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Re: Some WBUR history
At 07:46 PM 1/18/2002 -0500, Donna Halper wrote:
>It was written: "Eight months before
>the School of Public Relations and Communications (now known as the College
>of Communication) opened in 1947, WBUR went on the air as the second
>educational FM radio station in Boston (Emerson College's WERS was the
>first)."
>
>Umm, I am Emerson's historian, and last time I checked, WERS-FM went on
>the air in late October 1949, not in 1947... WERS was dedicated on 2
>November 1949, according to accounts in several Boston newspapers. I
>think I have a clipping somewhere from when WBUR went on the air
>too. WECB at Emerson, an AM station, went on the air before WERS, I do
>believe...
I have a Boston Univ. yearbook photocopy of a "promo" for WBUR that claims
it was the first non-commercial FM in Boston, not WERS. Not surprising
they'd try and claim that. From my research in many, many yearbooks and
old BU newspaper clippings, WBUR went on the air in March, 1950. Funny
thing is, from the clippings I've read - WBUR was really a farce of a radio
station for many, many years. If it actually wasn't, then a lot of folks
in print media decided to portray it as one. All the way up until 1973 or
so, when Jane Christo came on board, and really turned thing around in 1976
with the construction of the BU-LAW tower and a power increase to 50kW.
WECB's website claims they went on the air "fifty-three years ago" and that
little history bit was added in early 2000 (or perhaps late 1999) so that
would make them on-air in 1946-47...but they have never been FCC licensed -
always Part 15 (or pirate - they briefly had an illegal AM transmitter
setup that got them as far as Jamaica Plain - at least that's the
rumor). Greg Weremey (GM of WECB in 1986) has a great historical writeup
of WECB in the mid-to-late 1980's in the second link below.
http://wecb.emerson.edu/big/history1.html
http://wecb.emerson.edu/big/history2.html
For those interested in completeness, WTBU - BU's equivalent of WECB -
didn't come around until 1960. They actually did quite well for a
carrier-current station. That is, until the mid-1970's when WBUR got more
powerful. Then WTBU went to hell for most of the 1980's. It got better
not long before I got there in the mid 1990's, and is again in pretty
decent shape - for a carrier-current. Great BU sports coverage :-) Full
history complied by yours truly at www.friedbagels.com/wtbuhistory.html and
there's another "official" history at
http://www.wtburadio.com/dots_html/about.html - although about 95% of
what's written there is copied from what I originally penned in 1997 :-)
______________________________________________
Aaron "Bishop" Read aread@speakeasy.net
Fried Bagels Consulting www.friedbagels.com
12 Walnut St. / Waltham, MA / 02453