Topic: College of Communication Information and Media
January 25, 2007
Ball State plans to move its student-run radio station's transmitting antenna to an on-campus location after the proposal was recently approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
WCRD's antenna will be placed on top of a 200-foot smokestack tower at the campus heating plant located adjacent to West Quad. The antenna is currently at Southside High School. The antenna's move to the new location is planned by the end of the year.
By moving the antenna to campus and operating at a greater height than at Southside, the station will offer a stronger signal to the university community, area residents and the McGalliard Avenue business district, said Barry Umansky, the Edmund F. and Virginia B. Ball Professor of Telecommunications at Ball State.
Umansky, who is also a communications attorney, did the legal work involved in the application and filed it with the FCC. The application also included engineering exhibits developed by a communications consulting engineering firm.
WCRD, which can be heard at 91.3 FM and wcrd.net, is known as "The Bird." The station broadcasts from studios in the Ball Communications Building. The station's actual FCC call letters are WWHI, but it uses "WCRD," or Cardinal Radio Dave, to honor its benefactor David Letterman, a Ball State graduate and host of a CBS late night talk show, as well as in recognition of the station's new format, College Radio on Demand.
The station broadcasts 24 hours daily with a full schedule of Ball State and local area high school sporting events, dozens of music-oriented programs and a variety of public affairs and news programs. It also sponsors many on- and off-campus events.
By Marc Ransford, Senior Communications Strategist