Underdogs of the CSU: Jeff Jacoby’s Traveling Radio Show Visits Stan State to Shine a Light on its Campus Culture

California State University Stanislaus is a campus many current students may not realize is much different from any other university – but Jeff Jacoby is actively working on highlighting the ‘underdog’ campuses within the California State University system, one of the largest public four year universities systems in the nation, via his podcast, The Traveling Radio Show.

With the help of KCSS 91.9FM student directors, Jasmin Ochoa and Robbie Herrera, Jacoby was able to experience and receive a tour of CSU Stanislaus, spanning several different areas and departments.

KCSS Student Director Takeaways

Music and Program Director of KCSS, Jasmin Ochoa and Robbie Herrera, spearheaded Jacoby’s tour around campus to provide a sense of what Stanislaus State has to offer. These places included: the Student Center, the Warrior Fab Lab, the Signal office, the art department, the Warrior Grill, the KCSS radio station, the Recreation Center, as well as speaking with members of the Indigenous Students in Activism Club.

When asked about her experiences guiding Jacoby across campus, Jasmin Ochoa shared that she was excited to gain more insight about the power of radio as well as to build new relationships with people involved in the radio industry.

“I would like to go into radio a little bit more, even if it’s like the behind the scenes – that’s why I like being Music Director, because I like being behind the scenes of it,” Ochoa said. “And so now, we have a contact of whether we want more information or just if we wanna go see the station over there in San Francisco.”

Ochoa also noted that her favorite thing was learning more about the resources offered on campus along with Jacoby.

Reflecting on his experiences, Robbie Herrera (senior, Criminal Justice) shared that he was grateful to be part of a professional project and experience.

“We’re going to be part of something big. It might not be big for everybody else, but it’s definitely big for me. I like podcasting, I have a podcast myself,” he said “I love working with the radio and to be able to branch out to other communities is always a blessing, if you will, just to learn what they know how to do and bring it back to us.”

Similarly to Ochoa, Herrera noted that the experience of giving Jacoby a campus tour was a reminder of his appreciation of what Stan State has to offer.

Both Herrera and Ochoa were thankful to be a part of Jacoby’s Traveling Radio Show and to provide Jacoby a true Stanislaus State experience.

A View from Behind the Mic: Jeff Jacoby’s Background

With his parents being involved in the establishment of NBC and PBS, as well as other family members active within the film, television, theater and radio industries, it was only natural for Jacoby to follow suit.

“When I went to college, I got involved in the radio station,” Jacoby said. “Once you’re bitten by college radio, as everybody in the room knows, you are rather diseased for life… I started doing radio then and never looked back. I’m still doing it.”

As an undergrad at Franconia College in New Hampshire in 1973, he began working at their 10-watt radio station, WOMB doing a radio show called “Morning Mania”.

After Franconia, Jacoby attended Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington and became involved at their station, KAOS 89.3FM hosting hundreds of radio shows.

During his time at KAOS in 1975, he started his Traveling Radio Show while collaborating with KBOO and KRAB. After the launch of his audio production company, Living Sound Productions in 1978, Jacoby went on a hiatus, revisiting his traveling show about 15 years later.

Not long thereafter, Jacoby wanted to teach radio. In 2001, he became a part time college professor at Quinnipiac University and earned his Master of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Sound and Collaborative Arts from Lesley University in 2006.

Jacoby has been at San Francisco State since 2006 and was was appointed Faculty Advisor to KSFS Radio and professor of the Advanced Radio class in 2007. Currently, Jacoby has been contracted to create eight CSU-based episodes, in which he has already explored the campuses of: Sonoma State, San Francisco State, CSU Dominguez Hills and Cal State Monterey Bay.

Underrepresented Campuses – What’s the Common Denominator Here?

In visiting campuses within the California State University system, Jacoby strives to highlight a campus’ culture, as well as to learn about the students involved on campus, compiling his recordings into a 20-25 minute radio program. Jacoby noted that this project will also likely be shared on NPR.

In the decision making process, Jacoby was very mindful of the specific campuses he would travel to. He noted that he wants to highlight the ‘underdog’ or underrepresented campuses, being that they were built and ‘carved into’ farm country, as a means to provide people more equitable access to higher education, specifically for those who may be unable to afford or to travel to larger, more distant universities.

Jacoby shared that he has noticed a couple common denominators within the campuses’ culture he has traveled to: tenacity and a strong social justice-centered ethic.

“Campus after campus after campus, is that the kids who are going to CSUs, or at least the media kids and the art kids, who are mostly the people I’m speaking with, are – for lack of better terminology – they’re scrappy. They’re determined. They’re driven,” Jacoby said. “Even if they don’t know what they want, which is a very common among 20 year olds… They want hands-on experiences.”

Jacoby continued, further highlighting elements of social justice-based culture on CSU college campuses.

“They want to be in the world, they want to make a difference – and the theme of social justice comes up again, and again, and again. I didn’t expect that,” Jacoby said. “And so what I’m finding is that ethic, that culture of being socially-justice minded, is coming from the bottom up – it is coming from the students. These are kids who want to change the world, even if it’s in a minor way, and sometimes, they want to do it in a major way.”

Jacoby’s time touring Stanislaus State was a profound reminder of his inspiration and motivation behind highlighting underdog campuses – the students.

“I love college students, and I love the students here,” he said, “Because they’re smart and funny and driven and interested and interesting, and I learn an enormous amount from students. So for me, that keeps me very interested in doing this, and I think that these students that I meet here at CSU Stan, as you call it, are no exception to that.”

Why Podcasting?

The radio landscape has changed dramatically since Jacoby first began getting involved in the industry. He shared that despite the public believing that radio is decreasing in popularity, it is actually gaining listenership.

To Jacoby, the critical shift in the radio industry that helped project audio content production into popularity was none other than podcasting.

“Podcasting happened slowly ramped up and then exploded like a bomb, and now it’s a multibillion dollar industry. That’s radio. It’s just pre-recorded radio. That’s what podcasting is. So I think of podcasting and radio as the same industry.” Jacoby said. “And they are enormously popular because listening is popular… So don’t be discouraged if you want to be in radio. There’s a huge market for that kind of stuff. Maybe it won’t be a college radio station, but it will be something. I call all of that radio.”

When asked what he looks forward to getting out of this episode, Jacoby shared that he goes into projects with an open mind, unsure of what the final product will be like when he’s in the production process.

Throughout editing his projects, Jacoby shared that things evolve naturally:

“I’ve got a block of stone I don’t know yet what’s going to emerge when I chip away the rock around the figure…” Jacoby stated. “And I don’t know what that figure is going to look like yet until I chip the rock away…I suspect it will be really great.”