02 Apr “Resound”ing Success: Cedarville Radio Station Celebrates 30 Years
It started as a capstone project for a senior communication major at Cedarville University. The vision James Leightenheimer shared through his student project has been transmitting, uplifting and inspiring music to a global audience through Resound Radio over the past 30 years.
Cedarville’s Resound Radio celebrates the 30th anniversary of its first broadcast on Sunday, April 5. Although the station went by a different name in the beginning, the mission remains the same today — to share music and spoken content intended to build others up.
Resound Radio, even with the coronavirus pandemic that has moved the university from its traditional in-class teaching model to a solely online delivery of classes, continues to provide listeners with encouraging programming.
Leightenheimer, now an assistant professor of communication, was a Cedarville senior in 1979 when he put together a feasibility project for a radio station that targeted student listeners. To learn more about this radio project, click on cedarville.edu/cedarvillestories to hear a featured podcast with Leightenheimer.The radio station started as WRSN for “Radio Student Network” and launched as an AM station in 1990. In 1996, WSRN switched from AM to FM and became U99.5 FM, the U acknowledging Cedarville’s transition from a college to a university. In 2007, WSRN faced a new challenge. Students weren’t bringing radios to campus; they only listened to music in the car or online. So Leightenheimer and his team shut down the FM transmitter and WSRN transformed into streaming online Resound Radio. The Resound Radio app was released in 2015. And as the station looks to the future, Leightenheimer and his student team hope to be on personal assistant platforms such as Alexa and Google.
“One of the things that I’m happiest with is that we haven’t stayed where we started, but we’ve evolved in terms of delivery systems to where things are today,” Leightenheimer said. “The World Wide Web allows us to broadcast more than to just campus.”
Resound Radio’s mission is to train professionals to serve Christ in the media.
Many successful alumni started at Resound, including Paula Faris, an ABC News correspondent and former panel member on The View. Faris’ own Resound program was called “Sleepless in Cedarville,” and it featured music and information focusing on relationships and dating at Cedarville.
“Empowering students is the greatest gift any institution of higher learning can provide its students,” said Faris, who graduated from Cedarville in 1997. “In the early days of Resound, back when it was called WSRN, we learned the value of rolling up our sleeves and getting our elbows dirty. That hands-on experience gave us a sense of vocational reality, coupled with a shot of confidence.”
“Student radio works to prepare students for entry into media; our students and graduates are in demand,” Leightenheimer said. “WayFM network has hired 17 of our people. When they have a new position open, they reach out to us because they would like to have a graduate from Cedarville in that position.”
Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University is an accredited, Christ-centered, Baptist institution with an enrollment of 4,380 undergraduate, graduate and online students in more than 150 areas of study. Founded in 1887, Cedarville is recognized nationally for its authentic Christian community, rigorous academic programs, including the Bachelor of Arts in Broadcasting, Digital Media and Journalism, strong graduation and retention rates, accredited professional and health science offerings and high student engagement ranking.
For more information about the University, visit cedarville.edu.