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MPR News with Angela Davis
Catharine Richert and Nikhil Kumaran
Updated:

College radio's comeback: Why people are tuning in

a young woman uses multiple computer monitors while speaking into a microphone
A DJ sits in Radio K's studio during her on-air shift at Rarig Center in Minneapolis. MPR News guest host Catharine Richert talks with two college students who help run their college radio station. They’ll get into what makes it special and why it's still worth it to tune in. 
Nikhil Kumaran | MPR News

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Many of us listen to music off of our phones through streaming apps with algorithms built to feed us songs it thinks we would like. 

It’s convenient, but those playlists, now starting to incorporate AI, rarely surprise us.

Maybe that’s why some college radio stations are making a comeback. They offer something more personal — real human voices and a space where music discovery feels spontaneous and driven by curiosity not calculations.

MPR News guest host Catharine Richert talks with two students who are passionate about college radio and help run their college stations. They’ll talk about what makes college radio special and what it offers to listeners.

Guest:

  • Saxon Rudduck is the music director of Radio K, the University of Minnesota’s award-winning student-run radio station. He is a senior studying statistics and data science.

  • Nikhil Kumaran is the associate producer for MPR News with Angela Davis. He has also worked for The Current and was the music director of Radio K in 2023.

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