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WHRW

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WHRW-FM is the non-profit, student run, free format radio station of Binghamton University.

The station broadcasts on an FCC assigned carrier frequency of 90.5 MHz, Channel 213. The station has operational facilities in and on top of the Glenn G. Bartle Library Tower, and in the Binghamton University Student Union.

WHRW is operated by the students of Binghamton University (or the State University of New York SUNY at Binghamton, depending on how one sees the controversial "privatization" effort of the University in the 1990s), and interested members of the community, in Vestal, NY. WHRW strives to operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (which varies with member body size and interest), and broadcasts using a 2,000-watt transmitter at 90.5 MHz on the FM dial.

The station is managed primarily by Binghamton University students. Each year, a Board of Directors is appointed by the elected General Manager. Among the positions on the Board:

  • A Program Director, who is responsible for scheduling shows and enforcing on-air rules
  • A Production Director, who manages on-air production (mostly Public Service Announcements, Promotional Announcements for local and University events, and general station spots such as General Disclaimers
  • A Business Manager, who combines the typical organizational functions of Treasurer and Secretary
  • A Technical Director, who works with the Chief Engineer to maintain the electrical and mechanical equipment in the station.
  • A Record Librarian, who manages the immense WHRW Music Libraries.
  • Music Department Directors, who lead the specific music departments of the station (These Directors are not appointed by the GM; rather, each music department elects its directors shortly after the GM election)
  • More recently, a Webmaster who handles not only WHRW's Internet Server (which hosts the websites, serves e-mail, and runs the streaming-audio feeds), but typically also maintains the in-house computers.

WHRW's member body is made up entirely of volunteers, who become members first by "apprenticing" under a current member for a programming season (typically a school semester or over the summer), then passing a Clearance Exam. Since 1994, station members participate in a "Station Service" program, by which they accrue hours by doing things that benefit of the station (auditioning CDs for profanities; cleaning up the studios; doing production work; volunteering in the News Department; and many other things). Those hours are then used to determine the member's "slotting priority" when they request a show. This guarantees that those who give the most to the station get back the most.

Beginnings as a radio "workshop"

Details about the beginnings of "The Harpur Radio Workshop" are few and far between (in the 50s, SUNY Binghamton was simply called "Harpur College," thus the name of the organization). In 1954, a loose organization formally calls "The Radio Workshop of Harpur College" is formed, and it seems that its primary function was to connect interested college students with area commercial radio stations and get them involved in doing production work for these stations.

In October 1961, members of the Workshop begin to construct their own AM transmitter. For those with a rudimentary interest in electronics, a low-powered AM transmitter is not a difficult device to build. The first incarnation of a self-broadcasting Workshop is born in May 1962, then called WRAF (the letters "RAF" are chosen by the Workshop because SUNY Binghamton's Rafuse Residence Hall is where the broadcasts originate). While the broadcasts are received on 590 kHz on a standard AM radio, the broadcasts are carrier-current, which is "closed-circuit" in nature, since it is transmitted through the power lines of only two residence halls. Thus only the residents of those halls can receive the maiden broadcasts.

A "No Rock-and-Roll" Policy

While WHRW's free format environment (see below) would arguably become the station's strongest suit, the days of experimental FM had not yet happened, and WRAF's days were markedly different. The station regularly polled the student body to try and tailor a programming schedule that would be acceptable to its audience. WRAF actually had a "no rock-and-roll" policy, and focused its broadcast day mostly on classical and "good" non-classical music. However, in 1965, WRAF had its first rock-and-roll show. But times were changing.

The Move to FM

in 1965, WRAF's General Manager proposes moving the station to the FM band, which was still largely unused. In November of that year, the FCC approves the construction of an educational station at the frequency 90.5 MHz (the frequency the station itself requested). The station's first antenna is atop a 60-foot pole located behind the Student Center. The FCC approves the station's request of "WHRW" as the new station's call letters. "HRW" is chosen to represent "Harpur Radio Workshop." While stereo FM had been introduced in the early 1960s, it was not an inexpensive technology, and WHRW's first transmitter was a humble 10 watts, in mono.

WHRW's first broadcast was on Friday, February 4, 1966, at 7:30PM. The maiden broadcast is coverage of a Binghamton Colonials basketball game. The formal "inaugural" broadcast took place two days later.

The broadcasting followed the times and the culture in which it was steeped: Jazz, folk, classical, rock, and other forms of music; news and culture coverage that leaned progressive (Vietnam War protests and debates, news from Pacifica Radio and the BBC); and interviews with local political figures. The regular broadcast schedule ran from Sunday through Thursday, from about 5pm to 1am.

WHRW was only the third FM radio station in the Binghamton market. Why was it such a lonely dial, almost ten years after FM was introduced? Quite simply, commercial radio didn't know what to do with it. Hi-fidelity "popular" music was not yet ubiquitous, and AM was more than adequate for the music of the time. And, since RCA had spent almost 30 years trying to keep FM out of the picture (FM was patented in 1933) so that they wouldn't have to force their millions and millions of customers to buy a new receiver set. Thus, AM stations were loath to put unique programming on their FM stations, because of the saturation of AM-only receivers in the marketplace. This is why many FM stations simply "simulcast" their AM parents' programming for many years.

In the late 1960s, construction on the new "Faculty Tower" (later to be more famously named the Glenn G. Bartle Library Tower) is completed. It is the tallest building on campus (18 stories) and one of the tallest buildings in the Binghamton area, though it is deep in a valley. WHRW's antenna was moved to the top of this building in April of 1968, and remains there to this day.

The "Old Station"

While WRAF/WHRW had called several locations home before September of 1968, it would be the move during that month that would find them a home for more than 30 years. University Union 266, on what is called the "Mezzanine Level" of the University Union, was WHRW's new home in 1968.

The facility was built specifically for the station, with two control rooms (which were named "Control Room 1", or "CR-1"; and "Control Room 2", or "CR-2"), a place for extra people to be hosted for group broadcasts (dubbed "Studio A"), rooms for records, and office space. There was also a "lobby," an open room that had couches and chairs, bulletin boards with station news and current events, and WHRW's broadcast piped in through speakers.

Sometime in the 1980s, station members began to augment the normal decor of a college radio station by writing and drawing on the walls. This "graffiti" gave the station an even more enigmatic feel, and by 2000 nearly every inch of the facility had been "personalized" in one form or another.

In 2002 (see below), the station was forced to move to the new University Union after Binghamton University decided they were repurposing the original Union building. However, the budget for the project was misappropriated, and the project ran out of money before the old building could be repurposed. As of 2005, the shell of the "old station," as it is referred to, still exists, in exactly the condition in which it was left after the move.

Moe Loogham

In the early 1970s, a strange graffito appeared on walls surrounding on-campus construction sites at Binghamton University, which was then known as Harpur College: "Moe Loogham Is Coming!". From about 1970 onward, Moe Loogham was referred to constantly, on WHRW's programs, in station publications, and around campus.

Moe appears to be an enigmatic folk legend whose name is derived from the name of a social club at a Hicksville, Long Island high school. (Moe's last name is thought by some to be a re-working of the name of the Rolling Stones' record producer, Andrew Loog Oldham). Loogham was said by some to be a drug dealer (in those days, a counterculture messiah) or a shipment of drugs (which in those days usually meant marijuana, hashish or the odd tablet of LSD). In the vein of folk legend, he was supposed to have "so many drugs that no one would ever need to get drugs from anyone else again," and "drugs of many kinds and colors, drugs beyond one's wildest dreams." It was a way to relive the euphoria of the 1960s. Still others refer to Moe as the "Bringer of All-Rightness". A popular saying on campus was: "When Moe gets here, everything will be All Right!"

In more recent years as new generations have called WHRW their own, Moe has become sort of a godhead describing the free spirit of WHRW. He is now more commonly related to "a way to describe the euphoria often felt when good radio happens just right."

The Golden Age of FM

The draw of FM radio as a stand-alone market was actually the result of no one really paying attention. In the early 1970s, some adventurous FM stations broke away from simply simulcasting the broadcasts on the AM stations that owned them, and began experimenting with music. Many stations played records by bands few AM radio listeners had heard of at the time such as Led Zeppelin, The Chambers Brothers, Iron Butterfly, and by spoken-word acts like Firesign Theatre. Unlike today, where a new record is marketed so much that the listener is expected to feel a certain way about it by the time it is heard, in the late 60's and early 70s it worked exactly the opposite way: as in the early days of rock and roll, DJs would play a record based upon their own judgement, and listeners would either become excited about it, making it popular; or the music would go the way of all also-rans.

Experimental programming was also big, and this time period is also where the term "progressive" or "underground" radio was born. It was simply a way to describe a station that does not have a set format (like almost all stations do today). A DJ could play whatever he or she wanted, and a station's popularity was how well its DJs weaved through an unlikely set of music. Classical was played alongside acid jazz; rock against avant-garde. In the mid-1970's free-form radio fell out of vogue and stations adopted an AM-like playlist and rotation schedule, though unlike today many stations would still offer special programming such as live concert broadcasts and comedy shows. WHRW decided to preserve this format throughout those years and beyond, perhaps not intentionally, but simply by sticking with a style that suited its DJ's and listeners.

Today, four decades after going on the air, WHRW's free-format philosophy is of paramount importance to most station members. Since the days of freeform commercial FM, the commercial radio market has become more and more stringently formatted and automation-driven, leaving no room for experimentation or the possibility that any artist would ever become popular without the official imprimatur of major-label or broadcast-industry focus groups. Even satellite radio stations mostly play music by artists with long-established reputations in the music industry (though there is more variety of those artists than traditional FM stations).

The Station Today

In 2002, the station was forced to move into the new University Union building. To those who remember the old station facilities (see above), the new facilities are only marginally acceptable, for several reasons. Some of the most popular complaints are:

  • The new building is very sterile, looks like every other building in the world, no personality, no home-like feeling.
  • The new facilities are smaller, and the music library is already too small.
  • The new facilities are in the basement of a concrete-cast building, and cellphones do not work. Also, a special antenna had to be installed and run through to the top floor of the building so that the station could even hear itself.
  • The University does not allow station members to graffiti the walls.
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