• My Account
  • Your Profile
  • Member Archives
Wednesday, June 29, 2022
Cart / $0.00

No products in the cart.

  • Login
  • Register
Fybush.com
  • Home
  • Archives
  • My Account
  • Store
    • Cart
    • Checkout
  • About/Contact
    • Scott Fybush
    • Copyright Information
    • Privacy Policy
  • Fybush Media
  • Links
No Result
View All Result
Fybush.com
  • Home
  • Archives
  • My Account
  • Store
    • Cart
    • Checkout
  • About/Contact
    • Scott Fybush
    • Copyright Information
    • Privacy Policy
  • Fybush Media
  • Links

No products in the cart.

No Result
View All Result
Fybush.com
No Result
View All Result

Site of the Week 3/13/2020: An Update on Ithaca’s WVBR

Scott Fybush by Scott Fybush
March 13, 2020
in Free Content, New York, Tower Site of the Week
0

Text and photos by SCOTT FYBUSH

In a more ideal world, we’d be packing our bags shortly for the drive down to nearby Ithaca, New York for a return visit to the annual “WVBR Symposium,” the gathering where the Cornell University students who run WVBR (93.5) spend a weekend learning from station alumni and other friends of this unique station.

WVBR's studio home
WVBR’s studio home
WVBR Studio A
WVBR Studio A

Last year, I had the pleasure of joining the WVBR/Cornell Media Guild family as the keynote speaker for the symposium (you can hear excerpts of my talk on this episode of the Top of the Tower Podcast) – and I also had the opportunity to stop by and see how the station is settling in to the studio building it inaugurated back in 2014.

Thanks, Keith!
Thanks, Keith!
WVBR air studio
WVBR air studio

This building was, rather famously, made possible by a donation from one of WVBR’s most prominent alumni, Keith Olbermann, who named it for his father and for one of his Cornell colleagues who died too young, Glenn Corneliess. The dedication plaque still hangs in the building, of course, where the big “Studio A” with its vaulted ceiling has been home to lots of live music within these walls lined with the station’s vinyl collection.

WVBR's "Tech Pit"
WVBR’s “Tech Pit”
Inside the "Tech Pit"
Inside the “Tech Pit”

This is a commercial station run by a board made up of students and alumni, not a college-owned station, and so there’s a long, proud history here of homebrewing technology. Within the “tech pit” room behind the main air studio at the opposite end of the building from Studio A, one of the student engineers is proudly showing off the monitoring system WVBR built to keep tabs on its new transmission system – and after a quick look around upstairs at some of the station’s history and the studio for the student streaming outlet, CornellRadio.com, we’re off to see the new tower.

Upstairs at WVBR
Upstairs at WVBR
Some WVBR history
Some WVBR history

This was a big project for WVBR in the fall of 2017, as the station’s aging 1960s-vintage tower was replaced with a stouter new version able to carry the 93.5 signal well into the future.

Old tower section
Old tower section
WVBR's new tower
WVBR’s new tower
WVBR's new antenna
WVBR’s new antenna

That’s a piece of the original tower sitting on the porch outside the studio, and you can see pretty clearly why a replacement was in order!

We didn’t get inside the transmitter building on this visit, but there’s a new Nautel transmitter in there replacing the aging Energy-Onix that powered WVBR (the “Voice of the Big Red”) for many years, and a new 4-bay ERI antenna up on the tower helping the signal to get out better across the southern Finger Lakes.

And if you like that snowy dusk picture of the new tower, it’s one of the featured images in Tower Site Calendar 2020 – and we still have a handful of copies left in the Fybush.com store.

(As for the Symposium, it too has been cancelled in this most unusual spring. Here’s hoping it’s back to normal and we can return next year!)

Thanks to Mark Humphrey and the WVBR staff for the tours!

CHECK OUT OUR BOOKS!

While you’re waiting for the 2023 Tower Site Calendar (coming in the fall), why not stock up on your summer reading?

We have some great books about broadcasting in our store. 

Please browse our other items, too!

And don’t miss a big batch of Ithaca IDs next Wednesday, over at our sister site, TopHour.com!

Next week: McKeesport, PA, 2019

Share this:

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Pocket
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Facebook
Tags: WVBR
Previous Post

Top of the Tower Podcast #046: Brad Savage and Akron’s Summit

Next Post

NorthEast Radio Watch 3/16/2020: Broadcasters vs. Pandemic

Scott Fybush

Scott Fybush

Editor/Publisher, NorthEast Radio Watch and Tower Site of the Week

Related Posts

NorthEast Radio Watch 6/27/2022: Public Broadcasters’ New Brand
Free Content

NorthEast Radio Watch 6/27/2022: Public Broadcasters’ New Brand

In this week’s issue… Public broadcasters rebrand - CT morning host de-Camps - New TV in Syracuse - Up is down in Utica - Father-daughter team on anchor desk

by Scott Fybush
June 27, 2022
WDOE studio
Free Content

Site of the Week 6/24/2022: Dunkirk and Fredonia, New York

The stations at the extreme southwest corner of New York state

by Scott Fybush
June 24, 2022
NorthEast Radio Watch 6/20/2022: iHeart Cuts Oust the “Mayor”
Free Content

NorthEast Radio Watch 6/20/2022: iHeart Cuts Oust the “Mayor”

In this week’s issue… Mayor's term ends at iHeart - "Team" reforms in RI - New U in Boston? - Studios, people move in Montreal

by Scott Fybush
June 20, 2022
MediaOne Jamestown
Free Content

Site of the Week 6/17/2022: From Jamestown to Dunkirk

More stations in New York's southwestern corner

by Scott Fybush
June 17, 2022
Next Post
NorthEast Radio Watch 3/16/2020: Broadcasters vs. Pandemic

NorthEast Radio Watch 3/16/2020: Broadcasters vs. Pandemic

Log In


Join Now | Lost Password?

Get Fybush.com Updates

Get Fybush.com updates emailed directly to your inbox!

Fybush.com Twitter List

My Tweets

© 2022 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Archives
  • My Account
  • Store
    • Cart
    • Checkout
  • About/Contact
    • Scott Fybush
    • Copyright Information
    • Privacy Policy
  • Fybush Media
  • Links

© 2022 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.