WMBR is the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
's student-run
college radio
Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produced ...
station, licensed to
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
, and broadcasting on 88.1
FM. It is all-volunteer and funded by listener donations and MIT funds. Both students and community members can apply for positions, and like many college radio stations, WMBR offers diverse programming ranging from talk shows to music including
RnB
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...
to
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
.
As of 2022, the general manager is Claire McLellan-Cassivi and the program director is Shruti Ravikumar.
The station's board of trustees is the Technology Broadcasting Corporation, whose members are appointed by the President of MIT. The officers are:
President - Marianna Parker;
Vice President -
Joseph Paradiso;
Clerk -
Todd Glickman Todd Glickman (born June 13, 1956) is a meteorologist whose weather reports can be heard on WCBS Newsradio 880 in New York City and internationally at radio.com. He has been a fill-in meteorologist there since May 1979.
Early years
Glickman grew ...
;
Treasurer - Shawn Mamros.
History
''WMBR'' is the third set of
call letters
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 ...
for the station.
The first MIT student broadcasting station first signed on as WMIT on November 25, 1946. It had a "
carrier current" AM transmitter located in the Ware entryway of
Senior House dormitory and broadcast over power lines at 800, and later 640 kHz (called "kilocycles" at the time). Audible only within a few hundred feet of the dorms, under
FCC
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
Part 15
Code of Federal Regulations, 'Title 47, Part 15(47 CFR 15) is an oft-quoted part of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules and regulations regarding unlicensed transmissions. It is a part of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations ...
regulations it could and did broadcast commercials and was self-supporting. The station simultaneously provided audio signals of its broadcasts over "dorm line" wires that ran past exterior windows of the MIT dormitories, for residents to connect to their hi-fi gear. An early experiment in stereo broadcasting, in 1960, put one stereo channel on the AM signal and the other on the dorm lines.
In the mid-1950s, the possibility of an FM license was explored and it was discovered that the call letters
WMIT
WMIT (106.9 MHz, "106.9 The Light") is a non-profit FM radio station licensed to Black Mountain, North Carolina. WMIT is a listener-supported ministry of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. It airs a mix of Contemporary Christian musi ...
were (and still are) in use by a North Carolina station serving the
Asheville
Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...
area. WTBS (for "Technology Broadcasting System") was chosen as the best alternative. New facilities were constructed in the basement of Walker Memorial, including a switching and mixing console designed by A. R. Kent and Barry Blesser, believed to be one of the first all-transistorized consoles ever built. On April 10, 1961, WTBS signed on with 14 watts of effective radiated power at 88.1 Megahertz FM, from a small antenna atop the Walker Memorial Building, the location of the station's studios. (This frequency corresponds to a wavelength of 3.40 meters, which is an integral number, specifically 2, of
smoot
The smoot is a nonstandard, humorous unit of length created as part of an MIT fraternity prank. It is named after Oliver R. Smoot, a fraternity pledge to Lambda Chi Alpha, who in October 1958 lay down repeatedly on the Harvard Bridge (betwe ...
s.) In the early 1970s, the antenna was moved to the much higher Eastgate Apartment Building, dramatically improving the coverage area.
WTBS continued to operate the carrier-current system to the dormitories on 640 kHz, with an identical program, except for commercial breaks on the AM side, during which the noncommercial FM station filled time with public-service announcements, and, later, parody "ads" for fictitious products such as "Apple Gunkies" and firms such as "Nocturnal Aviation". The carrier current transmission was discontinued in the early 1970s. The all-request "Nite Owl" was a popular weekend feature, and a "
Waveform
In electronics, acoustics, and related fields, the waveform of a signal is the shape of its graph as a function of time, independent of its time and magnitude scales and of any displacement in time.David Crecraft, David Gorham, ''Electronic ...
of the Week" was broadcast for the enjoyment of MIT students watching the program on oscilloscopes. Since the station allowed a certain amount of non-students to conduct shows, WTBS was able to tap into the vibrant music and arts community in the Cambridge-Boston area and was acknowledged as the metropolitan area's most eclectic station of the era, featuring jazz, folk music, rhythm and blues, classical music and among the first programs featuring the emerging "underground rock" music in the 1960s and the cutting edge, "new wave" music in the 1970s.
In 1978,
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour United States cable news, cable news ch ...
, then operator of WTCG in
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
, wanted to use the call letters "WTBS" (for
Turner Broadcasting System
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (alternatively known as Turner Entertainment Networks from 2019 until 2022) was an American television and media conglomerate. Founded by Ted Turner and based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner (lat ...
). Although call letters are not technically for sale, Turner and WTBS worked out a stratagem whereby Turner gave a $25,000 donation to WTBS with an agreement that WTBS would apply for new call letters, with a second donation of $25,000 promised if the FCC were to subsequently grant the letters "WTBS" to Turner. All went as planned, WTBS used the donation for new transmitter equipment, and on November 10, 1979, the station signed on as WMBR with 200 watts of power, later increased to 720 watts.
History of WMBR
/ref> (The Atlanta station has since changed its call letters to WPCH-TV
WPCH-TV (channel 17), branded on-air as Peachtree TV, is an independent television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is owned by locally based Gray Television alongside CBS affiliate and company flagship WANF (channel 46), and l ...
.)
References
Further reading
"The Boston Radio Dial: WMBR(FM)"
- information and history of WMBR
External links
Official WMBR website
WMBR Program Schedule
*
Track-blaster
- WMBR's searchable playlist database
Late Risers Club website
Late Risers Club documentary website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wmbr
MBR
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Radio stations established in 1961
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Mass media in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
1961 establishments in Massachusetts