Behind the Transmitter: Differences in Archival Practices Between Nonprofit and Commercial Radio Stations

Abstract Many radio collections within the United States are maintained in more informal program libraries and archives in hundreds of geographically dispersed broadcasting stations throughout the country. To assess the full extent of this problem and real risk posed to station-owned radio collections, this article assesses the results of a survey administered across twenty-seven nonprofit and commercial stations or corporate parent companies. Nonprofit stations, its findings suggest, are more likely to actively maintain their archives and do so in a manner that shows awareness of current archival standards, whereas commercial stations are less likely to exert active stewardship over their collections.