On a chilly early March night, WMHC General Manager Valentina Rubio Lopez greeted me outside the Mount Holyoke College campus in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Bursting with love for radio, Rubio Lopez explained that an important part of their college selection criteria was that the school have a functioning radio station. The specific inspiration came from radio show host protagonists on the “Welcome to Night Vale” podcast, which they listened to in middle school. These fictional characters opened their world to the concept of doing radio. As a result, Rubio Lopez has been involved with the Mount Holyoke College station since freshman year.
Touring WMHC in 2026: Sticker-Covered Door Preserved!
In the hour before the Mount Holyoke senior’s weekly show, Rubio Lopez led me on a lively tour of the WMHC studio and offices. Located on the upper level of Blanchard Hall, the station is part of a larger Community Center complex at Mount Holyoke College, a historically women’s college in western Massachusetts. The student newspaper, student government and student involvement offices are on the same floor and a pub, meeting rooms, and gaming tables are within the building.
One of the first things we spotted was a sticker-covered door mounted on the wall near the entrance to WMHC. Plastered with band stickers (Hot Snakes, Primus, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Willie Nelson, The Thermals, Pixies and more) and radio station decals (I spied some for WMHC, WOZQ, WMUA, and WFUV), the door used to be the main entry point to WMHC. Rubio Lopez told me that upon returning to campus last fall, the station leaders discovered that the long-time door had been removed as part of an accessibility upgrade. Upset to see it gone, WMHCers managed to track it down and had it installed as decoration. Happy to see it back, Rubio Lopez pointed out that it’s “your first introduction to WMHC.”
Preserving the Rich History of Radio at Mount Holyoke College
Saving that cherished sticker-filled door is in keeping with WMHC’s respect for the station’s lengthy history. Over the years WMHC has worked to move older materials to the university archives, which contains a large collection of student radio-related items dating as far back as the late 1930s. Much of that collection has been digitized as part of my work with the Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications and can be viewed in the WMHC Collection on the Internet Archive. The station has a close relationship with The Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections, which I visited on the day after my trip to WMHC. While there, I saw a mini zine that was created to provide a snapshot of WMHC history. Additionally, among racks of postcards printed from vintage photos in the Mount Holyoke collection was one of DJs in the WMHC studio.
This appreciation for station history is also woven into the schedule of activities for WMHC’s annual Radio Week this year. The celebration kicked off with “Explore the WMHC Archives,” an open house at the Mount Holyoke College Archives on April 27. During Radio Week, WMHC typically holds daily events including open mics, live DJing (“DJ on the Green”), karaoke, and more. The culmination of the week is often a big concert. This year’s Radio Week concludes with APAU (Association of Pan-African Unity) + WMHC: Boiler Room, a dance party featuring a roster of DJs.
Artifacts from the past can be found throughout the WMHC space. During my visit, I saw vintage program guides, “dead tech,” shelves of vinyl records and CDs, and an event “hall of fame.” The former main studio room now serves as a storage room and museum for many of these items. A wall is covered with flyers and posters and Rubio Lopez explained that it provides “documentation” of concerts and artists that they’ve brought to campus. WMHC has presented shows featuring singer-songwriter Indigo DeSouza, indie folk band The Barr Brothers, indie rock band The Greening Committee, and local (Amherst-based) glam punk band Sapien Joyride, among others.
Physical Music at WMHC
Although WMHC has a lot of vinyl records and several turntables, that music is “going unused unfortunately” due in part to broken equipment and tight budgets, according to Rubio Lopez. Explaining that the station’s vinyl is “almost decorative at this point,” they said they wished they could get a new turntable, especially since it’s nostalgic for them to view photos of former DJs holding the very records housed in the station.
It’s an interesting paradox since physical media is increasingly cherished by college students at Mount Holyoke. According to Rubio Lopez, “The student body has a strong distaste for streaming these days,” leading to the use of physical media, with CDs “the most popular way of doing that.” In light of that, WMHC is “prioritizing just having CDs because most people want CDs and have CDs and know how to use CDs.” A WMHC trivia event this spring was to include a CD player and portable CD player as prizes.
In addition to WMHC’s appreciation for records and CDs, the station takes pride in the artistry behind its promotional items. Rubio Lopez pointed out station-produced postcards, T-shirts (which are produced with a different design each year), stickers, flyers, posters and even black sweatpants with WMHC written in “metal font” on the back. Inspired by pre-pandemic paper program guides, WMHC was hoping to produce a new edition this semester that includes show descriptions as a replacement for the spartan calendar-style digital schedules that have been the norm in recent years.
Radio at Mount Holyoke Begins with 1947 Studio, then WMHC’s Campus-Only Debut in 1951
Now broadcasting online and over 91.5 FM, WMHC’s history stretches back to the 1940s. After a radio studio was built in 1947 for academic use by radio speech and broadcasting courses, students became interested in establishing a radio station. In a November 1950 letter to Smith College, student Carolyn Bell asks for advice about starting up a radio station, adding that, “With students here at Mount Holyoke so enthusiastic about having a college station, we are hoping to overcome present difficulties. Many thanks for your help and interest.” A year later, in November 1951, students launched WMHC as a campus-only AM carrier current station at “around 820 on the radio dial,” with a control room in Mary E. Woolley Hall. After five years of campus-only broadcasts, WMHC obtained an FCC license and began transmitting as a 10 watt FM station in April 1957.
WMHC Launches over FM in 1957
Nods to WMHC’s 75 year history are dotted on the walls throughout the station. An old Alumnae Memory Book includes the phrase “50 Years of Liberated Radio,” while a banner in the studio remains posted after the station’s 62nd birthday over a decade ago. A flyer for an unspecified WMHC Birthday touts a mid-life crisis theme, encouraging attendees to “dress like you’re going through hot flashes thinking about buying a new sports car.” Another flyer outlines some details from WMHC’s history, making the claim that “we are the oldest radio station in the country that has been continually operated by women.”
Although WMHC’s FM launch in 1957 places it as perhaps the oldest continuously operating FM station at a historically women’s college, several colleges had campus-only stations that began even earlier. If we use carrier current launch dates as the determining factor for “oldest,” then Wellesley College (WBS launched in 1942) and Smith College (WCSR launched in 1948) have been around longer when considering their campus-only beginnings in the 1940s, even though their FM stations debuted after Mount Holyoke’s.
In 2026, WMHC Listeners Tune in over 91.5 FM and via Mixlr
In 2026, most of the WMHC audience is assumed to be listening online over its Mixlr stream, although radios throughout the studio are tuned to 91.5 FM as a way to monitor the terrestrial broadcast. Rubio Lopez said that signal isn’t as strong as it used to be and that it doesn’t extend much beyond the campus, noting, “but it’s still FM!” Listeners can chat live with DJs over Mixlr, which is a feature enjoyed by the mostly student (and one staff member) DJs. Besides the radio broadcasts, WMHC also regularly spins music at campus events using its mobile DJ gear. Recently they’ve been asked to DJ at athletic events, including tail gate parties.
High Participation at WMHC, with Packed Schedule
Mount Holyoke College’s undergraduate population is just over 2,100 students, so it’s quite amazing that WMHC’s membership is at about 130, including the student board and DJs. Live programming usually airs from 8am to 2am and is made up of mostly one-hour shows. While Rubio Lopez speculates that indie rock is the most popular genre on WMHC, the station plays a mix that also includes pop, electronic, jazz, world, folk, and more. “Funked up! Mixes,” “Monosyllabic Noise,” “Zombie Girl Radio,” “Misunderstood Juveniles Navigating Girlhood,” “iPod Idolatry,” BIPOC’O Clock,” “Beats, Bops & Bangers,” and “ur mom” are just a few of 100 or so show names, hinting at the themes and perspectives of various DJs. Evey Sunday night, “Live at 5,” airs live music performances from the station.
On the night of my visit, a DJ was doing a live show, playing mostly music from the 1980s. Between selections by the Pet Shop Boys, New Order and Wham!, the DJ chatted with friends sitting in the studio about the music, before imploring listeners to drive safely on the snowy roads. The dim studio was only slightly illuminated by lights from the board and from hanging decorative string lights. From large windows one can look out over the campus. Another window has a view of the record library/dead tech storage room. Rubio Lopez pointed out a ghostly face in that window, telling me that the cardboard cut-out is a photo of a former WMHC general manager who “watches over everybody.”
Thanks to WMHC + Station Tour Archive
Thanks to Valentina Rubio Lopez for the fun evening tour of WMHC. This is my 201st radio station tour report and my 142nd college radio station tour. This concludes my series of tours of stations in the Five College Consortium. Since they have overlapping histories, be sure to take a look at those pieces about WMUA (UMass Amherst), WAMH (Amherst College), Yurt Radio (Hampshire College), and WOZQ (Smith College). You can view the entire collection of my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in the Radio Survivor archives.
