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WHRB

Cambridge, Massachusetts United States
Broadcast area	Greater Boston
Frequency	95.3MHz
Branding	WHRB 95.3 FM
Programming
Format	Variety
Ownership
Owner	Harvard Radio Broadcasting Co., Inc.
History
First air date	December 2, 1940 (1940-12-02) (closed-circuit AM) May 17, 1957 (1957-05-17) (commercial FM, at 107.1)
Former call signs	WHRB-FM (1957–1978)
Former frequencies	107.1 MHz (1957–1959)
Call sign meaning	Harvard Radio Broadcasting
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	26341
Class	A
ERP	1,450 watts
HAAT	185 meters (607 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	42°21′8.4″N71°3′23.2″W / 42.352333°N 71.056444°W /42.352333; -71.056444 (WHRB)
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Webcast	Listen live
Website	www.whrb.org

WHRB is a commercial FM radio station inCambridge, Massachusetts. It broadcasts at 95.3 MHz and is operated by students atHarvard College. The station is owned by Harvard Radio Broadcasting Co., Inc., anon-profit corporation independent ofHarvard University.

WHRB was one of America's first college radio stations, initially signing on as acarrier current station on December 2, 1940. After acquiring funding fromThe Harvard Crimson, the station's firstcall sign was WHCN ("Harvard Crimson Network"). It broke from theCrimson in 1943 and adopted the call sign WHRV ("Harvard Radio Voice"). Harvard Radio Broadcasting Co., Inc., thenon-profit corporation that owns the station, was formed February 1, 1951, and the current call sign adopted.^[2]

In order to reach audiences beyond Harvard's campus, the corporation acquired acommercial FM broadcast license from theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) and began regular broadcasting on May 17, 1957, at 107.1 MHz. A few years later, the station changed frequency to 95.3 MHz, where it has remained since. The broadcast area expanded considerably in 1995 when the main transmitter was relocated from atop Holyoke Center (now called theSmith Campus Center) inHarvard Square to its present location atopOne Financial Center in downtownBoston. (A facility remains at the Smith site for backup purposes.) Broadcasts went global when internet retransmission of its programs began on November 18, 1999. In 2009, WHRB made available for download the first stand-alone college radio stationiPhoneapp.^[3]

WHRB is a confederacy of on-air departments, each with its own staff, training requirements, and allocation of airtime. Departments include Classical Music, The Jazz Spectrum, The Blues Hangover, Sports, News, The Darker Side, and Record Hospital. During the academic year, the station publishes several detailed program guides,^[4] describing its regular programming as well as the Orgy periods that end each semester.

Orgies (the term is a registered trademark of the station) are consecutive presentations of the entire musical output of composers, record labels, or genres, sometimes running 24 hours a day for a week or more. Station legend has it^[5] that these began when an exuberant undergraduate in 1943 decided to celebrate his passing a difficult exam by broadcasting all nineBeethoven symphonies in order. Orgies continue to take place during exam periods, allowing the station to be run with a reduced on-air staff at these busy times. "Orgies" are broadcast each year throughout most of December, and again from the beginning of May through Harvard's commencement ceremony near the end of that month.

Some of WHRB's regular programs have long histories of their own. For example, thecountry music programHillbilly at Harvard dates back to 1948,^[6] andSunday Night at the Opera is one of the longest-running programs in its genre in the United States. The station's underground rock department,Record Hospital, began in 1984 and hosts an annual music "fest".

WHRB also broadcasts live play-by-play coverage of all Harvard Universityfootball andmen's hockey games, along with occasional broadcasts of other Harvard sports likemen's basketball andwomen's hockey, and is the Boston-area home, in season, for the weekly broadcasts of theMetropolitan Opera. WHRB has broadcast the weekly Sunday services at Harvard'sMemorial Church since the early 1960s.^[7]

Prominent broadcasters who began their careers at WHRB includeMartin Bookspan (voice of theNew York Philharmonic), Steve Curwood (host ofLiving on Earth onNPR),Bruce Morton (CNN),Dan Raviv (CBS), Scott Horsley (NPR), andChris Wallace (Fox News).HarpsichordistIgor Kipnis,New York Times criticsJohn Rockwell andJon Caramanica,New Yorker writersAlex Ross andKelefa Sanneh, pianist and composerRobert D. Levin, author and criticDouglas Wolk,ZDNet founderMichael Kolowich,Justin Rice andChristian Rudder ofBishop Allen,Karl Rove's personal attorneyRobert Luskin, visual artistAlex Kahn, record producersThomas Blanchard Wilson Jr. and Jim Barber, and the members of thechimp rock bandFat Day have been on the station's staff.David Mays, the founder ofThe Source magazine, hosted a popular show,Street Beat.Raphael Bostic, current president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, broadcast basketball and R&B while at the station.Cara Jones, singer-songwriter and DJ atJ-Wave in Tokyo, Japan.

Mentor to these alumni for almost the last 60 years, and to everyone else who worked at the station, was David Elliott, a constant WHRB presence who filled a wide range of roles since his student days, from savvy and precise classical and opera curator-broadcaster to orgy mastermind, from board chair to eminent adviser.^{[8][9][opinion]} Elliott died November 12, 2020, at age 78.^{[10][11][12][13]}

• Campus radio
• List of college radio stations in the United States

• Official website
• broadband stream
• narrowband stream
• Facility details for Facility ID 26341 (WHRB) in theFCC Licensing and Management System
• WHRB inNielsen Audio's FM station database
• WHRB's Comments to Copyright Office regarding webcasting recordkeeping requirements

• College radio stations in Massachusetts
• Harvard University
• Radio stations established in 1957
• Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Mass media in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
• 1957 establishments in Massachusetts

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