WPRK
Coordinates: 28 ° 35 ′ 41 ″ N , 81 ° 20 ′ 6 ″ W.
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|---|---|
| Radio station | |
| Program type | University radio |
| reception | analog , digital terrestrial & web radio |
| Reception area |
Winter Park , Florida United States
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| Start of transmission | 1924 |
| Broadcaster | Rollins College |
| List of radio stations | |
| Website | |
WPRK is a college radio in Winter Park , Florida . The radio has been operated by Rollins College since December 8, 1952 , can be heard in the greater part of the Orlando metropolitan area and broadcasts on 91.5 M Hz . A varied eclectic program is broadcast on the radio station , which mainly includes the latest indie music and sports broadcasts from the Rollins College team.
The broadcaster tries to play music that commercial broadcasters don't have, with a high percentage of local bands. In the daily program, the requirement applies that a certain proportion of the songs played may not have been shown on the station in the last three months. The callsign WPRK stands for the sending location W inter P a RK .
history
Prehistory and first years
WPRK began as a broadcaster that worked closely with the college administration. In the course of its history, the station suffered from the problems that many college radios had: strongly changing funding from the university, volunteer helpers with fluctuating time commitment and motivation, content-related conflicts between student staff, the university and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) . However, it was also able to assert itself as the only broadcaster in Orlando that does not host a format radio and where the program designers are largely independent of the management.
WPRK was Rollins' second college radio station. In 1924 a physics professor and some of his students had set up a medium wave transmitter and broadcast the first radio programs. However, the program, which consisted mostly of broadcasting lectures, was never a great success and was sold. The Orlando-based private broadcaster WDBO developed from the station .
At 88.1 MHz, a 10- watt transmitter broadcast mainly classical music from music students, announcements of student duties, debates and church services from the college's Knowles Memorial Chapel . The Ford Foundation financed the beginning . One of the first supporters was the then US President Dwight D. Eisenhower , who, as a proven supporter of the college radio idea, gave a longer greeting on the third day of broadcast, expressing that WPRK could help great men with the spread of great ideas and women to be given freedom. He was the first US president whose voice could be heard on a university radio.
expansion
Initially, the station broadcast a five-hour program on weekdays, now it has a 24-hour program. The studio was located in the basement of the Mills Memorial Library on campus, which inspired WPRK to create the slogan The best in Basement Radio . In addition to the few full-time employees, more than 80 DJs worked at the station in 2008.
In 1954 the transmitter upgraded to 250 watts transmission power, in 1964 it boasted that it had the "most listeners per watt". Over the decades radio has moved away from classical music and debates and more towards a more modern music format where students and their tastes have had a greater influence on programming. The manager between 1978 and 1990, J. Gordon Fraser, eventually expanded the program to include daily programs. In addition to experimental classical music and free jazz, he introduced longer “freeform” formats, in which the student DJs practically had a free hand in designing programs.
Since the area around Orlando is thunderstorm and Orlando describes itself as the lightning capital of the world , the various WPRK antennas suffered various direct lightning strikes in the course of their existence. The only day since Fraser took office that WPRK has not been on the air was in September 1985 when Hurricane Elena hit Orlando.
Content independence and fast sale
In 1989, the students pushed through that Rollins College largely gave up content control on the station. Since then, the choice of content has actually been made by the student operators themselves. In 2000, however, participation in the station had sunk to a low point, only 16 volunteers from the university kept the station alive. There were also 55 DJs who had no college connection. The audience was at times below 50 simultaneous listeners. In a radio market that was now one of the 35 largest in the US, the college planned to sell the entire station and its license to local radio WMFE . The NPR offshoot Wmfe would have produced under the agreement the entire morning and evening program and students as interns allowed the night program to make. Only major protests from the student body, radio makers and parts of the Orlando population could prevent this. Rollins College hired a full-time executive director, and the number of volunteers on the radio had doubled from 16 to 32 during the protests. The university and students agreed to focus the program more on Rollins College and less on the entire Orlando area.
In 2005, WPRK DJ Dave Plotkin attempted to break the world record for the longest live radio broadcast by a DJ. Although he held out the targeted 110 hours, the Guinness Book of Records informed him that a successful 120-hour world record attempt from 2003 had already been found in its database. The tradition of a regular multi-day fundraising marathon of varying quality grew out of this. The now two full-time employees and the broadcasting operations are still largely financed by Rollins College. Two full-time and 110 volunteer employees send over 1300 watts a daily 24-hour program that can be received in a radius of around 16 miles.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Kayla Smith: Tuned in to the community ( Memento of the original from March 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: Winter Park Magazine, January 2010
- ↑ a b c Central Florida Radio: WPRK-FM 91.5 Winter Park
- ↑ a b c d e f g Andrew Jones: Radio Free Orlando in: Orlando Weekly, December 5, 2002
- ↑ a b c d e Rollins College: An Extremely Short History of WPRK ( Memento of the original from January 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Arcane Radio Trivia: The Presidential Radio Address
- ↑ a b Stephanie Ellenburg: The Blob invades campus ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: The Sandspur, September 9, 2008
- ↑ Martin E. Comas: Wprk 50 Years Of Tunes, Talk, Teaching in: Orlando Sentinel, December 5, 2002
- ^ A b c William Dean Hinton: Making waves makes its point , in: Orlando Weekly, February 8, 2001
- ^ William Dean Hinton: Lost on the dial , in: Orlando Weekly, July 5, 2000
- ↑ Carl F. Gauze: wprk Rally in: Ink 19 July 2000
- ↑ Neil Rogers.com: DJ Finds Out 110 Hours On Air Wasn't Record ( Memento from February 11, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Orlando Weekly: Cheap Shots , Dec. 21, 2006
