WREK

Infobox Radio station
name = WREK Atlanta


city = Atlanta, Georgia
area = Atlanta metropolitan area
branding = "WREK Atlanta, Georgia Tech Student Radio"
slogan =
airdate =
frequency = 91.1 MHz HD Radio
Channel 17 (GTCN)
format = College radio
power =
erp = 40,000 watts
class = C2
callsign_meaning = WREcK
former_callsigns =
owner = Georgia Tech Radio Communications Board
webcast =
website = [http://www.wrek.org WREK.org]
affiliations =

WREK Atlanta ("Wreck", from the Rambling Wreck) is the radio station staffed by the students of the Georgia Institute of Technology. It is located at 91.1 MHz and on channel 17 on the Georgia Tech cable TV network, GTCN. Starting as a 10-watt class D, it now broadcasts a 40,000 Watts ERP signal throughout metropolitan Atlanta, making it among the ten highest-power college radio stations in the United States. The transmitter outputs a 6,600 W TPO signal into a high-gain 12-bay Jampro model JSCP omnidirectional antenna, resulting in an effective radiated power of 40,000 Watts. The antenna is located on a 300-foot (90-meter) self-supporting Jampro tower adjacent to the Undergraduate Living Center and Woodruff Hall on Georgia Tech's west campus, connected to the studio in the Student Center via a wireless, 950.0 MHz studio-transmitter link, WQAQ311, and a digital, fiber-optic link.

In 2007, WREK applied to the FCC to increase its effective radiated power to 100,000 Watts (from its current 40,000 Watts) with a directional antenna pattern. The application for the signal power increase, if approved, will greatly improve the radio station's coverage to encompass more of the Atlanta metropolitan area.

In March 2008, WREK replaced its current 20-year-old transmitter with a brand new 25,000 Watt TPO unit (compared to the current 6,600 Watts) with HD Radio capability. The addition of an HD Radio broadcast will make WREK among the first student-run, student-funded stations in the nation to add digital broadcasting capability. It will also allow WREK to add a second continuous channel of programming in Fall 2008. cite web| title = New Transmitter Delivered | publisher = WREK | url=http://www.wrek.org/newtransmitter | accessdate = 2008-05-21]

History

Georgia Tech was the home of early radio station WGST AM (Georgia School of Technology) from 1924 to 1930.cite web| title = Tech Timeline | publisher = Georgia Tech Alumni Association | url=http://gtalumni.org/Publications/timeline/ | accessdate = 2007-03-27]

WREK first signed on the air on March 25, 1968, broadcasting at 10 Watts from a donated tower atop the Van Leer Electrical Engineering building on Georgia Tech's campus. The studio was located in the top floor of that building and consisted of donated equipment from WSM-FM Nashville. [cite web|url=http://www.wrek.org/?q=history6|title=General Manager Richard Crouch's narrative on the birth of WREK|accessdate=2007-04-07] Chief Engineer and then-student Geoff Mendenhall designed and built a 425W power amplifier which, once type certified by the FCC in August 1968, brought WREK to 3,400W ERP. Mendenhall has since moved on to build transmitters at Harris Corporation.cite web|url=http://www.wrek.org/?q=history|title=WREK History|accessdate=2007-04-07]

In 1978 WREK's tower and studio were relocated. A new, 300 foot tower was built on the western edge of the Georgia Tech campus, and the studio moved to the annex of the Alexander Memorial Coliseum, where it would remain until 2004. That facility was home to 920 AM WGST (from Georgia School of Technology, GT's earlier name) from 1956 until 1975, when that station's license was sold against the school's will as "surplus property" by the Georgia Board of Regents. Visitors to WREK's Coliseum studios were often startled by its walls, which were covered by thick layers of posters, set lists, and other music memorabilia, as well as the giant electromechanical broadcast automation machines and other large racks of monitoring and control equipment. WREK's studios relocated to the Student Center Commons (formerly the Georgia Tech Bookstore building) in August 2004.

WREK began streaming its compressed (8-bit uLaw) broadcast over the Internet on November 7 of 1994, making it one of the first Internet radio stations. [cite web|url=http://www.wrek.org/?q=wreknet-first|title=wrek-net: we got here first|accessdate=2007-04-07] The station now streams in MP3 format and features a two-week-long running archive of its broadcast on the schedule page of its website.

Programming

WREK slogans include "music you don't hear on the radio" and "quality diverse radio."

Programming is student-run and extremely diverse, including everything from heavy metal to world, hip-hop to blues, classical and jazz to industrial and noise, and similarly diverse community programming ("Church of the Subgenius"). Locally produced programming includes "Tech Talk", a talk show hosted by and focusing on concerns of Georgia Tech students; the "Ramblin' Wreck Report", a Georgia Tech sports talk show hosted by students; "Destroy All Music", clatter-improv with pink noise freakouts; "The Mobius" [http://themobius.livejournal.com] , an experimental electronic show featuring music and in-studio performances of new and established artists that run the electronic gamut; "The Electric Boogaloo", a funksperience; "Live@WREK", a live music show; and "Continental Drift", Atlanta's longest running international music radio program.

WREK also broadcasts play-by-play coverage of Georgia Tech intercollegiate athletics, including baseball, women's basketball, and volleyball. In fall 2004, the station agreed to partner with ISP Sports to simulcast network coverage of selected Georgia Tech football and men's basketball games to augment WQXI's diminished AM nighttime coverage in metro Atlanta. The deal also led to the simulcast of selected WREK-originated women's basketball broadcasts on XM Radio.Fact|date=August 2007

In December 2002, WREK broadcast the entire 50-disc "Merzbox" by the Japanese experimental music artist Merzbow. An article in "Creative Loafing" described the Merzbow Marathon as "what may be the most obscure and counterintuitive move in the history of radio."

Continuing their tradition of unorthodox radio broadcasts, WREK chose to air the long-running heavy metal show "Wrekage" for the entire 24 hour broadcast day on June 6 2006 (6/6/6). [cite web|url=http://www.wrekage.org|title=WREKage|accessdate=2007-04-07] Heavy metal was played in chronological order from midnight to midnight. As an extra nod to the mystic number "666 (number)", "Iron Maiden"'s "The Number of the Beast" was aired at 6:06 a.m. and p.m.

In Fall 2007, the critics of Creative Loafing declared WREK to be the Best Overall Radio Station in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The article describing their reasoning declared WREK to be "strange in a good way. The station’s format is noncommercial and nonconforming. Few stations in the city can compete with WREK’s eclectic playlist". [cite web|url=http://atlanta.creativeloafingbestof.com/gbase/BestOf/BestOfAwards?Award=oid%3A397380 |title=Best of Atlanta 2007|accessdate=2007-09-12]

References

External links

* [http://www.wrek.org WREK homepage]
* [http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?call=wrek&x=0&y=0&is_unl=Y&is_lic=Y&is_cp=Y&sr=Y&s=C&sid= WREK at the Radio Locator]
* [http://www.techatl.com/wrek/ WREK Alumni Association - Van Leer Chapter]
*FMQ|WREK
*FML|WREK
* [http://www.recnet.com/cdbs/fmq.php?call=wrek&ccode=1&country=US&party_type=LICEN RecNet query]
* [http://www.wrekage.org WREKage - Atlanta's Metal Radio]
*Geolinks-US-buildingscale|33.77806|-84.40611