Re: ratings

[Shawn Mamros <mamros@MIT.EDU>]

>The story I heard (which may not be completely accurate) was that when
>Harvard put WHRB on the air they decided at the time that it was more
>economical for them to provide their station with a commercial license so
>that they could solicit their own income rather than to provide them with a
>certain amount of regular funding (from student activities funds, or
>wherever) as most other colleges do.

I'm not as familiar with 'HRB's history (where's Rob Landry when we
need him?), but...

That story could be true, but it could also have been the case that the
students who started 'HRB wanted their station to be free of Harvard's
direct influence/control, and thus decided on a commercial license (as
well as a separate corporation) to keep themselves as independent as
possible.

I know for a fact - from speaking with various alums and reading what
documentation we still have - that the students running the carrier
current station at MIT in the mid 1950s (then still WMIT, though soon
to change to WTBS) very much wanted a commercial license for their
planned over-the-air licensed station.  At first, they were even talking
about getting their own AM!  But no AM allocations were available, and
the very last available commercial FM allocation in the immediate Boston
area had just been taken (and I think it actually went to 'HRB!).  So,
as a last alternative to get any sort of license at all, the station
management reluctantly - and very reluctantly, at that - decided to apply
for a non-commercial allocation.

Were it not for what the FCC deemed a lack of space on the commercial
portion of the dial at the time, today's WMBR would almost certainly be
licensed as a commercial station.

-Shawn Mamros (very talkative today for some reason...)
E-mail to: mamros@mit.edu