WNUR-FM

WNUR-FM

Evanston, Illinois
Broadcast area	Chicago metropolitan area
Frequency	89.3 MHz
Programming
Format	College Radio - Variety
Ownership
Owner	Northwestern University
History
First air date	May 8, 1950; 73 years ago (1950-05-08)
Call sign meaning	W Northwestern University Radio
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	49779
Class	B1
ERP	7,200 watts
HAAT	30 meters (98 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	42°3′12.00″N 87°40′33.00″W / 42.0533333°N 87.6758333°W / 42.0533333; -87.6758333
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	www.wnur.org www.wnursports.com

WNUR-FM (89.3 MHz) is a non-commercial FM radio station licensed to Evanston, Illinois and serving the Chicago metropolitan area. It is the student radio station of Northwestern University and has a college radio format, mixing different styles of music with news and commentary.

WNUR-FM has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 7,200 watts. The transmitter is off Sheridan Road in Evanston, near the Northwestern University Library.^[2]

History

WNUR first began broadcasting as a low-power campus AM radio station in the 1940s. It got its FM license a few years later and signed on the air on May 8, 1950; 73 years ago (1950-05-08).^[3] Originally, WNUR-FM operated from a 10-watt transmitter that only could be heard on or near the campus. By the 1970s, it got a power boost to 7,200 watts, allowing it to be heard in parts of Chicago and its northern suburbs.

Between 1982 and 1995, WNUR's slogan was "The New Music FM". In 1995, the station moved into new facilities in Northwestern's Annie May Swift Hall. Around that same time, WNUR's slogan switched to "Chicago's Sound Experiment". (The station had previously broadcast from older facilities in the basement of the same building). In March 2007, WNUR began broadcasting from studios in John J. Louis Hall on Northwestern's Evanston Campus.

On-air programming

Music programs

WNUR programming over the years has included Airplay (a weekly program dedicated to local Chicago music), free-form experimental audio collage programming, weekly live radio comedies, and world-premiere live radio dramas written and directed by David Mamet. Current programming blocks focus on news, music (including classical, folk, hip-hop, jazz, and rock), individual shows such as This is Hell.

Sports coverage

WNUR Sports is the flagship radio voice of Northwestern Wildcats women's basketball. Since the mid-1990s, the station has broadcast every game live on air, and in recent years has begun streaming all games over the internet on Mixlr. The station also broadcasts every home game for Northwestern Wildcats football, men's basketball, baseball, softball, lacrosse, volleyball, and men's and women's soccer. They provide postseason coverage for these sports as well, and have broadcast games at the NCAA men's basketball tournament, Women's College World Series, and the NCAA women's lacrosse national championship, among other notable college sporting events.

WNUR Sports is a distinct entity that operates on its own budget, separate from the WNUR operating budget. WNUR Sports has served as the exclusive carrier of Northwestern Men's Basketball for several tournaments that flagship station WGN 720 AM was unable to cover, including the 2006 San Juan Shootout hosted by the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez and the 2005 BCA Invitational at the University of Wyoming. WNUR Sports also provides sideline reports for all football broadcasts. WNUR Sports hosts a weekly call-in show known as The SportsVoice. The SportsVoice is the only call-in show dedicated to Northwestern Wildcat Athletics. As with all WNUR Sports programming, it is hosted and produced entirely by students.

Off-air activities

In addition to broadcasts, some station blocks focus on creating non-radio content. WNUR News and WNUR Sports both create their own podcasts and blog posts, while Airplay publishes live performance videos.

In 2019, the first volume of the station's music magazine Wavelength was published.^[4]

Alumni

DJs from WNUR have occasionally gone on to produce their own music. Alumni include music critic and sometimes musician John Corbett and members of several bands including OK Go, The Effigies, Arcade Fire, Town and Country, Chavez, Volcano! and the No Doctors. House DJs Derrick Carter and Mark Farina also held shows on WNUR in the early 1990s. Other alums include Neil Tesser, Steve Albini, Sarah Sherman and This American Life host Ira Glass got his start at the station. Arbitron executive Pierre Bouvard also hails from WNUR, as does radio researcher and strategist Mark Kassof. Kevin Beacham, host of Redefinition Radio on Minnesota Public Radio's independent music station, KCMP, hosted the hip-hop program Time Travel on WNUR during the mid-1990s. In the late 1970s, novelist Eckhard Gerdes was a DJ, Free Form Producer, and Rock Producer at the station.

Alumni of WNUR Sports include Guy Benson of WIND, Dave Eanet of WGN, Glenn Geffner of the Florida Marlins, Dave Revsine of the Big Ten Network, Kevin Blackistone of Fanhouse.com and ESPN, and Darren Rovell of CNBC.

References

External links

• WNUR Records, 1953-1994, Northwestern University Archives, Evanston, Illinois
• WNUR History Site
• Underground Archive Project, documenting over 1,000 albums from the WNUR music library
• WNUR in the FCC FM station database
• WNUR on Radio-Locator
• WNUR in Nielsen Audio's FM station database

This page was last edited on 1 November 2023, at 15:56