To bring Happy Valley the most complete music converge, two media organizations — music blog, State In The Real (@StateintheReal), and radio station, The Lion 90.7 FM (@TheLION907fm) — have joined forces to create what they hope becomes “The Penn State Music Network.”

“The Soundtrack to Penn State” and #SITR forged a collaborative effort to blend the immediacy and flexibility of online journalism with the broadcast niche student radio at Penn State has grown into since its inception as the class gift in 1951 (it hasn’t always been The LION, though; check out the history here).

Blog co-founder, Matt Andersen, said that the idea to join forces arose from the shared goals and common values of both organizations.

“The advantages are the synergies that come when you join an online-only blog with a physical broadcast medium with a small web presence,” Andersen said in a Facebook message to Onward State. “Each group has specific benefits to leverage from the other in becoming one overall group.”

Another advantage Andersen envisions with the collaboration is the ability for the two entities to co-sponsor musical events in the State College area. He hopes the alternative slant of both organizations can offer students the underground entertainment that the Student Programming Association fails, year after year, to offer.

Also, the tight-knit, hyper-local aspect of the merger will allows student musicians to get their voices heard. Andersen said that he urges all aspiring artists to submit their tracks for review by the State in the Real team.

My personal hopes are that the addition of a professional, officially recognized student organization — The Lion 90.7 FM — will bring structural changes to State in the Real. The website is difficult to navigate, and the repeating wallpaper (oddly reminiscent of Xanga for me) further clutters an already messy site.

Inversely, I hope that the observant dedication to the counter-culture soundtrack that State in the Real embodies bleeds over into The Lion’s rotation. Even if #SITR’s musically-conscious writers inspire the musical coup of one Nickleback song, I will be so happy (editor’s note: Nickleback is the worst).

You can read the official disclosure of the State in the Real/The Lion 90.7 FM partnership here.