Student broadcasters at WCSB, Cleveland State University’s student-run radio station, were shocked to find the key-card access to their studio suddenly revoked on Sept. 30, 2025. At the time, the university passed it off as a mistake. What students didn’t yet realize was that behind the scenes, University President Lisa Bloomberg and Ideastream Public Media had been working for months on a deal – one which would disable their access permanently.
Two days later, WCSB general manager Alison Bomgardner, a senior at Cleveland State, was preparing for a big day for her station. Oct. 3 marked World College Radio Day and hundreds of student-run stations were preparing to celebrate. It was then that Bomgardner received an email from the university inviting her and fellow staff members to a last minute Zoom meeting the following morning.
Speaking to The Carroll News, Bomgardner described that meeting. She said, “At 11:15 on Oct. 3, I was let into the meeting and that is exactly the same time that programming switched over to Ideastream after a couple minutes of silence.”
At the meeting, Bloomberg and Tachelle Banks, the vice president of Student Belonging at WCSB, announced that they had entered into a “mutual decision” with Ideastream Public Media to transition WCSB to the new home of Ideastream’s JazzNEO. What was left out of that decision was any consultation or discussion with the students and community members who ran the station on a daily basis.
Within minutes, 49 years of broadcasting history were silenced.
Students, including Bomgardner, rushed to preserve the music and memorabilia housed in their studio. Bomgardner said, “We had around an hour and a half to do that before Cleveland State Police… showed up and basically intimidated us out of the space.”
The agreement between Cleveland State University and Ideastream was signed on Oct. 3 and involved no exchange of money. Instead, Cleveland State agreed to allow Ideastream to operate the station while Ideastream agreed to provide Bloomberg with a seat on their board. Ideastream also agreed to provide an unspecified number of internships and opportunities to students, along with providing 1,000 yearly underwriting spots to the university. In a statement provided to The Carroll News, Bloomberg’s office said, “students will have access to internships, volunteer positions, and learning opportunities in broadcasting, production, and digital media with Ideastream Public Media.”
Shortly after the station was reformatted, Bomgardner and Liam Main, the former business manager at WCSB, decided to take action. Bomgardner said, “Me and Liam kind of went through all the stages of grief in 72 hours and realized we needed to act.” Bomgardner and Main adopted the roles of public spokespeople, and selected the interim name “XCSB” to describe their organization.
The community’s response was equally swift. On Oct. 7, a silent protest organized by XCSB drew 200 students and community members to Cleveland State’s campus. Among the signs, one read “CSU killed the radiostars.” Another demanded “we want our student run station back.” On Oct. 20, Cleveland Heights City Council passed an emergency resolution demanding that WCSB be restored to Cleveland State University students. Five days later, an anonymous community member flew a plane bearing a banner, its message: “Restore WCSB.”
The reformatting of WCSB especially impacted the college radio community. On Oct. 24, Bomgardner and Main addressed a room of student broadcasters at the College Broadcasters, Incorporated convention in Denver, Colorado. At the end of their panel, the line to record a message of support for “XCSB” wrapped around the room. Caitlyn Minney, ’28 is a student broadcaster at WJCU 88.7, John Carroll University’s radio station. Minney said, “It is a shame … what has happened to a fellow college radio station. Learning the chronological events during their panel at CBI Denver, it’s sad that they couldn’t stop this sooner.”
When asked about the future of “XCSB,” Bomgardner said, “There’s only so much I can say on this. So what I will say is… we acknowledge that “XCSB” is going to continue whether the university and Ideastream like it or not.”
In Denver, Bomgardner said, “a college radio station shutting down is a terrible thing, but we still have hope.”
