WUSB (FM)
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| WUSB | |
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| City of license | Stony Brook, New York |
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| Broadcast area | Long Island |
| Branding | WUSB |
| Slogan | Radio Free Long Island |
| Frequency | 90.1 MHz |
| First air date | June 27, 1977 |
| Format | Freeform |
| ERP | 3,600 watts |
| HAAT | 162 meters |
| Class | B1 |
| Callsign meaning | University of Stony Brook |
| Owner | State University of New York Board of Trustees |
| Website | www.wusb.fm |
WUSB is the State University of New York at Stony Brook's radio station. A non-commercial station located in Stony Brook, New York broadcasting on 90.1 MHz on the FM dial, the station is staffed by more than 150 volunteers who devote their time and energy for the love of music and free-form radio. WUSB is a Freeform radio station.
The station is FCC-licensed and its antenna is located on Bald Hill in Farmingville, New York, broadcasting at 3600 watts at 604 feet above sea level, covering most of Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk counties), parts of Southern Connecticut, Westchester County, and even small portions of New York City and coastal New Jersey.
The station has been broadcasting on the FM band since June 27, 1977, and from its current location in Bald Hill since 1995. Previously, the station broadcast on 820 kc on the campus carrier current AM system, and the transmitter and antenna were located on campus, on the top of the Graduate Chemistry building. The studios are located in Stony Brook University's Student Union. WUSB is partially listener-supported.
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[edit] History
The station began in 1962 as a carrier current station, broadcasting only within the confines of the then-new Stony Brook campus on 820 khz on the AM band. The station was, at the time, an integral part of Stony Brook University's once lively concert scene, which brought such bands and acts as Simon and Garfunkel, Thelonious Monk, The Grateful Dead (in their first-ever East Coast concert appearance), Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Arlo Guthrie, Joni Mitchell, Janis Joplin, the Allman Brothers Band, Pink Floyd, Van Morrison, The Who, Jethro Tull, Cat Stevens, Hot Tuna, Santana, Stony Brook's own Blue Öyster Cult, the Beach Boys, Frank Zappa, Billy Joel, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Jerry Garcia and more. Many of these musicians paid a visit to the station as well. In its earliest days, the studios were located in a "hole in the ground" in the Pritchard Gymnasium, before relocating to another cramped space in the basement of one of the dormitories, James College. In 1975, the studios then moved to the Student Union, Room 240, where they remain to this day.
In 1965, SUNY mandated that all of its campus radio stations across the state make the transition to FM, as part of its master plan for the university system. Since it was up to each individual school to obtain a license on its own, WUSB began a long battle to get a spot on the increasingly crowded FM dial. Efforts to get the station on FM began in 1970, originally with an attempt to purchase a plot of land near campus to build a transmitter. SUNY regulations, however, prevented that from happening. Ultimately, construction began on a tower at the top of the Graduate Chemistry building, which, at the time, was the tallest building on the Stony Brook campus, and approval for the construction of the new station was received from the State University Board of Trustees in 1973.
However, WUSB's construction permit was challenged by Adelphi University, whose station, WBAU, which at the time broadcast on the first-adjacent frequency, 90.3, out of Garden City on Long Island (but which is no longer on the air), objected to the proposed station, citing potential interference to their signal. However, the FCC overruled WBAU's objections in 1976, and granted WUSB a license to begin broadcasting in 1977.
At the time (as this is no longer true), WUSB was Long Island's most powerful non-commercial radio station, putting out 4000 watts of power from the top of the Graduate Chemistry building, primarily covering central Suffolk County. The station signed on as an FM station for the first time on June 27, 1977, at 5:30 in the afternoon.
The station's first General Manager was Norm Prusslin, a University employee, adjunct professor and advisor, who held the position continuously until his retirement in early 2006. He was later succeeded as General Manager by by Isobel Breheny Schafer. Additionally, many of the station's original volunteers and its Chief Engineer, Frank Burgert, who in 1977 were students and recent alumni of Stony Brook, remain with the radio station as volunteers to this day. Rich Koch was the station's first Program Director after the station began broadcasting on the FM dial.
WUSB's antenna location provided excellent coverage to the campus and much of Long Island's North Shore, however, the high wattage of the station was beginning to have adverse effects on experiments being conducted in the laboratories of the Chemistry building, as well as the nearby Physics building. In the mid-1980s, it was determined that the antenna would need to be moved, or wattage would have to be drastically reduced to eliminate much of the interference. It was thus decided to move the antenna to a new off campus location.
Many potential locations across Suffolk County were examined, but in the end, an agreement was reached with the owners of a new tower being constructed at Bald Hill in Farmingville, the highest point on Long Island. WBLI had already signed on as a tenant on the new tower, and WUSB leased space on the new tower as well. However, objections were raised again, with first-adjacent stations broadcasting on 89.9 and 90.3 FM on Long Island. WUSB ultimately was able to successfully overcome these objections, and since November, 1995, had broadcast from the top of the "Mile High" tower at Farmingville. The move also resulted in WUSB increasing its geographic coverage of Long Island (within its primary and secondary signal contours) by close to 100%, despite the fact that power was lowered to 3600 watts as part of the move. A byproduct of the move was that reception on campus worsened, as a result of the local topography and structures creating a partial barrier between the University and Bald Hill. To this day, the old antenna location remains at the top of the Graduate Chemistry building, used as an emergency alternative to the Farmingville transmitter site, as well as an emergency studio-transmitter link to the Farmingville tower. During normal operations, WUSB's audio signal is sent from its studios to the transmitter site via a T1 line.
WUSB, in 2003, applied for two translators which, if granted by the FCC, would allow the station to rebroadcast its signal on other frequencies in the North Shore, improving the signal in areas such as the main campus where there are dead spots or interference from other stations. These applications are still pending, as of May 2008.
Since 1989, WUSB has held annual radiothons (originally once per year, now twice per year, in the fall and spring) to raise money to pay for the station's operating expenses, which are not fully met by the University's Undergraduate Student Government (formerly known as Polity). Much of the money raised goes to pay for the station's transmitter lease and fixed operating expenses.
In 2007, after a long period of planning and testing, WUSB launched "WUSB2," an online-only counterpart to the main WUSB signal. WUSB2 features programming from new student DJs along with a diverse rotation of new music from many genres. The WUSB2 service also carries regularly-scheduled programming that has been pre-empted by special broadcasts on the main signal, such as Stony Brook Seawolves sports broadcasts.
[edit] Programming
Since its inception, WUSB has provided free-form programming, encompassing a variety of different styles and genres, ranging from jazz and classical, to punk rock, reggae and world music, and many genres in between. Additionally, the station also aired a large variety of public affairs programs, ethnic programs, and programming of interest to students.
To this day, WUSB's programming remains very similar, with a lot of the original volunteer staff still airing programming on a regular basis, alongside newer volunteers, which range from undergraduate and graduate students, to recent alumni of Stony Brook, to local residents and listeners.
Originally, the station broadcast from 7 a.m. (8 a.m. on the weekends) to 2:30 a.m., however, over time, WUSB began to broadcast 24 hours per day, which it still does today with rare exceptions. Notable programming included The Early Morning Riser, hosted by General Manager Norm Prusslin, Turmoil, which became the longest-running punk rock radio program in the world before ending its run in 2004, Onda Nueva, featuring Salsa music and public affairs programming geared to Long Island's Latino community and which has been on the air since the late 1970s, and Saturday's a Party, which remains on the air to this day as the world's longest-running Reggae music program on the radio.
Much of the morning programming is dedicated to eclectic forms of music, ranging from jazz to hiphop blues, while the late mornings and early afternoons primarily feature public affairs and political programming, as well as classical music several times per week. On Friday mornings, Jazz musician Sam Taylor hosts Sam Taylor's Blues, while between 2:30 to 5:00 p.m. on weekday afternoons, WUSB has traditionally featured new music, ranging from punk to indie to electronic music to underground hip-hop.
Weekday afternoons from 5 to 6 pm feature the nationally syndicated Democracy Now!, hosted by Amy Goodman.
Early evenings feature a variety of programming, ranging from Emmanuel Goldstein's Off the Wall (radio) on Tuesdays, to programming featuring campus and student issues, the local music scene, folk music, and more. Late evenings are almost exclusively dedicated to music, featuring such genres as rockabilly, new wave, global music, soul, reggae, hip-hop, industrial, noise, blues, Bluegrass, classic rock and more. On Friday nights, Destinies-The Voice of Science Fiction airs; the longest-running (since 1983), and possibly only science fiction radio program on college radio. The music continues into the overnight hours, where a mixture of first-time DJ's and long-time volunteers air a variety of genres, including some material which is only legally permitted by the FCC to be aired between the safe harbor hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m..
Weekend programming features a lot of ethnic fare, including Onda Nueva, Polka, and programming in Italian, Korean and Chinese, as well as jazz, country music, a cappella, children's music, Celtic and folk music, electronic music, political talk, and The Sports Section, Long Island's longest-running live sports call-in show.
WUSB also airs a number of Stony Brook University events, ceremonies and lectures, including numerous broadcasts of Stony Brook's NCAA Division I sports teams, the Stony Brook Seawolves, as well as the university's winter and spring commencement ceremonies. Numerous public service announcements are also regularly aired.
WUSB is a member of many organizations, including the National Association of Broadcasters, the Press Club of Long Island, and the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS). For the past several years, WUSB has served as the host station for IBS's national conference, held in New York City each March.
[edit] Notable Alumni
- Ray Anderson, Jazz musician
- Isobel Breheny-Schafer, WUSB Radio General Manager, Stony Brook University Student Media Advisor
- Eric Corley, Editor and founder of 2600 Magazine
- Ed Davis
- Steve Kreitzer, one-time host of Turmoil, the longest-running punk rock radio show in the world
- Nigey Lennon, musician
- Jim Dexter, musician
- Richard L'Hommedieu, President of the Long Island Music Hall of Fame
- Dave Goodman, co-producer "RADIO with a VIEW" and founder, Independent Broadcast Information Service
- Marc Stern, co-producer, "RADIO with a VIEW" and Chair, History Department, Bentley College, Waltham, MA
- Bob Longman, web author of Spirithome.com
- Scott MacDonald
- Bill McNulty, activist
- Buddy Merriam, bluegrass musician
- Jill Morrison, Journalist
- Ron Phillips
- Norman Prusslin, Longtime WUSB General Manager, President of the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS) and board member of the Press Club of Long Island
- John Rosenfelder, music executive
- Steven Sanfilippo
- Ted Schreiber
- Ed Schwartz, XM Director of Broadcast Engineering
- John Tabacco, composer, vocalist, recording engineer
- Sam Taylor, Blues and Jazz musician
- John Vernile, Sony/Columbia Records executive
- Theresa Zapolska, Polka musician
- Curt Hylton, Sports broadcaster
- Jeff Bernstein, Sports Broadcaster, [1]
- Matt Mankiewich, Sports broadcaster
- Dave Vallone, Sports broadcaster
- Dave Molow, Sports broadcaster
This section is still under development
[edit] Radio Training
Each fall and spring, WUSB holds a radio training class, open to all residents of the community as well as University students, who are interested in learning more about radio and broadcasting, and offering the opportunity for interested individuals to become volunteer staff at the station, upon successful completion of training and approval of the Program Director. On occasion, a training class is also offered by the station during the summer months.
[edit] External links
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