WBRU
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WBRU | |
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| City of license | Providence, Rhode Island |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Southern, New England |
| Slogan | "The Original Alt Rock" |
| First air date | Frequency: May 10th 1948 (as WJAR-FM/95.5) |
| Frequency | 95.5 (MHz) |
| Format | Alternative Rock, Jazz, Hip Hop |
| ERP | 18,500 watts |
| Class | B |
| Callsign meaning | BRown University or BRUnonia |
| Owner | Brown Broadcasting Service, Inc. |
| Website | www.wbru.com |
WBRU is a commercial radio station in Providence, Rhode Island that broadcasts on 95.5 FM. It was the first student-owned-and-operated college radio station in the United States when it started as the Brown Network at Brown University in 1936. Its slogan is "95.5 WBRU, The Original Alt Rock." Its transmitter is located in Providence.
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[edit] History
Founded by two freshmen at Brown, David Borst and George Abraham, the first broadcast of the Brown Network was transmitted on November 30, 1936, from George Abraham’s room, who originally conceived of the idea as a way to share his record collection and serve as a personal disk jockey for his friends. By the next year, he had installed wires through the trees on campus, assigning students in Slater, Sayles, Brunonia Hall, Littlefield, Caswell, and Hegeman to act as “section managers” who would receive the signal on their receiver and transmit it to the rest of the dorm. The equipment in his room expanded and he made his roommate move into the smaller of the two rooms in Slater, and Abraham moved his studying to the basement.
The New England Hurricane of 1938 destroyed most of the wires in the trees and Borst and Abraham were forced to move the wires into the steam tunnels beneath the campus. In February 1940, the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System was formed by 13 colleges, and it held its first meeting at Brown.
In 1962, the Brown Broadcasting Service (BBS) was established as a separate entity from the University and in 1965, the BBS purchased the FM license from WPFM, and split into two stations: WBRU-AM and WBRU-FM. WBRU-AM continued to broadcast locally as a carrier-current station (distributed through Brown's electrical system) and operated as the training station for WBRU-FM. Later, in 1997, it became known as BSR (Brown Student Radio) and began broadcasting on 96.5 FM as well as leasing 19:00-Midnight on WELH/88.1, owned by The Wheeler School. During the 1970s, WBRU-FM broadcast at 20,000 watts on 95.5 FM and established itself as the principal progressive rock station in Rhode Island and southern New England. Attempts to boost the signal to 50,000 watts with a transmitter on the Sciences Library failed because of the interference it caused to sensitive scientific equipment.
In the '70s, the station's format was known as AOR - Album Oriented Rock. Playlists included music by emerging bands like The Talking Heads. In 1988, the station began to identify itself as "alternative," and it has maintained that identity since. WBRU was also frequently named one of the best radio stations in the country by numerous trade magazines such as Billboard and Rolling Stone (which named it best radio station in the country in a medium size market three years in a row, the only radio station ever to achieve that).
The station is a huge part of the Providence music scene, and has been instrumental in introducing to the area alternative bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam and countless other important bands. It was the first radio station in the United States to play Ben Folds Five and Talking Heads. Kurt Cobain's last radio interview before his death was on WBRU. In 2006, WBRU was the first U.S. radio station to play "Supermassive Black Hole" by British band Muse and leaked the Beck single "Cellphone's Dead" before being hit with a cease and desist order.
On March 31, 2006, WBRU claimed to be sold for two million dollars to Initrode (Office Space) and changed the format of the station from alternative rock to "Buddy FM" - mainstream popular music. It was later found out to be an April fools joke, and, as of noon on April 1, 2006, WBRU had "regained" control of their radio station and began playing their normal playlist once again. Later that day, they confirmed that they were back to being WBRU, and that Buddy FM was no longer functioning. During this time, this Wikipedia page was fervently edited, and briefly would rank higher than the station's own website on Google.
Between April 17 and April 21, 2006, WBRU played their entire music catalog by title from A-Z, starting at 5:30 p.m. with "About a Girl" by Nirvana on the 17th and ending around 11:15 on the 21st with "Zombie" by The Cranberries. The songs ranged from new music (by such bands as Panic! at the Disco and Zox), 80's and 90's pop rarely played by the station (such as Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy") and classic punk (i.e. Sex Pistols and New York Dolls).
On June 15, 2006, the station began streaming live online
[edit] Timeline of notable events
- 1936 - First broadcast of the Brown Network
- 1940 - The newly-formed Intercollegiate Broadcasting System holds its first meeting at Brown
- 1962 - Brown Broadcasting Service (BBS) is established as a corporation independent from Brown University
- 1963 - The first BBS/WBRU constitution is written
- 1966 - WBRU-FM broadcasts at 20,000 watts
- 1969 - WBRU is the first progressive rock station in the market
- 1971 - Attempts to broadcast at 50,000 watts failed due to interference with sensitive scientific equipment
- 1974 - WBRU is granted tax-exempt status
- 1975 - First paid professionals are hired
- 1976 - Station receives first Gold Record for airplay of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run."
- 1979 - WBRU moves its studio to 88 Benevolent Street, its current location
- 1981 - (October) Competitor WHJY signs on
- 1984 - Elvis Costello stops by with a box of records and plays DJ for an hour
- 1988 - WBRU adopts a modern-rock format, called "The Cutting Edge of Rock"
- 1991 - WBRU hires its first professional program director
- 1992 - Student station members reverse a decision which would turn WBRU into an NPR affiliate
- 1993 - WBRU wins first place in the Rolling Stone Readers' Poll for best medium-sized market
- 1994 - WBRU wins first place again in the Rolling Stone Readers' Poll
- 1995 - (June) WDGE signs on and becomes a direct competitor with WBRU
- 1995 - WBRU wins first place again in the Rolling Stone Readers' Poll
- 1999 - WDGE officially signs off (due to WBRU's dominance in the market) and is replaced by WHKK
- 1999 - Station members vote unanimously against a joint sales agreement with Capstar Broadcasting Company
- 2000 - WFNX, a Boston station, extends into Providence to compete with WBRU
- 2002 - Competitor WKKB signs on in Middletown, RI
- 2004 - WFNX signs off in Providence
- 2004 - WKKB becomes a Spanish station
- 2006 - As a three-day April Fool's Day hoax, WBRU pretends to be bought-out by Initech (Office Space) who change the station's format to "Buddy FM"
- 2006 - On June 15 at approxamitely 07:48 EDT, WBRU morning show host Donni Khan announces that "WBRU is now streaming live on the web, replacing pornography as the number one use of the internet"
- 2006 - The station plays its entire catalog from A-Z
- 2007- As its annual April Fools' Joke, the station (as of the evening of March 31st, 2007) is currently stuck in a time warp; it is currently 1997, and all music played was recorded before the date. This is obvious in a few simple ways- for instance, the Screamer of the Week is currently Radiohead's "High and Dry", off their 1996 album The Bends.
[edit] Today and governance
WBRU-FM is one of the few college radio stations that operates on a commercial basis. WBRU receives no funding from Brown University, while still being staffed by Brown students. There are several professional staff members who work with the students, but the station is jointly governed by a body called the Station Membership, which consists only of student members, and a Board of Directors, chiefly made up of station alumni along with the student General Manager.
Today, WBRU is known for playing alternative rock, hip-hop and jazz music, and skews younger demographically than some of its competitors. Jazz is played in the early hours of every morning, hip-hop is played all Sunday, and the rest of the time is devoted to alternative rock.
[edit] Radio Shows
The station has many popular radio shows, such as 12 Cuts Above The Rest, which is a countdown of the 12 most popular songs on the station as voted by the listeners. Also the Nine O'Clock New's, which plays 5 new songs that listeners then must vote on. Through this, acts like Panic! at the Disco, Say Anything, Flyleaf, Shiny Toy Guns, Regina Spektor, Tally Hall, Kill Hannah and The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus became popular artists on the station. Other shows include:
- The List, which plays a random rock list such as Top 20 Alt Rock Vocalists or Top 40 Alt Rock One-Hit Wonders,
- Essential Albums, which plays three or four songs off of a notable alt-rock album every day.
- Home Bru'd Six Pack, which plays six local rock songs.
[edit] WBRU Annual Rock Hunt
In 2003 the winner of WBRU's Annual Rock Hunt was Zox. Through 95.5, Zox was signed to SideOneDummy Records and released the album The Wait, that debuted in Rhode Island at number 1. Zox's single "Can't Look Down" also became an extremely popular request on the station. The 2004 winner of the Rock Hunt was The Lingo, 2005's was Sasquatch and The Sickabillys and 2006's was The Sleazies.
[edit] Notable alumni
WBRU staff members have gone on to excel in a variety of areas. They include:
- Christiane Amanpour, CNN Foreign Correspondent
- Ralph Begleiter, former CNN correspondent and Distinguished Journalist in Residence, University of Delaware
- Chris Berman, anchor, ESPN and ABC Sports
- Lisa Birnbach, author
- Andy Fisher, president of Cox Television
- Ben Harvey, TV and radio host, Here! (TV network) and formerly WXRK, New York city
- Stephen Hill, executive VP of programming at BET
- Tom Hunter, former president, MTV, Latin America
- George Hyde, RAB Executive Vice President
- Nancy Josephson, Co-President of International Creative Management
- Jonathan Klein, president, CNN/U.S.
- Bill Lichtenstein, journalist, filmmaker and president, Lichtenstein Creative Media
- Aaron Schatz, FOXSports.com NFL analyst and founder of Football Outsiders
- Alison Stewart, daytime anchor for MSNBC
- Peter Tannenwald, attorney
- Matt Wald, reporter, New York Times
- Ben Weiser, reporter, New York Times
- Manuel "The Wizard" Diaz, Jr., DJ, KCRH 89.9 and 106.9 FREE FM
[edit] Notes
- ^ Mitchell, Martha. (2003). "WBRU." Encyclopedia Brunoniana.
- ^ Schwartzapfel, Beth. (January/February 2006). "Radio Heads." Brown Alumni Magazine.
[edit] External links
By frequency: 87.7¹ | 88.1 | 88.7 | 90.3 | 91.3 | 92.3 | 93.3 | 94.1 | 95.5 | 97.3 | 98.1 | 99.7 | 100.3 | 101.5 | 102.7 | 103.7 | 105.1 | 106.3
By callsign: WAKX | WBRU | WCTK | WDOM | WEEI | WELH | WHJY | WJFD | WJMF | WKKB | WLNE | WPRO-FM | WRIU | WSKO-FM | WSNE | WWBB | WWKX | WWLI
¹ Audio for TV channel 6 (ABC)
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