WREK

Last updated

WREK
Wrekfontvector.svg
Broadcast area Atlanta metropolitan area
Frequency 91.1 MHz (HD Radio)
Channel 17 (GTCN)
BrandingWREK Atlanta
Programming
Format College radio
Ownership
Owner Georgia Tech Radio Communications Board
History
First air date
March 25, 1968
Call sign meaning
 Ramblin' WREcK
Technical information
Facility ID 54536
Class C1
ERP 100,000 watts
HAAT 102 metres (335 feet)
Transmitter coordinates
 33°46′41″N84°24′22″W / 33.77806°N 84.40611°W / 33.77806; -84.40611
Links
Webcast Listen Live
Website www.wrek.org

WREK (91.1 FM "Wreck", from the Ramblin' Wreck) is the radio station staffed by the students of the Georgia Institute of Technology. It is also located 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 ERP signal throughout metropolitan Atlanta, making it among the ten highest-powered college radio stations in the United States.

Contents

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 former 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 was subsequently approved, and the station built out the improved coverage by replacing its antenna system in 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. [1]

Programming

WREK tower WREK tower.JPG
WREK tower

Programming is student-run and extremely diverse, including everything from heavy metal to world, hip-hop to blues, classical and jazz to industrial, noise, hyperpop and similarly diverse community programming ( Church of the Subgenius ). WREK slogans include "music you don't hear on the radio" and "quality diverse radio."

Sound blocks

Regular rotation programming blocks take up most daytime broadcasts. Certain times focus on certain themes: mornings play Just Jazz and Classics while afternoons transmit RRR (Rock, Rhythm and Roll) and nights air Atmospherics and the notorious Overnight Alternatives. These time slots are staffed by various WREK student staff and feature a wide selection of music, contests, and PSAs. The WREK website maintains a two-week archive of all regular rotation shifts, available as 128 kbit/s and 24 kbit/s downloads.

Specialty shows

Specialty Shows feature shifts dedicated to a specific genre. They air for over 50 hours a week, mainly in the evenings. They range from the Ramblin' Wreck Sports Show, a Georgia Tech sports talk show hosted by students to Destroy All Music, clatter-improv with pink noise freakouts. Other weekly shows include Electronic Sound System, an experimental electronic show featuring music and in-studio performances of new and established artists that run the electronic gamut; Velvet, featuring classic and contemporary R&B and soul; Live@WREK, a live music show broadcasting local and touring artists and bands; Girl Rock!, highlighting the work of women and non-binary artists worldwide; and Slow Riot, technical, abstract math rock and atmospheric, swirling post-rock.

Sports

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 Japanese 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). [2] 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". [3]

Technical details

WREK's transmitter is a Harris HT/HD+ which outputs a 16.3 kW TPO signal into a high-gain 8-bay ERI (Electronics Research Inc) antenna, resulting in an effective radiated power of 100,000 Watts in the strongest direction. The antenna is located on a 300-foot (90-meter) self-supporting 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.

History

Georgia Tech was the home of an early AM radio station, WBBF (later WGST, now WGKA AM 920), which began operation in January 1924. [4] Much of this station's initial equipment had been previously used by the Atlanta Constitution's WGM, and was donated through the efforts of the newspaper's editor, Clark Howell. [5] [6] In April 1930, the school made an agreement with the Southern Broadcasting Stations, Inc. to operate WGST as a commercial station, while still under the oversight of Georgia Tech. [7] In 1973, the Georgia Board of Regents decided WGST was "surplus property", and the next year it was sold for five million dollars to the Meredith Corporation, despite opposition from alumni groups, members of the Georgia General Assembly and even the Governor of Georgia. [8] Proceeds from this sale were used to upgrade WREK.

WREK first signed on the air on March 25, 1968, broadcasting at 10 Watts from a 20-foot tower atop the Van Leer Electrical Engineering building on Georgia Tech's campus. Barry James Folsom, then-student, started radio station WREK and was one of first DJs. The studio was located in the top floor of that building and included donated equipment from WSM-FM Nashville. [9] 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. [10] In 2013 Mendenhall retired from Harris Broadcast Communications (now GatesAir) as VP of Transmission Research and Technology. [11]

In 1978 WREK's tower and studio were relocated. A new, 300-foot (91 m) tower was built on the western edge of the Georgia Tech campus, and the studio moved to the former WGST studios in the annex of the Alexander Memorial Coliseum (now known as Hank McCamish Pavilion), where it would remain until 2004. 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. [10]

After the renovation of the Wenn Student Center, WREK relocated from their temporary residence in the Office of Information Technology building to their new studio in the newly-renovated Student Center.

WREK began streaming its compressed (8-bit μ-law) broadcast over the Internet on November 7, 1994, making it one of the first Internet radio stations. [12] 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.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WCLK</span> Jazz music public radio station in Atlanta

WCLK – branded as Jazz 91.9 – is a non-commercial jazz radio station licensed to serve Atlanta, Georgia. Owned by Clark Atlanta University, the station covers much of the Atlanta metropolitan area. The WCLK studios are located on the Clark University campus at the Robert W. Woodruff Library, while the station transmitter is located in Atlanta's North Druid Hills section. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WCLK broadcasts over two HD Radio digital subchannels, and is available online.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WFSH-FM</span> Christian Contemporary Radio station in Athens, Georgia, United States

WFSH-FM is a radio station licensed to Athens, Georgia, and serving Metro Atlanta. The station is owned by Salem Media Group and it airs a Christian contemporary radio format. It is branded as The Fish 104.7 and describes itself as "Safe For The Whole Family." Between Thanksgiving and the weekend after Christmas, the station plays all Christmas music, both religious and secular.

WHTA is a commercial radio station licensed to Hampton, Georgia, and serving the Atlanta metropolitan area. It is owned by Urban One and it airs an mainstream urban radio format, focused on hip hop and r&b music. The studios and offices are located inside the Centennial Tower building in downtown Atlanta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WSB (AM)</span> Clear-channel news/talk radio station in Atlanta

WSB is a commercial AM radio station in Atlanta, Georgia. It airs a talk radio radio format, simulcast on Doraville-licensed WSBB-FM. WSB is the flagship station for Cox Media Group; in addition to WSB and WSBB-FM, it owns three other Atlanta radio stations and Atlanta's ABC Television Network affiliate, WSB-TV. From 1939 to 2019, WSB was owned by Cox Enterprises along with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution daily newspaper; the station had been established by the Journal in 1922. The station's studios and offices are located at the WSB Television and Radio Group building on West Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta, which is shared with its television and radio partners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WBIN (AM)</span> Black Information Network radio station in Atlanta

WBIN is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Atlanta, Georgia. It is owned by iHeartMedia, through its subsidiary iHM Licenses, LLC. It serves the Atlanta metropolitan area as its affiliate for the Black Information Network. The station's studios and offices located at the Peachtree Palisades Building in the Brookwood Hills district. The transmitter site is off Joseph E. Boone Boulevard Northwest in the Center Hill neighborhood of Atlanta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WCNN</span> Radio station in North Atlanta, Georgia

WCNN is a radio station licensed to North Atlanta and serving the Atlanta-area radio market. It is owned by Dickey Broadcasting and airs a sports radio format. The station is commonly known by the on-air branding as "The Fan". Local sports shows are heard weekdays with the ESPN Radio Network airing nights and weekends. WCNN is the flagship of the Atlanta Braves Radio Network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WMBR</span> Radio station at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

WMBR is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's student-run college radio station, licensed to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and broadcasting on 88.1 FM. It is all-volunteer and funded by listener donations and MIT funds. Both students and community members can apply for positions, and like many college radio stations, WMBR offers diverse programming that includes a broad range of musical genres as well as talk shows.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WRVA (AM)</span> Radio station in Richmond, Virginia

WRVA is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Richmond, Virginia and serving Central Virginia. WRVA airs a news/talk radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. Established in 1925, WRVA is one of Virginia's oldest radio stations, and the most powerful AM station in the Commonwealth. For much of its history, WRVA billed itself as the "Voice of Virginia."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WTKS (AM)</span> Radio station in Savannah, Georgia

WTKS is a radio station licensed to Savannah, Georgia. The station is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc., with iHM Licenses, LLC holding the license. WTKS airs a news/talk format. Its transmitter is located behind WTKS's studios on Alfred Street in Garden City, Georgia, with a Savannah address.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WMLB</span> Radio station in Avondale Estates, Georgia

WMLB is an expanded band radio station licensed to Avondale Estates, Georgia, and serving the Metro Atlanta radio market. The station broadcasts with 10,000 watts daytime and 1,000 watts at night.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WUVT-FM</span> Radio station in Blacksburg, Virginia

WUVT-FM is a non-commercial FM radio station in Blacksburg, Virginia, serving Montgomery County, Virginia. It is licensed to Virginia Tech and is operated by The Educational Media Company at Virginia Tech. WUVT-FM is largely student-run and broadcasts a free form radio format. The radio studios and offices are located in Squires Student Center.

KTUH is a non-commercial, student-run, listener-supported station in Honolulu, Hawaii. It is owned by the University of Hawaii and it broadcasts a freeform radio format. Programming originates from studios on the campus at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. It runs 24 hours a day, all year round. The station holds periodic fundraisers on the air and also accepts donations on its website.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WTHB</span> Radio station in Augusta/Wrens, Georgia

WTHB and WTHB-FM, are Christian radio stations simulcasting an urban gospel format, serving the Augusta metropolitan area and owned by Perry Publishing and Broadcasting. The FM station is licensed to Wrens, Georgia, and the AM station is licensed to Augusta, Georgia. The studios and the AM transmitter are co-located on Broadcast Drive at Radio Station Road in North Augusta, South Carolina. Both stations carry the nationally syndicated morning gospel show hosted by Erica Campbell and an afternoon talk radio show hosted by Al Sharpton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WGKA</span> Talk radio station in Atlanta

WGKA – branded AM 920 The Answer – is a commercial conservative talk radio station licensed to Atlanta, Georgia, serving primarily the Atlanta metropolitan area. Currently owned by Salem Media Group, WGKA serves as the Atlanta affiliate for the Salem Radio Network and the Clemson Tigers football radio network. The WGKA studios are located on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, while the station transmitter resides near the Morningside Nature Preserve. Besides a standard analog transmission, WGKA is available online.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WGMP</span> Radio station in Montgomery, Alabama

WGMP is an alternative rock formatted radio station that serves the Montgomery Metropolitan Area, in Alabama, United States, also broadcasting via a broadcast translator on the FM band at 104.9 MHz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WHMA-FM</span> Radio station in Alexandria, Alabama

WHMA-FM is a radio station broadcasting a country music format. Licensed to Alexandria, Alabama, United States, it serves the Anniston-Oxford metropolitan area. The station is currently owned by Williams Communications, Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WCHK (AM)</span> Radio station in Canton–Atlanta, Georgia

WCHK is a commercial AM radio station broadcasting a Spanish-language Latin pop radio format, known as "La Mega." Licensed to Canton, Georgia, it serves Metro Atlanta. The call sign stands for Cherokee, the county of which Canton is the seat of government, largest city, and geographic center. The station is currently owned by Davis Broadcasting of Atlanta, L.L.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WRUR-FM</span> Radio station in Rochester, New York

WRUR-FM is a public, listener-supported radio station located in the Rochester, New York area airing an Adult Album Alternative format. Its transmitter is located on Pinnacle Hill in Rochester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WGAC (AM)</span> Radio station in Augusta, Georgia

WGAC is a commercial AM radio station in Augusta, Georgia. The station carries a talk radio format simulcast with co-owned 95.1 WGAC-FM Harlem, Georgia. The stations are owned by Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc., through licensee Beasley Media Group Licenses, LLC. The radio studios and offices are on Jimmie Dyess Parkway in Augusta.

WGM was an Atlanta, Georgia AM radio broadcasting station, operated by the Atlanta Constitution newspaper from March 17, 1922 to July 29, 1923. Although the station gained national prominence, it was shut down by its owner after just over a year of operation. The station equipment was then donated to Georgia Tech, where it was used in early 1924 to help set up radio station WBBF.

References

  1. ↑ "Engineering". WREK. July 25, 2011. Retrieved July 4, 2016.
  2. ↑ "WREKage" . Retrieved April 7, 2007.
  3. ↑ "Best of Atlanta 2007" . Retrieved September 12, 2007.
  4. ↑ "Georgia Tech's Powerful Radio Station WBBF Arranges Ambitious Program Series for Winter", Atlanta Constitution, November 30, 1924, page 15.
  5. ↑ "Tech Timeline". Georgia Tech Alumni Association. Archived from the original on December 23, 2006. Retrieved March 27, 2007.
  6. ↑ Brittain, Marion L. (1948). The Story of Georgia Tech. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press.
  7. ↑ "Georgia School of Technology", Educations's Own Stations by S. E. Frost, Jr., 1937, pages 105-106.
  8. ↑ "Atlanta Area AM Radio Stations" (leachlegacy.ece.gatech.edu)
  9. ↑ "General Manager Richard Crouch's narrative on the birth of WREK" . Retrieved April 7, 2007.
  10. 1 2 "WREK History". July 25, 2011. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
  11. ↑ "Mendenhall Opens RF Consultancy" . Retrieved February 14, 2015.
  12. ↑ "wrek-net online streaming" . Retrieved October 11, 2011.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.