KSUA 104 FM, Fairbanks (1990s)

Unused bumper sticker from the 1990s, sheet measures approximately 20 cm by 10 cm.
Front side: background: white; KSUA logo, slogan: "Alaska's Rock 'n' Roll Super Station" + 2 small stickers: KSUA logo and important phone number, KSUA logo and slogan.
Back side:Fairbanks Fast Foto, Whirla Whip, Fairbanks Tae Kwon Do promos, KSUA T-Shirt discount coupon.


KSUA (currently on 91.5 FM) is a college radio station broadcasting a non-commercial educational format. Licensed to Fairbanks, Alaska, USA, (though most of their legal IDs continue to refer to College, Alaska, which their previous frequency was licensed to), the station serves the Alaska Interior area. The station is currently owned by the University of Alaska Board of Regents, on behalf of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. The station has won many state broadcasting awards and in spring 2012 was in the top 10 college stations competing for the MTV Woodie award.

On September 6, 1984, KSUA-FM came on for the first time, on a frequency of 103.9 MHz. Branded as KSUA 104 FM. Rising out of the freshly reformatted KMPS, KSUA had a new transmitter and a license from the FCC, but was still operated by SMI. Playing what is referred to in the radio industry as the "Album-Oriented Rock" or AOR format (focusing on 'deep albums tracks' in addition to more popular singles), KSUA-FM began as one of the few commercial college stations in the country.

KSUA quickly became the most popular station in the Greater Fairbanks area, with a format of playing a wide range of music that included Classic Rock, Alternative, Heavy Metal, Industrial, traditional Chicago and Delta Blues, Grunge (well before the genre became widely recognized) and a host of Independent recording acts. The station served as a launching pad for 'Glenner and Jerry' (aka Glen Anderson and Jerry Evans), popular local announcers who enlivened the morning show format in Fairbanks, and who still work in local radio today at different stations.

KSUA's fortunes began to decline in the late 1980s. KFAR, the predominant commercial station in Fairbanks, had a format for many years in the 1970s and 1980s of top 40 music and local news and talk. Bill Walley, the station's owner, had resisted expanding into some of the more contemporary music trends and radio formats which had emerged during the 1980s, and in fact had in part seeded KSUA during its push to become an open air station. A combination of Walley starting KWLF in 1987 and hiring away Anderson and Evans, and the decline of the Alaskan economy during the same period, saw KSUA's status as a commercial radio entity take a sudden sharp downturn. As Fairbanks's radio market expanded with a flood of new stations in the early 1990s, acute financial troubles began to plague KSUA. The station's advertising revenues steadily declined amidst an increasingly competitive broadcasting landscape. KSUA was eventually unable to meet its payroll demands to both management and on-air staff. The formerly-paid D.J.s were asked to volunteer, but in protest, one of them filed a wage claim with the Department of Labor, and KSUA was forced to give out almost $45,000 in unpaid wages. Out of money, KSUA went dark March 8, 1993.

*source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KSUA