WHUStory 101: 80 Years of UConn Radio
(This WHUS History was written by Mark Roy and appeared originally in Advance: The UConn Online Weekly. I have added my unsolicited comments and some photos for your historical edification and viewing pleasure).
From Noble To Neagle: The First 40 Years
In the Oct. 24, 1939, issue of the Connecticut Campus, there is an article that signals the future of radio broadcasting. It was a development that would change radio, yet it would not be used on the UConn campus for nearly 20 years.
The Campus story is about a special program to be broadcast on WDRC, the nation's first FM radio station. FM had been developed in 1925, and it intrigued Daniel E. Noble, a Naugatuck native who attended Connecticut Agricultural College, as the University of Connecticut was once called. It was Noble who, as a student, designed and built the college's first radio station, WABL, in 1922.
Dan Noble (2nd from left), with other Engineering faculty members in 1932.
Noble, later an instructor in engineering, also designed and supervised the construction of the WDRC-FM station on Meriden Mountain, and developed a statewide FM two-way radio system for the Connecticut State Police. The item in the Campus reported that Noble was giving a demonstration of "his new development" on WDRC.
The station Noble built on campus in 1922 was a 100-watt AM station. One of the first college stations in the nation, it signed on the air just two years after the first commercial radio stations began in the United States. The studio for WABL - (no, the call letters did not stand for We Are Broadcasting Littlethatyoulike, but for Agricultural Broadcasting Leader, since it was one of the first radio stations in the country located in a rural area)- was on the top floor of the Mechanic Arts Building, which now houses Institutional Research, near the Storrs Congregational Church. Two 103-foot steel towers were the station's antennae.
The early broadcast schedule, one hour three times a week beginning at 7:15 pm, included weather reports, agricultural news and information for farmers, college sports scores, and concerts on campus. When the power supply was increased from 100 to 500 watts in 1925, the call letters were changed to WCAC (which had been used originally by a station in Fort Smith, Arkansas that had surrendered their license), for Connecticut Agricultural College, and the broadcast hours were increased.
UConn Radio's first morning team, John Reisen and Carol Schein, hosted The Reisen-Schein Morning Program from 1927 to 1929. Photo of our second (and last) morning team
By 1931, the station was broadcasting eight hours per week. But the station license was voluntarily surrendered on April 30, 1936 due to frustrations over constant frequency and power changes mandated by the U.S. Commerce Department.
Why the College surrendered the WCAC license in 1936. From A Tower In Babel by Erik Barnouw, 1966
For a while, the only broadcast facility on campus was a short-wave station. In the aftermath of the September 1938 hurricane, which caused widespread damage throughout southern New England, it was this short-wave station that students jerry-rigged to get messages to Hartford area newspapers and students' families.
In April 1940, students were back on the air with a low-powered AM station, known as the "Husky Network," offering one hour and 15 minutes of programming three times a week from a studio in the Community House of the Storrs Congregational Church. But the station was short-lived, disbanded nearly two years later as the United States entered World War II and its equipment dispersed for use in the war effort.
A student radio station was revived in the fall of 1946, again called the "Husky Network," and broadcasting at 640 AM began early in 1947. A student contest selected new call letters: WHUS, short for HUSky Network, and not for "World's Handsomest Undergraduate Staff", or this either:
WHUS
Wall Hung Urinal Stall available in mirror, satin or colored finish
Announcement of the new call letters and a WHUS program schedule from the February 18, 1947 Connecticut Campus
The studio was in the basement of Koons Hall, until the station moved to the newly constructed Student Union Building in 1952.
The station went off the air from 1954 to 1956, owing to technical difficulties in complying with Federal Communications Commission restrictions on signal strength. But broadcasts continued - heard only in the Student Union - three to five days per week from noon to 6 p.m. Broadcasting on the FM side of the radio band began around 1956, with a 10-watt transmitter at 90.5 FM.
By 1960, AM & FM programming began at 2:00pm and sign off was when the Student Union closed at 10:00pm on weeknights, and 1:00am on Friday and Saturday nights.
More WHUStory After This Pledge Break: The CCC Marathon
Every year, the Campus Community Carnival drew upon the pent-up energies of students, as they faced the closing weeks of the academic year and final exams. It also raised tens of thousands of dollars for charity over four decades.
By 1960, the event was "the third largest carnival of its type in the United States, and the largest on the eastern seaboard," reported The Connecticut Daily Campus, as UConn's student newspaper was known at that time.
Along the way, WHUS joined in, with an annual marathon that attracted pledges from students. In 1953, the marathon ran nearly 45 hours and raised $423.29; in 1961, the pledges, ranging from 25 cents to $25, amounted to $1,375 from an 81-hour marathon.
A WHUS DJ and his lovely assistant (not Howard Stern and Robin Quivers) during the 1961 Marathon. It's Dave Millson and Terry Miller.
By the early 1960s, the Marathon worked this way: student disc jockeys played an annoying record called The Gong Gong Song for its use of off-key bangs and gongs in the chorus. Students would phone in to get that song off the air and have their request played instead, all for a pledge toward the carnival charities. When there were no pledges, the Gong Gong Song was played over and over, with the DJs urging listeners to make a pledge and get the song off the air.
Robert J doing his Afternoon Soiree from the north lounge of the Student Union at 4:57PM on April 28,1964 during a CCC Marathon.
The radio marathon and the carnival may have been victims of their own success, as well as of changing student attitudes. The 1972 event raised a record $19,000 that year, well above the goal of $12,000. The total was fueled by a record $8,669 from the WHUS marathon, which ran for 85 hours. By that year, the carnival had raised more than $165,000 for charity since it began. The next year, only $16,227 of a $20,000 goal was raised and interest in the annual event began to wane. By 1978, only the WHUS radio marathon was held and in 1979, a walkathon raised about $1,000. After more than 40 years, the Campus Community Carnival slipped into history.
From Neagle To The New Century: The Last 40 Years
Until the late 1960s, broadcasts at 670AM were dominant - playing music, sports and news that reached the students. Twenty-four hour a day AM broadcasting was accomplished in 1963 with the use of 24" automatic reverse tape reels that provided 6 hours of programming. Easy listening music (CMFCL: "Continuous Music For Continuous Listening") was broadcast from 10:00pm to 2:00pm weekdays, and "Rockin Russ" Ginns's Ancient Archives Oldies/R&B show on weekends. During the early and mid 1960s, "Top 40" popular (rock & roll) records could be heard only on WHUS-AM because WHUS-FM broadcast only slow popular, easy listening, show tunes, classical, and jazz music, like most other FM stations. But FM, with enhancements by Dan Noble and others, began to grow in usage and popularity, owing to its "static-free" signal. WHUS-FM moved to 91.7 in 1966, and there was a power increase in 1968 to 1,250 watts.
By the early 1970s FM had taken over and it was rocking- it was the place to be for aspiring DJs and for the burgeoning album-oriented record industry. Separate broadcasts continued on the AM carrier system that reached into dormitories and buildings on the Storrs campus only and was used only for training new staff. The carrier system was abandoned in the late 1970s, when all energies were put into the FM system. The station went to 3,200 watts in 1974, and stereo broadcasting came in 1977.
For its entire history, the station had shut down during school breaks and summer because of a lack of staff. In 1977, student managers decided to operate the station 24 hours a day, so the station began accepting non-student volunteers to produce programs on the air. WHUS became a "community" station.
In 1999, the station replaced the 1960s 212-foot broadcast tower with a 330-foot antenna that extends its service area by about 30 percent. The new antenna also made it possible for WHUS to be heard by thousands of people who previously could not gain access to the student- and community-operated station. Located behind the North Campus residence hall complex, the new antenna is also a boon to the state police, other area emergency services, students and others.
John Murphy, station manager, says WHUS was able to lease access to the new tower to cell phone companies and a variety of other commercial enterprises, enabling the station to continue its 24-hour format, live coverage of UConn men's and women's athletic events, and other public service programming, without increasing costs either to students through fee increases or to the state's taxpayers. The station also raises money through on-air fund drives.
"I think our location saved us," said Murphy, only slightly tongue-in-cheek, referring to the hilly landscape surrounding UConn that makes it difficult for radio and television waves to reach their customers while, at the same time, providing a high elevation for WHUS to erect their antenna. The landscape also creates problems for local ambulance crews, state and local police who now are able to enhance their communications abilities by using the WHUS tower.
For the near future, says Murphy; the station is planning to overhaul its aging equipment, making a major change to digital audio. That change comes as plans are progressing through UConn 2000 to remodel the Student Union Building. In April 2002, the studios and offices for WHUS Radio moved into the old farmhouse building that had been home to Parking and Transportation Services, making way for the renovation of the north wing of the Student Union.
WHUS Studios Through The Years: 1946 - 2007
WHUStory 102: The 1960s- More Power!
(From John Babina) In the mid 1960s I was involved with WPKN while I was doing graduate work in physics at the University of Bridgeport. In the late 60s I approached Ralph Winquist, our radio consultant who had helped us with WPKN. I asked him if there was any room left for a WHUS power increase. He said yes, if they move from 90.5 to 91.7. The 90.5 frequency was blocked from increasing power by the 90.3FM station in Albany and the 90.7FM station in Springfield MA. I wrote many letters to UConn President Homer Babbidge and the administration to get them to move the frequency because the spectrum was rapidly filling up with new stations. Also, Babbidge was involved with a group looking at public radio at that time and there was a concern they might try to do something with WHUS.
The University decided to keep the student station and find the money for the project. Ralph prepared the FCC file as a donation. Gene Roure was on-site at the time and handled the local technology issues for the increase and remote control hookup details. There were some initial problems with the tower site because the University was trying to use the SNET relay tower behind the north campus dormitories and the telephone company did not lease out their towers to anyone back then. The University had to accept the fact they would have to build their own tower. WHUS got the FCC construction permit and Ralph and I drove up to Storrs and installed the new transmitter gratis.
As a result of this effort, WHUS was able to go from 10 watts to 1250 watts without resorting to an expensive directional antenna. Once 90.5 was free, a small group in Guilford tried to put a community station on 90.5 but could not raise the funds. The 90.5 channel was free again. Connecticut Public Radio was eventually able to get the frequency and to move it (then called WPBH, now officially WPKT but currently identified as WNPR) to West Peak in Meriden. At this location CPR could get more power on 90.5 than WHUS could have gotten at Storrs.
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