This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2007) |
Broadcast area | Atlanta metropolitan area |
---|---|
Frequency | 91.1 MHz (HD Radio) Channel 17 (GTCN) |
Branding | WREK 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 |
Links | |
Webcast | Listen Live |
Website | www |
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.
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 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."
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 128kbit/s and 24kbit/s downloads.
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.
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]
This section needs expansionwith: move technical information here and describe construction permit, HD Radio, student engineering, etc. You can help by adding to it. (November 2008) |
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.
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]
Coinciding with the renovation of the Wenn Student Center, WREK has occupied the former Office of Information Technology building since May 2020, and will relocate to the renovated John Lewis Student Center upon reopening in the summer of 2022.
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.
WCLK – branded 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.
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.
WSB is a commercial AM radio station in Atlanta, Georgia. It airs a news/talk 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.
WQXI is an AM radio station licensed to Atlanta, Georgia. 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. As of 2009, the station broadcast in the IBiquity HD Radio AM hybrid digital mode during daytime hours.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
WCCV FM 91.7 is a Christian radio station licensed to serve the city of Cartersville, Georgia. The station plays Contemporary Christian music.
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.
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.
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.