new york city hudson valley new york lower catskills ny western new jersey eastern pennsylvania above reflects terrestrial coverage ; heard worldwide via the web frequency 91.1 mhz first air date 1958 format freeform erp 1 250 watts haat 151 meters class a facility id 3249 transmitter coordinates 40 47 19.00 n 74 15 20.00 w 40.7886111 n 74.2555556 w 40.7886111 ; 74.2555556 callsign meaning w fm upsala college owner auricle communications webcast listen live website www.wfmu.org wfmu is a listener supported independent community radio station headquartered in jersey city new jersey united states broadcasting at 91.1 at 90.1 as wmfu and at 91.9 as w219dq mhz fm presenting a freeform radio format . it is the longest running freeform radio station in the u.s. 1 the station is licensed to the city of east orange new jersey and its terrestrial transmitter is located in west orange . it can be heard worldwide on the internet via streaming formats at wfmu.org . contents 1 ownership and management 2 philosophy 3 funding and operations 4 programming 5 recognition and cultural influence 6 free music archive 7 notable djs 8 online broadcasting and blogging 9 the audience engine 10 references 11 external links ownership and management edit wfmu commenced broadcasting in april 1958 licensed to upsala college in east orange new jersey . although originally a student staffed and faculty administered college radio operation by the 1980s most of the station s staff had no affiliation with the college and management though hired by the college had little involvement with the academic community . shortly before upsala s bankruptcy filing and closure on may 31 1995 a group of station executives personnel and supporters formed auricle communications and bought the license from the college making it a fully independent radio station . in august 1998 the station s studios and offices were relocated to a jersey city facility purchased with listener donations . the station s transmitter is situated atop the first watchung mountain in west orange new jersey . due to the crowded state of the noncommercial end of the fm dial in the northeastern united states as well as the need to protect wnye at nearby 91.5 the station operates at a relatively modest 1 250 watts . still it easily covers most of northern new jersey with at least grade b coverage across the hudson in new york city . wfmu has a repeater station wmfu formerly wxhd in mount hope new york broadcasting at 90.1 mhz in the hudson valley the lower catskills western new jersey and eastern pennsylvania . in january 2013 wfmu opened an additional repeater station in new city new york broadcasting at 91.9 mhz covering rockland county . philosophy edit wfmu has a stated commitment to unstructured format broadcasting . all programming is created by each individual air personality and is not restricted by any type of station wide playlist or rotation schedule . experimentation spontaneity and humor are among the station s most frequently noted distinguishing traits . unlike most commercial broadcasting and non commercial educational radio stations wfmu does not offer regularly scheduled news weather traffic sports or financial information . wfmu does not belong to any existing public radio network and nearly 100 % of its programming originates at the radio station . funding and operations edit wfmu s annual operating budget is approximately us 2 100 000 and is funded primarily by its listeners through an annual 15 2 day on air fundraising marathon as well as a fall record fair and other events . wfmu is unusual in its philosophy that on air fundraising drives only take place once a year unlike most other public and listener supported stations which have multiple pledge drives throughout the year . wfmu s air staff are unpaid volunteers some of whom have been with the station since the 1970s and 1980s . in a 1990 interview wfmu station manager ken freedman stated we ve always rejected underwriting on principle . 3 the station rejects any type of direct underwriting from governmental institutions or from for profit corporations . historically wfmu has occasionally accepted financial support from private foundations although such support has never funded wfmu s general operations . in 2006 the station accepted a 400 000 grant from the rockefeller foundation which was administering the new york state music fund for a special project see below . 4 programming edit wfmu hosts a wide range of programming from all inclusive music broadcasts with a focus on alternative rock to entertainment programming like radio improv and cooking programs to curiosities like hand cranked wax cylinders and classic radio airchecks . wfmu s music director is brian turner . recognition and cultural influence edit wfmu was named best radio station in the country by rolling stone magazine for four consecutive years 1991 1994 5 and has also been dubbed the best radio station in either nyc or the us by the village voice 6 new york press and cmj among others . the station also won three awards best specialty programming most eclectic programming and music director most likely to never sell out at the 2006 cmj college radio awards . a new york times magazine feature article called wfmu a station whose name has become like a secret handshake among a certain tastemaking cognoscenti 7 and cites velvet underground founder lou reed the simpsons creator matt groening filmmaker jim jarmusch and playwright eric bogosian as avowed fans of the station . other notable fans and supporters of wfmu include neutral milk hotel frontman jeff mangum kurt cobain 8 screenwriter director ethan coen make magazine editor in chief and boing boing co founder mark frauenfelder led zeppelin lead singer robert plant musician suzanne vega artist cindy sherman indie rock superstar ted leo sonic youth guitarists lee ranaldo 9 and thurston moore comic book artist and writer evan dorkin film director producer and actor kevin smith musician moby the cars vocalist record producer ric ocasek musician max tundra television talk show host conan o brien animation director and composer rebecca sugar 10 and blixa bargeld singer of the german band einst rzende neubauten . 11 although wfmu has traditionally eschewed news oriented programming the station volunteered its airwaves in september 2001 to become the temporary home in the new york area for amy goodman s democracy now program which was renamed democracy now in exile after it was banished from wbai and the pacifica radio network during a highly controversial coup of wbai s station management by pacifica s national board of directors . in a similar example of its support of community broadcasting wfmu began voluntarily hosting the webcast of legendary new orleans jazz music station wwoz when its studio and transmitter were destroyed in the wake of hurricane katrina in august 2005 . wfmu also took online donations on behalf of wwoz raising over 300 000 towards the rebuilding of the station . wfmu also received worldwide attention in may 2001 when national and international media outlets covered dj glen jones s successful attempt to break the guinness world record for longest consecutive radio broadcast staying on the air a full 100 hours 41 seconds . a famous 1990 telephone performance on wfmu 12 by daniel johnston was the primary inspiration for filmmaker jeff feuerzeig to create the documentary film the devil and daniel johnston . the film won the award for best documentary director at the 2005 sundance film festival . the late jeff buckley made his radio debut on wfmu in late 1991 and returned numerous times before signing with columbia records and achieving international stardom . in 2014 2015 a documentary on wfmu titled sex and broadcasting a film about wfmu was completed and began a tour of american film festivals . the film was funded in part due to a successful kickstarter campaign with the original title of freeform or death a documentary about wfmu . free music archive edit further information free music archive in 2006 wfmu was awarded a grant from the new york state music fund a program created by the office of the new york state attorney general eliot spitzer to make contemporary music of all genres more available and accessible to diverse audiences in new york state . wfmu s grant included funds to create a podsafe online music library known as the free music archive which launched on april 10 2009 . 13 the website describes itself as a social music website built around a curated library of free legal audio . 14 currently it hosts over 45 000 15 podsafe songs for free for streaming or download many under creative commons licenses . 16 the fund grew out of settlements with major recording companies investigated for violating state and federal laws prohibiting pay for play payola . grant winners were chosen on criteria that included among other things their record of broadening awareness of artists genres or styles with limited access to commercial broadcast or other mass distribution vehicles . 17 notable djs edit further information list of wfmu djs the station s past and present on air dj lineup includes many notable people from the world of art music and television . online broadcasting and blogging edit along with its traditional radio broadcast wfmu is also broadcast live over the internet in a wide variety of streaming formats including ogg vorbis and all programming is archived on the wfmu website in 128k mp3 format for four weeks then permanently thereafter in realaudio format . in 2005 wfmu expanded its online broadcasting efforts by offering 15 hours a week of internet only live programming free of the fcc s incomprehensible language restrictions explains wfmu station manager ken freedman citation needed as well as an independent 24 hour a day webcast of nachum segal s jewish moments in the morning program . in january 2006 wfmu announced the availability of the station s live stream and archives to cellular phones and other mobile devices running the operating systems windows mobile pocket pc and palm os . podcasts of 23 wfmu shows some exclusive to the podcast itself are also available . the official wfmu blog wfmu s beware of the blog was launched in 2004 and has become very popular even among non wfmu listeners . original content for the wfmu blog is contributed by station personalities as well as a variety of listeners and associates such as otis fodder and kliph nesteroff . blog items are regularly featured on the front pages of high traffic pop culture sites such as boing boing and metafilter . as of july 30 2015 beware of the blog was announced to be inactive . all content will continue to remain on line . in november 2007 wfmu became the first radio station in the world to offer live streaming to the apple iphone . 18 the audience engine edit in 2013 station manager ken freedman and assistant general manager liz berg initiated the creation of a suite of software for broadcasters journalists and online publishers known as the audience engine . 19 the project s first module a crowdfunding app is scheduled to launch in late 2015 . references edit a brief history of free form radio lowest common denominator issue 21 c. 1998 https wfmu.org marathon schedule.shtml interview with wfmu station manager ken freedman the fifth corner wbai 99.5 fm nyc 3 15 90 link to mp3 archive 19 million in music grants awarded by fund created by payola settlement 1 wfmu in fund raising drive . pristin terry . the new york times . march 13 1996 . http www.jerseycityindependent.com 2013 03 12 wfmu land of the freeform radio no hits all the time . wolf jamie . the new york times magazine . april 11 1999 . youtube clip of cobain reading wfmu s catalog of curiosities around the 6 02 mark lee ranaldo on listening to wfmu feb 2000 official website