WCBN-FM
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| City | Ann Arbor, Michigan |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | [1] |
| Branding | WCBN FM |
| Slogan | Freeing Your Mind For Over 40 Years |
| Frequency | 88.3 MHz |
| First air date | January 23, 1972 (originally carrier current 1952-1972) |
| Format | Freeform |
| Power | 200 watts |
| HAAT | 54 meters |
| Class | A |
| Facility ID | 66316 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 42°16′37″N 83°44′7″W / 42.27694°N 83.73528°W |
| Callsign meaning | Campus Broadcasting Network |
| Former callsigns | none |
| Owner | University of Michigan |
| Webcast | [2] |
| Website | wcbn.org |
WCBN-FM is the student-run radio station of the University of Michigan. Its format is primarily freeform. It broadcasts at 88.3 MHz FM in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
WCBN is one of the longest-standing continuous practitioners of primarily free-form radio programming. "Freeform" radio format is best described as an approach that allows the individual radio programmer (or DJ) maximum, if not complete, latitude, in determining what is broadcast from moment to moment. In practical terms this may mean that a listener may hear a number of different kinds of music in the course of a single program, often chosen spontaneously during that same program; but a listener might just as easily hear live broadcasts from a field with sounds of crickets, a radio play, poetry, or spontaneous political protest. The AP national newswire covered one such protest in November, 1980 when a DJ on the station began playing Lesley Gore's "It's My Party (and I'll Cry if I Want To)" continuously for hours when President Ronald Reagan was first elected. Other DJs joined in and the protest ended up lasting for a number of days.
WCBN was created in 1952 when three existing carrier current broadcasting systems on campus pooled resources. WCBN-AM college radio could be tuned to in University buildings at 650 kHz. Programming was coordinated between the existing broadcast facilities.
In 1956 WCBN hosted the first meeting of the National Association of College Broadcasters.
Until 1958, South, East and West Quad had separate transmitters, each on a different frequency, as well as one on the Hill, with a loop connecting the three studios. In 1958 John Maurer built a limiter and switching device so that sound was constant and could be switched by any studio to feed all transmitters and was wired by Cliff Vander Yacht. Dave Mills had constructed the Hill transmitter the year before and tested it at National Music Camp during the summer. Some years before, the Federal Communications Commission FCC had allocated the call sign even though the carrier current transmitters were not licensed. (CVY)
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