September 17, 2026 · 6 min read
College Radio Submission Guide for Independent Artists
College radio is the most open door in broadcasting for an unsigned artist. Real humans listen to submissions, they play new music on purpose, and a single spin gives you a credit you can use everywhere else.
Contact the music director, not the station
Every college station has a music director who decides what enters rotation, and most list an email on the station site. A message to a general inbox is a message to nobody. If there are specialist show hosts in your genre, write them too.
Send a link, never an attachment
A private streaming link plus a download option is what they want. Large files get blocked, and a Dropbox folder of twelve songs gets closed. One song, one link.
Keep the email under six lines
Artist name, city, song title, genre, two comparison artists, release date, link. That is the whole email. Anything longer gets skimmed past the part that matters.
Clean version is not optional
College stations are licensed broadcasters and face real penalties for explicit content. If your song has any language at all, send the clean edit or expect to be skipped outright.
Timing matters more than people realize
Semesters run the station. September and late January are when new staff are building rotations and are most open. Mid-December and summer, almost nobody is there. Send two to three weeks before your release date.
Follow up once, then stay in touch
One polite follow up after two weeks is fine. After that, move on but keep the contact. Thank them when they play you, share the spin publicly, and send the next song. The second submission from a name they recognize gets read first.