One of the purposes, strengths and joys of college radio is the engagement with local musical talent, to support it, to share it and to give it voice. When local artists face limited access to commercial outlets, college radio stations play a valuable role in introducing and supporting them. We decided that it was time for college radio to step up and show that it could do even more with the creation of the International Local Music Exchange.

We would love to have you participate! Please fill out this survey to sign up, and we will send you instructions on how to get started. Artists in your show will also need to complete the online Artist Release Form so that we can share them with the world.

The International Local Music Exchange will give college stations a chance to share the best artists in their hometowns with other college stations around the world. Why should a station in Baltimore be the only place to hear an amazing talent that listeners in Barcelona would love? Who needs Spotify when you can have college stations around the world curating undiscovered local talent for you?

Launching in support of World College Radio Day 2020, we bring you the best in college radio from around the globe with the International Local Music Exchange. Formed in partnership with KBVR, KCSU, WLOY and The College Radio Foundation, the new ILME will allow stations around the world to share the best of their hometown music scene through curated music hours available to all WCRD participating stations. Individual college and high school stations around the world are invited to create their own 1 hour programs hosted by their students and share them with all participants. Shows will be uploaded to a secure shared drive in the cloud, where stations can download the shows for play around the world.

Thanks to KCSU there will soon be an ILME podcast as well to make sure the first shows will live on past World College Radio Day. Although we are launching this as a World College Radio Day special, this is not a one-time event, our goal is to make the International Local Music Exchange a full time program for as many stations to share and play the music as possible. We want to make sure the best of our hometown can be heard in yours!

The International Local Music Exchange is a volunteer-driven, non-commercial, non-profit, totally free to participate in program that is supported by the College Radio Foundation.