Brown student radio loses FM home

Brown Student and Community Radio, BSR, will stop broadcasting on FM 88.1 as of July 31 after losing its lease with The Wheeler School, the Providence private school that holds the license.  /
Brown Student and Community Radio, BSR, will stop broadcasting on FM 88.1 as of July 31 after losing its lease with The Wheeler School, the Providence private school that holds the license. /

PROVIDENCE – Brown University’s student radio station will no longer broadcast on FM WELH 88.1 after The Wheeler School terminated its lease as of July 31, Radio Survivor reported.

A year ago, WELH upgraded its signal to 4,000 watts, to cover most of northern Rhode Island and also reach into parts of Massachusetts and southern Rhode Island. The upgrade potentially makes the frequency “more attractive to well-heeled radio suitors,” Radio Survivor noted.

Wheeler School middle and high school students, Latino Public Radio and other programming blocks, including “Classic Hits, Oldies & Soul,” “Radio Italia,” and “Italian-American Connection” also broadcast on 88.1. License-holder Wheeler School is a private K-12 school in Providence.

Operatorship of the signal is being transferred to an unnamed entity, which will broadcast on the sign 24 hours, 7 days a week, BSR Co-Publicity Director John Foley said. WELH has not announced what the programming will be or if there are plans to sell.

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The Brown Student and Community Radio, BSR, will continue broadcasting but only online as of Aug. 1. Brown students also run a commercial radio station, WBRU 95.5 FM, which is financially and legally independent of the school.

Radio Survivor also noted that Bryant University announced earlier this summer it was taking its student station, WJMF, off of the FM airwaves to allow WGBH in Boston to use the frequency for a simulcast of its classical public radio station WCRB 99.5.

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