broadband / modem
audio only
Published: October 2006
It’s part of the media landscape for the Boston College community, but BC’s radio station WZBC, 90.3 FM is, at 1,000 watts, a powerful source (by many accounts the best source) of leading-edge rock music in the Boston area. (An AM analog, available only on campus, plays mainstream pop music; and a streaming server, at wzbc.org, speaks to the world.)
Founded in 1960 as a private station, WZBC has always been governed and staffed by students who, shortly after it was granted its public license in 1973, decided that its mission should be to present music with “No Commercial Potential,” to use the title of a long-running and popular WZBC program. Over the years WZBC has been the winner of many “best of” honors for providing early and prescient exposure for bands such as the Sex Pistols, U2, the Strokes, and White Stripes. “The purpose of WZBC is to be ahead of the curve,” says “Commodore Vic,” the nom-de-airwaves of a middle-aged community member who has been a DJ at the station since the late 1990s.
Last spring, as part of his internship with @BC, Daniel Doyle ’06 video-taped and produced a 10-minute profile of the station and its people.
