Radio station in New Brunswick, New Jersey
WRSU-FM (88.7 FM) is a non-commercial college radio station serving the greater Central New Jersey area, broadcasting from the campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It is a student and faculty-run radio station with Rutgers faculty member Mike Pavlichko serving as its Broadcast Administrator. WRSU broadcasts on FM and streams all of its programming online.[1]
Programming
WRSU currently operates mostly on free-form programming. Shows do not have to fit a certain style on a normal broadcast schedule with DJ's creating their own playlists. Genres of music that the station broadcasts includes various forms of rock, including indie, alternative and metal. The station also broadcasts electronic, rap/hip-hop, and other diverse genres of music. There is an eclectic level of diversity in WRSU's specialty programming, and many shows focus on one particular brand of music and are broadcast weekly. The station commits its Sunday programming schedule to members of the diverse New Brunswick community.
The station helps select and present live local bands and musicians on stage at the annual Rutgers Day festival.
Sports
WRSU has a large listenership for its sports programming, as the WRSU Sports department covers a wide range of teams to train students for a career in broadcast media. The station has been broadcasting Rutgers athletics since 1954.
Student broadcasters perform play-by-play coverage of all home and away games for Rutgers football, Rutgers men's basketball, and Rutgers women's basketball. WRSU remains the flagship station for the Rutgers women's basketball program. WRSU's student sportscasters also broadcast all home games for the Rutgers baseball and men's and women's soccer teams, and broadcasts of Rutgers lacrosse and wrestling have also been incorporated into the station's schedule in recent years. WRSU also credentials students to cover many home games as sports reporters, allowing members of the department to practice writing game stories and opinion pieces to be posted on the WRSU website.[2] In 2019, WRSU Sports was named "Best Football Play by Play" by the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System at its 2019 international conference in New York City.
Since 1974, WRSU has hosted a post game show, called Knightline, for listeners to call-in and discuss Rutgers athletics after every Football and Men's Basketball broadcast.
Sports talk
The station currently broadcasts several weekly sports talk shows, hosted by members of the Sports department. These shows feature frequent interviews from members of the regional and national sports media, as well as those within the Rutgers athletic community, as well as listener phone calls. In September 2019, the numerous sports shows - including the longtime Tuesday evening show "SportsKnight" - were consolidated into "WRSU Crew", an afternoon drive-time show that often serves as a lead-in to evening sports broadcasts.
News
WRSU features eight daily newscasts a week - Monday at 10 pm, Tuesday through Thursday at noon and 10 pm, and Fridays at noon. The newscasts cover events, issues, and trends happening at Rutgers, with national and local headline reports, Sports reports, and weather forecasts.
The news department also produces KnightBeat, airing every Wednesday at 10 PM. Knight Beat is a news-talk show featuring interviews with campus organizations and leaders, discussions of the latest news headlines, and detailed profiles and discussions of Rutgers issues.
The WRSU news department also provides live coverage of Rutgers events, as well as annual election coverage. In recent years WRSU has broadcast from both the Democratic and Republican Presidential Conventions Headquarters.
WRSU provided live coverage of the 2008 Presidential election on November 4, featuring live reports from the New Jersey Democratic and Republican headquarters, analysis by Rutgers political commentators, up-to-the-minute results, and live reports from College Avenue during student celebrations.
History
WRSU first went on the air on April 26, 1948. In its earliest inception, WRSU was an AM carrier current station that broadcast from 12 College Avenue, with transmitters in the basements of several Rutgers dormitory buildings, as well as at the New Jersey College for Women, which would eventually become Douglass College. During this period, WRSU ran on the 630 AM band. The station's first General Manager and Founder was Charles Brookwell, Class of '49.
Beginning in the 1950s, the station changed frequencies and changed operating facilities, eventually moving to 680 on the AM band. The carrier current transmitters were expanded to include operation in 23 dormitory buildings on three campuses. The current offices of the station began to be utilized in 1969 and are located at 126 College Avenue located in the Rutgers Student Center.
WRSU-AM ceased operation in 1976, two years after the inception of WRSU-FM.
- WRSU-FM
WRSU-FM went on the air at 88.7 MHz with 1350 watts ERP on January 27, 1974. During the 1950s and 1960s, the station played current popular music, but starting in the '70s, the station underwent a conscious effort to introduce album-oriented progressive/free form movement with a heavy concentration on Community Affairs. The first song ever played was Crosby, Stills, and Nash's "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" The seventies were also a time when live interviews with singers began and ranged from the local band Holme to Wonder Woman Linda Carter promoting her first album.
Philosophy
WRSU has a station playlist of current music, but it generally consists of several hundred entire albums, and individual DJs have a large amount of control over the format of their shows. The station is strictly non-commercial, and aims for a free-form style of broadcasting.
The station is under the management of Rutgers University. While operations are on a strictly volunteer level and no course credit is involved for students, the station does seek to develop the skills of their student personnel for practical use in professional broadcasting fields.
Funding and operations
WRSU receives funding from Rutgers University, and is a strictly non-commercial radio station. However, WRSU does receive grants and underwriting from local businesses and record stores. Usually, this underwriting takes the form of a credit for the station at said record store in exchange for hourly notices broadcast on the station.
