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kickintheeyes:

WOBC’s spring 2012 program guides, designed by me with some help from my co-promo director, Lauren Melton, are freshly printed and scattered around campus!  Snatch one up & listen up.  FREEFORM RADIO 4LYFE.

(the schedule is also available online: http://www.wobc.org/schedule/)

WOBC spring program guide. Sweeeeeet.

Filed under oberlin oberlin college college college and community radio radio station wobc wobc fm wobc 91.5 fm program guide comics art radio

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oberlincollegearchivesstudents: WOBC: The Birth of a Station For the past three weeks or so, I’ve been working on reorganizing the collection of WOBC papers, documents, and photographs that we have at the Archives. I had a radio show last year and have a bunch of friends with radio shows now, so all of this WOBC stuff is super cool to me. One of the things I came across that particularly sparked my interest was a document called “Report of the Proposed Radio Station.”  It was written by Roger W. Brucker, an Oberlin student from the class of ’51 and the founder of what’s now known as WOBC. The report, created in 1949, begins with pages of typed information concerning all aspects of starting the station to be known as KOCN (changed to WOBC a few years later). The issues addressed are often dense and technical — budget information, issues regarding broadcasting frequencies, anxieties over incoming FCC regulations, and plenty of other radio jargon that’s over my head.             Following all this, though, the report almost becomes an art object. There are pages of hand drawn diagrams showing the necessary wiring networks across the college campus, the floor plan of the station itself, and even beautiful colored illustrations of the interior of the imagined station (pictured above) drawn by Brucker himself and pasted into the bound report. The original station as Brucker imagined it would have been in the basement of Burton, likely in the exact same space now occupied by the Grape offices. The station’s launch budget of $600 didn’t allow for this, however, and so when the station actually materialized a year later in 1950, it was in the now demolished Publications Building at 32 East College St, directly above the then Oberlin Review offices. Brucker ended up appointing his classmate Bob Chamberlain as KOCN’s first station manager. Curious to see where Brucker went after Oberlin, I did a quick bit of Googling – turns out he went on to become a famous cave explorer and have nothing to do with radio at all. Go figure! So much awesome stuff to go through, and it’s all just another day here working at the Archives.  -James WOBC history! Cooooool.

oberlincollegearchivesstudents:

WOBC: The Birth of a Station

For the past three weeks or so, I’ve been working on reorganizing the collection of WOBC papers, documents, and photographs that we have at the Archives. I had a radio show last year and have a bunch of friends with radio shows now, so all of this WOBC stuff is super cool to me.

One of the things I came across that particularly sparked my interest was a document called “Report of the Proposed Radio Station.”  It was written by Roger W. Brucker, an Oberlin student from the class of ’51 and the founder of what’s now known as WOBC.

The report, created in 1949, begins with pages of typed information concerning all aspects of starting the station to be known as KOCN (changed to WOBC a few years later). The issues addressed are often dense and technical — budget information, issues regarding broadcasting frequencies, anxieties over incoming FCC regulations, and plenty of other radio jargon that’s over my head.            

Following all this, though, the report almost becomes an art object. There are pages of hand drawn diagrams showing the necessary wiring networks across the college campus, the floor plan of the station itself, and even beautiful colored illustrations of the interior of the imagined station (pictured above) drawn by Brucker himself and pasted into the bound report.

The original station as Brucker imagined it would have been in the basement of Burton, likely in the exact same space now occupied by the Grape offices. The station’s launch budget of $600 didn’t allow for this, however, and so when the station actually materialized a year later in 1950, it was in the now demolished Publications Building at 32 East College St, directly above the then Oberlin Review offices.

Brucker ended up appointing his classmate Bob Chamberlain as KOCN’s first station manager. Curious to see where Brucker went after Oberlin, I did a quick bit of Googling – turns out he went on to become a famous cave explorer and have nothing to do with radio at all. Go figure!

So much awesome stuff to go through, and it’s all just another day here working at the Archives.

 -James

WOBC history! Cooooool.

Filed under oberlin oberlin college oberlin college archives archives wobc radio college radio history

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discovery-zone: SEEKING SONG SUGGESTIONS! MISSION: (1) to scour the internet, mine friends’ itunes, get suggestions and explore the WOBC vaults for music I’ve never heard before. (2) to play it on the airwaves. (3) to share it on this blog for your downloading pleasure. tune in five pm saturdays wobc 91.5 WOBC DISCOVERY ZONE//LEND ME YR EARS Wanna hear your favorite jams played on WOBC? Discovery Zone is taking your suggestions!

discovery-zone:

SEEKING SONG SUGGESTIONS!

MISSION:
(1) to scour the internet, mine friends’ itunes, get suggestions and explore the WOBC vaults for music I’ve never heard before.
(2) to play it on the airwaves.
(3) to share it on this blog for your downloading pleasure.

tune in five pm saturdays wobc 91.5

WOBC DISCOVERY ZONE//LEND ME YR EARS

Wanna hear your favorite jams played on WOBC? Discovery Zone is taking your suggestions!

Filed under oberlin oberlin college wobc radio college radio wobc 91.5 fm discovery zone

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Ira Glass, host and producer of the public radio program This American Life, began his career in 1978 as an intern at National Public Radio’s network headquarters in Washington, D.C. Since then, he has worked on nearly every NPR news program and held a number of production positions. Launched in 1995, This American Life is now heard on more than 500 public radio stations each week by more than 1.8 million listeners. More photos of “Reinventing Radio: An Evening with Ira Glass” can be viewed on Flickr. Photo by John Seyfried.

Ira Glass, host and producer of the public radio program This American Life, began his career in 1978 as an intern at National Public Radio’s network headquarters in Washington, D.C. Since then, he has worked on nearly every NPR news program and held a number of production positions. Launched in 1995, This American Life is now heard on more than 500 public radio stations each week by more than 1.8 million listeners.

More photos of “Reinventing Radio: An Evening with Ira Glass” can be viewed on Flickr.

Photo by John Seyfried.

Filed under Ira Glass NPR arts convocation lecture lucy wainwright roche national public radio oberlin oberlin college radio reinventing radio this american life Reinventing Radio: An Evening with Ira Glass 2011-12 school year