Student Life: WOBC Radio Station Records, 1942, 1949-2000, 2002-2011
| Oberlin College Archives
Administrative/Biographical History
The first Oberlin College radio programs were reputed to have been produced in the physics laboratory as 8YAE in 1923, with Men’s and Women’s Glee Club broadcasting their annual tours from Cleveland Stations as early as 1924. College records more definitely pinpoint 1927 as the first College broadcast. The first from the campus was made in the spring of 1928 at the quadrennial Mock Political Convention as a local broadcast over WHK Cleveland. There were many isolated programs during the period from 1927 to 1937.
The first series of broadcasts was offered in 1931-32, completely musical, by faculty and students of the Conservatory. A second series of broadcasts, also local, was given in 1934-35, again musical and originating from Cleveland. A third group of early local broadcasts consisted of fourteen which started in February 1936. These were given at two-week intervals over WTAM for a half hour on Sunday afternoons. Professor R. A. Jelliffe of the English Department acted as narrator for this program, known as “Oberlin-on-the-Air.” The programs were not always musical; various professors from departments of chemistry, history, English, political science, zoology, economics and art offered programs.
Of the broadcasts for 1938-39, eighteen were on national networks, five on N.B.C., and thirteen on M.B.S. (Mutual Broadcasting System). Eleven others were local broadcasts from Cleveland, and the rest came from other points in the country. Oberlin was unable to broadcast locally, and had to do most of its broadcasts from Cleveland for lack of a suitable telephonic connection.
In 1949, the forerunner of today’s WOBC-FM was established as KOCN-AM, the Oberlin College Student Network, which made its first broadcast as “Oberlin-on-the-Air” on November 5, 1950 at 590-AM via police call lines to eight dormitories. The first broadcast originated from a building located at 32 East College Street that was later demolished to allow the construction of the Oberlin Inn. When construction of the Inn began in the mid-1950s, the radio station moved to the garage behind Grey Gables, a building on West College Street that was later demolished to construct the Mudd Center.
In the early years of the station, studio equipment and broadcast electronics were built by Oberlin College students, save the purchase of used turntables and microphone. The AM signal was broadcast directly to dormitories over a network of wire and transmission boxes attached to electrical poles in town. The station’s called letters changed from KOCN to WOBC in 1952 to comply with new call-letter standards. In 1953, the station acquired a teletype machine as a result of a sponsorship deal with Lucky Strike which provided news updates. The station published program guides beginning in 1959, and it continues to this day.
In 1961, WOBC-FM, a 10 watt, non-profit educational station at 88.7-FM was created and in 1963-64 moved to its present home on the third floor of Wilder Hall, the Oberlin College Student Union. To create space for the station, part of Wilder Hall’s dormitory area was remodeled based on designs drawn up by WOBC staff members in consultation with members of the business office and the Office of Buildings and Grounds. Funds were drawn from the College and from the Student Union Fund of student donations. The studios were completed in January of 1964, after improvements were made following testing of their technical properties. That year the station provided continuous on-the-spot coverage of the College’s Republican Mock Convention; a special live broadcast of the Martin Luther King, Jr. campus assembly address; and a special Election Night broadcast for students, featuring coverage of local elections not available from area stations.
The station began broadcasting 24 hours a day during the 1970s. In 1972 WOBC’s sound quality was vastly improved when the station began broadcasting in stereo. During the first two decades of the station’s operation, programming consisted largely of classical music, news, jazz and popular music. In 1974 the station offered far more than music. “The Oberlin Radio Workshop” was a weekly dramatic program of plays in the style of the 1930s and 40s. “Paint It Black” was a weekly show devoted to black news and features, focusing on both national and campus events; a highlight of the show was an interview taped with Duke Ellington when he played at Oberlin the previous year. “Herstory” offered music by women as well as women’s news and pertinent information. “College Question” was a game show with teams of students in competition. On Sundays the station produced an hour-long program with a compilation of the week’s news, local, national and international, and reviews, features and commentary.
In the mid-1980s the station transitioned to its more powerful location at 91.5. In 1986 the program “Music from Oberlin,” performed by faculty and staff of the Oberlin College Conservatory, was broadcast from 125 radio stations in 39 states. The program had been broadcast from WOBC beginning in the 1960s, and between 1981 and 1986 the number of stations carrying the program more than tripled.
While the station’s main purpose was to provide Oberlin College students with opportunities to learn about radio, in 1988 WOBC defined itself as a community station, with roughly 20 local resident staff members who were not students and served different constituencies in Lorain and Elyria.
In 2014 WOBC broadcasts more than 150 programs weekly--talk shows, news reports, music shows spanning all genres, and live performances--each conceived and produced by volunteer DJs. Daily operations in 2014 were handled by a five-member administrative board and a volunteer staff of over thirty.
List of Station Managers and Program Directors by Year
Year Station Manager(s) Program Director(s)
2011 Will Floyd Stella Byrne
2010 Maggie Gruner Elissa Israel
2009 Jesse Montgomery Max Rivlin-Nadler
2008 Colin Raffel Matt Friberg
2007 Megan Snow Ian Page
2006 William Thurlow Camilla Padglitt-Coles
2005 A.C. Hawley Frederica Bepler
2004 Jenna Weiss-Berman '05 Frederica Bepler
2003 Alex Grogan '05 Jenna Weiss-Berman
Molly Shea
2002 Neil Freeman '03 Steven Villereal
2001 Joseph Kremer '02 Mike Gallope
1999 David Tamarkin '00
1998 Zach Cutler '99 Dave Tamarkin
1997 Charles Watson Zach Cutler
James Harris
1996 Lora Nunn Shannon Wearing
1995 Rebecca Ross Lora Nunn
1994 Carmen Mitchell Meg Coward
1993 Todd Hutlock Meg Coward
Rebecca Parker
1992 Lara Utiian Kerry Donahue
1991 David Sewbert Lara Utian
1990 Michael Lashutka '91 Karina Gaige
1989 Michael Lashutka '91
1988 Suzannah Tartan '89 Jon Fine
1987 Suzannah Tartan '89
1986 Stephanie Oxley '87 Donna Gallers
1985 Peter Mayer '86
1984 Lorenzo "Jerry" Parra '85 Josh Rubin
1983 Peter Riggs '85 Jerry Parra
1982 Ron Wolf '83
1981 T. Gregory Gray '82 Hans Wagner '83
1980 Grant Hicks '81
1979 Gene Carr '82
1978 Lorin Burte '79
1977 Hendrik Sybrandy '79
1976 Isaac Mayo '77
1975 Bill Leonard '77
1974 John Scheinfeld '75
1973 John Cohen '74
1972 Bill Siegel '74
1971 Dale Lewis '73
1970 Glenn Davis '73
Warren Leon '72
1969 Randy Bongarten
1968 Tom Thomas '69
1967 John Heckenlively '68
1966 Ted Gest '68
Richard Lasko '67
1965 Ted Tarkow '66
1964 Fred Leutner '65
1963 John Davis '65
1962 Janet Dechert '63
1961 Stan Robinson '62
1960 Roland Hirsch '61
1959 Bill Waite '60
1958 Ken Kupery '59
1957 Clair Fielder '58
1956 Bob Bergstresser '57
1955 Craig Richmond '56
1954 Don Burr '55
1953 Al Beatty '54
1952 Ed Stark '53
1951 Bill Thurber '52
1950 Bob Chamberlain '51
1949 Bob Chamberlain '51
Sources Consulted
Ted Gest, “50 WOBC Staffers Return for First Reunion,” Oberlin Alumni Magazine, Vol. 84, No. 3 (Summer 1988), 30-31.
Frederick D. Leutner, “The WOBC,” Oberlin Alumni Magazine, Vol. 61, No. 1 (January 1965), 10-12.
John Scheinfeld, “25 Years from KOCN-AM to WOBC-FM,” Oberlin Alumni Magazine, Vol. 70, No. 6 (November/December 1974), 19-20.
Manuscript on radio at Oberlin by President Ernest Hatch Wilkins, undated, from the William Frederick Bohn Papers, RG 3/1, Series I. Administrative Records, Box 14, “Radio” folder.
List of administrators/officers provided by Will Floyd, WOBC Station Manager, July 2010.
WOBC-FM website at www.wobc.org, accessed 1/13/2014.
Author: Anne Cuyler Salsich, with assistance from Will Floyd Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative Information
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Subgroup 1. Papers, 1949, 1959-2000, 2002-2011, n.d. (3 linear feet)
The Papers subgroup includes four series. Series 1 comprises charters, annual reports, and administrative files, including records of the KOCN/WOBC reunion in 1988. Series 2 holds a small amount of correspondence. Series 3, Publications, holds the bulk of the records, mainly comprising program guides, but also an oral history transcription from 1989. Series 4 is a grouping of non-textual materials (photographs and posters), clippings, and miscellaneous items.
Subgroup 2. Audio Recordings, 1962-1998, n.d. (10.65 linear feet)
The audio recordings in this subgroup consist primarily of reel-to-reel tapes dating from 1962 to 1998, organized in Series 1. Series 2 comprises duplicates of reel-to-reel recordings on cassette tape. In 2010 a lot of eight recordings were sent to a professional sound lab for transfer to CD-ROM in two sets: user copies and preservation masters. These comprise Series 3. Nearly all of the recordings were done on the Oberlin College campus and consist of presentations or addresses by guest speakers, College presidents and faculty, interviews, debates, sports events and WOBC news pieces. Speakers include Henry Kissinger, Martin Luther King, Jerry Rubin, Jesse Jackson, Don Pease, Ramsey Clark, Dick Gregory, Morris Udall, Gloria Steinem, Wendell Berry, John Kenneth Galbraith, Rich Orloff, Shirley Chisholm, and Robert Bork. One notable news piece covers the student occupation of the Cox Administration Building in 1987 in protest of College investments in South African companies under apartheid.