Every day, students walk around the 5Cs with variations of the same sticker plastered across their belongings: “88.7 FM, KSPC Claremont.” From the memorabilia to fliers hanging around campus, the 5Cs’ student-run radio station has always had an ubiquitous yet elusive presence.
Last Friday, Sept. 19, KSPC hosted a BIPOC mixer — the first of many events they plan to host this semester to further their reach on campus. From 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., current and prospective volunteers filtered in and out of the radio station for an afternoon of music and conversation.
Stepping down into the radio station in the basement of Pomona’s Thatcher Music Building, posters of varying shapes and sizes were plastered all across the walls. Moving through the blue doors, various neon stickers encroached on the little squares of windows that connect different recording booths. The studio is chaotic yet comforting, its walls screaming at you in a somehow soothing way.
Like many students, Elizabeth Dominguez PO ’28 had frequently heard of KSPC and had always wanted to check it out, but it wasn’t until last Friday’s mixer that she finally ventured down into the studio. Browsing through the station’s extensive vinyl records as she chatted with volunteers, Dominguez was excited to discover the space for the first time.
“It’s very vibrant and lively — there’s so much life here, and I think it’s such an underrated space,” Dominguez said. “It feels like such a mesh of so many different years … You can just really feel the souls of people who were here before you, and it’s a really cool feeling.”
Last Friday’s mixer was a part of a larger string of efforts to integrate the 5C’s BIPOC community into the student radio scene. Throughout the 2024-2025 school year, former Outreach Director Becca Choe PO ’27 hosted a variety of collaborative events between KSPC and different affinity groups on campus — over fall break, for example, the radio station hosted a marathon of movies about Black musicians.
This year, Leyla Tra SC ’28 has stepped up to the role. As the newest outreach director of KSPC, Tra plans to build on many of Choe’s past events as she works to connect with more students across the 5Cs. In addition to continuing the movie marathon and other events with BSU, Tra aims to collaborate with a wide range of other affinity clubs on campus.
“Part of our mission statement is uplifting underrepresented artists, and we feel strongly that [our staff] here at KSPC should reflect that,” Tra said. “We’re trying to bring in more volunteers in general, but specifically more BIPOC volunteers.”
Originally founded in 1956 as the K Students of Pomona College, the 5C radio station now stands for K SPaCe, and aims to serve the whole of the 5C community as a collaborative, educational platform. Both Tra and Choe stressed that their efforts to raise BIPOC representation in the radio community are integral to KSPC’s mission statement and purpose.
“I really, really, really wanted this event to get more people of color out,” Tra said. “There’s this sense, when you’re a POC at a PWI [primarily white institution], that means you only go to affinity groups to feel a certain sort of solidarity. But I feel like in a way that is very isolating as well, and by promoting BIPOC mixers at clubs, it can be like there are other spaces for you to go.”
In more ways than one, KSPC’s radio station on campus serves as a point of connection for different communities across Claremont. Almost all of the staff, from DJs to student teachers, are volunteers. Choe explained that the staff aims to curate a welcoming environment for everyone, including the alumni and local Claremont folks who come in regularly to do shows.
Part of what creates the sensation of community at KSPC is the eclectic, perfect chaos of the station’s decorations. After last year’s controversy over a Palestinian flag displayed at the Motley Coffeehouse, many students have expressed the importance of retaining spaces on campus where students have creative control over what goes up on the walls, as well as what’s on air.
“If we’re able to have these spaces and give them to students of color at the 5Cs, I think that in and of itself is a form of resistance,” Choe said. “Especially when everything else is being censored.”
In May 2025, President Trump issued an executive order that cut federal funding for public radio stations, characterising government funding for local media as unnecessary and outdated. With the future of public broadcasting uncertain, Choe reflected on the tension between art as resistance and institutional supervision.
“Right now, [with] public media under fire because of federal decisions, it’s very important that we are able to preserve this space,” Choe said. “But at the same time, we have this space because it’s under the institution … There are [times] where the institution needs something from art, but there are things that you want to do as a station.”
As political tensions continue to rise across the country, KSPC volunteers like Choe and Tra are increasingly aware of the importance of keeping the station’s spirit alive.
“One of the biggest things we can do is make [KSPC] a space where people of color feel welcome because art is important, and expression is important,” Choe said.