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CLEVELAND, Ohio - Students and members of the community who were involved in Cleveland State University’s former student radio station – which the university transferred last year to Ideastream – have launched a new web-based station.
XCSB Alternative Media began streaming online on March 1 at xcsb.org/. On Monday, July 20, the XCSB Radio Player app went live in the Apple App and Google Play stores. The station can be called up on voice-activated Amazon Alexa Smart Speakers, and the station members are working to add it to other smart speaker systems.
“WCSB began digital streaming back in 1995,” said Keith Newman, XCSB Alternative Media president. “We miss our FM signal, but not being regulated by the (Federal Communications Commission) gives XCSB a certain amount of freedom that we didn’t have before. I am incredibly proud of the sound we have.”
The new station is the latest development in the battle between university administration and students and members of the former station.
On Oct. 3, 2025, CSU administrators pulled the plug on WCSB, which was broadcast from campus on 89.3 FM. Ideastream Public Media seamlessly began broadcasting from the signal as JazzNEO. Students were not informed of the station transfer before it happened.
An organization called Friends of XCSB, made up of people involved in the former student station, are suing CSU, its trustees and President Laura Bloomberg over the matter, alleging the school was wary of independent voices, nonconformist attitudes and protests against student policy.
They’re asking a Cuyahoga County court to invalidate CSU’s agreement with Ideastream, order CSU to provide Friends of XCSB with public records they’ve requested, and provide access to the campus studio space. The lawsuit alleges students were locked out of the campus studio, and they still can’t get their personal items.
CSU asked the judge to dismiss the case in March. In May, CSU asked the judge to block discovery – the pretrial exchange evidence and witness lists – at least until she has ruled on whether to dismiss the case. Friends of XCSB oppose both motions.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Hollie Gallagher hasn’t yet ruled on either motion.
Meanwhile, XCSB Alternative Media –which is applying for nonprofit status with the IRS and is a different organization than lawsuit plaintiff Friends of XCSB – has acquired a studio, Newman said.
It recently entered into a five-year lease agreement in a space next to the Beachland Ballroom in the Waterloo Arts District with Cleveland Rocks: Past, Present and Future – a nonprofit that supports and preserves the city’s music legacy.
XCSB Alternative Media is soundproofing and building out the studio space, as well as seeking equipment. For now, broadcasts are produced remotely, Newman said.
The studio will have storefront glass for people walking by to watch broadcasts. There will also be space for bands to perform live on air, he said.
Newman said that CSU required disc jockeys and other WCSB workers to be students or community members who began at the station as students. With the new station, there are no such restrictions. Members of the community can get involved, he said.
“CSU still has all of our equipment locked up,” he said. “All of our records, all of our CDs. There’s hundreds of thousands. There’s a lot of stuff there. There’s also a lot of our personal items.”
The chief engineer’s tools are locked up in the on-campus studio. So are some 800 Hungarian music albums that were part of a collection that students had acquired for a Hungarian music show, he said.
A separate organization launched on campus during spring semester called Viking Freeform Radio (VFR). Members hope to launch a student radio station on campus. When WCSB was on campus, there was a student club associated with it and VFR hopes to be the new club, said Jacklyn Bomgardner, president of VFR.
“Students of all ages – I might add, not just like your stereotypical 18-year-old, we had a wide range – were coming in and hanging out,” Bomgardner said. “They had a space that they felt comfortable in to work on hobbies or homework or listening in on other shows. So the main goal with restarting the student organization … is recreating at least a portion of that kind of safe space for music lovers of all kinds.”
VFR is in discussions with CSU over the studio space on campus and other issues.
“Our goal for the fall is at minimum to create a bare-bones situation where we can begin doing an online broadcast, hopefully in tandem with XCSB,” she said.
Cleveland.com | The Plain Dealer asked CSU spokespeople about whether they’re going to provide the new student organization the same status as the former station club, and whether they’re going to allow members of the former station access to the studio to retrieve their belongings.
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