Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
WBRU
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WBRU | |
| City of license | Providence, Rhode Island |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Southern New England |
| Slogan | "The Original Alt Rock" |
| Frequency | 95.5 (MHz) |
| First air date | Frequency: May 10th 1948 (as WJAR-FM/95.5) |
| Format | Alternative Rock, Jazz, Hip Hop |
| ERP | 18,500 watts |
| HAAT | 139 meters |
| 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.[1] Its slogan is "95.5 WBRU, The Original Alt Rock." Its transmitter is located in Providence.
Contents |
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 was donated a commercial FM license (WPFM) from The Outlet Company, a local department store chain and licensee of Provdence stations WJAR 920 AM and WJAR-TV channel 10 (NBC). BBR was then 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. In 1997, WBRU-AM split off and became Brown Student Radio (BSR) and started broadcasting on WELH-FM (88.1), a license owned by The Wheeler School. BSR currently broadcasts continuously online at http://www.bsrlive.com, and from 7 p.m. until 5 a.m. on WELH-FM. In 2003, BSR added a community radio element to its mission, incorporating community members as programmers and volunteers alongside students. 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, but the station now plans to move its transmitter to the WPRO-FM transmitter location and increase power to 50,000 watts. This cannot be done until 2009 because public TV station WSBE-TV (channel 36)'s analog TV antenna currently occupies the tower space where WBRU plans to put its broadcast antenna. WSBE is locating its digital antenna at the WJAR-TV antenna tower in Rehoboth, MA.
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.
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
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.
In 2007, WBRU premiered the Smashing Pumpkins new single "Tarantula" only 15 minutes after KROQ world premiered it, becoming only the second station in the country to play it and the first to play it twice when they played it a second time immediately afterwards.
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. Most other Ivy League colleges have commercial FM stations as well, including Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Cornell and Dartmouth.
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 weekday mornings, hip-hop, soul, gospel, funk, and other genres related to WBRU's 360-degree programming are played all Sunday, with reggae being played early Monday mornings, and the rest of the time is devoted to alternative rock.
On March 31, 2006, WBRU claimed to be sold to Initech (a reference to the 1999 film Office Space) and changed the format of the station from alternative rock to "Buddy FM" - a variety hits format similar to the Jack format that had emerged at stations around the country. It was later found out to be an April fools joke (in cooperation with ABC station WLNE, Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel owner Rich Lupo, Mighty Mighty Bosstones singer Dicky Barrett, and the Providence band Zox), 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.
This is not the first time that this April Fools joke had been pulled at the station, but it was the first time it had been taken to this extent. Previous April Fools Days featured similar pranks by WBRU DJs, announcing that the station would be switching formats, but the joke was usually only kept up for a couple of hours.
The station runs several different features on the station. Some of them include
- 12 Cuts Above the Rest - 7:00PM, Fridays. The Top 12 songs on the station as voted by listeners
- The List, 7:00PM, Monday through Thursdays. A themed countdown of songs, such as Top 50 Warped Tour Bands or Top 95 One Hit Wonders.
- Essential Albums 3:00PM, Monday through Thursday. An essential and important album to alternative rock.
- Home BRU'd. 12:00 AM, Monday through Wednesdays. Features Six songs by bands from Rhode Island and the neighboring area.
- The 95 Minute Retro Lunch. 12:00PM, Monday through Friday. Request hour of alternative rock of the 80's and 90's. Expanded to the five hour "Retro Brunch" on Saturday.
- New Music Nights, 9:30 onward, Monday though Friday. which features songs new to the station interspersed with the playlist.
- 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" who change the station's format to "Buddy FM"
- 2006 - On June 15, WBRU begins to stream live on the web
- 2006 - The station plays its entire catalog from A-Z
- 2007- As its annual April Fools' Joke, the station was stuck in a time warp - 1995; and all music played was recorded before the date.
- 2007 - Departing DJ Donni Khan stays on the air for 29 straight hours before signing off for the last time
Every year, the radio station holds a battle of the bands, the WBRU Annual Rock Hunt, which begin around 1980 and was held every year until 1998, and was revived in 2001.
- 1981: The Mundanes (featuring band member John Linnell, later of They Might Be Giants)
- 1982: The Schemers
- 1983: Critical Few
- 1984: unknown
- 1985: The Dames
- 1986: unknown
- 1987: Coat of Arms
- 1988: That'll Learn Ya
- 1989: Bop Harvey
- 1990: unknown
- 1991: unknown
- 1992: unknown
- 1993: Angry Salad
- 1994: John Monopoly
- 1995: Blairs Carriage
- 1996: unknown
- 1997: unknown
- 1998: The L.U.V.'s
- 1999: no competition
- 2000: no competition
- 2001: M-80
- 2002: Monty Are I
- 2003: Zox
- 2004: The Lingo
- 2005: Sasquatch & The Sick-A-Billys
- 2006: The Sleazies
- 2007: Triangle Forest
Every summer the station puts on the WBRU concert series. The shows usually feature a popular band and a few local acts opening up. Initially, there were about 10 shows per year which were free to the public and paid for by sponsor booths, but in recent years the station has started charging for these concerts and has reduced the number of shows to 3 per year. Past concert series[2] include:
- 1996: The Cardigans
- 1997: Our Lady Peace; Echo and the Bunnymen; The Seahorses
- 1998: Candlebox and Fastball; Soul Asylum; Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
- 1999: The Verve Pipe; Sponge; Fuel and Vertical Horizon
- 2000: Guster; Eve 6 and SR-71; Vertical Horizon and 3 Doors Down; Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Sum 41; Everclear; Silverchair
- 2001: Better Than Ezra
- 2002: New Found Glory and Goldfinger; Better Than Ezra and Maroon 5; Ash and Unwritten Law
- 2003: Guster and Zox; Third Eye Blind
- 2004: Lit, Local H and Finger Eleven
- 2005: The Bravery and Hot Hot Heat; Zox and the Rx Bandits; My Chemical Romance, Alkaline Trio, and Monty Are I
- 2006: Guster and Blizzard of '78; Hawthorne Heights and Yellowcard; Dropkick Murphys, Madball and The Sleazies
- 2007: Plain White T's and The Academy Is...; The Bravery, Shiny Toy Guns and Triangle Forest; Guster and Hello Mahalo
The station also has their Birthday Bash concerts in November to celebrate the stations anniversary. In 2007, the Birthday Bash was split from one concert to multiple concerts throughout November Past Birthday bashes include[3]:
- 1994: Stabbing Westward, Hole, Weezer and Sheryl Crow
- 1995: Lisa Loeb, Ben Folds Five and Everclear
- 1996: Superdrag, Republica, Soul Coughing, Local H, Luscious Jackson, G. Love and Special Sauce, The Lemonheads, Goldfinger and Fun Lovin' Criminals
- 1997: Letters to Cleo, Ben Folds Five, Catherine Wheel, Everclear, Sneaker Pimps, Days of the New, Blink-182 and Ben Harper
- 1998: Placebo, Cracker, Local H, Everlast, Marcy Playground, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Godsmack and Eels
- 1999: G. Love and Special Sauce, Vertical Horizon, Guster, Primus, Our Lady Peace, Foo Fighters, Run-DMC, Staind, Kid Rock, Tori Amos and Marcy Playground
- 2000: Orgy, Disturbed, Linkin Park and Collective Soul
- 2001: Tantric, 311, Coldplay, Adema, Remy Zero, Delta Clutch and Lit
- 2002: SR-71, Ash and Box Car Racer
- 2003: The Crystal Method, Rancid, Something Corporate, Yellowcard, Brand New and Three Days Grace
- 2004: Skindred, Papa Roach, The Used, Taking Back Sunday, Lit and Presidents of the United States of America
- 2005: Zox, Story of the Year, Morningwood and Sasquatch and the Sick-a-Billys
- 2006: My Chemical Romance and Say Anything
- 2007: Avenged Sevenfold and Operator; Papa Roach and 10 Years; Against Me! and Sage Francis; Silversun Pickups, Triangle Forest and Steel Train; Cake and Detroit Cobras
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.
- Josh Klemme, manager, Meat Loaf, Buckcherry
- Bill Lichtenstein, journalist, filmmaker and president, Lichtenstein Creative Media
- Aaron Schatz, FOXSports.com NFL analyst and founder of Football Outsiders
- Jane Spencer, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Wall Street Journal
- 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
- ^ Mitchell, Martha. (2003). "WBRU." Encyclopedia Brunoniana.
- ^ Schwartzapfel, Beth. (January/February 2006). "Radio Heads." Brown Alumni Magazine.
- WBRU official website
- WBRU Alumni of the 1960s
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WBRU
- Radio Locator information on WBRU
|
|
|
|---|---|
| By AM frequency | 550 · 630 · 790 · 920 · 990 · 1110 · 1220 · 1290 · 1320 · 1450 · 1590 |
| By FM frequency | 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 | WALE · WARL · WARV · WBRU · WCTK · WDDZ · WDOM · WEEI-FM · WELH · WHJJ · WHJY · WJFD-FM · WJMF · WKKB · WLKW · WPMZ · WPRO · WPRO-FM · WRIU · WRNI · WRNI-FM · WSKO · WSKO-FM · WSNE · WSTL · WWBB · WWKX · WWLI |
|
Rhode Island Radio Markets: Providence Other Rhode Island Radio Regions: Newport
|
|