‘Real College Radio’ is a real opportunity for students

At the southern end of the Arts District on the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus in Minneapolis sits the Rarig Center, a product of '70s brutalist architecture that's oddly both eye-catching and imposing. Home to four theaters, Rarig's top floor is devoted entirely to the studios and offices of Radio K—the University of Minnesota's historic, ageless, and award-winning student radio station.

With nary a window on the entire floor, Radio K student staff have taken to calling their space the "highest basement in the Twin Cities," and that nickname certainly fits. Scores of band posters line the walls, and the space has a basement clubhouse vibe, where students congregate while meeting others equally passionate about independent music.

The breadth of Radio K's music catalog—creatively tapped by a slew of student DJs—is truly impressive. On any given day, you'll hear bands from Big Star to Big Thief, Elliott Smith to Jeff Buckley, Little Mazarn to Lil Wayne, she's green to Slowdive, and Alex G to King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard.

And as indie college radio stations go, Radio K is definitely making some noise.

Station director Sara Miller says that listenership has grown a whopping 195 percent from January 2023 to September 2025. "It's like numbers that you don't believe," she says, "and it's measurable by Nielsen; it's not just us guessing. I mean, we're not like number three in the market or anything... but just the fact that these are college students, that's fantastic."

More importantly, the station offers an unparalleled opportunity for University of Minnesota students to find their niche—and often great career experiences—whatever their major might be.

The ‘hustle’ and the bustle

On the first day of Radio K's fall pledge drive in late September, the sixth-floor basement is abuzz. Two generous donors have already jumpstarted the fundraising efforts, and a host of students gathers near a break room table filled with donated Thai Food and pizza.

In the main broadcast studio, Sully Gould (aka DJ Celica) is spinning records on an "all-vinyl Friday," about as old-school as you can get for a modern radio station. Thus far in his shift he's played Jim Croce, Robert Plant, the Ray Charles Singers, and Herbie Hancock.

Gould has a disarmingly dulcet voice. A junior studying speech pathology, his dream career is voice acting, so "This is kind of a fun [pathway] into that," he says. He started volunteering at Radio K in high school as a PSEO student, and started DJ-ing in January 2024.

"My favorite part, personally, is learning about new music. I literally learn something new every single time I DJ," he says.

Soon after DJ Celica's shift ends, Radio K shifts into Off the Record, the longest-running local music show in the Twin Cities. The live performance in Studio K this day is by Minnesota musician Mark Mallman, who delivers a short set of songs as a prelude to an in-depth interview. Afterwards, the band poses for a Polaroid that will fight for space with the hundreds of other band photos checkering the studio walls.

Radio K also produces The Vanguard, a show dedicated to hip-hop music and R&B music, along with a wide variety of weekend specialty shows spanning international music, ambient, punk, emo/screamo, shoegaze, and country/Americana—among others.

A ‘third space’ and a training space

In addition to a host of volunteer DJs, nearly three dozen paid student staff are the heartbeat of the station.

Silver Ouimet, a senior from south Minneapolis and the station's program director, actually DJ-ed a few shifts in high school as part of Radio K's Those Meddling Kids program, through which high school students are mentored by University students and DJs. After arriving at the University of Minnesota, Ouimet showed up at the studio "pretty much immediately," volunteering in a number of roles on their way to becoming a morning show co-host and then training director.

Most of Ouimet's friends are Radio K connections, including one that they started a band with. And the station attracts far more than just arts-related majors. "Our staff majors are all over the place; the volunteer majors are all over the place," Ouimet says. "Most of the time, there is a job here that will help you with your major."

That's certainly true for Abbey Pearson, Radio K's marketing director. The senior from Bloomington, Minnesota, found out about the station from one of her Welcome Week leaders, who happened to be a DJ, and Pearson became the content coordinator at the end of her first year. 

While in that role, she started producing more social media content, and a three-part post—with staffers answering the question, "What's a cover song that's better than the original?"—amassed more than three million views on Instagram alone.

Pearson's marketing work led her to pick a new major: strategic communication in the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication. And she's essentially immersed in a one-of-a-kind marketing internship.

"I have complete control of so much of our public relations and content," she says. "It gives me creative freedom to explore what I'm good at but then also is just a great resume-building experience. When I go into an interview I can say, 'This is what I have done and this is what I have learned,' and it's quite significant."

The Real College Podcast

Another University of Minnesota student with designs on translating her Radio K experience into career opportunities is Anna Adamson, the managing editor of Radio K's Real College Podcast, sponsored by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. The podcast, featuring stories related to arts and culture on campus and in the greater community, is produced roughly twice a month and currently airs on Saturday mornings.

Adamson is a senior journalism student who has loved public radio her whole life. She and her team of reporters (three of whom are paid) decide on a theme for each podcast, then set about producing a handful of 3-5-minute segments related (sometimes loosely) to the theme. Adamson doubles as the host and the producer, melding the stories together along with intro and outro music from Radio K's Off the Record studio sessions.

The late September episode, titled "Senior Year," was about "learning, aging, and the stories that live in the people around us, if we take the time to listen." The topics included a chat with a reporter's 69-year-old classmate in his German class, and a look—through the lens of the recent Farm Aid concert at Huntington Bank Stadium—at how different generations connect with country music.

Adamson also loves writing, and the podcast, like much of her coursework at the Hubbard School, offers her the chance to flex a range of creative muscles.

"I would love to be a podcast producer for an informative-style podcast," she says. "I just want to try out a bunch of things, but I think my passion would be radio podcasts. I would love to work in public radio, but we'll see."

A pipeline to the future

The students are the draw for Miller, who for two decades has been the station director and is one of just three non-student staff members. "It just feels good to work with them," she says. "And I love teaching them things that I wish someone would have taught me when I was their age—life skills, simple things like how to do an interview, how to get the job you want. ... But just being around their energy is really good."

Dozens of Radio K alumni have gone on to positions at community radio stations, indie giants like KEXP, and, notably, Minnesota Public Radio's The Current radio station.

Pearson, the marketing director, tells a story emanating from Radio 1190, the station of the University of Colorado Boulder. "They had a listener write in and say, 'You are the best radio station in the world other than 770 Radio K. Which is a high bar to clear,'" Pearson says. "And they posted it on Instagram and tagged us!"

High praise for the folks in the high basement.