One of my favorite things about tuning in to terrestrial radio is hearing unlikely juxtapositions as stations fade in and out of each other. With religious radio covering much of the left side of the dial in some communities, there are often unintentionally bizarre mash-ups of faith-based messages with the sometimes edgier music and lyrics of college radio. As I drove towards Lewiston, Maine listening to 91.5 FM on a Monday afternoon in October, I was expecting to catch Bates College radio station WRBC, but instead heard a cheery tune about heaven and a “divine maker.” The last lyrics that I could discern were “God’s word endures forever,” before the music got choppy and then disappeared into silence.
Soon a DJ came on the microphone and said, “You Just heard ‘The Hairstyle of the Devil by Momus.'” The DJ took a call from a childhood friend, for which listeners could only catch one side of the conversation. But in my rental car, I was also hearing a nearby religious radio station (which showed up on the car’s audio dashboard display as “91.5 Jesus #1”) fading in and out in “call and response” style as the college radio DJ from WRBC told a story about the friend. After the DJ cued up a song from the Cocteau Twins, I was charmed by the full arc of the moment, as the music of one of my favorite bands emanating from the car speakers.
Touring WRBC at Bates College
Hearing that bit of unplanned radio art over WRBC piqued my curiosity as I headed towards the Bates College student-run radio station for a tour. A short time later, I entered WRBC 91.5 FM‘s basement lair through the back entrance of an old house that had been converted to a campus building. I felt like I was descending into a secret clubhouse, full of music and memorabilia from the station’s 67-year history.
I was greeted by Olivia Torrington (WRBC’s Community Liaison and Digital Media head) and WRBC co-General Managers Matt Riseman and Brett Karpf. We had a chat and tour before everyone headed to a station board meeting. As it was towards the start of the academic year, WRBC was in the midst of various organizational projects, including revamping and cleaning up the station and training new participants.
While wandering through the funky station space, it was impossible to ignore signs of WRBC’s storied past. A cozy lounge area is where I began my tour. Seated on what looked like a college-issued dorm couch, I had a view of a collection of colorful vintage chairs (some scored at yard sales), graffiti-covered walls, and a jam-packed physical music library full of CDs and records.
Past the record library is a hallway with another couch, a bathroom (The Pee Studio), office area, a former production studio, more storage space, and the on-air studio. Band and radio stickers are plastered on various surfaces and one wall is decorated with a collage of vintage clippings and photos representing the history of radio at Bates College.
Campus Radio Station WVBC Launches in 1951
Debuting over FM in 1958, WRBC had its origins as 640 AM campus-only carrier current station WVBC (for “Voice of Bates College”), which launched in Chase Hall in 1951. From the very beginning the station was met with great enthusiasm, with 120 on staff in the fall semester in 1951, leading up to the station’s launch that November. By the following semester, they had a growing record collection, roster of regular shows, and even did a “continuous 13-hour broadcast…in which they kept students informed about classes and the effects of [a] storm,” according to a February 27, 1952 article in The Bates Student.
WVBC was not without technical difficulties. In April 1952, an article in the Bates Student joked, “It is now taken for granted that the left turntable is subject to extreme fits of temperament and will often refuse to comply with the requirements for records of different RPM. The present policy is to ‘let it go’ if the song is relatively unfamiliar and will not sound too farfetched when speeded up or slowed down a bit.”
Student Radio Goes FM with Launch of WRJR in 1958; Call Letters Later Change to WRBC
In 1958, the student radio group at Bates received an license for 10 watt station WRJR 91.5 FM, with test programs beginning that fall out of the basement of Pettigrew Hall. WRJR officially launched in October, 1958. As AM was the norm at the time and not all students owned FM radios, WRJR worked to install converters “for the remaining students with AM sets,” according to an April 22, 1959 article in the Bates Student. Circa 1981-1982 the station’s call letters were changed to WRBC.
WRBC in 2025
Today, WRBC continues to be a completely student-run station. It has been located in its current home, the former Bates Alumni House, since 1978. While it occupies the basement, the upstairs rooms are used as office space for faculty. Programming runs from around 8am to midnight, with about 130 active DJs and around 70 shows. There are approximately 12 DJs from outside the campus community, some of whom have been on the air at WRBC for 20 to 30 years.
WRBC’s Large Physical Music Library
WRBC has a large collection of vinyl records and CDs that are stored in its main library room, in hallway shelves and in the on-air studio. WRBC Community Liaison Olivia Torrington pointed out that most of the CDs have handwritten reviews on them and we noticed a few that were so old that the stickers were falling off as the adhesive had dried out. The collection is “loosely” organized alphabetically and by genre and the plan is to have new station interns working to get the library in better shape.
I was told that the vinyl records aren’t used as much as they’d like, in part because the turntable needles are currently broken. Community DJs are more likely to use CDs and vinyl. And occasionally students play physical music for the “novelty.” Although new DJs are trained on the audio equipment, the perception is that playing digital music is easier.
DJs Play a Wide Mix of Music at WRBC
While I was there a couple of students were wrapping up their team show for the evening. Between on-air banter, they played music, including a Beatles song. Madonna’s “Material Girl” was playing as I left the station, while later in the evening DJs were discussing the new Taylor Swift album, which had just been released. At other times that I’ve tuned in, I’ve heard a range of genres, including soul, rock, hip hop, electronic and pop. Other shows on the schedule dig in to jazz, blues, reggae, and more. When there isn’t a live DJ, an automated mix of music plays thanks to the station’s “Robo DJ.”
Like the rest of the station, the studio is full of artifacts from the past, starting with the sticker-covered door. A spiral-bound WRBC Dialogue Book from 2020 was on the counter, containing notes and drawings from DJs. A collection of carts with recorded station promotional spots (circa 1994-1997) are perched high on a shelf. Typed PSAs in plastic sleeves are available for DJs to read on-air. There is also a folder of CDs labelled “OND,” and posted instructions note that if Robo DJ isn’t working, one should play one of the overnight disks in lieu of the automated music mix. Audio equipment in the studio includes a mixing board, turntables, CD players, computer, microphones and headphones.
WRBC Events include Trivia Night
In addition to their on-air activities, WRBC hosts events and special programming throughout the year, including a Halloween Bash, concerts and trivia nights. One wall of the music library has various sets of hash marks that were used to keep score during a past trivia night. Callers would contact the station with answers to trivia questions and station staff tallied up the answers on the wall.
As we finished up the tour, WRBC co-General Manager Matt Riseman summed up what makes the station’s home so great. “It’s unique. It’s WRBC. You enter the space and you become a part of it. It’s awesome,” he mused, adding, “We are trying our best to keep Bates weird.”
Thanks to WRBC + Full List of Station Tours
Thanks to everyone at WRBC for the fun tour of their magical radio space at Bates College. This is my 184th radio station tour report and my 126th college radio station tour. You can view the entire collection of my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives.
