WREK-FM
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WREK FM ("Wreck", from the Rambling Wreck) is Georgia Tech's radio station, located at 91.1 MHz FM in Atlanta, and on channel 17 on GTCN. Starting as a 10-watt class D, it is now 40 kW ERP, and 6.6 kW TPO, making it among the ten highest-power college radio stations in the United States. The antenna is an omnidirectional 12-bay Jampro model JSCP, and is located on a 300-foot (90-meter) self-supporting Jampro tower adjacent to the Undergraduate Living Center and Woodruff Hall on Georgia Tech's west campus, connected via a wireless, 950.0 MHz studio-transmitter link, WQAQ311, and a digital, fiber-optic link.
WREK's studios were located in the annex to the Alexander Memorial Coliseum from 1978 until 2004. That facility was home to WGST (from Georgia School of Technology, GT's earlier name) AM radio from 1956 until 1975, when that station's license was sold against the school's will as "surplus property" by the Georgia Board of Regents. Visitors to WREK's Coliseum studios were often startled by its walls, which were covered by thick layers of posters, set lists, and other music memorabilia, as well as the giant electromechanical broadcast automation machines and other large racks of monitoring and control equipment. WREK's studios relocated to the Student Center Commons (formerly the Georgia Tech Bookstore building) in August 2004.
[edit] Programming
WREK slogans include "music you don't hear on the radio" and "quality diverse radio."
Programming is student-run and extremely diverse, including everything from heavy metal to world, hip-hop to blues, classical and jazz to industrial and noise, and similarly diverse community programming (Church of the Subgenius). Locally produced programming includes Tech Talk, a talk show hosted by and focusing on concerns of Georgia Tech students; the Ramblin' Wreck Report, a Georgia Tech sports talk show hosted by students; Destroy All Music, clatter-improv with pink noise freakouts; The Mobius[1], an experimental electronic show featuring music and in-studio performances of new and established artists that run the electronic gamut; The Electric Boogaloo, a funksperience; and Live@WREK, a live music show.
WREK also broadcasts play-by-play coverage of Georgia Tech intercollegiate athletics, including baseball, women's basketball, volleyball, and softball. In fall 2004 it agreed to simulcast selected Georgia Tech football and men's basketball games to augment WQXI's diminished AM nighttime coverage in metro Atlanta.
In December 2002, WREK broadcast the entire 50-disc Merzbox by the Japanese experimental music artist Merzbow. An article in Creative Loafing described the Merzbow Marathon as "what may be the most obscure and counterintuitive move in the history of radio."
Continuing their tradition of seemingly suicidal radio broadcasts, WREK's chose to air the long-running heavy metal show Wrekage [2] for the entire 24 hour broadcast day on June 6, 2006 (6/6/6). Heavy metal was played in chronological order from midnight to midnight. As an extra nod to the mystic number 666 (number), Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast was aired at 6:06 AM and PM.
[edit] Technical accomplishments
WREK began streaming its compressed (8-bit uLaw) broadcast over the Internet on November 7 of 1994, making it one of the first Internet radio stations [3]. The station now streams in MP3 format and features a week-long archive.
[edit] External links
| Atlanta metro area FM radio stations (Arbitron #9) WJSP 88.1 | WRAS 88.5 | WBCX 89.1 | WRFG 89.3 | WABE 90.1 | WUWG 90.7 | WREK 91.1 | WWEV 91.5 | WCLK 91.9 | WZGC 92.9 | WVFJ 93.3 | WSTR 94.1 | WLTM 94.9 | WBTS 95.5 | WKLS 96.1 | WVWA 96.7 | WSRV 97.1 | WPZE 97.5 | WGPB 97.7 | WSB 98.5 | WNNX 99.7 | WNSY 100.1 | WWWQ 100.5 | WKHX 101.5 | WAZX 101.9 | WLKQ 102.3 | WAMJ 102.5 | WCKS 102.7 | WMJE 102.9 | WVEE 103.3 | WPUP 103.7 | WALR 104.1 | WFSH 104.7 | WBZY 105.3 | WWVA 105.7 | WNGC 106.1 | WHLE 106.3 | WYAY 106.7 | WTSH 107.1 | WJZZ 107.5 | WHTA 107.9 | WPCG 107.9 |
