KSLU - St. Louis, MO

According to archived KSLU articles, radio at Saint Louis University began in 1920 with the establishment of the first radio station west of the Mississippi River, WEW. WEW was a faculty-run, religious radio station. Then in 1949 the communications department established KBIL, a student-run station …operating as a carrier current facility broadcasting to a small radius around campus. According to an excerpt on KBIL in the 1955 Saint Louis University Yearbook, the purpose of the station was to provide training for students preparing for the radio profession and entertainment designed for its student audience. According to a March 2000 University News article, the call letters KSLU were established in 1983 after the Federal Communication Commission required KBIL to changed its call letters because a station in Texas shared them. KSLU currently broadcasts over cable channel 18 on campus and also online. Chris Graubau, KSLU faculty advisor speculated on the possible reason for departure from the airwaves, “I presume the license was ineligible to be renewed. It could be that the broadcast reach didn’t meet minimum requirements for a license.” Grabau continued, “There is no history that says the University shut it down.”