Don Connelly and Travis inspecting the future site of the new antenna for 95.3. Photo by The Western Carolina Journalist
Western Carolina’s student radio station, Power 90.5, is moving up the FM band to 95.3 concluding a plan almost ten years in the making.
The new frequency will be operational by June 23 of this year but the music format and the new name are still in the works.
The current signal has the potential of reaching 50,000 listeners and this upgrade will nearly double that to a potential 90,000 listeners in the Western North Carolina region.
For more information on the new station see the video below.
The head of the Communication Department and advisor for the radio station, Prof. Don Connelly, referred to a booklet from 1987 created by two students who were working at the radio station and documenting the history of the station.
The radio station at Western Carolina goes as far back as 1947 when two students wanted to start a radio station. At the time, the school was Western Carolina Teachers College and the station was built from military surplus equipment.
“We are 99 percent sure we still have that original equipment. Finally, they were assigned the call letters of WCCA which stood for ‘Western Carolina Catamounts on the Air’ and the broadcasting was done from the bottom floor of the Joyner building,” said Connelly.
At this time the station was broadcasting on 550 AM and operating on a budget of $25 a year.
By the 1960s, FM radio was starting to come about and the station was looking to upgrade to an FM signal.
On March 5, 1976, the FCC granted a construction permit to build WCU an FM station and on Jan. 15, 1977, WWCU went live on the air.
The activities at the radio station used to be run by a student club that elected new officers every year so the name of the station changed frequently in that time.
In order for Chancellor Bardo to begin investing money in the radio station in the late 1990s, the station had to move from a club to an academic entity. The university with permission from the Student Media board assigned the station to the department of communication and has to have faculty, student and staff involvement.
Since then, the radio station is seen as a professional learning laboratory and can be utilized by anyone involved with Western Carolina University.
With all the changes coming to the student radio station and the increased coverage around the WNC region there is no better time to get on the airwaves than now.
The reporter, Jonathan Birek, co-hosts a sports talk show on WWCU Power 90.5.
