WBCN, Channel-13, and the old Hancock tower

[Rob Landry]

On Thu, 2 Dec 2021, A Joseph Ross wrote:

> Interestingly enough, according to Wikipedia, WHRB's original callsign, as a
> carrier-current station, was WHCN, which stood for Harvard Crimson Network. 
> Originally the Crimson funded the station.

It was started by some Crimson members in 1940; they organized thmselves 
as the Radio Board and called the station the Crimson Network. After three 
years or so the Radio Board became an independent organization, and 
changed the unofficial call sign from WHCN to WHRV ("Harvard Radio 
Voice"). In 1950 they were formally incorporated as The Harvard Radio 
Broadcasting Company, Inc., and the call sign became WHRB.

They acquired their FM license in 1957, initially with 90 watts on 107.1, 
but moved to 95.3, allegedly because 107.1 was too close to 106.7 for 
comfort.

Members still refer to the station internally as "the Network", a survival 
from the WHCN era.

(Disclaimer: I am on WHRB's board of trustees)


Rob