Bellarmine College Radio

 

I spend too much time on eBay. I'm starting to see patterns. Apophenia is the human propensity to imagine patterns in what is totally random information. I don't think I have that problem. There is surely a good German noun that describes obsessive research radio history. It doesn't require treatment, it just requires something new to read. The internet tells me it's funkforschungsbesessenheit.

Anyway, I meant to discuss Bellarmine College Radio. On eBay I found a set of empty college radio mailers for sale. (It's an odd thing to sell, but kudos if you can make a buck on that.) The few visible postmarks date to 1971-1973. The addressee is often scratched out, but the rest of the address is usually intact. The timing is interesting because in June of 1968, Ursuline College and Bellarmine College merged to form a "co-educational" college that is now known as Bellarmine University.  

Both colleges existed before 1968 separately. Ursuline College in Louisville was founded in 1921 as Sacred Heart Junior College and renamed in 1938. It was a women's college, and only 1,100 women graduated before it merged with Bellarmine. Bellarmine was founded in 1950, and had issued 1,000 diplomas by 1964. It was the larger college and was growing aggressively. After the merger, they used the name Bellarmine-Ursaline for 3 years, then name became just Bellarmine College in 1972.  

In the early 1970s that merger was still in process. So some address variance seems normal. The address on the envelopes is always 2000 Norris Place. But 2000 Norris Place tells us nothing. That was just the main mailing address of Bellarmine College going back into the 1950s.  (Today it's 2001 Newburg Rd)  Ursaline College was at 3115 Lexington Rd and does not appear to have any connection to this.  With the name changes and possible address changes, some mailing list errors seem inevitable. But that's not what I think we're looking at.  The really unexpected detail I noticed is that there are multiple different call letters on the different envelopes: WBVC, WHUT, WBCR, WBCK and a highly unusual WBLIC.

I checked the Bellarmine college radio website and it only states that the station was founded in 2005. [LINK] They're not disavowing the past but not acknowledging it either. The modern Bellarmine College radio station does not delve into their own history at all. But with thanks to the Wayback machine, the old version of their website had just a little bit more information 

"Bellarmine University started a radio station in the fall of 2005 with the help of Dr. Len Cooper, Dr. Gail Henson, Bellarmine’s Student Government Association, and a few motivated students.  In its early stages the station broadcast a Classic Rock format but has since developed into a viable College Rock “grab bag” station with an eclectic mix of music from the 1990’s and today, all the while supporting local artists from the Louisville music scene."  

Back to those call letters. While there are 5 of them, I couldn't at first tie any of them to Bellarmine with public records. From 1959 into the early 1970s WBVC was the Voice of Boston College until it got an FM license in 1974 and became WZBC. There is no FCC record of a WHUT or a WBCR at Bellarmine. In fact there are two other roughly contemporary WBCR stations. Firstly WBCR is at Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY. They were already a carrier current station in 1968 and was a member of IBS going back into the 1940s. More here.  But also Beloit College has had the FM stick for 90.3 WBCR since 1979. 

There was a 1470 WHUT in Anderson, IN from about 1965 to 1970. I think that got deleted in some sale to Moody.... Then there's WBLIC, let's just assume that's a typo. My normal "formal" sources like the FCC, IBS and  radio directories list nothing connected to Bellarmine. So this is a carrier current station or possibly a pirate. It makes it harder to research but also way cooler.

The best, and really only corroboration I found was in the official history book of Bellarmine College, High upon a Hill: A History of Bellarmine College. It  mentions radio only a few times, and in the first 170 some pages, only in the context of local commercial stations 840 WHAS-AM and 970 WAVE-AM (now WGTK-AM). Those are heritage Louisville radio stations. More here. Then, unexpectedly, there it was on page 178; a confirmation of WHUT and WBUC.

"A little known campus project was a 7-watt, closet circuit AM radio station, WHUT-AM, which featured campus news and various kinds of music, from jazz to classical. Founded by David Kirwin and John Lindstrom in February 1968 and using a volunteer staff of 31, it broadcast from Newman Hall to dorm radio from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. In the early '70's another station, WBUC lasted for several years." 

A 7-watt carrier current station was certainly possible; actually up to 30 watts was possible with off-the-shelf-hardware in that era. (For example LPB has a 2-20 system capable of an adjustable output of 2 - 20 watts.) More here. From that kernel I found a little more information. This time in a Library of Congress interview by the legendary Jennifer Waits with Dr. Kyle Bennett of Bellarmine there was, another reference, no call letters but it fits the few facts we do have.  [SOURCE] and [SOURCE] I'll quote the whole relevant section. 

"I teach at Bellarmine University in Louisville and there was a campus carrier current station there that none of us knew about. It wasn’t in any of the official records at the university or anything like that. And then people, former DJs contacted us, it ended up in the alumni magazine and then more people contacted us. Similarly just like, February 14th, on Valentine’s Day, a new community radio station was launched in Louisville and part of just the initiative around that has led to other people recovering the city’s pretty robust radio history."

My initial theory for the multiple call letters was that there was either more than one carrier current station or a succession of them at Bellarmine. Today there are six dorms on Bellarmine. Due to the nature of carrier current, there could literally be one station in each dorm as long as they were isolated electrically. But all six of those dorms: Petrik Hall and Miles Hall were only built in the 1990s, Anniversary Hall around 2000 then Siena Primo, Siena Secundo, Siena Terzo, and Siena Quarto Halls. 

But surely there were a few separate dorm buildings in the 1970s. The two residence buildings I know existed in the 1970s were Bonaventure (a former friary) and Lenihan which housed priests. But they didn't become residence halls for students until 1982. [SOURCE]  they were town down in 2009 to make way for the Siena complex. Despite the long history, the only student dorm building that seems to have existed in the early 1970s, was Newman Hall. For a while I thought this was as much information as I was going to get. I had a rough time period and the name of a dorm. But then I found a reference in Billboard magazine. Thank you Bob Glassenberg. It is in the October 10th 1970 issue. There is a single note which describes a conflict with the administration which corroborates one set of calls and adds another name. 

"WBUC, Bellarmine-Ursuline College, Louisville, KY., is getting flack from the administration. Dick McCormick, program and music director, writes that they are on their last leg in a battle with the  administration which allegedly is trying to close the station down because of "lack of material," namely new and old albums that fit into a free form format which relies on Top 40 and underground mainly. Record Companies, the address is 2000 Norris Place, Louisville, 40205. Please help them out. They reach many people. Campus stations, if you have any dupes send them along. It means a great deal to the people at the station, in the community, and it should mean something to you!" 

So this adds a third name to the Bellarmine radio history: David Kirwin and John Lindstrom as founders of WHUT in 1968 then Dick McCormick as the continuation WBUC in 1970. It may have existed as late as 1979, but the mailers only validate through 1973. I could not find a single one of those people online. I don't normally do this but I reached out to the seller on eBay, but he politely declined to be interviewed. So I am sorry to report, this mystery still endures. I'll post a part 2 if I ever find a primary source.