WYBC abandons airwaves, starts streaming online

A nostalgic blue color provides the backdrop to the history webpage of Yale Broadcasting Company, Inc. (WYBC), a student-run radio station. The page features an old black-and-white photo of three men and one woman speaking into microphones, and next to it, in soft, grey writing, the website boasts that, “during World War II, per order of the Yale College Dean, WYBC maintained a full schedule and carried regular war news and bulletins.” The era of the primacy of radio broadcasting has long been gone, and some argue that any relevance college radio once had went with it. This semester, WYBC is challenging such a notion by undertaking a project of complete modernization and revitalization.

Starting this December, WYBC is launching an online-only station, known as the X. Jesse Bradford, TD ’11, the program director, states that the decision to create this online station was made for an array of reasons: It streams only online, it is not subject to the FCC’s rules, affording radio hosts more freedom and candor. The technology is also more advanced, allowing for features such as streaming multiple channels at the same time. The main advantage, though, is greater accessibility to students. “Nobody owns a radio,” says Bradford, “but everyone is on the Internet all the time.”

By broadcasting an online-only station, WYBC is treading on practically uncharted territory. While most colleges have a radio station, Yale is one of the first to open a station that is dedicated to broadcasting solely over the Internet.

Innovation is the overall theme of the whole station this year, as WYBC is not only launching the X, but also creating new programs and overhauling its entire structure. One such program is the creation of a mobile broadcasting unit to air Yale Political Union debates and Yale Student Roundtable discussions live. They also plan on forging a partnership with the Yale Daily News in order to report more cohesively on campus news. The station has departmentalized itself, digitized its music collection, established relationships with various record labels, designed a new logo, and, for good measure, even repainted the walls of its station.

The hope for all of these changes is to turn WYBC into a place where students can hear from their peers about what really matters to them. In the end, it is a fight for relevancy.

The station began as a part of the Yale Daily News in 1940. The college radio station started out as an FM channel, but in the 1990s, WYBC-FM was commercialized and WYBC AM was purchased so that students could still have a medium through which to broadcast. Today, WYBC-FM, which follows the strict structure of a commercial station and has limited student involvement, is the No. 5 Urban Adult Contemporary station in the country. The money made by the FM station funds WYBC AM, a Yale student station with an intended Yale student audience that falls severely short of its sister station’s impressive listener base.

Most Yale students either do not own a radio or use it solely for the purpose of the clock and alarm that accompany it. The few who do own a radio generally listen to music only on a couple of select FM radio stations. When it comes to WYBC AM, “you get the feeling that basically the only people listening are your parents and the people you told to listen,” Bradford admits.

That feeling is confirmed by responses from the student body. Bryan Twarek, SY ’10, one of the few who do listen to WYBC AM, revealed that he only listens to his friends’ show, and—while the show is certainly interesting, Twarek insisted—he started to listen because of that connection alone.

Most students surveyed do not know what WYBC stands for, let alone listen to it. When asked whether they would tune in to the new online-only station, however, the consensus among students, such as Angela Omiyi, SY ’10, is that they “might check it out.” Omiyi added that, “[WYBC] being online would just make it accessible. It might be useful to be able to listen to events when you aren’t able to attend.”

The WYBC station has high expectations that all of their effort will produce results. In fact, they reported, it already has. After much advertising, this year’s training class for new DJs has a hearty number of around 70. In previous years, the number of trainees hovered near 25. Since the current membership stands at 60 people, the doubling of the station’s manpower is a promising sign that radio may not be obsolete at Yale after all.

“The X is going to put the magic back in radio,” proclaimed Sean Owczarek, SM ’11, the station’s general manager. “Radio broadcasting will live forever.”

Pay attention this coming December, for it is uncertain whether his prophecy will ring true, or whether WYBC will go off the air for good.

By Catherine Chen

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