WBRU
WBRU is an internet radio station based in Providence, Rhode Island. The station is owned and operated by Brown Broadcasting Service, an independent non-profit organization, and is primarily staffed by students from Brown University.
Formerly an FM modern rock radio station that broadcast at 95.5 FM in the Rhode Island area, WBRU currently broadcasts two online stations with different genres on each: indie and alternative on WBRU and an urban contemporary format on WBRU360, named after its long-time Sunday program, The 360° Experience in Sound. Since January 2018, WBRU's urban contemporary programming has been rebroadcast on Providence low-power FM station 101.1 FM, which is owned by another Brown University-affiliated group and has the call sign WBRU-LP.
WBRU has its origins in The Brown Network, which was founded in 1936 as one of the earliest amateur college radio broadcasters. By the time that the Brown Broadcasting Service organization was founded in 1962, radio broadcasting on the Brown University campus had turned from a hobbyist activity to a more serious enterprise. The organization purchased a commercial FM license in 1965 and aired its first broadcast on WBRU-FM on February 21, 1966. The station aired with a progressive rock format in the 1960s and 1970s, added new wave music into its playlist in the early 1980s, and switched to its current modern rock format in 1988. From 1966 to 2017, WBRU aired on the 95.5 FM frequency in the Providence market. In August 2017, Brown Broadcasting Service sold the 95.5 license to Educational Media Foundation and WBRU was replaced on that frequency by WLVO, a Christian adult contemporary station, at midnight on September 1, 2017. Although its primary alternative rock programming is no longer available on an over-the-air radio station, WBRU itself continues to be operated by BBS, and offers both its alternative rock and urban contemporary programming as an online-only programming provider.
History
Beginnings
WBRU traces its origin to "The Brown Network", a low-power carrier current station that broadcast at 570 kHz on the AM band, and whose signal was limited to the Brown campus. This first-ever carrier current station was established 1936 by George Abraham and David W. Borst. Abraham had originally installed an intercom system between his and Borst's dormitory rooms. The intercom links were first expanded to additional locations, and then replaced by distributed low-powered radio transmitters, which fed their signals into various buildings' electrical wires, allowing nearby radio receivers to receive the transmissions. Abraham 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 in order to connect to a number of buildings, assigning students in individual dormitories to act as "section managers" who would receive the signal and retransmit it throughout the rest of their building. After being recognized as an extra-curricular activity, The Brown Network was assigned a studio and control room located in the Faunce House student union building.The New England Hurricane of 1938 destroyed most of the distribution wires, and Borst and Abraham were forced to move the wires into the steam tunnels beneath the campus. On November 3, 1939, David Sarnoff, the president of the Radio Corporation of America made a broadcast over The Brown Network. On February 17–18, 1940 an organizing convention for the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System was held at Brown, attended by representatives from twelve colleges with existing or proposed carrier current stations. Abraham was elected the IBS Chairman, and Borst the Technical Manager. IBS's role was defined as a medium for the exchange of ideas and programs, in addition to working to attract national advertising contracts for the member stations. The first IBS intercollegiate broadcasts began on May 9, 1940, with a five-part series that was carried by stations located throughout New England at Brown, Harvard, Williams, and Wesleyan universities, in addition to the Universities of Connecticut and Rhode Island.
In 1945, student journalists began to use the WBRU call letters on air, which had been coined by undergraduate Stephen Plimpton.
The '60s and '70s
In 1962, the Brown Broadcasting Service was established as a separate entity from the University and in 1965, the BBS purchased a commercial FM license from a company that was "bankrupt". WPFM was assigned from Golden Gate Corporation to BBS on April 9, 1965 for consideration of $30,000. BBS was then split into two stations: "WBRU-AM" and WBRU. WBRU-AM, whose callsign was not FCC-assigned, continued to broadcast locally as a carrier current station and operated as the training station for WBRU, the FM station.Brown Broadcasting Service began broadcasting over WBRU at the 95.5 frequency on February 21, 1966; The first program to be transmitted from the new station was a panel show which discussed the Peace Corps.
By the mid-'60s WBRU was considered an alternative station in that much of the music was folk and rock. Joni Mitchell, Richie Havens, Joan Baez had a home on this station and were not yet on mainstream radio. After 1966 much of the music format was not mainstream. The station was considered an "Underground Rock Music Station" similar to Boston's WBCN. The station's playlist featured artists such as Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, The Fugs, Pearls Before Swine, Phil Ochs, Country Joe & The Fish and other left-leaning rock acts that were not typically played on mainstream radio.
During the 1970s, WBRU 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 was making plans to move its transmitter to the WPRO-FM transmitter location and increase power to 50,000 watts. This could not be done until 2009 because public TV station WSBE-TV'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 antenna tower in Rehoboth, Massachusetts.
Switch to alternative format
In 1988, WBRU switched its format to modern rock and has remained in that format ever since, although leaning towards playing newer artists and artists of the indie rock genre.WBRU was also frequently named one of the best radio stations in the country by numerous trade magazines such as Billboard and Rolling Stone.
The station is 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 among the first radio stations 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, 1980s and 1990s pop rarely played by the station and classic punk.
On June 15, 2006, the station began streaming live online.
2017 frequency sale and end of over-the-air broadcasting on 95.5 FM
In March 2017, the station's board of directors passed a resolution to begin seeking a buyer for the station, after 60 years of being owned and operated by the independent non-profit Brown Broadcasting Service organization. Many student members and alumni of the station were opposed to the resolution.On August 25, 2017, it was announced that Brown Broadcasting Service had sold the 95.5 FM terrestrial frequency to Educational Media Foundation, a Christian music broadcaster, which planned to take over the frequency on September 1. The WBRU call letters and brand were not included as part of the sale, and Brown Student Radio applied to the FCC to transfer the call letters to its low-power radio station. In a statement on its website, WBRU announced that it would continue operations with two online radio stations, with 24/7 feeds for both its traditional modern rock format and its 360 Degree Experience in Sound hip hop and R&B program.
WBRU aired for the last time on 95.5 FM at 11:59 p.m. on August 31 and was replaced on that frequency by Educational Media Foundation's K-Love Christian adult contemporary network. The final song played on 95.5 WBRU before the changeover was "Fell in Love with a Girl" by The White Stripes, followed by a final sign-off by programing director DJ Chilbo. One minute later, at midnight on September 1, WBRU was relaunched as an online-only station, with the first song played being "Welcome To Paradise" by Green Day. Although the sale had not been completed by the time WBRU ceased broadcasting on 95.5FM, Educational Media Foundation opted to lease the frequency until the deal was approved.
In 2017, WBRU General Manager Kishanee Hathotuwegama said that the issues driving the sale were not primarily financial; FM radio was no longer was the way young people were listening to their music, an existential issue for a station staffed by volunteer college students. The sale was controversial, particularly with a contingent of older alumni. Hathotuwegama and the student leadership of the station sent a letter asking those alumni to stop trying to derail the sale and let the current and future students use the funds from the sale to take the workshop in a direction "that maintains the spirit that WBRU encompasses."
Brown University and its president, Christina Paxson, opposed the sale of the signal and license. In April 2017, Paxson e-mailed the station's board asking them to reconsider their plan and offered financial assistance to the station. In October, well after Brown Broadcasting Service had signed a purchase and sale agreement for the station, Paxson asked the board to consider an informal proposal from earlier in the year to sell the license to Rhode Island Public Radio instead.
The day of WBRU's final broadcast on FM radio, former student staff member Tucker Hamilton alleged that the sale of the station's license was coerced; Hamilton and other members of a WBRU alumni group asked Rhode Island attorney general Peter Kilmartin to block the sale to Educational Media Foundation. According to the attorney general's office, they met "with alumni and their attorney as a courtesy, but as our attorneys explained, Rhode Island statute and regulation does not give the attorney general any legal authority to intervene, as is the case in nearly all private sales." The Federal Communications Commission approved the sale of the 95.5 FM license to Educational Media Foundation on October 24, 2017. The transfer was finalized on November 4.
In January 2018, the WBRU callsign was transferred to a low-power Providence-based station located at 101.1 MHz and operated by the non-profit Brown Student and Community Radio group and the Providence arts and event space, AS220. The group and its station are not affiliated with the current WBRU online station or Brown Broadcasting Service, but they have made an arrangement with both to rebroadcast WBRU's urban contemporary online stream over the air. The low-power station continues to air WBRU programs on a permanent basis, including the 360° Experience in Sound on Sunday-Tuesday. The indie and alternative programming continues to run as a 24/7 online radio stream through the station's website and mobile app. Both the WBRU and WBRU360 stations are listed in most online radio directories, including TuneIn.