WUSB (FM)

WUSB (90.1 MHz) is a non-commercial radio station licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to Stony Brook, New York. The station is owned by the State University of New York, with studios located on the second floor of Stony Brook University's West Side Dining facility, and its transmitter is located in Farmingville, New York. WUSB is a free-form radio station, staffed by more than 150 volunteers who devote their time and energy for the love of music and free-form radio. The station is partially listener-supported.

History

The station began in 1962 as a carrier current station, broadcasting only within the confines of the then-new Stony Brook campus on 820 kHz on the AM band. The station was, at the time, an integral part of Stony Brook University's once-lively concert scene, which brought such bands and acts as Simon and Garfunkel, Thelonious Monk, The Grateful Dead (in their first-ever East Coast concert appearance), Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Arlo Guthrie, Joni Mitchell, Janis Joplin, the Allman Brothers Band, Pink Floyd, Van Morrison, The Who, Jethro Tull, Cat Stevens, Hot Tuna, Santana, Stony Brook's own Blue Öyster Cult, the Beach Boys, Frank Zappa, Billy Joel, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Jerry Garcia and more. Many of these musicians paid a visit to the station as well. In its earliest days, the studios were located in a "hole in the ground" in the Pritchard Gymnasium, before relocating to another cramped space in the basement of one of the dormitories, James College. One of the station's broadcasters, Paul (the Bean) Kornreich, was not only one of the station's DJ's but also its first basketball announcer. In 1975, the studios then moved to the Student Union, Room 240, where they remained until they moved to the second floor of the West Side Dining facility on January 27, 2017.