branding whrb 95.3 fm frequency 95.3 mhz first air date december 2 1940 1940 12 02 closed circuit am may 17 1957 1957 05 17 commercial fm format variety erp 1 450 watts haat 185 meters 607 ft class a facility id 26341 transmitter coordinates 42 21 8.6 n 71 3 22.8 w 42.352389 n 71.056333 w 42.352389 ; 71.056333 whrb callsign meaning harvard radio broadcasting former callsigns whrb fm 1957 1978 former frequencies 107.1 mhz 1957 1959 owner harvard radio broadcasting co. inc. webcast listen live website www.whrb.org whrb is a commercial fm radio station in cambridge massachusetts . it broadcasts at 95.3 mhz and is operated by students at harvard college . contents 1 history 2 programming 3 notable alumni 4 references 5 external links history edit whrb was one of america s first college radio stations initially signing on as a carrier current station on december 2 1940 . after acquiring funding from the harvard crimson the station s first call sign was whcn harvard crimson network . it broke from the crimson in 1943 and adopted the call sign whrv harvard radio voice . harvard radio broadcasting co. inc. the non profit corporation that owns the station was formed february 1 1951 and the current call sign adopted . in order to reach audiences beyond harvard s campus the corporation acquired a commercial fm broadcast license from the federal communications commission fcc and began regular broadcasting on may 17 1957 at 107.1 mhz at that time called megacycles . a few years later the station changed frequency to 95.3 mhz where it has remained since . the broadcast area expanded considerably in 1995 when the main transmitter was relocated from atop holyoke center now called the smith campus center in harvard square to its present location atop one financial center in downtown boston . a facility remains at the smith site for backup purposes . broadcasts went global when internet retransmission of its programs began on november 18 1999 . in 2009 whrb made available for download the first stand alone college radio station iphone app . 1 programming edit whrb is a confederacy of on air departments each with its own staff training requirements and allocation of airtime . during the academic year the station publishes detailed bimonthly program guides 1 describing its regular programming as well as the orgy periods that end each semester . orgies the term is a registered trademark of the station are consecutive presentations of the entire musical output of composers record labels or genres sometimes running 24 hours a day for a solid week or more . station legend has it that these began when an exuberant undergraduate in 1943 decided to celebrate his passing a difficult exam by broadcasting all nine beethoven symphonies in order . orgies continue to take place during exam periods allowing the station to be run with a reduced on air staff at these busy times . orgies are broadcast each year throughout most of december and a portion of january and again from the beginning of may through harvard s commencement ceremony near the end of that month . some of whrb s regular programs have long histories of their own . for example the country music program hillbilly at harvard dates back to 1948 2 and sunday night at the opera is one of the longest running programs in its genre in the united states . the station s underground rock department record hospital began in 1984 and hosts an annual music fest . whrb also broadcasts live play by play coverage of all harvard university football and men s hockey games along with occasional broadcasts of other harvard sports like men s basketball and women s hockey and is the boston area home in season for the weekly broadcasts of the metropolitan opera . notable alumni edit prominent broadcasters who began their careers at whrb include martin bookspan voice of the new york philharmonic steve curwood host of living on earth on npr bruce morton cnn dan raviv cbs scott horsley npr and chris wallace fox news . harpsichordist igor kipnis new york times critics john rockwell and kelefa sanneh new yorker critic alex ross pianist and composer robert d. levin zdnet founder michael kolowich justin rice and christian rudder of bishop allen karl rove s personal attorney robert luskin visual artist alex kahn record producers thomas blanchard wilson jr. and jim barber and the members of the chimp rock band fat day have been on the station s staff . david mays the founder of the source magazine hosted a popular show street beat . whrb alumni are called ghosts in the elaborate and idiosyncratic lingo which has developed at the station ; 3 the term refers to their tendency to haunt the station after death graduation . references edit listen to harvard radio station on your iphone cambridge chronicle march 27 2009 accessed 2012 04 13 hillbilly at harvard hosts heady hoedown weekly beth potier harvard university gazette january 10 2002 accessed 2008 09 27 magna cum probation by sam smith 1999 . reflections on experiences at the radio station ; includes a dictionary of network usage whrb lingo . accessed 2008 09 27 external links edit official website broadband stream narrowband stream query the fcc s fm station database for whrb radio locator information on whrb query nielsen audio s fm station database for whrb whrb s comments to copyright office regarding webcasting recordkeeping requirements v t e radio stations in boston including eastern massachusetts by am frequency 590 650 680 740 800 850 890 950 9802 10301 10602 1090 1120 1150 1200 12302 1260 1300 1330 1360 13902 1410 1430 14602 3 1470 14902 1510 1550 15702 1600 by fm frequency 88.1 88.9 89.7 90.3 90.9 91.5 91.5 91.52 91.5 91.7 91.9 92.52 92.9 93.7 94.5 95.3 95.92 96.9 97.7 98.5 99.12 99.5 99.9 100.1 100.7 101.7 102.5 103.3 104.1 104.52 104.92 104.9 105.7 106.7 107.32 107.9 via fm subcarrier 67 khz radio maria estados unidos spanish talking information center radio reading service tnt radio boston vietnamese 92 khz radio voie du salut haitian creole english religion by noaa weather radio frequency 162.425 162.475 digital radio by frequency & subchannel 1030 1430 88.9 1 89.7 1 89.7 2 89.7 3 90.9 1 92.9 1 92.9 2 94.5 1 94.5 2 96.9 1 96.9 2 97.7 1 97.7 2 97.7 3 98.5 1 98.5 2 98.5 3 100.7 1 100.7 2 100.7 3 102.5 1 103.3 1 104.1 1 104.1 2 104.1 3 104.1 4 105.7 1 106.7 1 106.7 2 107.3 1 107.3 2 107.3 3 107.9 1 107.9 2 by callsign khb35 waaf2 wamg watd2 watd fm2 wazn wbix wbmx wbnw2 wboq2 wbos wbqt wbrs wbur fm wbwl wbz wbz fm wcap2 wcec2 wcrb weei weei fm wers wesx2 weze wgbh whhb whrb wild wjda wjib wjmn wkaf wklb fm wkox wlyn wmbr wmex wmfo wmjx wmln fm wmvx2 wmwm wng574 wntn wods wplm2 wplm fm2 wqom wrbb wrca wrko wrol wror fm wsro wumb fm wuml2 wunr wwdj wxks wxks fm wxlo2 wxrv wzbc wzbr wzlx wzly internet stations wbcn radiobdc defunct stations wdis wfnx wgi warc massachusetts radio markets boston cape cod new bedford fall river springfield worcester other massachusetts radio regions pittsfield see also list of radio stations in massachusetts manchester radio 1 clear channel stations with extended nighttime coverage . 2 a station from a neighboring market that serves boston and area and is considered a boston station by nielsen radio . 3 station is silent . v t e massachusetts college radio stations waic american international college wamh amherst college wbim fm bridgewater state university wbrs brandeis university wcch holyoke community college wcfm williams college wchc college of the holy cross wdjm fm framingham state university wers emerson college wgao dean college whrb harvard university wjjw mass college of liberal arts wkkl cape cod community college wmbr massachusetts institute of technology wmfo tufts university wmhc mount holyoke college wmln fm curry college wmua university of massachusetts wmwm salem state university wnrc lp nichols college wozq smith college wrbb northeastern university wscb springfield college wshl fm stonehill college wskb westfield state university wtbu boston university wtcc springfield technical community college wumd university of massachusetts dartmouth wuml university of massachusetts lowell wxpl fitchburg state university wzbc boston college wzly wellesley college see also adult contemporary classic hits college country news talk npr oldies religious rock sports top 40 urban other radio stations in massachusetts retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title whrb & oldid 728223758 categories college radio stations in massachusettsharvard universityradio stations established in 1957cambridge massachusettsmedia in middlesex county massachusetts navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 4 july 2016 at 02 22 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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