FanHouse

UCLARadio.com is a student-run radio station that broadcasts only over the internet. It doesn't have a lot of listeners, but it does give UCLA students the opportunity to learn the radio business.

And one thing they learned this week is that the NCAA isn't interested in helping UCLA students learn the radio business. Kyle Hyman, a UCLA student and the director of the sports department at UCLA Radio, asked for permission to have students call play-by-play on UCLA's NCAA Tournament games. Larry Brown Sports reports:

After fighting through red tape the past several weeks, he finally received an answer to his request to broadcast games (only three days prior to UCLA's first game), from the NCAA. Their answer was no. Apparently Westwood One Radio wants to enforce their exclusivity as the sole radio provider of the NCAA tournament. No matter that UCLA Radio has never had an online audience of greater than 500 listeners. No matter that there is no advertising on the broadcasts. No matter that other student radio stations have been approved to call games and had their rights fees waived, such as USC, which broadcasts for a school that has a small student radio station. Nope.

Says Hyman, "if we keep having these opportunities taken away from us by the school and the NCAA, it really contributes to the demise of student radio stations here and across the country."