Opinion: What really happened to KDIC’s FM broadcast license?

College radio has always played a large role in my life. I grew up listening to WIDR-FM, Western Michigan University’s radio station, in the car with my dad. Much of my music taste–specifically my love of 90s hiphop–comes from listening to random shows on WIDR. To me, college radio represents what radio should be –a place where people discover new music, where DJs play what they want to play, not what they are told to by some executive living across the country. Thus, I was thrilled to be hired as the station manager for KDIC, Grinnell College’s campus radio station, in the fall of 2024. Working at KDIC was one of the highlights of my college experience. Through conversations with alumni, I know I am not alone–KDIC has played a large role in the experiences of many Grinnellians through the years.

However, KDIC’s recent history is tumultuous. The station was taken off air in August of 2020, when a powerful derecho took down the station’s FM tower. Adding to this, the COVID-19 pandemic made operation of the station difficult. But despite a return to in person classes in the fall of 2021, KDIC did not go on air again until April of 2024, when it resumed broadcasting as an online-only station. During this four year period of dead air, the station lost its FM broadcasting license and much of its computer equipment. The main station computer was recycled by ITS, resulting in a loss of station history, such as unique sweepers or station identification clips (e.g. this is Action Bronson, and you’re listening to KDIC).

Many students tried to get the station up and running throughout 2022 and 2023, but they were met with poor communication from college administration, specifically the Department of Student Affairs. The Grinnell College community has never been officially informed why KDIC lost its FM license, which happened without student input.

This piece is in large part an attempt to inform the Grinnell community about the circumstances surrounding the loss of KDIC’s FM license.

While a December 2023 S&B article mentions KDIC’s FM license, the piece takes a more broad focus on the station’s silence. Thus, it does not dig into the specifics of the license situation. This is understandable – unless you’re odd like me, you probably don’t spend your free time browsing through FCC databases.

Here, I attempt to break down why the College lost its FM license, and why it was completely preventable. I believe that the Grinnell community deserves to know why the College gave up an immensely valuable broadcast license when it could have chosen to keep it.

In addition, I believe that the College’s recent treatment of KDIC is the result of systemic failure that is hurtful to not only students, but also alumni. During my time at KDIC, I connected with many Grinnell alumni who were involved with the station, either through hosting a show or by working on staff. All of them expressed disappointment that the station had lost its FM license. Many of these alumni consider their time at KDIC as a highlight of their Grinnell experience, and they feel frustrated that the station was seemingly treated as an afterthought for nearly four years. I agree with them.

When the College treats KDIC this way, it sends a bad message to both students and alumni involved with the station. This not only hurts KDIC, it also hurts the College, who has increasingly become worried about lower alumni philanthropy compared to its predecessors. Failing to support KDIC risks frustrating alumni who might otherwise be interested in contributing to their alma mater.

How did KDIC lose its FM license? The story begins on Aug. 10, 2020, when the city of Grinnell was hit by a large and powerful derecho. The storm, which cost billions of dollars in property damage, effectively destroyed KDIC’s FM antenna, which previously sat on top of the campus cooling plant. This, combined with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, caused KDIC to cease broadcasting.

Licensed radio stations, as KDIC was, must notify the Federal Communications Commission if they expect to be unable to broadcast for over 30 days, or else they risk losing their broadcast license. A license is required to broadcast on FM or AM airwaves. Thus, on Sept. 3, the College sent a letter to the FCC requesting special temporary authority (STA) to go silent until repairs were completed and classes were held in-person. The FCC granted this request on Dec. 8, stating that if KDIC did not resume broadcasting by Sept. 1, 2021, their broadcast license would be cancelled.

Despite in person classes resuming in August of 2021, KDIC did not resume broadcasting by September. Repair work was never completed on the tower.

Crucially, the College did not request an extension to their silent waiver, something that would have allowed them to continue to stay silent past the September 1 deadline. Due to this, the FCC cancelled KDIC’s broadcast license, according to a letter sent in July of 2022. Per the letter, the FCC attempted to communicate with employees of the College who were responsible for the station, sending a total of three messages. None of these messages were responded to. This failure to communicate is grounds for termination of a broadcast license, which the FCC made clear in the footnotes of the letter.

The College and its law firm would file a Petition for Reinstatement, which was accepted in October of 2022. While the petition is not publicly available from the FCC’s database, the FCC’s decision is, which provides an overview of the College’s core argument. According to the decision letter, the College argued that the original date that KDIC was required to resume broadcasting by – Sept. 1, 2021 – was issued in error due to FCC regulations related to educational radio stations and the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite disagreeing with not accepting this argument, the FCC would accept the College’s petition and reinstate KDIC’s broadcast license, while admonishing it for failing to follow regulations regarding communication. The College argued that the lapse in communication was caused by the medical leave of Michael Sims, dean of student involvement and station supervisor, from October 2021 to August 2022.

This response indicates a systemic failure on behalf of Grinnell College. As an employee on medical leave, Sims had every right to focus on his health, not on his job responsibilities. His employer was responsible for picking up his obligations, including KDIC. The failure to do so suggests a systemic issue, unfair to both KDIC and Sims himself.

After their successful petition, the College would immediately file a STA request on Nov. 8, 2022 stating that repairs would be completed within four to five months. This would be accepted by the FCC on Nov. 28, allowing the station to remain silent until late May of 2023. However, repairs were not completed by this date, and thus the College requested, and was granted, an extension to October.

Despite an abundance of time, KDIC’s FM tower and antenna would not be repaired by late October. KDIC did not resume broadcasting, and the College did not request an extension to their STA. As a result, the FCC canceled KDIC’s FM license on Dec. 12, 2023, and the College filed a cancellation request on December 21, signaling it did not intend to fight the FCC’s decision. KDIC had officially lost its FM license, first granted in September of 1968.

Why did the College fail to repair the FM tower? The answer is not clear. While repairs would have no doubt been expensive, multiple sources of funding could have been tapped. Due to a lack of on campus activity during the pandemic, SGA had accumulated a large financial rollover. General SPARC money could also have been used, due to a near complete lack of physical publication expenses. Outside of the Student Activity Fee, the repairs could have been funded out of the general capital requests budget, or another discretionary source of funding. Put simply, Grinnell College has an abundance of resources, and could have found a way to fund repairs to the KDIC tower. In a December 2023 piece in the S&B, Sims is quoted as saying that “all was done to fix the antenna.” But he fails to offer a justification as to why repairs were never completed, stating that it “regrettably did not happen.” In the same piece, he is additionally quoted saying that “traditional [FM] broadcasting … isn’t reasonable for us today,” seemingly arguing that a streaming platform would be more beneficial to KDIC and to the College as a whole. President Anne Harris echoed a similar view in a livestreamed discussion during Reunion 2024, stating that the College decided not to renew their FM license because “moving to a digital platform extended [KDIC’s] reach tremendously”. (Of note: KDIC had been streaming over the internet since at least 2001.) Based on these two remarks, it seems as if the college administration made a decision to give up FM broadcasting sometime between May and December of 2023.

Crucially, it does not appear that any students were consulted on the decision to cancel the FM license. I consider this antithetical to Grinnell College’s advertised commitment to self-governance. Students ran and operated KDIC for over 50 years, and they deserved a say in such an important decision. It appears that many students tried to get involved with the station throughout 2022 and 2023, but were met with pushback at nearly every opportunity. To be clear, there are benefits to not broadcasting over terrestrial radio, such as being able to broadcast music with curse words before 10 PM (typically called the “safe harbor” window). FCC regulations are notoriously annoying to follow, and require the filing of tons of paperwork. Given the opportunity, students may have arrived at the same conclusion as college administration did. But it seems they were not given an opportunity to do so.

In addition, I disagree with the College’s argument that it’s not worth it to broadcast over FM, even in 2025. Sure, our core audience of college students was easily able to tune in online – they grew up listening to music on their phones, and did not have any trouble downloading another app to listen to their friends’ radio show. But we absolutely suffered in connecting with an as-important key audience: the local Grinnell community. Every time I would mention KDIC to someone in town, they would ask how they could listen on the radio. This pattern repeated itself everywhere, from conversations at the McNally’s deli lunch counter, to discussions at the Vinyl Stop. For most people in the town, it is easier to turn on the radio in their car than it is to download an app to their phones. Even college students remarked to me how they wished they could easily listen on their car radios. Making matters worse, Grinnell’s other local radio station – KGRN-AM – suffered mass layoffs by owner Alpha Media in mid-2024, resulting in a near-complete loss of local talent and content. The people of Grinnell no longer have a local radio station to listen to.

Going forward, the College could support KDIC in a number of ways. Unfortunately, the likelihood of KDIC returning to the FM airwaves anytime soon is slim. Broadcast licenses are not easily obtained – the FCC only accepts new applications during specific filing windows, which are usually ten years apart. KDIC could file for a LPFM (low-power FM) or a NCE (noncommercial-educational) license; the last NCE filing window was in 2021, and the last LPFM window was in 2023. The College could look into purchasing KGRN – I doubt Alpha Media would ask for too much, considering how few AM stations are profitable – and then convert it into a NCE station operated by students. This would be logistically difficult, however, and I doubt the College is interested in spending time and money dealing with the legal paperwork, especially considering the times we are living in. Instead, I believe Grinnell College should support KDIC in its current state by increasing staff counts and helping connect alumni to the station. During my time as the station manager, KDIC had a total of two other staff positions, who could only work a maximum of ten hours per week. My understanding is that during this school year, the maximum number of hours worked has decreased to five per week, while the manager can work 20. Three people is simply not enough to run a radio station on air seven days a week, especially given the amount of students involved with the station. While recent staff numbers are not available, a spring 2005 capture of the KDIC website lists fourteen staff employed by the station. There is so much work to be done – from organizing vinyl records and CDs, to cleaning out old storage drawers, to rebuilding an automation system – having more staff would allow the station to run smoother.

Furthermore, I’d like to see the College assist the station in building up a network of KDIC alumni. This could assist the station in rebuilding its archives, which have mostly been lost. Such a network could also assist KDIC staff in their career aspects, especially in the music and radio industries. Many KDIC alumni not only work in these industries, but credit KDIC as the reason they do what they do today. I believe that building a KDIC-focused alumni network would not only assist KDIC and the students involved with it, but also Grinnell College as a whole. The College is currently attempting to decrease endowment dependency in part by increasing alumni philanthropy, and I believe a way to get more alumni involved is through the support of student organizations such as KDIC. 

As you can probably tell, KDIC holds a place near and dear to my heart. I care about the station and deeply want it to succeed, mainly because I believe in its power to connect the college and the town. It has frustrated me to see Grinnell College’s treatment of KDIC, and I believe that the station deserves better. I want to make clear that I do not cast blame on any one individual. Instead, I consider this situation a systemic failure, one that I believe Grinnell College can and should learn and grow from. Going forward, I hope that the College’s administration can see how important KDIC is to both students and alumni. For many, KDIC is not just a radio station – it’s a place where they discovered their favorite band, where they met their best friend, and where they got their passion for journalism. I wish to see Grinnell College support it as such.