Carrier Current

[Aaron Read]

It's been a few years since I've I've looked into, but during my college 
years (1994-98) the carrier current scene was alive in Boston.  Not 
exactly "well", but definitely alive.  There were carrier-current 
stations at:

Boston University (WTBU)
Emerson College (WECB)
Newbury College (WNBY)
Bentley College (WBTY)
Regis College (WRGS)
Emmanuel College **
Wentworth Institute of Technology (WWIT) **
Babson College (WBCR) **
Boston College (WVBC) **

And I'm pretty sure there were/are some others as well.  Most of these 
stations had CC equipment that was in sad shape even then; I was Tech 
Director for WTBU for three years and learned that nearly half of their 
CC-AM transmitters had been destroyed in basement flooding or just 
flat-out stolen over the years.  The remaining ones were generally not 
very good, although they usually functioned.  I think WTBU finally 
killed off the CC-AM's because the Program Audio Service lines they were 
leasing from Verizon were ridiculously expensive for what they were 
getting.   I don't know if the leaky-cable FM (Andrew NF-2D, usually) 
transmitters in Warren Towers and West Campus are still operational. 
But like most other college stations, they've almost entirely migrated 
to their webcast (and in WTBU's case, audio over a campus cable TV 
channel) as the primary means of reaching their audience.   Few students 
come to college with an AM/FM radio anymore, anyways.

As for the ** above, these are stations that either used to have CC-AM, 
or I suspect used to have CC-AM, but don't anymore.  I know WVBC did 
long ago, but today they're webcast and Cable Channel 47 only.  Babson 
and Wentworth both had pirate 10 watt FM stations briefly, and I think 
both briefly had CC-AM's but ultimately I think Babson's station 
disappeared entirely (despite their status as, allegedly, the first 
webcast-only radio station...I claim I would dispute)...Wentworth's 
might still be around, though.  Bentley might've killed off their AM's 
after they installed leaky-cable FM about 5 or 6 years ago.  WECB had 
both leaky-cable FM and CC-AM at one point, but they've been heavily 
absorbed into WERS ever since both moved into the new Ansin studios, so 
I don't know if they're webcast only or what.   As for Emmanuel, they 
have a radio club that supposedly is on a campus cable TV channel, and I 
suspect that long ago they had a CC-AM but today I have no idea.

-- 
--------------------------
Aaron Read
readaaron@friedbagels.com
Boston, MA 02446-2204