The radio station will be relocating to TB-24, taking its music and memories along with it
By MIRIAM RAMAKRISHNAN — arts@theaggie.org
UC Davis’ student-run radio station, KDVS 90.3FM, has plans to move out of Lower Freeborn Hall in spring quarter of 2026. Due to Lower Freeborn being declared seismically unsound in 2018, the station will be relocating to building TB-24, housed near the Associated Students, University of California, Davis (ASUCD) Bike Barn.
After beginning operations in 1964 as KCD in Beckett Hall — a formerly all-male dorm located in present-day Regan Hall in Segundo — ASUCD applied for an educational FM-broadcast license and moved KDVS to Lower Freeborn in 1966.
Over the years, KDVS has established itself as the largest physical music collection west of the Mississippi, holding thousands of color-coordinated cassettes and records. Several years of music history and culture are wrapped up in the basement where the station resides; vintage posters and stickers cover almost every available surface, while “The Stacks” contain floor-to-ceiling shelves of vinyl records and CDs.
KDVS Music Co-Director Avery Infantas, a third-year genetics & genomics major, is directly involved in the station’s move.
“We’re going to take what we can to the new station, but it’s a smaller space and we can just redecorate with the new things that we acquire,” Infantas said. “A lot of our old posters are going to be preserved at the library.”
Beyond the tangible music library, KDVS has thorough roots in recording and mixing performances in their live Studio A. Covered in signatures by innumerable bands, the soundproofed room has been affiliated with many different artists. Pavement’s first show recording, for example, was made in the Lower Freeborn space; the same room where artists such as Bob Marley, the B-52s and Talking Heads have all performed their music.
The station, which holds approximately 150,000 pieces of physical media, must be entirely packed up and moved across campus. Some aspects of the station are being changed in order to fit into the smaller space, including the way their physical media is packaged.
“We’re re-sleeving CDs into plastic sleeves so that they take up less space,” Infantas said. “We’re going to have high-density shelving so that more things can fit in a smaller space.”
Beyond the technical aspects of moving, there are emotional ties to the space that come with its location, especially for members of corestaff that spend hours in Lower Freeborn.
“It feels very tight-knit when everything is all in the basement like this,” Infantas said. “I think part of what contributes to that is the fact that there isn’t access to WiFi down here, so you’re forced to kind of actually talk to other people.”
Having no online connection to the outside world through a phone or computer gives the station a pre-internet feel — almost freezing it in time. This, coupled with the visible history etched into every surface of KDVS, creates a sense of interrelation between current staff and DJs from decades past, according to Infantas.
Infantas also detailed that the move is a big change for the station — the amount of time that the radio has been here means that the small details will be the things that people miss the most.
“It does, in a way, feel like the charm of the station is going to be reduced because we’re not in a literal basement anymore,” Infantas said. “It’s certainly going to be different because I’m afraid that it won’t be as close-knit, but I’m still excited to see how it goes because I like the challenge of moving everything and seeing what it will look like in the end.”
The station, having existed for such a long period of time, has involved itself in both state and federal history. From interviewing Ronald Reagan to over-the-phone interviews with Angela Davis and Cesar Chavez, KDVS has a rich past embedded deep in its original building. While having to relocate outside of Lower Freeborn Hall may seem like a loss to many core staff members, KDVS’ history and culture is not only woven into the fabric of the building, but that of its team — a group that is working to bring about a brand new era of the station after its physical move.
Written by: Miriam Ramakrishnan — arts@theaggie.org
