Making Airspace for WMUC: History and Future Options

Beyond 88.1

How did WMUC get wedged in at one end of the dial, with no room

to move or improve?

Mike Doughney, April 1, 2008 – http://wmuc.org/files/

WMUC's pre-FM history • Low-power AM transmitters on 650 kHz, using antenna

wires strung around buildings (1950's and possibly earlier) • Getting shut down by the FCC (1958?)• Carrier-current - using building power wiring as an AM

antenna, popular on many campuses in the 60’s• As many as 10 small transmitters scattered across

campus by the early 1970's, serving 40-50 buildings including Greek houses

• Speakers in 4 dining halls and the Student Union

WMUC carrier-current and speaker coverage, early 1970’s

Blue – AM 650 coverage, Red – speaker systems, Brown – future buildings

Disadvantages of carrier-current AM

• Very limited coverage only inside buildings • Hum, interference and varying coverage

hour-to-hour because it uses the power wiring

• Transmitter and phone line failures • Multiple transmitters interfering with each

other

In spite of the limitations of carrier-current:

• Vital campus service with a national reputation

• Many alumni working in the broadcast industry

• New studios "high atop the Main Dining Hall" (about 1974) with design based on that of local commercial stations

Why then does the University of Maryland not have a broadcast

station by 1975?

• unlike many if not most large universities across the country?

Meanwhile... • Control and censorship issues between administration

and other campus media • Diamondback funding cut, spun off into independent

non-profit in 1971 • Washington Post offered to donate WTOP-FM to a

willing recipient; the University turned it down; it became Howard University's WHUR (96.3) in 1971

• Noncommercial FM dial fills up in the Washington area, with last station (WPFW) going on the air in 1977 after a long application and construction process

• If the University had obtained one of these full-power licenses, the station would have had little if any student involvement

Even with 20 non-commercial FM channels, no space is free: each station occupies as many as 7 channels in the local area

The rest of the FM dial in the Washington DC area is similarly crowded

WMUC-FM timeline

• 1975 - Application for "developmental authorization" on 87.9, just inside the Channel 6 TV band - FCC denies, allegedly because of concerns about interference to TV broadcasters

• 1978 - Application for "Class D" operation on 88.1, which technically "interferes" with WAMU on 88.5; WAMU does not object to WMUC's application and request for waiver of FCC rules

• September 1979 - WMUC-FM signs on

FCC rule changes and WJHU/WYPR

• FCC rule changes, instigated by Corporation for Public Broadcasting, forces 10-watt FM's to raise power, move to the commercial band, or in rare cases move to 87.9. WMUC, of course, is one of the few 10 watt stations with no options; stays on 88.1

• Late 1970’s: WJHU, Johns Hopkins University, signs on as a 10 watt station to replace its campus carrier current station

• 1980: WJHU obtains construction permit for 10,000 watt directional• 1986: 10 watt WJHU upgrades to 10 kw, begins to degrade WMUC

coverage• July 2002: WYPR granted construction permit for coverage increase

at 15 kw, lets permit expire unbuilt• October 2005: WYPR again granted construction permit for 15 kw• March 2008: WYPR further increases coverage, causing more

interference to WMUC, but local coverage areas of the station still don't overlap

April 2008…• Commercial band is still completely jammed • Moving to the commercial band would "interfere"

with at least 2 stations, unlike the current single station (WAMU)

• Moving to the commercial band would require 2 commercial stations to agree to WMUC's presence, permission that could be withdrawn if stations move or change facilities

• WMUC still has local coverage of the College Park area

Revisiting 87.9, 30 years later• Since the 1975 application, FCC issued clear rules

allowing use of 87.9 - but only at large distances from Channel 6 stations (as much as 175 km or more)

• WMUC is 10 km too close to channel 6 in Richmond • Channel 6 in Richmond is slated to leave the air before

February 17, 2009 with the transition to digital television • After February 2009, WMUC may apply for 87.9 and, if

there are no other technical issues, be granted authorization there

• Other improvements may be possible, if rule changes occur after transition to digital television