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HISTORY OF WTBU & WBUR WTBU isn't the oldest station in Boston, but having broadcast since 1959 (at least) it's a lot older than most other stations out there! The earliest reference found so far to WTBU's existence is from the 1960 BU HUB (the name for the yearbook at the time). There are a pair of graduates who list WTBU as one of their activities for both junior and senior year. This was back when BU was small enough that they could list the name, address, major and activities for all graduating students. Almost all the graduates from that time who listed WTBU (occaisionally misspelled as "WBTU"...how da heck does a radio station get confused with a British Thermal Unit?!?) also listed WBUR as a separate activity of theirs. This would indicate that at least at the beginning there was a fair amount of overlap between the two stations. It's logical as it would be several more years before WBUR started being staffed by anyone but students (and a handful of faculty members). At long last - the origin of the call letters has come to light! WTBU stands for "the Terriers of Boston University. "Terriers" being a reference to the college mascot, Rhett the Boston Terrier "WBUR" is for "Boston University Radio". Extra Special thanks to Geoffrey Bird, WTBU GM 1989-90 for filling us in! The station was originally started on the second floor of the George Sherman Union / Student Union (GSU). in 1969 it moved to the first floor of Myles Standish Hall (where the computer lab is now) when the entire 2nd floor of the GSU was literally bulldozed (and I mean there was literally a bulldozer up there) down to make room for a massive expansion of the GSU that included the construction of the second-floor ballroom that's still there today. Later, in the summer of 1982...WTBU moved from the first floor of Myles to the basement of the new Myles "Annex" that used to be the now-defunct Grahm Junior College (yes, one "a"). In the late 1980's the entire Annex station was refurbished (although there wasn't a lot of new equipment, the layout of all the rooms changed). Finally in January of 1997 WTBU moved out of the basement into the 3rd floor of COM...into a significant amount of the space left behind by WBUR moving down the street to 890 Commonwealth Ave in late 1995. Several of the WTBU entries list fairly common job titles "Publicity Dir" (1959), "Announcer" (1960), "Sales Mgr" (1964 - a commercial outfit from the beginning!). It's possible that this indicates that the station had already been running for at least a little while prior to these students working there. Either that...or WTBU enjoyed significant support from COM (then called SPRC) to get up and running very quickly. It's also possible some folks were seeing the handwriting on the wall almost 4 years in advance...for in February of 1964 two SPRC members were assigned direct control of WBUR; going directly over the students - despite vigorous protests and several BU students defecting to Emerson College as a result. A year later in February of 1965 SPC (which was SPRC - they changed the name in mid-1964) lost control of the station as well and it was run directly by the BU Public Relations Office (later an outside General Manager was brought in to run the station) In 1968 the BU Administration would run a serious re-apprasial on WBUR...attempting to determine the worth of the role the station played within and outside the BU community. And WBUR's woes would continue into 1971...when 21 WBUR members were fired amidst charges of "gross mis-management" by the Administration. A skeleton crew of six staffers was retained to keep the station on the air. But while WBUR was catching a lot of hell in those days, WTBU was getting pretty powerful for a campus-only carrier-current-AM station. In 1963 WTBU had already started the tradition of "DeeJaying" the annual all-night float-building (for the homecoming parade the following day) in the BU Armory. And in 1965 the HUB reported that WTBU was the control center for the "University Broadcasting System" (later referred to as the "Ivy Network Corporation")- a coalition of several Boston-area college stations. They included:
In 1971 The HUB devoted two full pages to WTBU, with the following text and pictures:
Just one of the Distinguished Lecture Series was Robert Scheer - defending his controversial Playboy interview with then-Presidential Candidate Jimmy Carter. You can see in the picture below (in the Logos section...3rd from the left on the top row) that WTBU was one of the top stations broadcasting the event. Summer 1982 WTBU moved out of their cramped studio spaces on the first floor of Myles Standish into space vacated by Graham Junior College...which had recently gone defunct. GJC was a communications school and the basement held ideal studio space for the still-expanding WTBU. The upper floors of GJC were turning into dorm rooms and called the "Myles Annex". Some old WTBU letterhead still shows the station address to be GJC's address: 30 Bay State Rd. The move into the Myles Annex was a major step up for WTBU...despite the jokes about "basement radio" and a delayed launch in broadcasting due to a broken water sprinkler main flooding out the station on September 16th, 1982. Finally they had a dedicated production studio and a separate mic booth for newscasts and sports. The music library grew to well over 2000 records. A lot of the equipment was replaced and upgraded as well...and several of the aging Carrier-Current AM transmitters were replaced in the early 1980's. In 1983 the long-running rivalry between Daily Free Press and WTBU flared up over coverage of BU Student Union election practices. The fight (of sorts) ended up uncovering some questionable tactics used by the Union during that year's election. After this the rivalry cooled somewhat...currently there are several members who volunteer at both media outlets, but lots of barbs fly back and forth between the two organizations. All in good fun, of course! Unfortunately, WTBU's heyday during the '60s and '70s was soon to come to an end...thanks in part to a resurgance at WBUR. In 1976 WBUR was forced to move their transmitter from the tower on to of COM (640 Commonwealth Ave) due to the construction of the 18-story-dormitory "Warren Towers" (nearly as tall as the antenna tower!). This was hardly a bad thing as they moved to the significantly taller tower on top of the BU LAW building down the street, and increased power to 50,000 watts...giving them over a 75-mile broadcasting range.
With the advent of more and more FM stations in Boston and existing FM stations getting bigger signals...the little carrier-current-AM station that could started falling by the wayside. In 1984 the BOSTONIAN (successor to the The HUB) slammed the station with the statement:
On April 9, 1985...WTBU shut down for the rest of the semester; citing personnel, technical, and administrative problems. In October of that year, WTBU resigned from the BU Student Activities Office (SAO)...which cut WTBU's funding by nearly one-quarter (today the station is funded entirely by COM and limited advertising revenue). This was an unprecedented move by any student organization...although it's quite possible the shutdown and the resignation from SAO are related. Having spoken with staff members from that era...and from my own dealings with SAO attempting to control WTBU in the late 1990's...it's known that SAO tends to be very restrictive. Despite the lack of funds...WTBU used their new-found freedom to the fullest by instituting a 24/7 broadcasting schedule (at least during the academic year) beginning in January 1986. There's a significant gap in the station's history between 1986 and 1991. It's known that around 1988 the entire station was renovated by remained in the basement of the Annex. Not much in the way of new equipment came out of this, but the entire layout of the studios and offices was changed. Many students protested that their involvement in the design was extremely limited (the air studio ended up facing the lobby but not the news studio...oops). In 1991 the station had to scale back the broadcasting schedule to 6am to 2am daily, due to a lack of staff and concerns of student safety; at the time Kenmore Square - where the Myles Annex station was located - was not a very safe place late at night ! Also several key transmitters went off the air and were not able to be repaired. HVAC issues in the Myles Annex station started becoming crucial as equipment began failing from the heat & humidity. Morale dropped as did station involvement. The transmitters' audio quality deteriorating (or outright failing) coupled with a significant dropoff in advertising revenue (as sponsors turned to stations with greater range) forced WTBU to rely almost entirely on the student volunteers' skills and dedication. While many of these volunteers worked tirelessly to further the station - there is only so much students can do. However, the summer of 1994 marked a turning point for WTBU...radiating-cable FM transmitters were installed in Warren Towers. Broadcasting on 89.3MHz...WTBU finally had a FM prescence. In 1995 a $4000 mix board was installed that was far more appropriate for on-air usage than the old board. Also by late 1995 big-sister station WBUR had completely outgrown their long-time studios on the third floor of COM, and they moved down the street to 890 Commonwealth Ave (inbehind Wayland Golf Shop). COM renovated the entire area and earmarked most of the studio space for WTBU. The station was off the air most of the Fall 1996 semester in preparation for the move as all the equipment was packed up...and in January of 1997 WTBU came on the scene with brand-new studios and a lot of brand-new equipment from the 3rd floor of COM. Also in January of 1997, a second FM system was installed - this time in the three West Campus dorms. Soon after, WTBU switched from their aging cart machine system to a Minidisc-based system. At the time it was a bold move as few stations at all...much less small campus-only stations...had begun making the transition to digital media. In early 1999, WTBU made it's biggest leap forward with the addition of a live webcast...despite having to overcome many technical glitches the end result was a significant notch above most other stations' webcasts in quality. Later that year a webcam was added to Studio A (the Air Studio) showing the world what the faces behind the mic looked like. (Ed. note: remarkably, the longtime problem of CD theft drastically dropped after the webcam was installed :-) Today WTBU continues to strive forward. Lately a rigorous training schedule has been put into place for aspiring DJ's who must complete an entire semester of interning before earning their own show. Membership has risen to over 180 DJ's, interns, and assorted staff. The station has hopes that COM will begin offering more classes devoted to radio (in 1998 an Adv.Digital Audio Editing class was brought in to augment the Radio Journalism class) and make serving at WTBU a two-credit course...much like many BU student activities are. There are hopes that the remaining WBUR studio that was originally designated for the AudioLab (the AudioLab was later moved down the hall at the behest of COM engineering) might become a "live music room" where bands can perform live on the air.
FAMOUS WTBU ALUMNI
Howard was a rebel even in the early days of the King Schmaltz Bagel Hour - his show on WTBU...the book version of Private Parts goes into more detail about his firing from WTBU. Apparently he ran a segment called "Making the Bishop Blush" in which they pretended a local Catholic Bishop was in the studio and they'd say really lurid things and ask if the Bishop was blushing. Then-Program Director Hank Sennott was listening, came over to the station and fired Howard on the spot. Howard went on to graduate from COM with a 3.8GPA....which reportedly Howard used to brag about a lot on his radio shows prior to national fame.
WTBU LOGOS FROM OVER THE YEARS
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