The History of Radio at Washington & Jefferson
The Backstory
The history of radio at Washington & Jefferson has been a rough one. The first station began broadcasting in 1961. It would be wishful thinking to say that it was uphill from there, but unfortunately that was not the case. Although around fifty people were originally interested in being involved with the campus station, interest soon dropped. Throughout the decades to come, the evolving W&J radio station faced many hardships including lack of involvement, financial troubles, damaged and outdated equipment, and even break-ins and stolen property. At numerous points throughout its history, the station even went off-air for months at a time. Despite all of this, the current station at W&J, WNJR, is on-air, and offers numerous programs for its listeners to enjoy!
A Walk Through the Past
Pictured left is an article that was published in The Red & Black in April of 2014. The article provides a great summary of the history of the W&J radio station through its ups and downs and name changes.
Start of college radio:
Campus radio stations started as a college student run association that broadcasted campus news and events to the whole campus. One of the first college radio stations in the country was WRUC from Union College in Schenectady, New York. Although some colleges started campus radio broadcasting on AM as early as 1916, campus radio did not become common until 1960's when the FCC began issuing license for development of FM stations. Despite the fact that Washington and Jefferson College did not start a campus radio until 1961, W.A.J.C. radio still had an early start at the life of college radio started as an AM stations with only a few other colleges.
Source: Wakefield, R. (1959, February). Radio Broadcasting at Union College. http://web.archives.org/web/20080515103959/http://w2us.union.edu/RADIO_web.htm