KCPR is No. 1

Cal Poly’s student-run radio station 91.3 KCPR has taken the number one spot on the Great Value Colleges list of 30 Amazing College Radio Stations of 2017-18. Great Value Colleges is a website dedicated to helping students make decisions about college education.

General manager of the station Brian Robbins
is a fourth-year journalism major
who has been a part of KCPR’s team
since his sophomore year.

 

 

 

“We have a really great group of hardworking different individuals at KCPR,” said General Manager and fourth-year journalism student Brian Robins. “We use our differences and our strengths, which I think is unique to our organization. Being surrounded by people who share the same love of music is powerful.”

The list of rankings was released in September and also features college radio stations such as Georgetown University and UC Berkeley. According to Great Value College, Cal Poly took the top spot on the list based on their dedication to university students and culture.

“The mission statement of KCPR is ‘where different matters’ and we really embody this as a brand across all platforms,” said KCPR Faculty Advisor Keli Moore. “We’re developing our news and podcasts. We are going to start working with the PR students to get more brand awareness. There’s a lot of opportunity out there and we should be using every part of our team that we can.”

KCPR has been making waves on Cal Poly’s campus for almost 50 years, and has since grown to stream 24 hours a day from station headquarters in the journalism building. A number of structural and management changes within the last ten years have further integrated the station into the Journalism Department curriculum so that KCPR is now part of Mustang Media Group, Cal Poly’s full circle media organization. The Mustang Media Group includes a weekly print newspaper, a news website, a weekly TV broadcast and a business department which markets to the community and manages advertisement sales.

“Our programming has moved to appeal to a larger demographic on the Cal Poly campus,” said Robins. “We’ve really pushed new music in the last three years, and we’ve gotten a lot more structure as an organization. The structure helps preserve the college radio aspect,” he added. “We have a good working relationship with Mustang News, which allows us to have breaking news and be connected to the Journalism Department.”

“What makes KCPR unique is that we’re not just radio,” said fourth year economics major Jesse Hynes, a DJ, online music streaming director, and content team member. “We’re multimedia. We have a website and social media and are present on many different platforms.”

For more music from KCPR, listen live on their website and follow their weekly playlists on Spotify.