As anyone in the radio business can tell you, the Internet has not, in fact, signaled the death of radio. Ask Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity if they’d rather go to an online-only format. Besides, in a world where we can log on and find any song we want, it turns out that many people enjoy letting someone else curate a set list. College radio, free of the demands of profit and playability, is a particularly great source for such serendipity.

And it’s about more than music. Between 2004 and 2010 I was co-host and co-producer for a public affairs show on WRVU. At a time when local news was disappearing, we provided lengthy interviews with city politicians, Congressional representatives and authors. And people listened: I long ago lost track of how many times strangers, upon recognizing my voice at a coffee shop or in line at the movies, engaged me about a recent guest or news item from our show.

Vanderbilt Student Communications has asserted that WRVU will be able to move to Internet and HD radio stations. And I’m sure some listeners will tune in. But not many: few people regularly turn to Internet radio, and even fewer listen in their cars, where FM radio is a staple. And the Internet is less well-suited to building a strong local community than a 10,000-watt tower with regional range.

As a result of the $3.3 million sale, Vanderbilt Student Communications will create a new endowment to cover its other media properties, including campus magazines and newspapers, “in perpetuity,” insulating them from the university’s year-after-year budget process.

I’m sure this makes good financial sense, and there are many people on campus who will benefit from the exchange. But value, especially in an academic setting, can’t be reduced to simple economics. As a powerful forum for ideas, college radio stations are vital parts of student and community life, and Nashville will soon join other cities in discovering that their silence is deafening.