—USC — University of Southern California —
Ever since USC was founded, its students have sought ways to have their say. The earliest student publication,
The College Review, dates back to 1884, only four years after USC was established. A slim monthly magazine, it lasted only the spring semester and was succeeded in 1891 by
El Rodeo—not the precursor of today's yearbook, but a magazine.
"We have broken our shell and sprung into the active life of journalism," the year-end issue declared, announcing that it would become a monthly the following term. Instead, a four-page student newspaper called
The Rostrum debuted, offering an eclectic mix of news, features, editorials and advertisements.
Publication of student magazines and newspapers remained unpredictable over the next few decades, primarily because they depended heavily on subscriptions and advertising.
The Record, which first appeared in 1895, was followed in 1902 by
The Cardinal, which lasted three issues. The following year,
USC's new president, George Finley
Bovard, lent his support to a new
student paper,
The University Advocate,
which was replaced in 1905 by the
weekly
University Courier. The
Daily
Southern Californian, first published in
September 1912, underwent a series of
name changes, becoming the
Southern
California
Trojan in 1915, the
Southern California Daily Trojan in 1928, and the
Daily Trojan in 1943—the name that stuck.
USC's first yearbook, a modest publication called
The Sibyl, appeared in 1889, but it wasn't until 1908 that yearbooks started to be published with any regularity. In the interim, the first edition of
El Rodeo was produced.
Counterbalancing the serious student
publications was the campus humor magazine,
Wampus,
which served as a creative outlet for campus wags for
nearly 40 years. Like
the student newspapers,
Wampus was a training
ground for a number of
prominent professionals,
including producers
David L. Wolper and Jack
Warner, newspaper
executive Herb Klein and
columnist Art Buchwald.
While students remained enthusiastic about the magazine, their pockets were not as deep as their belly laughs, and financial problems spelled the end of
Wampus after spring 1957.
During the 1940s, student media at USC began to diversify into the broadcast arena. A student-run AM radio station, KTRO, regularly broadcast within the confines of the campus. When USC's FM station, KUSC, was established in 1946, it was also student-run, and remained so until 1972. By 1955, KUSC-TV, the university's closed-circuit television station, was providing student programming three days a week. In the mid-1970s, KSCR-FM replaced KUSC as the university's student-run radio station. Trojan Vision, a student-run television station and a project of
the USC Annenberg Center for Communication, was launched in 1997.
Today USC student media combine the best of tradition with changing technologies. The tools they use may be different from those of their predecessors, but their role on campus remains the same: serving the student body, informing and entertaining the Trojan community and providing a permanent record of what it means to be a USC student.
Comments 0 comments