Courtesy of North Carolina Central University
North Carolina Central University is preserving and repurposing the sound of the past through hundreds of hours of historic radio broadcasts.
For 13 years, NCCU alum Lackisha Freeman has served as general manager of WNCU 90.7 FM, an NPR jazz station licensed to the university.
“I would say back in the ’80s, WNCU was a vision,” said Freeman. “It was a dream to actually try to develop a station here in the community. In July of 1995, they started testing the signal, after going through all of the construction, and then we were on the air in August of 1995.”
Freeman said recordings from WNCU’s broadcasts were stored on cassette tapes and CDs, put away in boxes and file cabinets for decades; forgotten. That is, until an opportunity with the HBCU Radio Preservation Project came around.
“It was always a vision and a dream to digitize those files, but not necessarily having the resources to do so,” said Freeman. “The HBCU Radio Preservation Project offered the funding and the resources to be able to do all of what has been done for us, which was the hundreds of hours of digital files that we were handed.”
The HBCU Radio Preservation Project works with radio stations and institutional archives at Historically Black Colleges and Universities to honor and preserve the history of the stations. The four-year project is aimed at serving the 29 HBCU radio stations across the country by reformatting and rehousing radio archives.
In October, nearly 400 hours of historic radio broadcasts were returned to NCCU on a hard drive. The recordings offer a listen to the voices, music, and stories that shaped generations of history in the Black community in North Carolina.
“It was just nostalgic,” said Freeman after listening to the recordings for the first time. “To just kind of listen to where the sound of the station, the voices of the station, the diversity, to know where we are present-day and what the station sounds like today.”
In addition to jazz and gospel music, the recordings include programs that highlighted North Carolina Central as an institution such as Inside NCCU and Legal Eagle.
NCCU archivist Andre Vann is responsible for preserving the recordings moving forward.
“It will, I think, transform how we see historically Black colleges but also the communities in which they were surrounded,” said Vann. “I think it will bring a much fuller picture of the lived experience of African-Americans.”
Freeman and Van said their goal is to make the digitized files accessible to the public, enhancing the community’s engagement with the station’s history and to collaborate with professors to explore using the digitized recordings for student projects.
“It is truly about preserving American history, and that is something that represents us all, regardless of your background,” said Freeman.
