Brooklyn College Radio Station WBCR Turns Forty

Brooklyn College Radio station WBCR (1090-AM) recently held a rockin’ rock-‘n’-roll party in the Student Center, where faculty, staff and students, past and present, celebrated its fortieth birthday.

Among the alumni who worked at the station during their college days, said the station’s faculty advisor, Assistant Professor Mark Boutros, are some of today’s top names in local radio.

One of those is Scott A. Herman, ’80, executive vice president of operations at CBS Radio.  In a written statement read at the party, Herman said he views WBCR as his "first job in radio."

Boutros said another illustrious alumnus who remembers his days at WBCR fondly is Skeery Jones, currently executive producer at Z100 Radio (100.3-FM) and producer of the highly rated station’s flagship program "Elvis Duran and The Z100 Morning Show." Skeery frequently supports his alma mater with campus visits and "shoutouts" on his blog and myspace page.

To his fellow classmates in the Brooklyn College Class of 1996, Boutros revealed, Jones is better known as Anthony Scire.

WBCR, which can be heard campus-wide, is student-operated and supervised by the Brooklyn College Department of Television and Radio. The department offers majors in Television and Radio production and Broadcast Journalism.

Brooklyn College actually began offering students radio courses in 1948, said Boutros. "In those days radio courses were offered by the Department of Speech," he said.

"The station itself got its start on November 11, 1968, when a charter was granted to the student radio club and a faculty advisory committee was set up," said Boutros, who joined the faculty this past September.

He added, "The station’s first home was in James Hall. It moved to its current location in Whitehead Hall during 2003-04, thanks to a generous gift from radio legend Himan Brown."

Brown, a 1934 graduate of Brooklyn College, became a radio legend during the glory days of the medium, producing and directing thousands of hours of unforgettable programming, including Dick Tracy, the Inner Sanctum Mysteries and CBS Radio Mystery Theater.

The station, located on the third floor of Whitehead Hall, consists of a sound-proofed broadcast booth, two fully equipped control rooms and a reception area. "The facilities offer all the professional equipment that students will need to prepare for careers in radio," said Boutros.

"We used to be a College Music Journal Top 100 format station," he said. "But right now we’re free form, playing whatever the DJs want."

Boutros said WBCR can be heard on campus by tuning to 1090 AM or by going onto the Internet and clicking onto www.brooklyncollegeradio.org.

"We’re putting in a line through Verizon that will allow us to broadcast via Brooklyn Community Access Television," he said. "It’s designed to be a 24/7 operation. There are live DJ-hosted shows weekdays with automated programming between 11 p.m. and 8 a.m.

"We’d like to add on educational programming from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. weekday mornings," he added. "If anyone has an idea we’ll be glad to hear it."