KWVA
Encyclopedia
KWVA is a college radio station
broadcasting from the EMU building on the University of Oregon
campus in Eugene, Oregon
, United States
. Licensed to the Associated Students of the University of Oregon, it serves the Eugene metropolitan area. KWVA primarily plays a varied mix of music, in addition to many talk shows: Quack Smack, Anarchy Hour on Tuesdays, Oregon on the Air followed by Left Out on Wednesdays, Inform Radio on Fridays, as well as live news on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Free Speech Radio News
is broadcast Monday-Friday every evening from 6:00-6:30pm and Democracy Now!
is played every weekday morning from 7:30-8:00am.
KWVA now regularly broadcasts University of Oregon athletics played in Eugene, including softball, lacrosse and women's soccer. In the future, sports coverage will include women's soccer, lacrosse, women's basketball, football, tennis, men's basketball and softball.
KWVA is wholly student-operated and owned, though community members not affiliated with the University of Oregon can volunteer to be on-air DJs.
Since Winter 2009, KWVA has kept up-to-date playlists of every show aired in the online database Spinitron.
, which was owned by the UO Department of Speech. It served as an academic laboratory providing daily services for the campus and community from studios in Villard Hall. In the 1970s, KWAX affiliated with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, hired a professional staff and affiliated with NPR
. Two years later, the university cut its academic ties with the station and by the early 1980s there were no students involved at KWAX. KWAX moved off campus and turned into the classical music station that it continues to be today.
In the late 1980s, a group of students decided to start a new student radio station. Gary Rosenstein and James January spent months collecting the necessary 1,800 signatures to get the student government to bring the student station up for a vote. During this time KWAX was applying for a construction permit for a new facility broadcasting at 88.1FM on an existing antenna at Blanton Heights in South Eugene. Mr. January struck a deal with KWAX - KWAX would operate children's programming from 9am-2pm and UO students would broadcast for the remainder of the day.
The new student station was to be called KRMA, for Real Music Alternative. Studio equipment was donated, thus reducing the start-up costs and allowing on other costs such as construction, production equipment and a microwave link to the Blanton Heights tower. Estimated cost was to be $25,000.
On April 27, 1990, following a student body vote, the ASUO senate granted funding for a new mixed format student radio station, a total of $25,861 to cover the costs of construction and first year of operation. The measure was passed by more than four to one and students anticipated tuning in to the station when they returned to campus the next fall. Due to FCC objections, namely interference due to antenna position, KWAX reconsidered its second service thus allowing KRMA to move ahead with university approval. An amended application was submitted in April 1992 proposing a name change to KWVA and a relocation of the antenna to the roof of PLC, the highest building on the University of Oregon campus.
On May 27th, 1993 at 1:32pm, KWVA broadcast its first song, "Hey Mr. DJ" by They Might Be Giants
. It took nearly three years for January and Rosenstein to see fruitful efforts, and by that time they had both graduated. In June 1992, Michael Lovelady replaced January as the station manager and Alyssa Jenson took over for Lovelady in 1993.
In February, 2008, KWVA received FCC approval for a construction permit to relocate the KWVA transmitter from the top of PLC to Goodpasture Island Road and increase signal strength from 500 watts to 1,000 watts. KWVA requested funding from the ASUO to pay for the one-time installation and equipment expense to make this upgrade and relocation. Funding was approved and installation was successful, upgrading KWVA with modern broadcasting capabilities and vasty increasing its potential listenership to include all of Eugene/Springfield and surrounding areas.
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
broadcasting from the EMU building on the University of Oregon
University of Oregon
-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...
campus in Eugene, Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Licensed to the Associated Students of the University of Oregon, it serves the Eugene metropolitan area. KWVA primarily plays a varied mix of music, in addition to many talk shows: Quack Smack, Anarchy Hour on Tuesdays, Oregon on the Air followed by Left Out on Wednesdays, Inform Radio on Fridays, as well as live news on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Free Speech Radio News
Free Speech Radio News
Free Speech Radio News is an independently produced half hour daily national and international radio news program focusing on peace and social justice issues in the US and around the world. FSRN is collectively run by its workers and reporters...
is broadcast Monday-Friday every evening from 6:00-6:30pm and Democracy Now!
Democracy Now!
Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
is played every weekday morning from 7:30-8:00am.
KWVA now regularly broadcasts University of Oregon athletics played in Eugene, including softball, lacrosse and women's soccer. In the future, sports coverage will include women's soccer, lacrosse, women's basketball, football, tennis, men's basketball and softball.
KWVA is wholly student-operated and owned, though community members not affiliated with the University of Oregon can volunteer to be on-air DJs.
Since Winter 2009, KWVA has kept up-to-date playlists of every show aired in the online database Spinitron.
History
KWVA began broadcasting in 1993. But the start of student radio at the University of Oregon began long before. Students and faculty worked together in the operation of KWAXKWAX
KWAX is a non-commercial classical music radio station in Eugene, Oregon, broadcasting to the Eugene-Springfield, Oregon area. The station is a listener supported service of the University of Oregon...
, which was owned by the UO Department of Speech. It served as an academic laboratory providing daily services for the campus and community from studios in Villard Hall. In the 1970s, KWAX affiliated with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, hired a professional staff and affiliated with NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
. Two years later, the university cut its academic ties with the station and by the early 1980s there were no students involved at KWAX. KWAX moved off campus and turned into the classical music station that it continues to be today.
In the late 1980s, a group of students decided to start a new student radio station. Gary Rosenstein and James January spent months collecting the necessary 1,800 signatures to get the student government to bring the student station up for a vote. During this time KWAX was applying for a construction permit for a new facility broadcasting at 88.1FM on an existing antenna at Blanton Heights in South Eugene. Mr. January struck a deal with KWAX - KWAX would operate children's programming from 9am-2pm and UO students would broadcast for the remainder of the day.
The new student station was to be called KRMA, for Real Music Alternative. Studio equipment was donated, thus reducing the start-up costs and allowing on other costs such as construction, production equipment and a microwave link to the Blanton Heights tower. Estimated cost was to be $25,000.
On April 27, 1990, following a student body vote, the ASUO senate granted funding for a new mixed format student radio station, a total of $25,861 to cover the costs of construction and first year of operation. The measure was passed by more than four to one and students anticipated tuning in to the station when they returned to campus the next fall. Due to FCC objections, namely interference due to antenna position, KWAX reconsidered its second service thus allowing KRMA to move ahead with university approval. An amended application was submitted in April 1992 proposing a name change to KWVA and a relocation of the antenna to the roof of PLC, the highest building on the University of Oregon campus.
On May 27th, 1993 at 1:32pm, KWVA broadcast its first song, "Hey Mr. DJ" by They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years Flansburgh and Linnell were frequently accompanied by a drum machine. In the early 1990s, TMBG became a full band. Currently, the members of TMBG are...
. It took nearly three years for January and Rosenstein to see fruitful efforts, and by that time they had both graduated. In June 1992, Michael Lovelady replaced January as the station manager and Alyssa Jenson took over for Lovelady in 1993.
In February, 2008, KWVA received FCC approval for a construction permit to relocate the KWVA transmitter from the top of PLC to Goodpasture Island Road and increase signal strength from 500 watts to 1,000 watts. KWVA requested funding from the ASUO to pay for the one-time installation and equipment expense to make this upgrade and relocation. Funding was approved and installation was successful, upgrading KWVA with modern broadcasting capabilities and vasty increasing its potential listenership to include all of Eugene/Springfield and surrounding areas.