Shaw University Sets Its Sights on New Media Technologies

Filed in HBCUs on March 30, 2018

Historically Black Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, has sold the radio frequency that the university has held since 1968 to operate WSHA public radio in the city. The funds obtained from the sale of the radio frequency will be used to enhance the university’s mass communications program and facilities.

Paulette Dillard, interim president of Shaw University, stated that “when WSHA was founded in 1968 as the first public radio station owned by a historically Black institution, radio was perhaps the most important communications medium in the world. It was an innovative move by the university. Fifty years later, the media landscape has evolved.”

The university retains the rights to the station’s call letters and will continue to stream information over the internet but broadcast activities will cease. The broadcasting facility will be revamped and used for laboratory space for audio engineering, video editing, social media data analysis, and streaming content creation.