A free speech fight is playing out on college campuses where student radio stations are disappearing

Chris Walla, the founding songwriter and guitarist for rock band Death Cab for Cutie, initially attended Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington state, where he was a DJ at what was then KCAT 91.5 FM and is now KCWU 88.1 FM.

“It was there that I first heard so much of the independent music that made my own musical impulses seem possible,” he told Prism in an email. When he dropped out of college and moved to Bellingham, he gravitated toward Western Washington University’s KUGS 89.3 FM, which he called a “social hub.” There, he sat in on shows that his future bandmates were DJs for and eventually used the station’s resources to record Death Cab for Cutie’s early demos.