The National Association of College Broadcasters (NACB), was founded in 1988 by four undergraduate students[1] at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Jumpstarted by a $300,000 grant from the now-defunct CBS Foundation, thanks to connections through the father of co-founder Doug Liman, NACB became the first trade association specifically geared to all aspects of American student-staffed radio and television stations.
Thanks in part to keynote addresses by legendary television journalist Walter Cronkite at its first national conference in November, 1988; media magnate Ted Turner the following year; and Quincy Jones at 1990's event, NACB put itself on the map quickly, reaching a peak of over 600 member stations in the US and a few internationally by 1992.
Its National College Television and Radio Awards was the second (after the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' annual student competition) to give significant cash prizes for student productions in a wide range of programming categories that year, thanks to support from several of the US's major media companies, including CBS, ESPN, CNN, NBC, HBO, FOX, E!
Due primarily to a lack of seasoned leadership who could build the relationships that insured continued philanthropic support, the organization ceased operations in 1998.