By Jennifer K. Morita

September 10, 2026

One of the first things KSSU Volunteer & Program Coordinator Luna Contreras did when she began working at Sacramento State’s student-run radio station was dig into its 35-year history.

Pouring through old newspaper articles, she relived the two-year fight for a media outlet where students could exercise free speech.

“I read about their struggle to be seen as a college radio station, and I was able to relate,” Contreras said. “We’ve always been an underdog story, and we keep fighting for it because it gives students a voice.”

KSSU will celebrate 35 years of student broadcasting to the Sacramento State campus and beyond during a full day of events on Sept. 24, including alumni shows, panel discussions, a reception, live performances, and more.

It took Communication majors Jim Bolt and Chris Prosio, and their “ragtag team” of fellow students, more than two years battling with University administrators and faculty to establish a new student-run radio station.

“I’ve always been a staunch advocate for freedom of speech,” Bolt said. “Being exposed to things you don’t agree with, things that incite you, is supposed to be a foundational core of your college experience.

“But we didn’t have any of that because there was no college radio.”

Sac State transitioned the original student station to an NPR affiliate in the late 70s, which later became CapRadio.” It was very, very typical of what was happening across the country at the time,” Prosio said. “... We were told there was no money, no space for a student-run radio station. We had students going from building to building looking for vacant rooms.”

Bolt and Prosio shared a love of music. At the time, modern rock and emerging genres like punk, ska, techno, new wave, and grunge weren’t being aired on Sacramento stations.

“Music was our religion,” Prosio said. “The thing with us Gen Xers is that everything was music. What bands you were listening to, whose t-shirt you were wearing, defined your social group a lot more than what I’ve seen with my kids. Music is not as defining as it was back then, and I think it’s due to the prevalence of music you can get online now from anywhere at any time.

“But back in the day, you had to go to these things called record stores and thumb through albums. I’d buy music based on the album cover because I couldn’t even listen to it.”

They held a meeting, gathered a core group of about 50 students, and formed the Associated Broadcasting Club. They also found a faculty advisor, Communication Studies professor Linda Rhodes, and began working with administration.

“It’s a creative outlet and their time to do whatever they want with no repercussions. That’s a unique space that is fleeting now.”  - Hector Hernandez, ASI Student Service Coordinator

Meanwhile, they held benefit concerts at Sacramento clubs and on campus 24-hour Music Madness Marathons with local deejays and bands. All while carrying a full load of classes and holding down jobs to pay for school.

The University put the station in a space in the library, where they had a production facility and on-air studio using egg crate foam for soundproofing.

KEDG, the station’s original call sign, hit the airwaves at 5:30 AM on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 1991, reaching the campus and immediate vicinity.

“The persistence and perseverance lessons were incredibly important,” Bolt said. “We were up against what seemed like insurmountable obstacles. We were told no every time we turned around.”

Today, KSSU is part of Associated Students, Inc. (ASI), and it’s motto is “Be Yourself.” Each semester, between 35 and 45 student deejays have their own weekly shows that broadcast and stream online from the station’s studio in the University Union.

Contreras said she was drawn to KSSU for its free format.

“When I first started I kept it really simple. I played music and talked about music, and then eventually ended up branching into talking about things I learned in my classes,” she said. “Deejays can choose to explore music to showcase underground music most people wouldn’t have access to.

“It opens a path in the music scene that you didn’t know existed and gives students a voice as well as a place to connect and create.”

They’ve even held a Musical Madness Marathon, Contreras said.

ASI Student Service Coordinator Hector Hernandez started as a volunteer deejay when he was a student at Sac State in 2018. For three years, his weekly show explored a range of music. He learned to live mix at the station, which led to side job opportunities.

Now he works at Sac State full-time and oversees KSSU for ASI.

“Some colleges are ending their radio stations because radio is not the future. It’s not as successful as it once was,” Hernandez said. “But there’s a lot of benefits you can get from working here like public speaking, editing your own podcast, recording content for this new content-driven age.”

Generations of students running the radio station have said KSSU became a family for them.

“I see a lot of folks come in and out, and they call KSSU home,” Hernandez said. “When I was a student, it was my escape from all my classes. That one hour of the week in the studio was where I could just be me and do whatever I wanted.

“It’s a creative outlet and their time to do whatever they want with no repercussions. That’s a unique space that is fleeting now.”

Many of the station’s founders have kept in touch over the years and will be at the anniversary celebration.

“It’s still on my resume, down at the bottom, and it still garners attention,” Prosio said. “I’m very proud of that.”