Content Structure of University Radio Stations in Turkey As Part of Their Broadcast Policy

Abstract

This study aims to examine to what extent the university radio stations in Turkey arealternative to popular, commercial radio stations by analyzing the program contents andgeneral approaches within the framework of their music and program policies. Using thequalitative research method, in-depth interviews were carried out with the employees andrepresentatives of 25 public and 9 foundation university radio stations across various regionsand different cities of Turkey. 20 university radio stations were examined on-site by directobservations and face-to-face interviews while the representatives of 14 university radiostations were interviewed via telephone or video communication. The same semi-structuredquestions were asked to all interviewees. Besides, the supervisors of the 11 sample-radioswho archive their programs regularly selected some of the programs and shared their archiveswith the researchers. These selected programs were analyzed in terms of the duration of talkand music, and they were categorized according to the production elements. It is found thatthe university radios in Turkey have problems in content production for various reasons andare exposed to certain restrictions. Therefore, considerably differentiating from internationalpractices and the existing literature, they have contents similar to those of the commercialradios, instead of acting in an alternative manner.Keywords: Radio, university radio stations, alternative broadcasting, communitybroadcasting