WRCT - History

History

WRCT was born as an experimental radio station at then-Carnegie Institute of Technology. It began as the project of a group of engineering students in 1949, who first used the electrical wiring in a few academic buildings to broadcast a weak AM signal to campus buildings for several hours a day. In 1950, WRCT, which stands for Radio Carnegie Tech, covered half the buildings on campus, and became an official student organization.

WRCT went on the air in 1949 as a carrier current AM radio station on 900 kHz (mostly heard on campus), but it moved to 88.3 FM on March 1, 1974, with a power of 10 watts, which extended its signal beyond the campus to other areas nearby. In the late 1980s, the power increased to 100 watts, and in 1994, WRCT received permission to increase power to 1750 watts in the north, south, and west and 680 watts in the east, which enabled it to be heard up to fifteen miles away, allowing it to become a more significant community service. Now the station has made it possible to listen anywhere in the world by streaming the audio on the station's website.

Now the station has expanded to serve beyond the campus, it also allows participation from outside the university. DJ's, producers, engineers and staff consist of just as many random community members, as there are people who are connected to the school. This varies from freshmen DJ's who are just learning about the stations' programming to veteran DJ's who have experienced years on the air. All of these positions are volunteer and nonprofit. For anyone to get involved, they must simply call the station at or e-mail the training director, Alex Smith at training@wrct.org.