Flashback
50 years ago
WBFO hits the airwaves
WBFO-FM 88.7, UB’s National Public Radio affiliate, first hit the airwaves on Jan. 6, 1959. Staffed completely by student volunteers working with an operating budget of $1,300, the fledgling radio station had a broadcast range of only 10 miles.
The first steps in founding WBFO were taken in 1950 when Paul Mohn and Fred Fischer of the School of Engineering received permission to purchase a 250-watt FM broadcasting unit. Although originally intended to be an experimental station used by students taking courses related to radio and broadcasting, there was a belief that the equipment also could be used to provide cultural and educational programming unavailable on commercial radio.
Due largely to budgetary constraints, the equipment sat idle until 1957 when a group of electrical engineering students—supported by Wilson Greatbatch, then assistant professor of electrical engineering—received permission to construct an FM station and transmitter. The students were joined by the newly formed UB Student Broadcasting Association, which was given the responsibility for programming and daily operations.
By late 1958, construction of the transmitter atop Kimball Tower, South Campus, was complete and the broadcasting equipment was installed in what is now Allen Hall, also on the South Campus. Chancellor Clifford C. Furnas gave final authorization to the radio station and made the initial broadcast congratulating the dedicated students, faculty and staff who made WBFO possible.
—William Offhaus, University Archives
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