Saying Goodbye to "Emerson East"
The History of WECB 1981-1986
Compiled by Greg Weremey GM 1986., and Russ Weisenbacher OM 1986. The following is correct as far as we know. First some history....
I. A description of the old studios at 130 Beacon St. 1981
A) Old equipment - huge turntables, reel to reel skimmer, old RCA mixer model BC-6A,
small reel to reel decks in production, portable cassette deck in production.
B) Bad management - no direction (beer, parties etc in mgt. office)
C) Poor public relations w/ rest of school community.
1. loud rock and roll
2. noise interfering with classes (film)
3. WECB sold as " training area" for WERS.
4. WECB had almost no PD, "bring your own records and play what
you want" mentality.
D) transmission
1. Signal as of 1981; Charlesgate, Fensgate, 100 Beacon, MIT
dorm, and an old dorm we had on Beacon St somewhere between
132 and 534.
2. Also used to feed a school of nurses at (BCH or Mass General
also, possibly Fisher Jr. College and/or Catherine Gibbs.
3. Had an illegal phone line from news studio at 130 to 132 Beacon ST.
transmitter. Wire went across alley (3 stories up)Experiments were made with an LPB 30watt linear feeding RF into the
hanging phone line over alley. Reception was achieved at Tobin Bridge
and West to Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plane.
E) Other problems
1. Stolen prizes (Kronenbourg light)
2. High energy but no direction among staff.
3. Spots for "Sarni Cleaners", and "Kens and Copley Deli".
4. Dirty studios leading to lack of pride in the station.
5. by 1982, WECB had a play list and good programming clock
created by Mike Kundisma (aka Mike Shannon) -PD
II. The Move
A) Mass Comm spends 1.6 M on renovations.
1. New TV studios (built in old Carriage House)
2. New WERS Studios (move from 130 to 126 Beacon St.)
3. New Film Dpt.
4. WECB WAS NOT ON THE LIST!!
B) We heard wind of this through the grapevine.
C) When question was posed to the board of trustees, it was explained
that since funds were limited, WECB would not be included in
the move. What was not said out loud, but implied was that the
existing WECB studios at 130 Beacon, would be used for
classroom space and since WECB had no place to move to, would
cease to exist.
D) A fight ensued. At that time Carol Kamerschen - GM and
Greg Weremey -OM tried to contact alumni to inform them of our
future or lack of it to gain support in winning our rights to
continue as a valuable asset to Emerson. It was our feeling
that "If you want to study broadcasting, you attend Emerson.
If you want to study commercial radio which is 90% of the
market in this business, you spend most of your time at WECB."
We did not want to alienate ourselves from WERS and the rest of
the Emerson community, but rather wanted to show the board how
valuable we were to the educational community. Remember that
while we were on much better terms with the school and had not
caused problems with neighboring classes, we were still viewed
as a bunch of kids playing around and not really being serious
or learning anything except how to party.
E) A call to WBZ to speak with alumni Dave Maynard was made by
Greg Weremey as the battle continued. Dave aired the call
one early morning. He gave his support and said that if there
were anything he could do for "good ol WECB" he would do it.
He had done enough. One of the board of trustees heard the
broadcast on her way to work and was very upset indeed.
Apparently, they had hoped that the information was kept quiet.
Now, the broadcast community knew of WECB's fate and Emerson
was embarrassed.
F) A secret meeting between WECB upper management and some of the board
of trustees and those in charge of the Mass Comm. Dpt. was held.
The outcome while heated, was optimistic.
(we had played hardball and won)
III. Designing Studios for 126 Beacon St.
A) Working with Paul Beck, Greg Weremey and Russ Weisenbacher designed
the layout for the new studios. Paul gave a few ideas and gave
the final OK to the proposal but he was limited by time and
work on the new TV studios and WERS studios. Greg and Russ did
the majority of the design process.
B) While the plans were being laid out, there was word that while WECB
would be a part of the move, Emerson wanted to use our new
studios to assist students in radio production, and teach a
broadcasting class as well.
C) Knowing that WECB had to be a 24 hour station in order to properly
train students, and gain the respect it desperately needed by
the whole Emerson community, Greg and Russ made a few changes
in the floor plan. They designed the master control studio to
be too small for anything but one or two people at a time.
This way, they ensured WECB's survival as a 24 hour operation.
Credit must be also given to a member of the Mass Comm.
department who cared deeply for what we were doing and how hard
we had fought. I will not mention her name in order to protect
her identity. The board might frown at her insight.
D) The new plans are approved. The officials didn't see that the
master control room was too small to hold a class.
(Originally, the small room was designed to be a record library.
Master was to be across the hall with the studio nearest Beacon
St. The other half of the room across from the glass, was to be
for the classroom.
E) Construction begins with demolition and new walls installed. All
work at this time was done by professional builders.
F) Following gutting of walls and new walls being installed, Greg and
Russ commuted from Milton on a daily basis to construct the new
studios. This work was done during the Christmas vacation week.
We had never built a station before and thus it was a great
learning experience. A few mistakes were made, but they were
quickly corrected.
G) Repairs were made to the old equipment. Many of the original
equipment was in bad shape and needed work before it could be
installed.
H) A new coat of paint went on much of the equipment along with a
stencil of our logo to permanently mark our items.
(This is just one of many steps I attribute to our pride.
We were proud enough of our things to put our name on them.
IV. Classes resume 01/1984
A) Still under construction.
B) Students are amazed at how good the studios look.
C) Morale hits an all time high.
D) Auditions have three times as many applicants as the last audition.
E) WECB gets a new faculty advisor - Mike McClean.
Mike has scheduled meetings with the management staff and
oversees our decisions. He guides, but allows us to get into
trouble on occasion. This helps us learn by doing.
F) Production Dpt. is working very hard to design new image.
G) Promotions Dpt. is getting prizes together for the second semester.
Records and movie passes are among the prizes.
V. Studios are completed.
A) Open house for alumni is held at new WECB.
B) President Koenig tours new WECB.
C) Pride is further increased.
D) New logo is designed by Greg and Russ. Design taken from Radio
And Records magazine classified section. New stationary is
printed. On bottom margin are the words " A broadcast service
of Emerson College." This looked very good to the Emerson
faculty. We gained respect and admiration in promoting
the Emerson name. As a result, we got favors that normally
would never have been offered. This new logo goes on everything
that we do. That includes the obvious banner and rate cards,
but also includes T-shirts, posters, and anything else we can
put it on. That includes equipment!
E) T-Shirts are printed. Everyone on management gets one.
F) We are a team!
G) Heat problems surface in the studios.
1. Track lights are too high in wattage. Later these bulbs
are changed to smaller wattage bulbs.
2. Ventilation is a major problem. Since Master Control was
originally designed to be just an announce booth,
air conditioning was not implemented in the plans.
Across the hall in the vacant room which was planned
to house WECB and classes, the air was well chilled.
Had the original plans gone through, we would all feel
a chill indeed!
3. The "ON AIR" lights were installed, but never hooked up.
There was a problem interfacing them with the boards.
Since they were 120VAC type, Emerson would not allow
the students to design and build a relay circuit to
switch the bulbs for fear of liability problems.
Since the folks who were able to do this work
(Paul Beck, Brian Dozer) were busy with TV and WERS,
the work never got done. WECB was low on the priority
list.
VI. Changes for the better.
A) The music Dpt. Purchases records from Nuggets to supplement our
library. Much of the old library was dumped as the records
were either worn or didn't fit our format. Now, every record
could be played.
B) New format - "The NU-ROCK" was born. Progressive album hit rock.
The closest match I can use to describe the format short of
hearing an air check is a composite between WNFX and WBCN.
Interestingly, we had internships at WBCN and Oedipus would
frequently look at our play lists to see how the new cuts were
doing. A few years later, WFNX started calling themselves
"The New Rock". We even heard WBCN call themselves
"The New Rock of Boston".
C) Sales Dpt - Jim Patterson develops new rate cards. Three different
sets of rate cards were produced ranging from local business to
national accounts. For the first time, WECB earned more from
sales than from fund-raisers. We were self sufficient and
independent.
D) Shorter air shifts (changed from four hours to three hours) to
accommodate more students. Also, WECB stayed on air 24 hours
seven days a week! It was a tough decision to cut everyone's
air shift to three hours. On one hand, we wanted to sound as
real as we could and gain listeners. On the other hand, we
realized that while WECB is a microcosm, it is a training
laboratory for those in broadcasting. Our primary goal was
train as many as we could while not sacrificing quality of
education. If we achieved fame along the way, it was icing
on the cake.
E) Commercials are recorded at local radio stations by interns and
announcers working at; WOKQ, WGIR, WBZ, WBCN, WZOU, WHDH
These spots are aired on WECB. While they are not clients,
they add to the spot rotation and give the announcer a better
simulation of a commercial station at drive time. There were
very few complaints about this and following graduation,
I have heard alumni say it was beneficial to their education.
VII. Promotions promotions and more promotions.
A) P.A. purchased with our own money. It was installed in SAGA by
Greg and Russ. An agreement was made with SAGA management,
to make sure that the P.A. was on during mealtimes.
This was a very important step for the following reasons;
1. Insurance that we had a "forced" audience.
This information was used to tabulate sales rate cards and
sell the station to national accounts.
2. Accessibility to the students. WECB was everywhere.
We frequently did remotes and promotions from SAGA as a
direct result of being heard there. Dinner hours were sold
as "drive time".
3. Good PR with Emerson. We were able to narrowcast
information that WERS could not broadcast. i.e..
class cancellations, SGA campaigns, Frat/Sorority info.
B) Remotes at "the Wall". Too numerous to mention. Again WECB was
seen as well as heard. If it was a nice Spring day, you could
count on WECB to crank up some great tunes while you hung out
at Joes canteen truck. We were committed to being in sync with
the Emerson community.
C) Jackets printed. Limited edition WECB embroidered jackets were sold
to staff members. They were personalized with our names and air
or "pet" names. This greatly improved promotions and gave us
all a sense of family.
D) T-shirts were printed once a month for each new promotion.
Some of them were;
1. Paul McCartney day at Sack Cinema. We gave away T-shirts
and movie passes to "Give My Regards To Broad St".
2. Our NU-ROK logo.
E) Many parties and fund-raisers. This is really a blur because there
were so many. Some of these fund-raisers were in conjunction
with other student organizations. This benefited all that
partook. We also made it known that WECB would
(for a nominal fee) supply a Jock / MC to run the show for any
organization.
F) Excellent Promotions Dpt. - Ben Mayberry
Ben was instrumental in working with the Sales Dpt. to get
sponsored prizes. Some of the prizes and accounts were;
1. Sack Cinema - We frequently gave away movie passes and would
fill the cinema along with other stations prize winners.
2. Greyhound Buss lines - We gave away tickets for a round trip
fair to anywhere in the U.S. for Christmas! We sent a
winner home for the holidays.
3. Nuggets records - records, records, records.
4 Strawberries records - records, records, records.
G) Excellent Production Dpt. - Fil Kovisars
Fil was one of those people who "lived" at WECB.
He was CONSTANTLY designing spots and promotions.
The production dpt. used nearly 40 students and made them work
very hard. In addition to the obvious, WECB added a personal
touch to our product. We had holiday greetings from everyone
on management. We had new custom designed jingles.
H) Great public relations with WTBU Boston Universities carrier current
station. Working with the WTBU staff, we were able to gain
insight on transmission difficulties that had plagued WECB for
years. We simulcasted with WTBU for sporting events.
A network of college stations was on the drawing board but
never quite got started. It was designed to share news, sports
and other events for the college community.
VIII. Specialty programming
A) Sports Dpt. - Fred Genderon
As already mentioned, our sports included simulcasts and feeds
with WTBU. In addition to the normal sporting events for the Emerson
community, for the first time in WECB's history, we aired the
entire BOSTON MARATHON! We had announcers at Hopkinton, and
every 5 miles along the route. In addition to an announcer site high above
the finish line, we had Jim Patterson bicycle the entire race
along with the lead runners. Jim carried a beeper and was paged
when we needed a report. We had TV monitors at the WECB
studios and gave handshakes to the various reporters along the
race route. The show ran with all the expertise and
competitiveness of the commercial stations.
B) Ben (Mayberry) and Dave (Ozer) show
The Ben and Dave show was one of our most successful specialty
shows. Influenced by Howard Stern, Ben and Dave would call the
Fisher dorms and harass the girls, call pay phones to see who
would talk with them, pranked frats, lampooned Emerson and got
very close to that fine line of obscene.
It didn't matter if we had hum in our signal. Everyone listened
to Ben and Dave.
C) 50's and 60's with "Russ the K" (Weisenbacher) and
"Jerome" (Fil Kovisars)
D) Raspberries and Cream with "Greg Michaels" (Weremey)
An all 70's show, based on a "classic rock" format. The name was given by Fil Kovisars, because Greg would frequently play The Raspberries (Eric Carmen) and
then go to nostalgic roots with Eric Clapton and Cream!
IX. Financial Independence
A) For the first time, WECB had money to be self sufficient.
(Largest account ever!)
B) With this financial responsibility came freedom.
C) We purchased equipment;
1. Compressor for the air chain.
2. New turntables.
3. New cassette decks.
4. New records.
5. All promotion material, including WECB Banner manufactured
at the costume dpt.
6. New tubes for transmitters. Tubes were changes once a year
to insure good working order of our transmitters.
D) A business ledger was constantly updated and used as a financial
planner for treasurer reports at management meetings.
E) Close work with the Finance Dpt. at Emerson. They verified our
books and answered any questions we had with our account.
This further cemented our trust with Emerson and we gained
respect and experience.
X. The Future
A) Transmitter Modifications
There were modifications preformed by Greg and Russ to achieve
maximum signal and clean audio into the dormitories.
B) The Uncommon Bostonian gets a P.A. like SAGA, and increases our
"forced audience".
C) Experiments were done with FM low power transmitters.
Leaky coax and 10mw. transmitters were placed in dorms to
transmit our signal on the FM band in addition to our AM signal.
This was a trial basis and was used to gain information for a
proposal to be submitted to Emerson. While the experiments
were a big success, the proposal ran into problems.
The major obstacle was proving to Emerson that we would not
radiate outside of the dormitory buildings in accordance with
part 15 of the F.C.C. rules.
Because none of us had engineering degrees and/or had access to
the R.F. measuring test equipment, we were unable to verify and
prove that we were in compliance. While much research was done
on "carrier FM" we were unable to find a system which used
this technology. Disappointed but not frustrated, we set our
sights on more visibility via remotes and made sure that our AM
transmitters were at 100%
Upon graduation, there was still a hum in the carrier in all
locations. While the audio quality was improved by 300% over
several years, we wanted to sound at least as good as any
commercial station.
Recently, I have designed modifications for the LPB tube
transmitters that enable them to modulate asymmetrically with
100% negative modulation and up to 150% positive modulation.
Bandwidth was also greatly improved. The old design had an
upper limit of 3Khz. With the mod, this is increased to 8Khz.
Distortion is also greatly reduced. I have also designed a
simple mod to eliminate that horrible hum normally associated
with carrier current.
I have found that the transmitters were not at fault for the
hum and filtering the R.F. and using better coupling units
helped but DID NOT eliminate the problem.
The cure is simple, inject a hum of equal amplitude but
180 degrees out of phase. The hums cancel. A complete list of
mods and instructions are available by contacting Greg Weremey
at his home address found at the end of this letter.
D) Cable access channel audio
Research was done with Continental Cablevision to see if they
would air our audio on one of their access channels or a P.S.A.
Channel. They were in agreement provided it was free to them
to air. The cost of equipment and installation as well as
maintenance would have to be paid by WECB.
At the time of the investigation, WECB was unable to purchase
the broadcast lines needed to carry our audio to the cable co.
We were very close.
We envisioned an audience that rivaled WERS. There was no
reason why we couldn't be on every cable service across the
country. We could be a super station via microwave.
Granted that costs money, but if Emerson had backed us, they
would have a showpiece that would advertise their college and
show the world what a professional education they offered.
While we were trying to get our audio to the cable system,
I had a possible solution. I envisioned WECB audio on a WERS
SCA channel. With the proper decoder, one could hear WECB
in beautiful mono FM. The decoders would be placed at the
cable co. to receive the signal via WERS and then inject it
into the cable system. The idea was discussed, but due to time
constraints and graduation, it never took off.
XI. Fond memories
This article was an absolute pleasure to compose. I guess we needed
the "kick in the butt" to get it going. It's something that should have
been put to print long ago. We are so pleased to know that someone
actually wants to know how WECB got there.
Congratulations to Tobias Beharian - PD 1992-1993 for asking questions
of our past. By learning history, we gain insight into our future.
Remember, "Communication is necessary to evolution" - C.W. Emerson.
While we left our blood, sweat, and tears at WECB, we left it in good
hands.
A special thanks to Fran Berger and Paul Beck. If it were not for you,
we never would have made it off the blueprints. Our careers are a
direct result to your continuing effort to create great professionals
in our industry.
Some of the best times of our lives were spent at WECB.
We all hope you have the same experiences.
If there is ANYTHING that we can do for you in the future, please don't
hesitate to contact us;
Greg Weremey - GM 1984-198513 Kildee Rd.
Harwich Port, MA. 02186
(508) 432-8831
Email: gmweremey@comcast.net Russell Karl Weisenbacher - OM 1984-1986
Email: rweisenw@optonline.net
Other General Managers;
George Cantafio - 1981-1982
Frank Gorrell - 1982-1983
Carol Kamerschen - 1983-1984
Fred Genderon - 1985-1986
Suzanne Holmes - 1986-1987
WECB, 99.9 FM, aims for bigger and better