HBCU Radio Preservation Project: Michael Fournier
Michael Fournier discusses the role of HBCU radio in preserving stories and promoting music, building his career in radio, the challenges of commercial radio, and more.
It's Wednesday, which means an oral history just dropped on our YouTube! Part of the HBCU Radio Preservation Project, the Margaret Walker Center is serving as a repository for the histories of these stations and the community members who have been a part of them.
Today’s video features Michael Fournier, a graduate of Elizabeth City State University, DJ, and program director at iHeartMedia in Norfolk. He speaks on the importance of HBCU radio in preserving community stories and promoting Black musicians, as well as how important mentor figures were to him as he built his career through internships, DJing, and getting hands-on experience at different stations. He also credits his time at the university for being formative for his life and career. Though commercial radio can present challenges different from college radio, he has found many rewarding experiences.
About the Project
Each Wednesday, tune into our YouTube channel, @mwalkercenter, to catch a new oral history from the HBCU Radio Preservation Project!
We are proud to partner with several organizations for the HBCU Radio Preservation Project, which is dedicated to honoring and preserving the rich history and cultural resource of HBCU radio.
Here’s some more info from their website:
Much of the material created at these stations is at risk of being lost, though they document the rich history and diversity of the Black experience through the Civil Rights era and beyond. The goals are to preserve the stations’ audio collections and to foster a community of sustainability for the stations and institutional archives on campus.
The project provides preservation training and workshops for campus stations, archivists and community members, recruiting HBCU graduates as interns and fellows.
Field archivists will collaborate with stations and campus archivists on collections assessments and follow-up field services such as inventories, reformatting, rehousing, and other preservation activities.
Oral historians will interview a range of community members to document the history of the stations. Training in gathering oral histories and using historical audio in content creation will also be offered. Other goals include launching an interactive website, a podcast series, and annual symposia.
