College Music Journal nominated KSSU, Sacramento State’s student-run radio station, for its “Best Use of Limited Resources” award.

Although announced Oct. 20 during the journal’s annual festival KSSU did not win the award, Susie Kuo, the station’s adviser and Sac State alumna, said being a nominee was a victory in itself.

“There are hundreds of stations (among the U.S. and Canada) that report to CMJ. Just to be selected as a nominee is a big deal, because it raises the profile of our station as a whole,” Kuo said. “Winning, obviously, is cool, but it’s also great just to be recognized and know that we are contributing to the larger college radio world. So I don’t necessarily see it as a negative.”

College Music Journal is a network of magazines, websites and live events dedicated to the music industry and based throughout North America. Kuo said the “Best Use of Limited Resources” award was created to highlight the work that small college radio stations do.

“There are college radio stations from all over North America of varying sizes. Some are at thousands of watts, some are at three watts, some are only online, some are on AM, some are on low-powered FM,” Kuo said. “This is a way for them to say ‘Small stations do just as much work as the larger stations, and they are making the most of what they got.’ It all comes back to teamwork and how dedicated each of our student volunteers are to making the station grow and become better.”

From 2007 to 2009, the station won “Best Student-run Station,” “Biggest Community Resources” and “Most Honest Feedback (for album reviews),” and for each year won the “Best Use of Limited Resources” award. Despite not winning any awards in 2010 or 2011, Kuo said the station is running as well as it always has.

“Yeah it’s great to win, and I like to give the students something to aspire to, but we’ve won ‘Station of the Year’ before,” Kuo said. “A small, three-watt AM carrier-current radio station out of Sacramento, California has won CMJ ‘Station of the Year.'”

KSSU Promotions Director Jacki Rohrer, senior communications studies major, said she agrees the station functions well despite having a small staff and low exposure.

“That (award) we just always kind of assumed we were going to get nominated for, because we’re such a small (station),” Rohrer said. “There are radio stations on the East Coast that do get more exposure and have more resources, so it’s really awesome for us on the West Coast to get recognized for something. That’s a part of what makes KSSU so special. (Because) we don’t have a lot, we don’t take anything for granted.”

As an Associated Students, Inc. program, KSSU works with UNIQUE to schedule and coordinate on-campus events such as movie screenings, guest lectures and the Wednesday Nooner concerts. KSSU also contributes toward promotion events and festivities such as Phlagleblast by coming out and providing music.

Kuo said the best way for students to be updated on upcoming KSSU-related events is to become the station’s friend on Facebook or follow it on Twitter, especially since some events such as concert and movie ticket giveaways only have a small window of opportunity before they disappear.

When not coordinating events, the station plays on 1580 AM and online at kssu.com.

“We provide a very student-oriented, student-produced type of station where the content changes a lot. We offer our listeners a very unique perspective on music and we provide play-by-play broadcasting of Hornet sports.” Kuo said. “We don’t have the restrictions of playing very specific songs or genres. The DJs can play whatever they want.”

KSSU Blog Editor Josue Mapp, junior social sciences major, said the station provides a good alternative to mainstream or overplayed music.

“People listen to (stations like) KSFM or The End, but they’re pre-formatted to do what they do, which is cool if you like that music,” Mapp said. “But I can’t listen to any station for a prolonged period of time besides KSSU, because it’s the same thing and I don’t want to hear the same thing. I want to hear other stuff as well. Yeah, I like rock – and I also like rap. I’d like to listen to a station that played both. KSSU does offer that as well as pretty much every other American genre.”

Rohrer said whether one prefers to read music blogs or to listen to live coverage of Hornets sports, KSSU has something to offer for everyone.

“We have anything that any Sac State student could want, and it’s important that they know that, because a lot of people don’t actually know that we exist,” Rohrer said. “But then they check us out and they realize how vast and expansive we really are.”

Mapp said he is not satisfied with the amount of KSSU listeners.

“Honestly, when you mention KSSU here on campus – I don’t know the real statistics – but I’d love to say that every three out of four (students) don’t even know what KSSU is,” Mapp said. “I would love it if everyone on campus knew KSSU. I mean, if you don’t want to listen, it’s cool; I just want you to know that we exist. I understand you have your own musical preferences – we can’t force KSSU down your throat – but, still, I really don’t believe enough people listen to us.”

Kuo said the new music shows, which have the highest amount of listeners in the station, “give good exposure to bands that you wouldn’t hear anywhere else.”

“Whether it be death metal bands popular only in the region of Basque or Korean pop, which is receiving an insurgence in the United States right now, it can be a variety of very creative and on-trend types of things,” Kuo said.

Mapp said the listenership of KSSU has at least doubled since last year most likely because of the station’s new blog.

“We do music reviews, movie reviews, post random thoughts…some people are really artistic, so they’ve been (showing) photography that they’ve taken or art that they’ve drawn. We use it for anything, really, and of course we just slap (the KSSU label) on,” Mapp said. “We like to think that the blog is actually helping us with our listenership, but there’s no way to tell whether someone clicked on our stream through the blog or not.”

Kuo said the student-volunteers have complete freedom with how they use their airtime.

“They’re not restricted or forced to play anything they don’t want to play. They don’t even have to play music,” Kuo said. “It can be talk, it can be Hornet sports, current events; we’ve had professors from the English department come over the air to read from books that they’re writing. We’ve interviewed professional athletes, musicians, other students, and sometimes (used) programming as part of a class project.”

Mapp said a way KSSU’s visibility could improve on campus is if the University Union, which brings in so many students, would play the station’s live stream.

“Music’s played time to time in the Union – but it’s not KSSU. I’d love if the music they played was the music we’re playing. It just makes sense; we’re all here in the same building,” Mapp said. “We’d play through there, people would listen to us and they’re like, ‘Oh, hey, this is kind of cool.’ That would be fantastic. I’m not sure how we could make that happen, but that’s definitely what I would do.”

Volunteering for the station is not only a practical learning experience for those interested in broadcasting, Kuo said, but also a great way to venture out and meet new people.

“The station is a very eclectic group of individuals, and I feel that with every show that goes on air, that that’s reflective of the Sac State student population. It’s a place where we welcome all majors, students from all backgrounds and it’s a group of people with shared interests. (Our) lobby is a very chill place for people to just hang out in between classes and talk; it’s a free space,” Kuo said. “It feels like one big family.”

Also, Kuo was individually nominated for two awards from CMJ this year: “Outstanding Leadership in College Radio” and “Will Never Sell Out.”

“I feel like sometimes, with all the talk about budgets and other sad, depressing, awful things that happen, people lose sight of ways that they can give back or feel good and proud to come to Sac State, and I feel that KSSU is one of those things,” Kuo said. “If I did win those awards, yes, my name would be on a poster somewhere, but the part that I would like people to focus on is the station. Everything that I work for is to get the station to be more recognized, to get people to appreciate the resources that we have now, and for people to have a free space to think, learn, grow and meet others.”

Micah Stevenson can be reached at [email protected]