STONY BROOK, NY – November 7, 2023 – Stony Brook University’s radio station, WUSB-FM is broadcasting back at full power thanks to a newly installed transmitter financed by a state operating fund. The 3,600-watt device replaces a temporary system that was installed in April 2022 after the station’s 30-year-old transmitter broke down.
“It’s been extremely frustrating for both our listeners and supporters,” Isobel Breheny-Schafer, assistant director of Student Media and general manager for WUSB, said of the temporary transmitter, which had a signal radius of only 20 miles. “We couldn’t guarantee our station’s capabilities because the transmitter had become so unpredictable.”
WUSB’s roots date back half a century. First launched as an on-campus AM station in 1963, it gained Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licensing for FM transmission in 1977. Since then, the station has been on-air 24-7, 365 days a year – apart from the two days it took to replace the broken-down transmitter in 2022.
“This new transmitter makes the station whole again,” said Matt Mankiewich, a Stony Brook alum and longtime crew member at WUSB. “Our FCC license tells us how powerful our signal must be and where it should reach, and we’ve had to accept less than that for more than a year. Now we have a chance to get the word out and reach new listeners.”
The station – staffed by more than 100 students and volunteers – features a broad range of free-form, commercial-free programming. It reaches listeners on Long Island and Connecticut at 90.1 FM and can also be heard locally on 107.3 FM. Shows offer an eclectic mix of rock, reggae, jazz, blues, country, hip-hop and more, along with news, talk, self-help and sports programs. On-air personalities include students, alumni, faculty, university staff and community members.
Photo credit: John Griffin/Stony Brook University
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About Stony Brook University
Stony Brook University — New York’s flagship university and No. 1 public university — is going far beyond the expectations of today’s public universities. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. With nearly 26,000 students, more than 2,900 faculty members, more than 200,000 alumni, a premier academic healthcare system and 18 NCAA Division I athletic programs, Stony Brook is a research-intensive distinguished center of innovation dedicated to addressing the world’s biggest challenges. The university embraces its mission to provide comprehensive undergraduate, graduate and professional education of the highest quality, and is ranked as the #58 overall university and #26 among public universities in the nation by U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges listing. Fostering a commitment to academic research and intellectual endeavors, Stony Brook’s membership in the Association of American Universities (AAU) places it among the top 71 research institutions in North America. The university’s distinguished faculty have earned esteemed awards such as the Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize, Indianapolis Prize for animal conservation, Abel Prize and the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics. Stony Brook has the responsibility of co-managing Brookhaven National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy — one of only eight universities with a role in running a national laboratory. In 2023, Stony Brook was named the anchor institution for The New York Climate Exchange on Governors Island in New York City. Providing economic growth for neighboring communities and the wider geographic region, the university totals an impressive $7.23 billion in increased economic output on Long Island. Follow us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/
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