-only subchannel, and is available online.
History
Kent State Radio Workshop
Radio operations within Kent State University can be traced back to October 1939 with the establishment of the Kent State Radio Workshop, a division of the university's School of Speech led by director E. Turner Stump and professor G. Harry Wright, who joined Kent State in 1930 and 1935, respectively; both had worked together previously at Marshall College. The Radio Workshop entered into a partnership with WADC to air a series of 15-minute long radio dramas produced by the Workshop on Tuesday afternoons; this began on March 3, 1940, with the program Lunch Room Nocturne, performed at the WADC studios in Tallmadge. Studios were constructed for the Radio Workshop on the university campus that were comparable to a licensed radio station and took nearly five years for Wright to secure; Wright also suggested the possibility of a carrier current AM station for the campus proper. The Radio Workshop also assumed production of a weekly radio program by Kent State faculty members from WTAM in Cleveland, that program was also moved to WADC. One of the last programs offered on WADC was an adaptation of the play Arsenic and Old Lace by the university's theater department on December 1, 1942.
Programs did not air on terrestrial radio between 1943 and 1945 due to World War II, but the Radio Workshop remained in operation to assist in war effort purposes; this included a listening hour of classical music selections played for military personnel stationed on the campus. When the Radio Workshop was able to resume regular operations, WAKR began airing the workshop-produced programs on January 13, 1945, and would continue to do so through 1950, airing on Saturday mornings. The Radio Workshop also signed on "WKSU", an unlicensed carrier current station at , on April 4, 1949, carrying newscasts and rebroadcasts of the workshop's WAKR programs for the immediate university campus.