WZBT (91.1
FM) is a
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 ...
licensed to
Gettysburg College
Gettysburg College is a private liberal arts college in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1832, the campus is adjacent to the Gettysburg Battlefield. Gettysburg College has about 2,600 students, with roughly equal numbers of men and women. ...
, located in
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg (; non-locally ) is a borough and the county seat of Adams County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The Battle of Gettysburg (1863) and President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address are named for this town.
Gettysburg is home to th ...
, United States. WZBT broadcasts as an independent, student-managed, non-commercial FM radio station, serving the greater
Adams County, Pennsylvania
Adams County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 103,852. Its county seat is Gettysburg. The county was created on January 22, 1800, from part of York County, and was named for the secon ...
community with music, news, and other programs as an
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 ...
licensed broadcast entity since 1978. With an approximate broadcast radius of 35 miles from the center of
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg (; non-locally ) is a borough and the county seat of Adams County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The Battle of Gettysburg (1863) and President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address are named for this town.
Gettysburg is home to th ...
, WZBT reaches a wide audience located in south central Pennsylvania and upper Maryland. Supervised by Gettysburg College administrators and faculty, and operated by the students of Gettysburg College, WZBT's purposes are to offer an effective means of responsible communication for students, faculty, staff, and community members, to be a source of information within and beyond the confines of the college, and to provide entertainment for its audience.
History
Founded in 1948 as WWGC, the station was formed as a student-run media club on the Gettysburg College campus. The station was an on-campus only,
closed-circuit radio A closed-circuit radio is a radio that emits over a very small range, typically a college campus. This system can be achieved from two ways:
*By tying into the PA System
*By using existing power lines
Electric power transmission is the bulk mov ...
system utilizing
telephony
Telephony ( ) is the field of technology involving the development, application, and deployment of telecommunication services for the purpose of electronic transmission of voice, fax, or data, between distant parties. The history of telephony is i ...
transmission to dorm rooms and dining halls. Financed by the Student Chest and fully administered by students, WWGC's first studio was located on the third floor of Breidenbaugh Hall and broadcast was limited to three hours per evening, six days per week. During the fall of 1975, the Gettysburg College Board Of Trustees granted approval to WWGC-AM to transform from its closed-circuit
AM frequency to a full service
terrestrial radio
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 sta ...
FM station and received its first
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 ...
license for educational FM broadcast in 1976. With initial funding from the Parents’ Committee that summer, WWGC was reborn as WZBT 90.3 FM on October 23, 1978. It began as a 10-
watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...
educational FM collegiate radio station with an effective radius of 1 mile that covered the entire campus and downtown Gettysburg area.
In 1982, WZBT expanded to a Class A
non-commercial radio
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
broadcast entity and was reassigned to the 91.1
radio frequency
Radio frequency (RF) is the oscillation rate of an alternating electric current or voltage or of a magnetic, electric or electromagnetic field or mechanical system in the frequency range from around to around . This is roughly between the upp ...
. The station also increased its wattage from 10 to 128 watts, expanding its reach even further into the
Gettysburg community.
In 1991, WZBT was displaced from its studio located in the College Union Building. The station remained off-the-air for close to a year until the President's Council allocated the funds for the station to build its new studio on the first floor of the Plank Gymnasium. WZBT was reborn again in the spring of 1992 in its new facilities and was given approval to move its transmitter off-campus to the
WGTY tower in
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg (; non-locally ) is a borough and the county seat of Adams County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The Battle of Gettysburg (1863) and President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address are named for this town.
Gettysburg is home to th ...
. With another increase to 180
watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...
s, the station was able to broadcast a total radius of twenty miles.
In 2008, WZBT optimized its terrestrial coverage, with a new 500
watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...
transmitter placed at 213 feet at the new
WGTY tower with
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 ...
license approval to cover the entirety of
Adams County, - giving WZBT an
ERP of 350
watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...
s as a
Class A FM broadcast entity. Additionally, in 2008, WZBT also acquired a new
radio automation system, and for the first time in its 60-year history, the station was able to broadcast twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
Programming
WZBT's programming consists of both live DJ shows and fully programmed automation that plays a wide variety of music – from
indie rock
Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...
,
modern rock
Modern rock is an umbrella term used to describe rock music that is found on college rock radio stations. Some radio stations use this term to distinguish themselves from classic rock, which is based in 1960s–1980s rock music.
Radio format
Mod ...
,
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
,
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
,
folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
** Folk music
*** Folk metal
*** Folk punk
*** Folk rock
** Folk religion
* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Folk Plus or Fol ...
,
electronica
Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...
, and
Americana
Americana may refer to:
*Americana (music), a genre or style of American music
*Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States
Film, radio and television
* ''Americana'' (1992 TV series), a documentary series presented by J ...
. WZBT's live Internet stream allows individuals to listen to its programming without any geographic limits. It can be accessed via the station's streaming page or on the
TuneIn
TuneIn is a global audio streaming service delivering live news, radio, sports, music, and podcasts to over 75 million monthly active users.
TuneIn is operated by the company TuneIn Inc. which is based in San Francisco, California. The company ...
streaming platform.
WZBT was formerly
CMJ
CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...
''Radio 200'', ''Loud Rock'', and ''Jazz'' reporting station until July 2016. Currently, the station contributes it full airplay playlist to th
Spinitronreporting and publishing service for the industry.
WZBT Spinitron Page
wzbt playlist
References
External links
*
WZBT 91.1 FM at Gettysburg College
*
{{Pennsylvania college radio
ZBT
ZBT
Adult album alternative radio stations in the United States
Gettysburg College
Radio stations established in 1978