WHRW
Encyclopedia
WHRW is Binghamton University
's non-profit, student run, free format
radio station
. Licensed to Binghamton, New York
, USA, the station serves the New York college area. The station is currently owned by Binghamton University
. The station has operational facilities in and on top of the Glenn G. Bartle Library Tower, and in the SUNY Binghamton Student Union.
WHRW is operated by the students of SUNY Binghamton, and interested members of the Greater Binghamton
community. 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.
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 1996, station members participate in a "Station Service" program, by which they accrue hours by doing things that benefit 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.
In October 1961, members of the Workshop began to construct their own AM transmitter. The first incarnation of a self-broadcasting Workshop started in May 1962, then called WRAF (the letters "RAF" were chosen by the Workshop because SUNY Binghamton's Rafuse Residence Hall was where the broadcasts originated). While the broadcasts were received on 590 kHz
on a standard AM radio, the broadcasts are carrier-current, which is "closed-circuit" in nature, as they were transmitted through the power lines of only two residence halls. Accordingly, only the residents of those halls could receive the maiden broadcasts.
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.
WHRW's first broadcast was on Friday, February 4, 1966, at 7:30PM, which was coverage of a Binghamton Colonials basketball game. The formal "inaugural" broadcast took place two days later. WHRW was only the third FM radio station in the Binghamton market.
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.
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. WHRW's antenna was moved to the top of this building in April 1968, and remains there to this day.
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.
In the late 1960s, 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 re-purposing 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 re-purposed. The shell of the "old station," as it was called, existed in exactly the condition in which it was left after the move for five years, until mid-2007, when renovation work finally began.
started to appear on campus. A picture in the 1973 yearbook shows "Moe Loogham Is Coming!" spray-painted on the plywood walls surrounding the School of Engineering building construction site at Binghamton University, which was then known as Harpur College. From the mid 1970s onward, Moe Loogham was referred to frequently on WHRW's programs, in station publications, and all around campus. In fact, Moe's name has been seen in such diverse locations as at the top of the Washington Monument
and in downtown Prague
.
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 believed to be a re-working of the name of the Rolling Stones' record producer, Andrew Loog Oldham
). First word of Moe came to the third floor of the dormitory Delaware Hall on September 10, 1970. He was thought of more as the "Bringer of all Rightness" than anything else. In ensuing months, "Men (and Women) of Moe" would engage in "slapping missions" where simply-printed stickers with the words "Moe Loogham is Coming!" printed on them in plain block letters would be pasted in prominent locations on and off campus (like Lecture Hall-1, a popular meeting place for classes and student organizations on the Binghamton University campus).
"Moe" was said by some to be a drug dealer (which in those days meant a counterculture
figure who functioned more like a neighborhood grocer or bartender than a criminal nuisance) or a shipment of drugs (which in those days usually meant marijuana
("Moe's Loogs"...), hashish
or the odd tablet or sugar-cube of LSD
). According to 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." In later years, Moe was the nostalgic icon for the euphoria of the 1960s. But regardless of the times, the popular saying on campus was that "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
to long-standing station members, a metaphor for the free spirit of WHRW. Moe's name is now often used as a way to describe the euphoria often felt when good radio happens just right.
and WNEW-FM) began experimenting with programming based upon album tracks, not only from established artists but from more obscure bands as well. Many of these 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 spoken-comedy acts like Firesign Theatre. As in the early days of rock and roll
, DJs would play a record based mostly upon their own judgement.
Experimental programming was also becoming popular, especially among college stations, and this time period is also where the term "progressive" or "underground" radio was born. It was the 1960s description of what we now call free-form radio. A DJ could play whatever he or she wanted as long as it did not violate Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) regulations (some DJs played things which most certainly did!), and a station's popularity depended upon how well its DJs knew music and how they applied that knowledge on the air. Classical was played alongside jazz
; rock against folk music
or folk-rock, and so on. Shows were often semi-scripted, using tape production to introduce both commentary and comedy rather than simple turn-table seque-ways to press disparate sound, culture and music into a holistic collage that sometimes became art, but often challenged mind and senses in ways nearly painful for the thrill. In the mid-1970s free-form radio fell out of vogue, and many formerly progressive FM stations adopted an AM-like playlist and rotation schedule, though unlike today many of those stations would still offer specialty programming such as live concert simulcasts (most notably the King Biscuit Flower Hour
) and comedy shows such as the National Lampoon Radio Hour and Dr. Demento
. WHRW decided to preserve this format throughout those years and beyond, perhaps not intentionally, but simply by sticking with a style that suited its DJs and listeners.
Since the collapse of free-form 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-record-label or broadcast-industry focus groups. It has been said time and again that even Elvis Presley
or The Beatles
would have had a difficult time succeeding if the radio industry of the 1950s and 60's were like the current ultra-conservative climate of radio. But four decades after going on the air, WHRW has bucked current trends and retained its free-format philosophy.
Binghamton University
Binghamton University, also formally called State University of New York at Binghamton, , is a public research university in the State of New York. The University is one of the four university centers in the State University of New York system...
's non-profit, student run, free format
Freeform (radio format)
Freeform, or freeform radio, is a radio station programming format in which the disc jockey is given total control over what music to play, regardless of music genre or commercial interests. Freeform radio stands in contrast to most commercial radio stations, in which DJs have little or no...
radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
. Licensed to Binghamton, New York
Binghamton, New York
Binghamton is a city in the Southern Tier of New York in the United States. It is near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers...
, USA, the station serves the New York college area. The station is currently owned by Binghamton University
Binghamton University
Binghamton University, also formally called State University of New York at Binghamton, , is a public research university in the State of New York. The University is one of the four university centers in the State University of New York system...
. The station has operational facilities in and on top of the Glenn G. Bartle Library Tower, and in the SUNY Binghamton Student Union.
WHRW is operated by the students of SUNY Binghamton, and interested members of the Greater Binghamton
Greater Binghamton
The Binghamton Metropolitan Statistical Area, also called Greater Binghamton, is a region of southern upstate New York in the Northeastern United States, anchored by the city of Binghamton...
community. 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.
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 1996, station members participate in a "Station Service" program, by which they accrue hours by doing things that benefit 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 1950s, the college started as "Harpur College," an offshoot of Syracuse University, thus the name of the organization). In 1954, a loose organization formally called "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 began to construct their own AM transmitter. The first incarnation of a self-broadcasting Workshop started in May 1962, then called WRAF (the letters "RAF" were chosen by the Workshop because SUNY Binghamton's Rafuse Residence Hall was where the broadcasts originated). While the broadcasts were received on 590 kHz
Hertz
The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
on a standard AM radio, the broadcasts are carrier-current, which is "closed-circuit" in nature, as they were transmitted through the power lines of only two residence halls. Accordingly, only the residents of those halls could receive the maiden broadcasts.
A "no rock-and-roll" policy
While WHRW's free formatFreeform (radio format)
Freeform, or freeform radio, is a radio station programming format in which the disc jockey is given total control over what music to play, regardless of music genre or commercial interests. Freeform radio stands in contrast to most commercial radio stations, in which DJs have little or no...
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 proposed moving the station to the FM band, which was still largely unused. In November of that year, the FCC approved 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 feet (18.3 m) pole located behind the Student Center. The FCC approved the station's request of "WHRW" as the new station's call letters. "HRW" was 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, which was coverage of a Binghamton Colonials basketball game. The formal "inaugural" broadcast took place two days later. WHRW was only the third FM radio station in the Binghamton market.
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
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
(Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
protests and debates, news from Pacifica Radio
Pacifica Radio
Pacifica Radio is the oldest public radio network in the United States. It is a group of five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations that is known for its progressive/liberal political orientation. It is also a program service supplying over 100 affiliated...
and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
); and interviews with local political figures. The regular broadcast schedule ran from Sunday through Thursday, from about 5pm to 1am.
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. WHRW's antenna was moved to the top of this building in April 1968, and remains there to this day.
The "old station"
While WRAF/WHRW had called several locations home before September 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.
In the late 1960s, 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 re-purposing 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 re-purposed. The shell of the "old station," as it was called, existed in exactly the condition in which it was left after the move for five years, until mid-2007, when renovation work finally began.
Moe Loogham
In the early 1970s, a strange graffitoGraffito
Graffito is the singular form of the Italian graffiti, meaning "little scratch".Graffito may also refer to:*Graffito *Graffito...
started to appear on campus. A picture in the 1973 yearbook shows "Moe Loogham Is Coming!" spray-painted on the plywood walls surrounding the School of Engineering building construction site at Binghamton University, which was then known as Harpur College. From the mid 1970s onward, Moe Loogham was referred to frequently on WHRW's programs, in station publications, and all around campus. In fact, Moe's name has been seen in such diverse locations as at the top of the Washington Monument
Washington Monument
The Washington Monument is an obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate the first U.S. president, General George Washington...
and in downtown Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
.
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 believed to be a re-working of the name of the Rolling Stones' record producer, Andrew Loog Oldham
Andrew Loog Oldham
Andrew Loog Oldham is an English producer, talent manager, impresario and author. He was manager and producer of The Rolling Stones from 1963, and was noted for his flamboyant style.-Biography:...
). First word of Moe came to the third floor of the dormitory Delaware Hall on September 10, 1970. He was thought of more as the "Bringer of all Rightness" than anything else. In ensuing months, "Men (and Women) of Moe" would engage in "slapping missions" where simply-printed stickers with the words "Moe Loogham is Coming!" printed on them in plain block letters would be pasted in prominent locations on and off campus (like Lecture Hall-1, a popular meeting place for classes and student organizations on the Binghamton University campus).
"Moe" was said by some to be a drug dealer (which in those days meant a counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
figure who functioned more like a neighborhood grocer or bartender than a criminal nuisance) or a shipment of drugs (which in those days usually meant marijuana
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
("Moe's Loogs"...), hashish
Hashish
Hashish is a cannabis preparation composed of compressed stalked resin glands, called trichomes, collected from the unfertilized buds of the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than unsifted buds or leaves...
or the odd tablet or sugar-cube of LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
). According to 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." In later years, Moe was the nostalgic icon for the euphoria of the 1960s. But regardless of the times, the popular saying on campus was that "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
Godhead
Godhead , may refer to:*Deity*Divinity, the quality of being God*Conceptions of God*Godhead , the totality of gods, in Platonism the Transcendent One....
to long-standing station members, a metaphor for the free spirit of WHRW. Moe's name is now often used as a way to describe the euphoria often felt when good radio happens just right.
The golden age of FM
In the early 1970s, some adventurous FM stations (such as KSAN-FMKSAN-FM
KSAN is a commercial radio station licensed to San Mateo, California, with its transmitter located on San Bruno Mountain. It broadcasts to the San Francisco Bay Area...
and WNEW-FM) began experimenting with programming based upon album tracks, not only from established artists but from more obscure bands as well. Many of these stations played records by bands few AM radio listeners had heard of at the time such as Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
, The Chambers Brothers
The Chambers Brothers
The Chambers Brothers is a soul-music group, best known for its 1968 hit record, the 11-minute long song "Time Has Come Today". The group was part of the wave of new music that integrated American blues and gospel traditions with modern psychedelic and rock elements, spawning a heady mix...
, Iron Butterfly
Iron Butterfly
Iron Butterfly is a US psychedelic rock band best known for the 1968 hit "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida".Their heyday was the late 1960s, but the band has been reincarnated with various members. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is the 31st best-selling album in the world, selling more than 25 million copies.-History:The...
, and spoken-comedy acts like Firesign Theatre. As in the early days of rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, DJs would play a record based mostly upon their own judgement.
Experimental programming was also becoming popular, especially among college stations, and this time period is also where the term "progressive" or "underground" radio was born. It was the 1960s description of what we now call free-form radio. A DJ could play whatever he or she wanted as long as it did not violate Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) regulations (some DJs played things which most certainly did!), and a station's popularity depended upon how well its DJs knew music and how they applied that knowledge on the air. Classical was played alongside jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
; rock against folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
or folk-rock, and so on. Shows were often semi-scripted, using tape production to introduce both commentary and comedy rather than simple turn-table seque-ways to press disparate sound, culture and music into a holistic collage that sometimes became art, but often challenged mind and senses in ways nearly painful for the thrill. In the mid-1970s free-form radio fell out of vogue, and many formerly progressive FM stations adopted an AM-like playlist and rotation schedule, though unlike today many of those stations would still offer specialty programming such as live concert simulcasts (most notably the King Biscuit Flower Hour
King Biscuit Flower Hour
The King Biscuit Flower Hour was a syndicated radio show presented by the D.I.R. Radio Network that featured concert performances by various rock artists.-History:...
) and comedy shows such as the National Lampoon Radio Hour and Dr. Demento
Dr. Demento
Barret Eugene Hansen , better known as Dr. Demento, is a radio broadcaster and record collector specializing in novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograph records to the present....
. WHRW decided to preserve this format throughout those years and beyond, perhaps not intentionally, but simply by sticking with a style that suited its DJs and listeners.
Since the collapse of free-form 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
Imprimatur
An imprimatur is, in the proper sense, a declaration authorizing publication of a book. The term is also applied loosely to any mark of approval or endorsement.-Catholic Church:...
of major-record-label or broadcast-industry focus groups. It has been said time and again that even Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
or The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
would have had a difficult time succeeding if the radio industry of the 1950s and 60's were like the current ultra-conservative climate of radio. But four decades after going on the air, WHRW has bucked current trends and retained its free-format philosophy.