A newspaper clipping from Wednesday, Jan. 17, 1951 reads: “Many Connecticut College students heard on Monday the first broadcast of the first campus radio station…The girls in the Radio Club are very anxious to make this program a success…If all goes well, the Radio Club hopes to make these broadcasts a regular event…”
And all did go well. On Jan. 5, 1951 the Connecticut College Community Radio (CCCR) released its first broadcast on WCNI—an AM station, now heard on 90.9 FM. Since then, the station has gathered an eclectic community of both Connecticut College students as well as locals from New London and the surrounding area to create an organization that provides diverse programming for local listeners. The radio station is a non-commercial educational station that streams both over the radio and online. It broadcasts daily.
Carol Crane ’50 and Phyllis Hoffman ’51 originally thought up the idea of the radio station, and with aid from a mysterious Mr. Howard, who built the transmitter which was originally located in the basement of Palmer. With some additional technical support from the boys at Fort Trumbull, the first Connecticut College radio station was created. In its first year, the station broadcasted programs Tuesdays through Thursdays from 5:00 to 5:45 p.m. and did not reach beyond the College campus. The school paper worked hard to raise awareness about the newly established station in the hopes of getting student feedback for programming ideas.
WCNI has come a long way since 1951. Community member John Tyler is the Community General Manager and the Chief Engineer Operator, working with Student General Manager Rick Hogoboom ’15 and Program Director Briana Cole ’17. The station broadcasts mostly music.
“One of the cool things about WCNI is that we don’t have block programming,” explained Hogoboom, “which means that [DJs] can kind of play whatever we want, whenever we want. My station changes week to week…anything from rock to blues to electronic.”
Hogoboom explained that although most of the station’s content is a diverse range of music, there are some talk shows broadcasted. “It’s down to the DJ how much they want to talk,” said Hogoboom. “Our only requirements are a tag at the top of every hour, and two public service announcements, because of the specific type of radio station that we are.”
The station has an extensive music library, including vinyl, CDs, cassettes—“really any way you would want to play music,” said Hogoboom.
Something that sets WCNI apart from other stations is the fact that students from the College are actively working with community members to produce a fully-functional, daily-broadcasted radio station. “The majority of DJs are people from the community, and it’s a unique organization on campus in that sense,” he said. “Some of the community members have been doing this for a really long time. I’ve met a lot of people from New London through the station…DJs range in age from about 25 to maybe 70 years old. It’s a real range of people.”
In terms of student involvement, WCNI is always looking for more student DJs. The total operation includes 5-10 student DJs per year, with about 20-30 people involved in the entire operation. There is one general station meeting per semester per schedule. This is where interested students can come find out about how the station functions, what is involved in being a DJ, etc. Applications for this semester will be due Friday, Feb. 6. After the application process, new student members undergo a training process in which members learn SCC radio guidelines and how WCNI operates and then in-studio training to become familiarized with equipment. “Once you do that, you can do your own show,” said Hogoboom.
Connecticut College has a rich history of publications, and though listening to the radio may seem antiquated to many, WCNI provides an opportunity for students to tune in for a unique radio experience. You can listen online at www.wcniradio.org. •
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