It hardly seems possible that it’s been 50 years since a group of students gathered to talk about setting up a campus radio station at UNB. In the fall of 1959, Barry Yoell, a member of the UNB SRC, put an ad in the Brunswickan inviting anyone interested to attend a meeting about radio broadcasting. An enthusiastic group of students showed up, and the UNB Radio Society was formed.
Barry Yoell’s co-conspirators included Fredericton businessman Bill Stanley, then an engineering student, who became the UNB Radio Society’s first Chief Engineer. Broadcasting officially began from quarters in the basement of Memorial Hall over a closed-circuit system to Jones House and the Student Centre.
Today we broadcast 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in six languages to the Fredericton area on FM and to the world over the Internet. More than 3,000 students, faculty, staff and community volunteers have been involved with the station since it began.
If you have photos, stories, memories or tapes of old broadcasts, we’d love to hear from you. We plan to publish a 50-year retrospective booklet as well as special programming for our anniversary day, January 22, 2011. This year we are upgrading the Master Control Room in our SUB studios with new digital gear, so there will be lots of exciting new improvements to see. We look forward to having you here to help us celebrate!
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