WDOM
{{short description|Radio station at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox radio station
| name = WDOM
| logo = WDOM 2015 Logo.png
| city = Providence, Rhode Island | country = US
| founded = April 28, 1949
| airdate = {{start date|1966|3|15}}
| frequency = 91.3 MHz
| format = College/Indie
| erp = 125 watts
| haat = {{cvt|40|m|ft|sp=us}}
| class = A
| facility_id = 53676
| coordinates = {{coord|41|50|39|N|71|26|14|W}}
| licensing_authority = FCC
| owner = Providence College
| webcast =
| website = {{URL| https://wdom.providence.edu/}}
}}
WDOM (91.3 FM) is a radio station licensed to Providence, Rhode Island, United States. The station is owned by Providence College{{cite web|url=http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?call=WDOM |title=WDOM Facility Record |work=United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division }} and broadcasts from studios and a transmitter on the campus.
WDOM began operations as a carrier current station for the campus in 1949; it began broadcasting on FM for the entire Providence area in 1966. It continues to service the Providence College community and the city of Providence. The station broadcasts indie, hip-hop, alternative, punk, electronica, rap, dance, classic rock, jazz, and country music.
History
On April 28, 1949, WDOM launched as a carrier current radio station serving the Providence College campus on 1450 kHz; a highlight of the first day of programming was an interview with Harry James on the "Guest Band of the Day" segment.{{cite news|url=https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1357&context=cowl|work=The Cowl|pages=1, 3|title=President Speaks At Inauguration Of AM Radio Station|date=May 4, 1949|access-date=August 10, 2020}} That first year, the station broadcast Tuesday and Thursday nights.{{cite news|url=https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1358&context=cowl|work=The Cowl|date=May 11, 1949|title=WDOM Begins Regular Broadcast|page=3|access-date=August 10, 2020}} For 1951, the station broadcast on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, airing for three hours each day.{{Cite news|url=https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2590&context=cowl|access-date=August 10, 2020|work=The Cowl|page=1|date=March 14, 1951|title=WDOM Plans Events For Year}} The early years were marked by six frequency changes in the first decades of operation; WDOM moved to Aquinas Hall in 1953, but inconsistency in WDOM's broadcasts prompted a student congress investigation.{{cite news|url=https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1367&context=cowl|work=The Cowl|title=Station's History|pages=3, 6|date=March 20, 1957|access-date=August 10, 2020|first=Al|last=Lonardo}}
More reliable and successful broadcasts came in the mid-1950s as the result of a new transmitter, built by physics students, and equipment donations.{{r|lonardo}} By 1964, however, the station had become a non-entity on the campus. The student newspaper, The Cowl, described it as a "phantom frequency" that had only sporadically broadcast.{{cite news|url=https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2711&context=cowl|work=The Cowl|title=Silent 600 Kc...|date=December 16, 1964|access-date=August 10, 2020}}
On November 5, 1965, the Federal Communications Commission awarded Providence College a construction permit for a 10-watt FM station on 91.3 MHz.{{Cite web|url= https://cdbs.recnet.com/corres/?doc=70109 |title= History Cards for WDOM|publisher=Federal Communications Commission}} (Guide to reading History Cards) It was the culmination of FM plans first laid more than 15 years prior. In 1948, the college had obtained a construction permit for a station at 89.9 MHz;{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1948/1948-06-14-BC.pdf|work=Broadcasting|date=June 14, 1948|access-date=August 10, 2020|page=95|title=FCC Actions}} at the time Albertus Magnus Hall—the science building which housed the studios—was built, it was mentioned that the plans included FM broadcasting.{{cite news|url=https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1339&context=cowl|access-date=August 10, 2020|title=Million Dollar Science Building Lessens Strain On Harkins Hall|pages=1, 4|date=October 6, 1948}}
After going on the air on March 15, 1966,{{cite web|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1969/1969-BC-YB.pdf|access-date=August 10, 2020|work=Broadcasting Yearbook|title=WDOM(FM)|page=B-149 (313)|date=1969}} WDOM increased its broadcast hours—airing ten hours a day{{cite news|url=https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2754&context=cowl|access-date=August 10, 2020|date=March 2, 1966|work=The Cowl|title=WDOM Expands Broadcast Time To Include FM|page=6}}—and expanded its sports coverage, including freshman basketball and varsity hockey games.{{cite news|url=https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2761&context=cowl|work=The Cowl|title=WDOM Fills First Year With Increased Sports Coverage|page=10|date=May 11, 1966|access-date=August 10, 2020}} The station continued to broadcast only during the school year.{{cite news|url=https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1081&context=cowl|access-date=August 10, 2020|title=WDOM Concludes FM Broadcasting|page=3|date=May 8, 1968|work=The Cowl}} Its music format was Top 40.{{cite news|url=https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1253&context=cowl|work=The Cowl|title=WDOM Head: Programming Innovative and 'About the Best'|pages=6, 8|date=March 31, 1976|access-date=August 10, 2020|first=Gregory|last=Varian}}
File:AlumniPC-Front.JPG in the early 1970s]]
WDOM grew over the course of the 1970s. The station moved from Alumni Hall to larger quarters in Joseph Hall early in the decade.{{r|head}} It had expanded its broadcast day to 21 hours by 1974 and was airing a mix of progressive rock, in-house educational and block programming; it also began to seek a power increase.{{cite news|url=https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1171&context=cowl|work=The Cowl|date=January 23, 1974|title=WDOM Reports Expansion, Seeks "Power Increase"|page=2|access-date=August 10, 2020}} By 1976, 100 students were involved in the operation of the station, compared to the 15 to 20 who had been around for the FM launch a decade prior.{{r|head}} The station's classical record library received a major boost when the former WPJB-FM, which had exited the format, donated its collection to WDOM in 1976.{{cite news|url=https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1264&context=cowl|access-date=August 10, 2020|first1=Henry|last1=Monti|first2=Richard|last2=Radcliffe|work=The Cowl|date=November 3, 1976|page=3|title=WPJB Donates Library}}
In the end, however, it was not increased student involvement that prompted Providence College to pursue a facility upgrade, but rather a 1978 FCC rulemaking that required as many 10-watt noncommercial educational stations—like WDOM—as possible to upgrade to at least 100 watts.{{cite news|url=https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2789&context=cowl|access-date=August 10, 2020|title=WDOM planning wattage increase|first=Maureen|last=Higgins|page=2|date=October 3, 1979}} The college applied to increase power to 125 watts and was approved by the commission on September 8, 1980,{{r|hc}} and the improved facilities were activated on December 5.{{cite news|url=https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2813&context=cowl|first=Brian|last=Farley|work=The Cowl|title=WDOM "PC Turns Us On"|date=January 28, 1981|access-date=August 10, 2020|page=10}} The station continued to balance its rock output with jazz and classical programming, unduplicated in Providence.{{cite news|url=https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2865&context=cowl|access-date=August 10, 2020|date=March 20, 1984|page=9|title=Have You Heard WDOM Lately?|work=The Cowl}} However, even as these programs remained a part of the station's lineup, rock programming was the priority by the mid-1990s at WDOM; it was followed closely by the Urban Beatz hip-hop show on the weekends, which generated the most callers of any program on the station.{{r|keenan|spectrum}} The station had also begun 24-hour broadcasting on weekends.{{cite news|url=https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3294&context=cowl|work=The Cowl|page=9|title=WDOM|first=Pete|last=Keenan|date=September 19, 1996|access-date=August 10, 2020}} In the late 1990s, WDOM moved to a new on-campus location in the Slavin Center, giving it higher visibility.{{r|spectrum}}
In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, WDOM broadcast Rhode Island Public Radio when WELH, then the network's main transmitter, was knocked off the air. After sending out a message seeking aid, Providence College president Brian Shanley invited the public radio network to use WDOM's facilities, enabling RIPR to continue broadcasting to the immediate Providence area.{{cite news|url=https://current.org/2012/11/pubcasters-battered-by-superstorm-sandy/|work=Current|title=Pubcasters battered by Superstorm Sandy|first1=Andrew|last1=Lapin|first2=Mike|last2=Janssen|date=November 5, 2012|access-date=August 10, 2020}}
Much of the station's equipment was overhauled in 2014; some of it had been in continuous use since the 1990s.{{cite news|url=https://www.thecowl.com/arts-entertainment/wdoms-new-sound-for-the-new-semester|work=The Cowl|first=Dan|last=Gagnon|date=September 25, 2014|title=WDOM’s New Sound for the New Semester|access-date=August 9, 2020}}
Notable alumni
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{FM station data|53676|WDOM}}
{{Providence Radio}}
{{Providence College}}
{{authority control}}