Glossary · The people and the places
College radio
College radio is a radio station licensed to a university or college and usually run by its students. Most hold non-commercial educational licences, carry no advertising, and choose music without reference to commercial charts, which is why the majority of them accept records directly from independent artists.
The practical difference from commercial radio is who decides. A commercial station's playlist is set centrally against research and chart position. A college station's music is chosen by students, often one show at a time, and a record with no marketing behind it can be added on merit alone. That is the entire reason this tier is worth an independent artist's time.
The trade is turnover. The person who loves your record graduates. A relationship built with a music director in October may need rebuilding in September, which is why sending once and waiting is a poor strategy and why keeping notes on who replied is worth more here than anywhere else in music.
340 of the 1363 stations verified by hand are college stations, which is 25% of the list and the largest single group in it.
Pick your sound and region on Rotation and each of these stations shows its real submission contact and the exact rules it posts: clean edit, WAV, form or mail. Checked by hand and kept current. No station here paid to be listed.
Open my sheet →Radio is the free half, and it stays that way. Every station here is free to reach and no station ever pays to be listed. The Doors is the other half: 100 verified places that are not radio, sync libraries, music supervisors, festivals, contests, live sessions and the music press, 43 of which can actually pay an artist. It also lists the 162 we opened and refused, with the reason each one failed, because most lists of this kind are stale and the rejections are the part nobody else will show you. $9.99, the 2026 Q3 edition →
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