The Monkeys of WBRU

This is obscure and highly arcane. I can't corroborate the story anywhere but it's too strange to just file away. The story involves a college radio station, and monkeys. Rather than re-hash the limited information I'll just quote The Encyclopedia Brunoniana.

"In 1971, after WBRU-FM increased its power to 50,000 watts and moved its transmitting equipment to the roof of the Sciences Library, some interference was created with electronic equipment in the Barus-Holley Building and Prince Engineering Laboratory, but the most unusual development was that monkeys who had electrodes implanted for reading their brain waves were tuned into WBRU."

It would be easy to confirm that WBRU increased power in 1971. The Monkeys are a different story. Not every school building has monkeys in it. But a power increase can be confirmed. And it didn't happen. In fact WBRU runs at 18,500 watts today. But there's more to the story.

Let me back up to the 1960s. In 1962, WBRU-AM incorporated as the Brown Broadcasting Service (BBS.) This made them a separate legal entity from the University. WBRU receives no funding from Brown University, but is staffed by students. In 1963 Sherm Strickhauser led the charge to get an FM stick. They applied for a signal on 93.3. it didn't happen.

In 1965, the Outlet Company, the owner of WJAR-AM and WJAR-TV donated 20,000 watt 95.5 WPFM to BBS. (Some sources say they paid $30,00 for it) The calls were changed and thus WBRU-FM was born February 21, 1966. Bare in mind at this point WBRU-AM is still a carrier current station. More here.

So fast forward to 1971. That primate accident was a failed attempt to increase their power to 50,000 watts. The interference it caused to "sensitive scientific equipment" i.e. monkey brains , nixed the plan to increase power at that location. They needed to find a new location. I found a reference in 2008 about a plan to move to the WPRO tower and increase power to 50,000 watts. Could that be the long delayed CP from 1971? Not exactly. If you fast forward to today, you can see that it's on the WPMZ tower.. and that they're still under 20,000 watts.
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But there is no way an electrode could demodulate an FM signal. It's just not possible. If this had been an AM signal I might have gone along with it for the entertainment value. But it's bunk. It may have caused interference, but no test monkey ever heard WBRU through the events described in the legend. None of this stopped WBRU from marketing T-shirts based on the monkey legend.

IBS vs The Ivy Network

There are a number of annual radio conferences running today. NAB of course is the large commercial conference and CMJ is usually considered the bigger of the college focal conferences: IBS, CBI etc. IBS of course is the oldest but it's ivy league roots have really kept it inside it's own social enclave and there is a strange long story to explain why.

The history of student broadcasting in Ivy League schools starts early. WBRU and WHCN founded IBS in February 1940. George Abraham a student at Brown interconnected half a dozen radios in his building so they could all hear his classical recordings. It went so well he expanded service to a dorm across the street, then the rest of the campus. Eventually 100 radios were tied to his "Brown Network" with 16,000 feet of cable. Programming began in earnest. The Brown University station WBRU was the first on air in 1940.

Harvard followed them in 1943 with WHCN graduating from their own carrier current system. You may nto recognize those calls because WHCN only used those calls until 1951 when they broke off from the campus newspaper and became WHRV. These two stations founded the first college network, IBS the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System.

IBS was founded by the intrepid engineer being WBRU George Abraham, and his cohort David Borst. they were still undergraduates at the time. By 1947 there were five members in the IBS: WDBS at Dartmouth, WHRV at Harvard, WXPN at U. Pennsylvania, WPRU at Princeton, and WYBC at Yale. WPRU at the time was broadcasting just through the universities electrical system. In 1956 they applied for a FM license but had to change calls because a ship at sea was using the WPRU calls.

In 1943 WVBR Cornell, WDCR Dartmouth, WPRU Princeton, and WYBC Yale split off from IBS and formed their own network called the Ivy Network. WXPN Pennsylvania joined in 1948. It's offices remained based at Yale in New Haven, CT. More here. At a conference in 1951 they met and accept ed a contract to allow Ivy stations to broadcast the nationally-heard "Philip Morris Play House." NBC was to install dedicated telephone lines to enable syndication. In 1953 the NBC tie was expanded with a contract to carry more programs. The Ford motor company sponsored a classical music program. More here. WKCR at Columbia University joined sometime in the 1950s.

What's most important to remember here is that these were all AM stations and were permitted to run advertising. It's only when they moved to the FM band they were restricted to non-commercial licenses that forbid advertising. IBS and The Ivy Network shared member stations. Some texts even have WBRU carrying programs via the Ivy Network after 1952, effectively merging the two splinter groups. I assumed originally that this marked the end of the Ivy Network but it did not. In 1960 a small group of stations from the Rural Radio Network began calling themselves "The Ivy Network." This had to create brand confusion. So I assumed that had to be after the end of the Ivy Network. That was wrong too.

In February of 1961 an issue of Billboard refers to IBS and the Ivy Network as the two largest college radio networks. The article was written by Jim Cameron of WLVR, the college radio station of Lehigh University. This was not a misinformed outsider. Clearly both IBS and Ivy were still operating in the early 1970s in some capacity. And it seems to be true. In 1966 the eight existing Ivy Network stations invited 11 more: Boston College, Colgate U. Middlebury College, M.I.T., N.Y.U., Lehigh, St. Lawrence, Union, and American University. Again many of these were still carrier current stations. One piece I read indicated that a slew of Boston area stations joined Ivy at the end: WTBU, WZBC, WBRS, WHRB, WTBS, WZLY and WBRU. I have some trouble crediting this as the network ceased to exist shortly thereafter. In 1969 the Network had a reporter Linda Sutter give a report by phone live from Woodstock. That was taped and survived to appear at a recent auction. More here.

I cant seem to find a firm date where the Network ended. But I think i know what happened. The growth in FM undermined their ability to sell advertising. A WYBC history spells it out "During the late 1970s and 1980s, WYBC fell into financial trouble due to declining student interest." Yale went through a rough patch in which 94.3 was LMA'd to COX radio, and their AM stick sold off outright. They had a resurgence in 1998 with 1340 a new license but they were the lynchpin for The Network. One record I found has Stan Federman, WXPN manager, named president o f the Ivy Network and the Network HQ relocating to U. Penn. So WYBC implodes, Ivy relocated around WXPN which was already moving to FM themselves. It fell apart gradually losing importance and being more fully absorbed into IBS.

Docket 80-90

The non-commercial FM radio band stretches from 88.1 to 91.9. This is a significant enough piece of RF real estate that exceedingly few non-com licenses have been granted outside it. In fact, I suspect that since the band was set aside, fewer than a dozen exceptions have been granted.In 1980, as the non-com band started to fill up in most major metropolitan areas there was a little pressure on the FCC and congress to make room. Their response was Docket 80-90, 94 FCC 2d 152, 48 Fed. Reg. 29496 (1983). The rule grandfathered the existing short spaced stations and reduced minimum mileage separation between new changes. It also limited new licenses to a maximum ERP of 3 KW, HAAT being 328' or 100 meters. Weaker stations = more stations crammed in. But it did not increase the spacing requirements between Class A and second- and third-adjacent channel Class B stations. Also interesting was that it allowed full-power stations to move-in on Class D stations. forcing some off air. Even though the stated purpose of the rules were to Increase the Availability of FM Broadcast Assignments.

The legislation was piece-meal, ugly and political. Politics make for poor engineering. Yet despite the encroachment on the non-coms, there are some class A, B, C and D operations still in the commercial band. Three class and A & B stations come to mind immediately
WBRU 95.5 in Providence, RI (Brown University)
WHRB 95.3 in Cambridge, MA (Harvard University)
WYBC 94.3FM in New Haven, CT (Yale University)
WPRB 103.3 in Princeton, NJ (Princeton University)

It's worth noting that there are college-owned stations with commercial licenses out there. I think KCFS, KMSM, and WHUR all fit that description. There's also stations like WOMR in Provincetown, MA on 92.1 that were originally in the NCE band (91.9 in this case) but agreed to change frequency to improve their signal in some way (avoid co-channel interference with WUMB in Boston, across Cape Cod Bay, in this case).