WREK
Encyclopedia
WREK is the radio station staffed by the students of the Georgia Institute of Technology
. It is located at 91.1 MHz and on channel 17 on the Georgia Tech cable TV network, GTCN. Starting as a 10-watt class D, WREK currently broadcasts a 100,000 Watt
(FCC data as of October 8, 2011) ERP
signal throughout metropolitan Atlanta, making it among the ten highest-power college radio stations
in the United States
.
In 2007, WREK applied to the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) to increase its effective radiated power
to the maximum power of 100,000 watts (from its current 40,000 watts) with a directional antenna pattern designed to avoid interference with specific distant stations (as required). This coverage increase was designed to greatly improve the radio station's coverage to encompass more of the Atlanta metropolitan area. That application has since been approved, and the station plans to build out the improved coverage by replacing its antenna system before the fall of 2011.
In March 2008, WREK replaced its then 20-year-old transmitter with a brand new unit capable of three times the signal power and providing HD Radio
capability. The addition of an HD Radio
broadcast has made WREK among the first student-run, student-funded stations in the nation to add digital broadcasting capability. It has also allowed WREK to add a second continuous channel of programming ("WREK HD2") in Fall 2008.
Programming is student-run and extremely diverse, including everything from heavy metal to world
, hip-hop
to blues
, classical and jazz
to industrial
and noise
, and similarly diverse community programming (Church of the Subgenius
). Locally produced programming includes Tech Talk, a talk show hosted by and focusing on concerns of Georgia Tech students; the Ramblin' Wreck Report, a Georgia Tech sports talk show hosted by students; Destroy All Music, clatter-improv with pink noise freakouts; The Mobius, an experimental electronic show featuring music and in-studio performances of new and established artists that run the electronic gamut; The Electric Boogaloo, a funksperience; Live@WREK, a live music show; and Continental Drift, Atlanta's longest running international music radio program.
WREK also broadcasts play-by-play coverage of Georgia Tech intercollegiate athletics
, including baseball
, women's basketball
, and volleyball
. In fall 2004, the station agreed to partner with ISP Sports to simulcast
network coverage of selected Georgia Tech football
and men's basketball
games to augment WQXI's
diminished AM nighttime coverage in metro Atlanta. That partnership ended following the 2007-08 season.
In December 2002, WREK broadcast the entire 50-disc Merzbox
by the Japan
ese experimental music
artist Merzbow
. An article in Creative Loafing
described the Merzbow Marathon as "what may be the most obscure and counterintuitive move in the history of radio."
Continuing their tradition of unorthodox radio broadcasts, WREK chose to air the long-running heavy metal show Wrekage for the entire 24 hour broadcast day on June 6, 2006 (6/6/6). Heavy metal was played in chronological order from midnight to midnight. As an extra nod to the mystic number 666 (number)
, Iron Maiden
s The Number of the Beast was aired at 6:06 a.m. and p.m.
In Fall 2007, the critics of Creative Loafing
declared WREK to be the Best Overall Radio Station in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The article describing their reasoning declared WREK to be "strange in a good way. The station’s format is noncommercial and nonconforming. Few stations in the city can compete with WREK’s eclectic playlist".
signal into a high-gain 12-bay Jampro model JSCP omnidirectional
antenna
, resulting in an effective radiated power
of 40,000 Watt
s. The antenna is located on a 300-foot (90-meter) self-supporting Jampro tower
adjacent to the Undergraduate Living Center and Woodruff Hall on Georgia Tech's west campus, connected to the studio in the Student Center via a wireless, 950.0 MHz studio-transmitter link, WQAQ311, and a digital, fiber-optic link.
WGST
AM
(Georgia School of Technology) from 1924 to 1930 thanks to Clark Howell
.
WREK first signed on the air on March 25, 1968, broadcasting at 10 Watts from a donated tower atop the Van Leer
Electrical Engineering building on Georgia Tech
's campus. The studio
was located in the top floor of that building and consisted of donated equipment from WSM-FM
Nashville
. Chief Engineer and then-student Geoff Mendenhall designed and built a 425W
power amplifier which, once type certified by the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) in August 1968, brought WREK to 3,400W ERP
. Mendenhall has since moved on to build transmitter
s at Harris Corporation
.
In 1978 WREK's tower and studio were relocated. A new, 300 feet (91.4 m) tower was built on the western edge of the Georgia Tech campus, and the studio moved to the annex of the Alexander Memorial Coliseum
, where it would remain until 2004. That facility was home to 920 AM WGST
(from Georgia School of Technology, GT's earlier name) from 1956 until 1975, when that station's license was sold against the school's will as "surplus property" by the Georgia Board of Regents
. Visitors to WREK's Coliseum studios were often startled by its walls, which were covered by thick layers of posters, set lists, and other music memorabilia, as well as the giant electromechanical broadcast automation
machines and other large racks of monitoring and control equipment. WREK's studios relocated to the Student Center Commons (formerly the Georgia Tech Bookstore building) in August 2004.
WREK began streaming
its compressed (8-bit uLaw) broadcast over the Internet
on November 7 of 1994, making it one of the first Internet radio
stations. The station now streams in MP3
format and features a two-week-long running archive
of its broadcast on the schedule page of its website.
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
. It is located at 91.1 MHz and on channel 17 on the Georgia Tech cable TV network, GTCN. Starting as a 10-watt class D, WREK currently broadcasts a 100,000 Watt
Watt
The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
(FCC data as of October 8, 2011) ERP
Effective radiated power
In radio telecommunications, effective radiated power or equivalent radiated power is a standardized theoretical measurement of radio frequency energy using the SI unit watts, and is determined by subtracting system losses and adding system gains...
signal throughout metropolitan Atlanta, making it among the ten highest-power college radio stations
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...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
In 2007, WREK applied to the 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) to increase its effective radiated power
Effective radiated power
In radio telecommunications, effective radiated power or equivalent radiated power is a standardized theoretical measurement of radio frequency energy using the SI unit watts, and is determined by subtracting system losses and adding system gains...
to the maximum power of 100,000 watts (from its current 40,000 watts) with a directional antenna pattern designed to avoid interference with specific distant stations (as required). This coverage increase was designed to greatly improve the radio station's coverage to encompass more of the Atlanta metropolitan area. That application has since been approved, and the station plans to build out the improved coverage by replacing its antenna system before the fall of 2011.
In March 2008, WREK replaced its then 20-year-old transmitter with a brand new unit capable of three times the signal power and providing HD Radio
HD Radio
HD Radio, which originally stood for "Hybrid Digital", is the trademark for iBiquity's in-band on-channel digital radio technology used by AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and data via a digital signal in conjunction with their analog signals...
capability. The addition of an HD Radio
HD Radio
HD Radio, which originally stood for "Hybrid Digital", is the trademark for iBiquity's in-band on-channel digital radio technology used by AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and data via a digital signal in conjunction with their analog signals...
broadcast has made WREK among the first student-run, student-funded stations in the nation to add digital broadcasting capability. It has also allowed WREK to add a second continuous channel of programming ("WREK HD2") in Fall 2008.
Programming
WREK slogans include "music you don't hear on the radio" and "quality diverse radio."Programming is student-run and extremely diverse, including everything from heavy metal to world
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
, hip-hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
to blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, classical and 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...
to industrial
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
and noise
Noise music
Noise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...
, and similarly diverse community programming (Church of the Subgenius
Church of the SubGenius
The Church of the SubGenius is a "parody religion" organization that satirizes religion, conspiracy theories, unidentified flying objects, and popular culture. Originally based in Dallas, Texas, the Church of the SubGenius gained prominence in the 1980s and 1990s and maintains an active presence on...
). Locally produced programming includes Tech Talk, a talk show hosted by and focusing on concerns of Georgia Tech students; the Ramblin' Wreck Report, a Georgia Tech sports talk show hosted by students; Destroy All Music, clatter-improv with pink noise freakouts; The Mobius, an experimental electronic show featuring music and in-studio performances of new and established artists that run the electronic gamut; The Electric Boogaloo, a funksperience; Live@WREK, a live music show; and Continental Drift, Atlanta's longest running international music radio program.
WREK also broadcasts play-by-play coverage of Georgia Tech intercollegiate athletics
College athletics
College athletics refers primarily to sports and athletic competition organized and funded by institutions of tertiary education . In the United States, college athletics is a two-tiered system. The first tier includes the sports that are sanctioned by one of the collegiate sport governing bodies...
, including baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
, women's basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, and volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
. In fall 2004, the station agreed to partner with ISP Sports to simulcast
Simulcast
Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...
network coverage of selected Georgia Tech football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
and men's basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
games to augment WQXI's
WQXI (AM)
WQXI, "790 The Zone", is a radio station licensed to the city of Atlanta broadcasting at a frequency of 790 kHz. The station has a power of 28,000 watts in the daytime, and 1,000 watts at night. WQXI's signal is non-directional during the daytime, and directional at night...
diminished AM nighttime coverage in metro Atlanta. That partnership ended following the 2007-08 season.
In December 2002, WREK broadcast the entire 50-disc Merzbox
Merzbox
Merzbox is a box set compilation by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow, released in 2000 by Extreme Records. It consists of 50 CDs, spanning Merzbow's career from 1979–1997; 30 discs are taken from long out of print releases, while 20 are composed mainly of unreleased material...
by the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese experimental music
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
artist Merzbow
Merzbow
is the main recording name of the Japanese noise musician , born in 1956. Since 1979 he has released in excess of 350 recordings.The name "Merzbow" comes from German artist Kurt Schwitters' artwork, "Merzbau”. This was chosen to reflect Akita's dada influence and junk art aesthetic...
. An article in Creative Loafing
Creative Loafing
CL Inc. is the Tampa, Florida-based publisher of three city newsweeklies and their associated websites. Each of the papers focuses on local news, politics, arts and entertainment, and restaurants...
described the Merzbow Marathon as "what may be the most obscure and counterintuitive move in the history of radio."
Continuing their tradition of unorthodox radio broadcasts, WREK chose to air the long-running heavy metal show Wrekage for the entire 24 hour broadcast day on June 6, 2006 (6/6/6). Heavy metal was played in chronological order from midnight to midnight. As an extra nod to the mystic number 666 (number)
666 (number)
666 is the natural number following 665 and preceding 667.- In mathematics :666 is the sum of the first 36 natural numbers 666 (six hundred and sixty-six) is the natural number following 665 and preceding 667.- In mathematics :666 is the sum of the first 36 natural numbers 666 (six hundred and...
, Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from Leyton in east London, formed in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. Since their inception, the band's discography has grown to include a total of thirty-six albums: fifteen studio albums; eleven live albums; four EPs; and six...
s The Number of the Beast was aired at 6:06 a.m. and p.m.
In Fall 2007, the critics of Creative Loafing
Creative Loafing
CL Inc. is the Tampa, Florida-based publisher of three city newsweeklies and their associated websites. Each of the papers focuses on local news, politics, arts and entertainment, and restaurants...
declared WREK to be the Best Overall Radio Station in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The article describing their reasoning declared WREK to be "strange in a good way. The station’s format is noncommercial and nonconforming. Few stations in the city can compete with WREK’s eclectic playlist".
Technical details
WREK's transmitter is a Harris HT/HD+ which outputs a 6,600 W TPOTransmitter power output
In radio transmission, transmitter power output is the actual amount of power of radio frequency energy that a transmitter produces at its output....
signal into a high-gain 12-bay Jampro model JSCP omnidirectional
Omnidirectional antenna
In radio communication, an omnidirectional antenna is an antenna which radiates radio wave power uniformly in all directions in one plane, with the radiated power decreasing with elevation angle above or below the plane, dropping to zero on the antenna's axis. This radiation pattern is often...
antenna
Antenna (radio)
An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...
, resulting in an effective radiated power
Effective radiated power
In radio telecommunications, effective radiated power or equivalent radiated power is a standardized theoretical measurement of radio frequency energy using the SI unit watts, and is determined by subtracting system losses and adding system gains...
of 40,000 Watt
Watt
The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
s. The antenna is located on a 300-foot (90-meter) self-supporting Jampro tower
Tower
A tower is a tall structure, usually taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires....
adjacent to the Undergraduate Living Center and Woodruff Hall on Georgia Tech's west campus, connected to the studio in the Student Center via a wireless, 950.0 MHz studio-transmitter link, WQAQ311, and a digital, fiber-optic link.
History
Georgia Tech was the home of early radio stationRadio 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...
WGST
WGST (AM)
WGST AM 640 is a radio station licensed in the city of Atlanta, Georgia operating at a frequency of 640 kHz with 50,000 watts of power during the daytime, and 1,000 watts of power during nighttime hours...
AM
AM broadcasting
AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a radio signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is carried out in the medium wave band world wide, and on long wave and short wave...
(Georgia School of Technology) from 1924 to 1930 thanks to Clark Howell
Clark Howell
Clark Howell was a Pulitzer Prize winning American newspaper man and politician from the state of Georgia.-Biography:Howell was born on September 21, 1863 in Atlanta, Georgia...
.
WREK first signed on the air on March 25, 1968, broadcasting at 10 Watts from a donated tower atop the Van Leer
Blake Ragsdale Van Leer
Blake Ragsdale Van Leer was the fifth president of Georgia Institute of Technology from 1944 until his death.-Early life and education:...
Electrical Engineering building on Georgia Tech
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
's campus. The studio
Studio
A studio is an artist's or worker's workroom, or the catchall term for an artist and his or her employees who work within that studio. This can be for the purpose of architecture, painting, pottery , sculpture, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, radio or television...
was located in the top floor of that building and consisted of donated equipment from WSM-FM
WSM-FM
WSM-FM is an FM radio station in Nashville, Tennessee. The station broadcasts at 95.5 MHz and broadcasts a country music radio format, with an emphasis upon recordings released since the 1990s....
Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. Chief Engineer and then-student Geoff Mendenhall designed and built a 425W
Watt
The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
power amplifier which, once type certified by the 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) in August 1968, brought WREK to 3,400W ERP
Effective radiated power
In radio telecommunications, effective radiated power or equivalent radiated power is a standardized theoretical measurement of radio frequency energy using the SI unit watts, and is determined by subtracting system losses and adding system gains...
. Mendenhall has since moved on to build transmitter
Transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications a transmitter or radio transmitter is an electronic device which, with the aid of an antenna, produces radio waves. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the antenna. When excited by this alternating...
s at Harris Corporation
Harris Corporation
Harris Corporation is a Florida-based international communications equipment company that produces wireless equipment, electronic systems, and both terrestrial and spaceborne antennas for use in the government, defense, and commercial sectors. It is also the largest private-sector employer in...
.
In 1978 WREK's tower and studio were relocated. A new, 300 feet (91.4 m) tower was built on the western edge of the Georgia Tech campus, and the studio moved to the annex of the Alexander Memorial Coliseum
Alexander Memorial Coliseum
The Alexander Memorial Coliseum is an indoor arena located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is the home of the basketball teams of Georgia Tech and hosted the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA from 1968–1972 and again from 1997–1999...
, where it would remain until 2004. That facility was home to 920 AM WGST
WGST (AM)
WGST AM 640 is a radio station licensed in the city of Atlanta, Georgia operating at a frequency of 640 kHz with 50,000 watts of power during the daytime, and 1,000 watts of power during nighttime hours...
(from Georgia School of Technology, GT's earlier name) from 1956 until 1975, when that station's license was sold against the school's will as "surplus property" by the Georgia Board of Regents
Georgia Board of Regents
The Georgia Board of Regents oversees the University System of Georgia as part of the state government of Georgia in the United States. The University System of Georgia is composed of all state public institutions of higher education.-History:...
. Visitors to WREK's Coliseum studios were often startled by its walls, which were covered by thick layers of posters, set lists, and other music memorabilia, as well as the giant electromechanical broadcast automation
Broadcast automation
Broadcast automation incorporates the use of broadcast programming technology to automate broadcasting operations. Used either at a broadcast network, radio station or a television station, it can run a facility in the absence of a human operator...
machines and other large racks of monitoring and control equipment. WREK's studios relocated to the Student Center Commons (formerly the Georgia Tech Bookstore building) in August 2004.
WREK began streaming
Streaming media
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...
its compressed (8-bit uLaw) broadcast over the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
on November 7 of 1994, making it one of the first Internet radio
Internet radio
Internet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...
stations. The station now streams in MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
format and features a two-week-long running archive
Archive
An archive is a collection of historical records, or the physical place they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the function of an organization...
of its broadcast on the schedule page of its website.