BY CONOR AMENDOLA, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
St. Bonaventure University’s student-run campus radio station, WSBU 88.3 FM “The Buzz,” turns 75 Wednesday. Since its founding in 1948, the station has prevailed through periods of change.
“I think it’s a huge accomplishment considering all the ways people can listen to music now,” said Steven Stutz, WSBU’s current station manager. “For a college station in a small rural town to make it to 75 years is huge. People still crave that nostalgia of personalized radio, and students find it as a creative outlet. WSBU is a community of its own.”
Every FCC-licensed radio station has a call sign, or a unique set of letters to identify the individual station. While The Buzz’s current call sign is WSBU, the station was founded as WSBC. Its first home was in Alumni Hall, a building which has since been demolished and replaced by Murphy Hall. Thomas Plassman, whom Plassman Hall is named for, dedicated and blessed the station over the airwaves, according to Joe Centanni, a WSBU station member from 2005 to 2009.
Originally, the station was permitted by the FCC to broadcast for two hours a day at a five-watt signal. The early station was plagued by small facilities, as well as a transmitter that would frequently break down. In 1949, WSBC became WOFM, with the call letters standing for the “Order of Friars Minor,” and would move to the basement of the Butler Gym in 1950.
The late Russell Jandoli, whom Bonaventure’s Jandoli School of Communication is named for, may just be who to credit for keeping WSBU alive in the 1950s.
“A radio station is a necessary part of the equipment of our department of journalism,” said Jandoli.
Under his direction, the station gained new equipment and moved again — first to Barracks C, which is where Robinson and Falconio Hall are located now, and then back to the basement of Butler Gym for the rest of the 1950s and most of the 1960s.
The station moved for a final time in 1967 to its current home: room 210 in what was then University Hall but is now known as the Reilly Center. The space had been designed with the intention of housing WSBU, and the station was able to finally enjoy a real home, built just for the purpose of broadcasting over the airwaves.
Even with a dedicated space, the station wasn’t free from experiencing setbacks.
In 1970, a bomb threat forced WSBU to broadcast from the basement of a maintenance building, and in 1971 the station would go off the air for three weeks due to technical difficulties. The station then had to worry about funding a $2,000 antenna to broadcast over FM airwaves and getting approval from the FCC. As if this was not enough, WOFM was already being used by a radio station in Kentucky, thus prompting the name change to WSBU.
Today, the station broadcasts the Bonnies women’s basketball games while also covering other sports on campus. The station’s website is filled with articles from the sports and music departments. The news department broadcasts Bona News Now on events and news on campus and in the surrounding community. The station also has the honor of being one of the few college radio stations in the country to broadcast from Super Bowl Radio Row annually. And during COVID-19, WSBU was able to continue broadcasting thanks to members setting up the station’s autoplay playlist for months in advance.
On Tuesday, Steve Cocoa, ‘73, hosted a special edition of his show “Flying” to commemorate WSBU’s 75th anniversary. The show was a celebration of the 75-year history of WSBU, complete with alumni and current students sharing stories and their thoughts about WSBU.
Once renovations on Murphy Hall are completed in the next few years, The Buzz will move once again. Carole McNall, the station’s faculty advisor for x years, said she sees the move from Reilly to Murphy as a positive for the station.
“I’m definitely excited to have The Buzz move to Murphy,” said McNall. “Part of the [reason] why is looking at the drawings of what’s planned and visualizing what The Buzz folks can do with new, possibly larger space. I can also visualize taking … freshman classes over to see a radio station in action (and hopefully get some of them to fall in love with radio).”
ammendocj22@bonaventure.edu
