Planet WREK

WREK plays traditional, classical and experimental programs from all over the planet. Yet, the station is often noted for what it doesn't play: Top 40 songs and other chartbusters.

Listeners during the Weekend Cornucopia program, for instance, may hear Jewish klezmer from 1909, the Sufi music of Turkey, Afro-Peruvian jazz, the Mbuti pygmies of the Ituri rainforest in Zaire, computer music from New York, Japanese percussion, Australian aboriginal ceremonies, Hungarian folk or Appalachian bluegrass--but no Celine Dion.

With its range from high art music to the simple and traditional, WREK's enormous playlist would baffle even a musicologist. Yet the strange acts--with names like European Chaos String Quartet, Ali Hassan Kuban, or Pandit Raghuneth Seth--mingle with the more familiar John Lee Hookers, Count Basies and Johnny Cashes.

"I have started to call it 'multiple narrowcasting,'" said physics graduate student and Program Director Markus DeShon. "In other words, we want to cover a wide variety of music in-depth."

Edward Lindahl, WREK general manager, finds enjoyment in the unobtrusive ambient music of the late night Atmospherics program as well as the more aggressive "noise" of Wednesday night's Friction and Destroy All Music shows.

"Coming to Atlanta from a small town in Florida, I guess all of the new things I was exposed to were pretty exciting for me," the mechanical engineering major recalled. "My hope for Tech students wanting to get involved with WREK is that they have the same sort of learning experiences that I've had over the last three years."

As a production organization, WREK involves roughly 90 students and a few dozen Tech-WREK alumni, placing it among the largest student groups.

In addition to music appreciation, DeShon said, "WREK educates its staff about the operation of a radio station. It also provides opportunities for the application of engineering knowledge; our engineers are students as well."

WREK's ethnic and stylistic diversity does more than just enhance the Tech experience of fledgling disc jockeys, though. It both reflects and serves Tech's student body.

"We feel that if we serve the community as a whole, then we also serve Georgia Tech students," DeShon said. "Our direct service to the student body is as a student organization that students can get involved in, a source of information about events at Georgia Tech, and as an interface to the rest of the world."

WREK's public affairs programs cover Tech news and sports, general science, world affairs, the environment, astrology, geology and science for kids.

WREK also serves as the official station for inclement winter weather reports and possible campus closings, and it regularly broadcasts SGA candidate debates prior to annual elections. "Unfortunately, we don't have as much news programming as I would like to see," Lindahl said. The handful of dedicated news and sports staff members ordinarily does not have the time or resources to produce full-length, in-house news or talk shows while handling their course loads.

Still, WREK's sports team handles the play-by-play for select Joltin' Jackets baseball and Lady Jackets basketball games. The crew has even covered volleyball and hockey for WREK, unofficially known as "the station for the real Tech sports fan."

Many college stations also serve as training grounds for broadcast, communications or journalism majors. Despite its strong signal (40,000 watts) in the country's 12th largest radio market, WREK has no such majors working toward degrees in radio because Tech offers no broadcasting degrees. "WREK DJs are just ordinary people who care about music," DeShon said.

Like many college stations, WREK is completely student-run. But its engineers, historically, have set it apart. Lindahl points to the engineering department with applause to a long list of former student-engineers. "Some stations of comparable wattage spend more than $30,000 a year on engineering services. WREK spends pretty close to zero a year," barring large capital expenses such as transmitters.

In addition to its exploratory programming, WREK's DJs may be its trademark. Listeners unfamiliar with noncommercial radio are often taken aback at WREK DJs' straightforward, conversational and often amusing announcing style. Why do they sometimes sound sleepy, nervous, or giddy? "I guess because we try to emphasize the educational aspects of working at the station," Lindahl said, "and not the 'personality' part."

There are no Morning Zoo Crews or long-distance dedications in the mix. "[DJs'] emotions on air reflect their actual emotions, rather than being some performance," DeShon explained, "The DJs also have to pronounce words in many different languages and the names of bands they've never heard of. Given those difficulties, I think they do pretty well."

In the spirit of Tech mottoes like "We don't fit the mold; we make it," WREK radio is unique--or at least unusual--in several ways. In April 1968, it became the first noncommercial FM college radio station in Atlanta. Since 1978, WREK has aired from the Alexander Memorial Coliseum Annex, where WGST studios recorded the likes of Ray Charles and Little Richard. WGST--Georgia School of Technology--began broadcasting in the 1920's.

According to one campus publication, WREK was "born out of a suggestion made during a Tech leadership conference in the fall of 1966." Then and now, three key ingredients of WREK's philosophy were student ownership and operation, noncommercial educational service to the Tech community, and improvement of communications on campus.

WREK was among the first radio stations to broadcast over the Internet. On Nov. 7, 1994, WREK broadcast to a dedicated listener in Austin, Texas. That same day, WXYC-FM, Chapel Hill, made its Internet broadcast announcement. WREK-Net, as it's called, wasn't publicized until the following spring. With a Windows or UNIX workstation and a broadband Internet connection, curious listeners the world over can tune into WREK's signal.

According to former general manager and WREK-Net creator John Selbie, CS '95, the freeware used for WREK-Net, called Cyber Radio 1, has been made available and is in use at several stations, including KZSU-FM at Stanford University. WREK's growing World Wide Web page http://www.gatech.edu/wrek tells the complete story. Among its newer features, for those with computer video capabilities, is an NBC news clip about Fred Runde's venerable big band jazz show, The DeSoto Hour (Saturdays, 7 p.m).

WREK management has been busy in 1996. Recently, it completed its FCC license renewal application, an arduous task required every seven years. An updated copy of WREKology, the listener's guide, is available for free. WREK staff survived the inconveniences of broadcasting from within the highly secured Olympic Village during the Games. With the help of Scientific-Atlanta, the station recently completed the long process of installing a second-hand satellite dish with which to download various public affairs programs and other shows.

Among its plans for the near future, electrical engineering student and chief engineer Eric Buckhalt expects to install a new automation system for late night airplay of prerecorded music. The old system, a decades-old conglomeration of tape decks and switchers affectionately known as "George P.," will be replaced by a state-of-the-art computer-based electronic system.

In the programming department, DeShon has been encouraging involvement from various student associations. "Currently, we have representatives of the Caribbean Student Association (Reggae Soundsplash, Tuesdays, 6 p.m.) and the Pakistan Student Association (Himalayan Mix, Mondays, 11 p.m.) producing shows," DeShon said. "I would like to see the Chinese Student Association get involved, or perhaps have a show which rotates different clubs through one time slot."

WREK is simply a haven for Tech students and adventurous Atlanta listeners. Like Outdoor Recreation at Georgia Tech, DramaTech or the Craft Center, it provides students a place to escape, temporarily, from the pressures of campus life.

On the other hand, DeShon said, "Georgia Tech benefits when WREK presents a human face to the community at large. It's easy for a campus to become isolated from its surroundings. WREK ensures that doesn't happen."

With the 26th Olympiad in recent memory, it may be difficult for Atlantans and the Tech community to remain isolated from the rest of the world. Whether through the air or the Internet, WREK continues to do its part to make Atlanta an "international city."

WREK At A Glance

It has a diversified format, including African, ambient, bluegrass, blues, classic rock, classical, contemporary classical, country, dub, electronic, experimental, folk, funk, grunge, hip-hop, industrial, Indian, international, jazz, Joltin' Jackets baseball, Lady Jackets basketball, Latin, local, metal, new wave, noise, parody, politics, pop, public affairs, punk, radio drama, reggae, rock, science fiction talk, ska, soul, spoken word, symphonic, synthesized, Tech sports and news, world music, and zydeco.