assigned the icao code wrbc see batulicin airport . wrbc city lewiston maine broadcast area lewiston auburn maine branding the monkey slogan wrbc rocks your world frequency 91.5 mhz first air date october 26 1958 format freeform erp 120 watts haat 5 meters class a callsign meaning radio bates college former callsigns wcou wvbc wrjr owner president & trustees of bates college webcast listen live website www.wrbcradio.com wrbc is the college radio station of bates college located in lewiston maine and at 91.5 mhz on the fm dial . the wrbc studio is located in the basement of 31 frye street across from the student coffee house the ronj . the wrbc board of directors publish an online music blog called the monkey . 1 wrbc is currently ranked by the princeton review as the 12th best college radio station in the united states and canada making it the top college radio in the new england small college athletic conference . 2 wrbc was also the maine headquarters for college radio day in october 2012 . contents 1 history 1.1 1950s 1.2 1970s and 1980s 1.3 1990s and present day 2 references 3 external links history edit originally started as an am station radio at bates began with the efforts of rhetoric professor and debate coach brooks quimby . a radio enthusiast he ran his own amateur station and wrote the fcc in 1942 asking to build a 10 watt radio station on campus . though his efforts to secure a license were unsuccessful he did not give up . bates on the air a weekly program produced by his radio class from studios in chase hall debuted in 1945 on wcou in lewiston . this program was also occasionally carried on stations in portland and augusta and continued into the mid 1950s . 1950s edit in the spring of 1951 interest in a campus radio station resurfaced among the student body . a group of students met to organize and plan for the construction . a professor in the physics department volunteered to build the transmitting equipment for a carrier current am station . that fall an organizational meeting drew 150 people . the station calling itself wvbc voice of bates college signed on at 9 00 p.m. on friday evening november 2 1951 . broadcasting from the chase hall studios it initially featured a two hour schedule of programming six nights a week . the signal could be heard at 640 khz am in all campus buildings except the infirmary . despite its beginning technical problems plagued the station in the 1950s . because of these problems bates college again applied to the fcc for a 10 watt station on the then relatively new fm band . the staff suggested several possible call signs for the new station to the fcc including wvbc wbcr wrbc wvob and wrjr after the first initials of staff members ron cook joan williams lepper ray hendess and robert kalisher . the fcc decided on the call letters wrjr . the new station took to the public airwaves at 1 00 p.m. on sunday october 26 1958 at 91.5 fm from purpose built studios in the basement of pettigrew hall . despite its technical superiority fm radio had yet to come into mass acceptance . since so few people owned fm capable radios in 1958 fm to am converters were initially installed at strategic locations around the bates college campus to rebroadcast the signal at 800 am . however these converters soon either broke down or were shut down due to issues with off campus interference . as a result wrjr found itself broadcasting to slim audiences both on campus and off . 1970s and 1980s edit in the early 1970s wrjr moved from its purpose built studio in the basement of pettigrew to its present quarters in the basement of the office of career services at 31 frye street . the new basement location offered multiple studios which have since converted to office space . the station s transmitting antenna was also moved to its present location behind its current studios . though the call letters wrjr had been with the station for many years they were not immediately interpretable as being related to bates college . station managers including jonathan hall now a television news anchor in boston had tried for a number of combinations including wbcr bates college radio and wvbc voice of bates college . fortunately for the college in the late 1970s an all news am station in jackson mississippi with the call letters wrbc . went silent . the station applied to the fcc for a new call sign and on april 5 1981 the 126th anniversary of bates founding the small college station formally became known as wrbc radio bates college . in 1982 wrbc increased its power output from 10 watts to the present 120 watts . this increased the station s listening area greatly . previously the station could only be heard on campus and in the surrounding neighborhoods of lewiston . although previously licensed to transmit at up to 10 watts a measurement made in 1974 recorded only 3 watts of actual output from the antenna . after the upgrade the station could now be picked up for about a 10 15 mile radius around the bates campus . the station commenced 24 hour operation in the early 1980s . students would work 3 hour shifts and it was no problem finding people willing to do 3 6 am during the week . wrbc also featured news from the abc radio network during this period through an agreement with local station wlam . 1990s and present day edit in 1990 general manager sheri pizzi and program director george reese landed funding to renovate the station s on air and production studies and convert the entire station from lp to cd . they began a program to reach out to the local community that included shows broadcast by lewiston auburn residents . as summer 1992 approached general manager denis howard and his fellow staff members announced an open invitation to residents of the greater lewiston auburn area to attend the weekly station meetings . this was done to determine interest in and the potential of broadcasting throughout the summer months after most bates students had returned home . this program increased the station s listenership in the twin cities as many wrbc genre directors are members of the l a community and not bates students . in 2013 twenty out of wrbc s 75 active radio shows are hosted by members of the l a community . references edit http wrbcradio.com blog http www.princetonreview.com schoollist.aspx type r & id 689 external links edit official website query the fcc s fm station database for wrbc radio locator information on wrbc query nielsen audio s fm station database for wrbc v t e bates college campus campus of bates college bates college museum of art stephens observatory frye street hathorn hall bates morse mountain historic quad history history of bates college benjamin bates oren burbank cheney ivy day little ivies hidden ivies noted alumni and faculty lane hall athletics new england small college athletic conference garcelon field colby bates bowdoin consortium colby bates bowdoin chase regatta student life the bates student bates dance festival wrbc newman day president clayton spencer bates college s academic scarf v t e radio stations in the lewiston auburn maine market by am frequency 560 900 1240 1470 by fm frequency 88.1 89.3 90.1 91.5 92.3 92.7 93.1 93.9 94.9 95.5 96.3 97.9 98.9 99.9 100.7 101.3 101.9 102.9 103.7 104.3 105.9 107.5 by callsign wabk fm warx wbci wblm wclz wcme wezr wezr fm wfnk wgan whom wjbq wjjb fm wlam wlob fm wmea wmey wmgx wmme fm wmsj wpkq woxo fm wpor wrbc wtht wvqm maine radio markets augusta waterville bangor portland other maine radio regions northern & downeast maine lewiston auburn see also list of radio stations in maine v t e maine college radio stations wbor bowdoin college whsn husson college wmeb fm university of maine wmhb colby college wmpg university of southern maine wrbc bates college wumf university of maine farmington wumm university of maine machias wupi university of maine presque isle defunct wrne ricker college wufk university of maine fort kent see also adult contemporary classic hits college country news talk npr oldies religious rock sports top 40 urban other radio stations in maine coordinates 44 06 18 n 70 12 29 w 44.105 n 70.208 w 44.105 ; 70.208 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wrbc & oldid 738667450 categories college radio stations in maineradio stations in lewiston maineradio stations established in 19581958 establishments in mainebates collegehidden categories coordinates on wikidata 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 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