I've been quite lax in my usual research of part 15 AM history in the past several months, but Jennifer over at Radio Survivor sure hasn't let up a lick in her research of college radio both past and present. I've missed the past few episodes of the Radio Survivor podcast but I'll catch up soon enough, so not sure if they've already already made a show about the following article she published today, but I did enjoy it.
What I particularly liked was her discovery of a prior quite notable and successful campus station (part 15) there many years prior - that neither their FM station nor the college staff had any idea that it had ever existed. Way to go Jenifer, talk about unknown history!
You should give it a full read, but below is a heavily truncated excerpts version.
Radio Station Visit #185: B-Rad at Bennington College
By Jennifer Waits on Nov 14, 2025 02:15 pm
https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2025/11/radio-station-visit-185-b-rad-at-bennington-college/
Since its inception in 2017, B-Rad has been housed in a tiny room just off the lobby of the CAPA building. The office-like space has a desk, computer, and audio equipment. A wall is crammed full of drawings and messages that have accumulated over the past few years. ... ..
While Nowak wasn’t aware of other radio stations on campus prior to B-Rad, I was determined to learn if there were any student radio predecessors.
As it turns out, Bennington College has been home to many different student-led radio stations over the years. In 1952, Augusta (“Gus”) Welfer Bartlett started an AM carrier current station as her senior project, back .. .. She started work on the station in spring 1951 and began test broadcasts out of the recording room in Jennings Hall in May 1952.
I was amazed to learn that Bartlett launched the station just a month before her June 1952 graduation AND the expected birth of her child. ... Unsatisfied with the nearby radio offerings, she explains, “… .. I decided the time had come for the College to have its own station.”
Bartlett built a campus-only AM station, which could be heard within the confines of Bennington College. “Finally, after a year and a half of punching holes, mounting equipment and soldering countless bits of wire, The Thing was completed,” she writes. Spring semester 1952 was a test phase for the station, which opened up for participation from the entire campus the following fall. ... ..the campus station fully opened with a launch over 620 AM on November 5, 1952 under the call letters WGBB (named for founder “Gus” and her husband Bob Bartlett). Operated and managed by students, WGBB continued ... ...
By Spring 1953, WGBB had moved to 590 AM, .,.. .. By spring 1954, the radio station was using call letter WGBN, had become a trial member of the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS) ... ..The move was completed by fall 1954, with WGBN relocating to “the barn” from its home in Jennings. At the time, the station was once again enlisting the help of its founder to get its broadcasts operational. Sadly, by spring 1959, IBS reported that WGBN had gone off the air and was dropped from its membership roster. .,.. ...
Students Launch WHIP-FM in 1990s
In the years after the demise of WGBB/WGBN, there was a project called “Bennington College Radio Players” in the late 1980s, followed in the mid-1990s by the creation of the very low power WHIP-FM. ... .... operates out of the third floor of Commons with a hand-built transmitter that hangs from a hockey stick. WHIP broadcasts at about one watt and reaches most of the dorms. WHIP’s broadcasts were designed to only reach the campus, so it operated without an FCC license. .... .. WHIP later hosted a rave and within a few years was the largest student organization at Bennington. Some time in the 2004-2005 academic year, WHIP seemed to have ceased operations. ... ..Luna Galassini writes of the station being a “loosely defined campus club” in fall 2004 and cites “student apathy and mismanagement” taking a toll on its broadcasts. By Fall 2005, WHIP was not active and Galassini hoped to revive it over FM, yet was met with resistance.
However, a faculty member’s spring 2006 proposal for a radio and podcasting .. internet station in fall 2006 reinvigorated discussions. The old WHIP studio was unavailable as its space in the Commons was considered “condemned,” so the student-run internet station was offered a room in the Fels quad. “Bennington Radio Due to Make Waves,” reads a March 2007 headline in student newspaper Before the End of the World.
... .. an article about the “deserted” upstairs Commons notes that “a still vibrant radio station lives on. The author describes the space, writing, “Decorated with patches of what seems to be ’90s grunge band glory, an oft-used couch falling apart in a corner and witty sharpie graffiti from students long gone, there exists a spirit of banter and intimacy in the room that is not often found on our crowded campus today.” ... ... .. flashing forward another 7 years or so, B-Rad made its online debut in 2017. ... ...
.. . I cannot believe my luck, as Wilson had just recently digitized the 1950s student newspapers, which are a goldmine of information about early radio at Bennington College. This is my 185th radio station tour report and my 127th college radio station tour. You can view the entire collection of my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives.
Radio Station Visit #185: B-Rad at Bennington College
By Jennifer Waits on Nov 14, 2025 02:15 pm
https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2025/11/radio-station-visit-185-b-rad-at-bennington-college/