WCBE (90.5 FM) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

that began broadcasting in 1956. The WCBE

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

represents the station's licensee, the Columbus Board of Education (

Columbus City Schools Columbus City Schools, formerly known as Columbus Public Schools, is the official school district for the city of Columbus, Ohio, and serves most of the city (portions of the city are served by suburban school districts). The district has 46,6 ...

). The station was originally housed in the Columbus Normal School building, but moved to the Columbus Public Schools headquarters at 270 E. State Street in downtown Columbus, and then relocated to the historic

Fort Hayes Fort Hayes is a military post in Columbus, Ohio, United States. Created by an act of the United States Congress on July 11, 1862, the site was also known as the Columbus Arsenal until 1922, when the site was renamed after former Ohio Governor ...

educational campus in 1992. The station's tower is located on top of

LeVeque Tower The LeVeque Tower is a 47-story skyscraper in Downtown Columbus, Ohio. At it was the tallest building in the city from its completion in 1927 to 1974, and remains the second-tallest today. Designed by C. Howard Crane, the Art Deco skyscraper ...

in downtown Columbus and is

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

on 13 watt

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...

W292EA at 106.3 MHz in

Newark, Ohio Newark ( ) is a city serving as the county seat of Licking County, Ohio, United States, east of Columbus, at the junction of the forks of the Licking River. The population was 49,934 at the 2020 census, which makes it the 15th largest city in ...

Early years

The station went on-air in 1956 under the direction of General Manager John Sittig. Initially, the station carried only locally produced education programs designed to connect remote learners to classrooms and only with limited broadcast hours. In 1968, station management was approached by the Good Music Advisory Society to expand broadcast hours, launch classical music programming, and increase station power from 3000 to 10,000 watts. WCBE was the first station in Columbus to affiliate with

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

and began carrying NPR programs with their first broadcast on May 3, 1971 with

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

. Of note,

Michael Feinstein Michael Jay Feinstein (born September 7, 1956) is an American singer, pianist, and music revivalist. He is an archivist and interpreter for the repertoire known as the Great American Songbook. In 1988 he won a Drama Desk Special Award for cele ...

, archivist and vocal interpreter of the

Great American Songbook The Great American Songbook is the loosely defined canon of significant early-20th-century American jazz standards, popular songs, and show tunes. Definition According to the Great American Songbook Foundation: The "Great American Songbook" is ...

, interned at WCBE while he was a high school student in Columbus Public Schools in the mid-70s.

Your True Alternative

WOSU-FM WOSU-FM (89.7 FM) is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Columbus, Ohio, featuring a public radio news and information format known as "89.7fm NPR News". Owned by The Ohio State University, the station serves the Columbus m ...

broadcast an exclusive classical music service, and in 1990, to avoid duplication in the market, especially on the FM band, WCBE, now led by General Manager and longtime staffer Sharon Miller, switched musical formats to music classified as

adult album alternative Adult album alternative (also triple-A, AAA, or adult alternative) is a radio format. See pages 9 and 10Mills, Joshua. "A New Radio Music Format: Rock for Prosperous Adults" New York Times, Feb 28 1994, p. 2. ProQuest. Web. Accessed September 4, 2 ...

(AAA or Triple-A), rebranding the station as "Your True Alternative." Program Directors David Gordon and Norm Beeker managed the on-air programming during this period of unprecedented growth, revamping weekend programming, moving to a 24-hour broadcast with the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

and launching new local music and news programs. Programming received several awards during this era, including the eclectic music program Radio Free Columbus, hosted by Jon Peterson, honored as the 1993 Ohio Educational Broadcasting Program of the Year (OEBie Award), and Kids Sundae, a live children's variety show co-hosted by Dan Mushalko, recipient of the 1994 OEBie Program of the Year. Kids Sundae featured live performances, and had children serve as reporters, producers, and co-hosts, one of whom was

WCMH WCMH-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Columbus, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Olentangy River Road near the Ohio State University campus, and its transm ...

news anchor Kerry Charles. In addition, Evening Journal, a half-hour daily local news broadcast, was honored as the 1992, 1993, and 1994 Best News Program by the Public Radio News Directors (PRNDI). The station also syndicated Toss the Feathers Christmas, an annual

Celtic music Celtic music is a broad grouping of music genres that evolved out of the folk music traditions of the Celtic people of Northwestern Europe. It refers to both orally-transmitted traditional music and recorded music and the styles vary considerab ...

Christmas program, hosted by Doug Dickson, between 1994 and 2004 across the globe through

Public Radio International Public Radio International (PRI) was an American public radio organization. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, PRI provided programming to over 850 public radio stations in the United States. PRI was one of the main providers of programm ...

(PRI).

Financial scandal and aftermath

The major public radio programs had also historically been broadcast on the WOSU-AM (820 AM) signal, but a series of changes in 2010 allowed

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

to move the classical broadcast to

WOSA WOSA (101.1 FM) is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Grove City, Ohio, featuring a classical music format known as "Classical 101fm". Owned by the Ohio State University, the station serves Columbus, Ohio and much of the sur ...

(101.1 FM), their AM news service to the

(89.7 FM) signal, and

WWLG WWLG (102.5 FM) is a commercial regional Mexican radio station licensed to Baltimore, Ohio. Owned by the Southeastern Ohio Broadcasting System of Zanesville, which often does business as the WHIZ Media Group, and operated by Urban One via a lo ...

(102.5 FM) became the new home for the former CD101 alternative rock station in a financial deal worth 4.8 million. Ohio State would then sell the 820 AM station to St. Gabriel Radio in a $2 million transaction. That station now broadcasts as WSVG. This competition created financial pressures for WCBE and General Manager Dan Mushalko was let go in 2019 having been convicted of telecommunications fraud for altering invoices to hide station debt from Columbus City Schools leadership. Ohio State University and WOSU hired former Columbus Mayor

Michael B. Coleman Michael B. Coleman (born November 18, 1954) is an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as the 52nd mayor of Columbus, Ohio. He was the first African-American to serve as the mayor of Ohio's capital city. Coleman was a memb ...

to negotiate with a private group called WCBE Ohio to take over station operations, but did not negotiate with the district. The district paid off station debt with public funds and electeed to retain the license. In October 2022, acknowledging the financial pressures on the station, General Manager Greg Moebius announced programming changes, including elimination of programs duplicated by WOSU-FM, dropping programs such as

Morning Edition ''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 AM ...

, All Things Considered,

Fresh Air ''Fresh Air'' is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States since 1985. It is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show's host is Terry Gross. , the show was syndicated to 6 ...

, and

Marketplace A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a '' souk'' (from the Arabic), ' ...

. The station would instead focus on a near exclusive AAA music format and increasing involvement by Columbus City Schools students, modeling the format on

WAPS (FM) WAPS (91.3 FM) – branded 91.3 The Summit – is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Akron, Ohio. Owned and operated by the Akron Public Schools, the station airs adult album alternative (AAA). WAPS has a standard ...

in Akron, Ohio.

Current programs

Global Village, a daily music program, has been on-air since 1990, with only three hosts in that history, having been started by Bill Munger, hosted for many years by Maxx Faulkner, and now hosted by Maggie Brennan, who began as a college intern at the station. WCBE broadcasts national music programs including The World Cafe,

Afropop Worldwide ''Afropop Worldwide'' is a radio program that presents the musics of Africa and the African diaspora. The program is produced by Sean Barlow for World Music Productions in Brooklyn, New York City, New York. It is hosted by the veteran Cameroonia ...

, and Echoes as well as several locally produced specialty music programs. The station carries the

overnight and, since 1980, WCBE has carried Ohio news from the Statehouse News Bureau, now led by Bureau Chief and former WCBE News Director Karen Kasler. With the move to the Fort Hayes studios in 1992, the station began a series of live in-studio concerts, Live from Studio A, and recordings have been featured on promotional tapes and CDs. It's Movie Time is a regular feature on WCBE, hosted by John DeSando, and has won awards from the Los Angeles Press Club (2010, best radio feature), the Hermes Award (2010, Gold Award), and the Marcom Awards (2010, Gold Award).

References

External links

WCBE website
* {{Coord, 39.9634, N, 83.0046, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

NPR member stations Radio stations established in 1956 1956 establishments in Ohio