WSUA Station History
The first traces of campus radio activity at the UAlbany
campus appeared in the 1940s when the University Radio
Council was formed. This organization made initial plans for
the creation of a campus station tentatively called WCFA
(College For Teachers, UAlbany's first incarnation) and WSCA.
In 1962, the college became a University in the State
University of New York system.
WSUA debuted on February 22, 1963 as a "carrier current"
AM radio station, where the broadcast transmissions are
propagated via and confined to the electrical wiring of the
college campus. The frequency was 640 kHz. At the time, a
school newspaper account specified the station's power at
eight watts. The first program was hosted by David Hughes.
Bill Alexander (quoted above) and Don Allen are
considered the founders of WSUA owing to their work in the
Radio Council. Bill was the station's first General Manager,
with Don to follow. WSUA was located in a janitor's closet
in Brubacher Hall in what is today called the "Downtown
campus." At the time, the format consisted of news, sports
and music in the jazz, classical and Broadway vein. It was
somewhat later that WSUA realized it could attract a bigger
audience among the student population by playing "rock and
roll" music, so a Top 40 format soon ensued. The song "I
Want To Hold Your Hand" by the Beatles is said to be the
first song played in the new Top 40 format.
In the mid 1960s, WSUA upgraded their studio space to the
basement of Brubacher Hall, where space for more studios and
record storage was available. The station's management
offices were on the first floor. Around this time, the
station's carrier current signal was rolled out to the new
"Uptown" campus. The electrical wires used to carry the
signal often imparted a buzzing sound on the transmission.
In 1975, the station began to use the slogan "Buzz Along
With Us" on some promotional items to acknowledge this fact.
A more progressive type of rock music format would be
introduced beginning in 1968 and would later become the
dominant format, displacing the Top 40 music. At the same
time, WSUA began sports coverage of the Great Danes
basketball and football teams. One of the more popular
programs in 1970 was the Saturday Night of Gold, hosted
initially by Eric Lonschein and, later, Andy Baum and Glen
Trotiner. The station also featured a daily news digest
called Earwitness News beginning in 1973. The news program
featured, among others, Anita Bonita, who would later become
well known on the New York City radio dial. By mandate of
the Student Association, the station would be required to
use this specific ID for it's top of the hour announcement:
"WSUA Albany, subsidized completely by student tax paid to
the Student Association of the State University of New York
at Albany."
WCDB History
The migration from WSUA on the AM dial to WCDB on the FM
dial began around 1968, when plans for acquiring an FM
frequency and license were first started. These plans grew
in detail and, unfortunately, red tape, as complexities
related to University backing, financial scandal at the
station, and technical issues were raised. During this time,
the station's budget was frozen, and it was necessary to ask
each station member for $50 (in 1970 dollars) in order to
continue operating. To unfreeze the budget, the station was
forced to move closer to the Student Association on the
newer Uptown campus. Following the song "Get Together" by
The Youngbloods, WSUA's downtown campus studios signed off
and were closed. In 1971, WSUA began operating from new
studios in the Campus Center, where WCDB exists today.
Between 1974 and 1977, station GM David Galletly, along
with Eric Goldstein, Jeff Ronner and Paul Rosenthal were
mired in paperwork and license applications in order to make
the station's transition to FM possible. The FCC approved
call sign WCDB for use by the University. A student lounge
adjacent to the WSUA studios was annexed by the station to
provide room for the new FM studios, which are still in use
today. Jerry Jones, of UAlbany's Educational Communications
Center was the station's first FM broadcast engineer, and
would consult WCDB on technical matters for the next 18
years.
WCDB signed on to the FM dial on March 1, 1978 with the
song "Born To Run" by Bruce Springsteen, played by DJ Jim
Saturno. The station operated with 10 watts of power in FM
stereo. While WCDB played the record, the same song rang out
on the campus carillon outside the campus center (in the
fountain).
WCDB's FM format was news, sports and a variety of music
including rock, jazz and what would later be called World
music. The station would excel at Election night coverage
for several years.
Although WCDB was operating on the FM dial, WSUA
continued operating on the AM dial as a training studio for
new staff members wanting to work on the FM station. This
continued until 1980, when it was decided that the AM signal
was no longer necessary.
In 1981, the station applied to increase its transmitter
power to 100 watts, and was approved to do so on March 1,
1982. The first song played at the new higher power was
"Rock and Roll" by the Velvet Underground.
By the late 1980s, dance music was added to the format of
the station in the form of a long running weekly show called
Club 91 on Friday nights.
Advances in audio technology found their way into the
station. In 1987, local club QE2 donated a CD player to the
station and CDs were broadcast for the first time. Both the
Production and On Air studios were rebuilt in 1992 and 1993
under the guidance of broadcast engineer Joe Schepis, who
would later found the WCDB Historical Society web site in
1996. Aging analog reel to reel tape machines were replaced
by digital tape decks (DAT) starting in 1994, and in 1997,
the analog broadcast cartridges used for IDs, promos and
some songs were replaced by MiniDisc technology.
The format of the mid 1990's was music intensive, with
some public affairs and news programs. DJs Brian Perlis and
Ron Balle worked hard to lobby the station administration
for a prime time program with a talk/interview format. In
1993 their lobbying succeeded, and the Ron and Brian Show
was a pioneering program and would lay the foundation for
later programs in a similar vein, such as Talk Show 91. To
support the talk format, where telephone interviews would
sometimes be necessary, a new seven second delay unit was
put into service in the main studio in 1994.
WCDB first published their first official web site on September
20, 1997. It was designed by Jerem Curry. This was the
station's first significant presence on the World Wide Web,
aside from tribute pages created by station members. On
January 17, 1999, WCDB made one of its first Internet audio
broadcasts, carrying the Talk Show 91 program for several
weeks.
In 1998, GM Glenda Bautista created a team morale-building
exercise called Biodome, whereby station members and alumni
were invited to camp out in the station's studio overnight. This
was scheduled to coincide with the station's 20th Anniversary
celebration.
On January 28, 2002, WCDB upgraded its aging transmitter
and antenna with newer models. The 100 watt power level is
maintained using a 300 watt Energy-Onix transmitter.
In 2003, WCDB welcomed back all WCDB and WSUA alumni to
its 25th Anniversary celebration, which was very well
attended. A series of all-day interviews were featured on
air of all the past personalities who came back to visit the
station and recall their glory days. A remote broadcast from
Brubacher Hall, now leased to the College of Saint Rose,
featured additional stories of the early WSUA days.
In 2008, various online "social networks" are started by
various alumni factions to share photos, stories and stay in
touch. Also, the studios and offices of WCDB are completely
gutted for asbestos abatement and then rebuilt. New
carpeting, furniture, signage, doors and some new equipment
were all paid for by the Student Association.
The improved facilities were shown off at the WCDB 30th/
WSUA 45th Anniversary Alumni Reunion in October of 2008. The
Brubacher Hall remote broadcast took place a second time.
The Alumni dinner at Dutch Quad was also broadcast live.
Watch this space to see how the future unfolds for the
legacy of radio broadcasting at UAlbany.
Got any post-2008 historical events or
perspectives to share? Please contact us with the
information.
Thanks to Marc Gronich for collecting and
verifying many of the facts used in the above history.
Marc authored a comprehensive account of the station's
history in 2003 which has since been available on the
WCDB web site if you are interested in many more
specific details and names involved in the station's
evolution.
There are of course many hundreds of station
members whose names are omitted here for purposes of
clarity and space. No slight is intended for any
omission of name or credit. All alumni members are
indebted to their predecessors for their dedication and
hard work at keeping the station alive and growing.
