The 40-year-old voice echoes around campus; students can hear it at Sbarro, at the pool and even at the Wellness Center
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, WVUM – 90.5 FM – plays tunes, news and sports to the university community and beyond from a cramped station on the first floor of the University Center.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of The Voice, which made its on air debut in May 1968. The 1300 watt station, which extends coverage to Miami-Dade County and north to Broward County, began as a 10-watt noncommercial educational radio station.
Approximately 100 student volunteers, not all communication majors, work with the radio station, which is looking to expand its reach.
“Once other stations go digital by the end of this year, [WVUM] might be able to up its signal level,” said Jay Dryburgh, a senior and general manager of WVUM. “Hopefully [WVUM] can be a little farther north and west within the next couple of years.”
The station, which is nonprofit, receives most of its funding from the Student Activities Fund Allocation Committee, but is also supported by the Big Cheese and Book Horizons.
The Internet has helped carry The Voice beyond its regular broadcast area. Listeners can pick it up anywhere by logging on to wvum.org and streaming the audio live. The stream can support 1,000 listeners at a time.
“It fills up for [University of Miami] baseball games,” Dryburgh said. “People listen online at work. Sometimes [we] get calls from out of state. For sports it’s huge because there are so many Hurricane fans in the nation.”
As for the future of WVUM, in the new Student Activities Center planned for XX, the station is expecting a spacious, glass studio next to the Rathskellar, although faculty advisor Paul Driscoll said nothing has been finalized.
Still, Dryburgh is optimistic
“Right now [UM is] ushering in a very digital age at WVUM, and when there is a state-of-the-art studio the sky is going to be the limit.”
Justin Antweil may be contacted at j.antweil@umiami.edu.
-WVUM broadcasts heavy, medium and recurrent music genres, along with two political talk shows, baseball and women’s baskeball games (both home and away) and home games for football, volleyball and men’s basketball.
-Highlighted WVUM shows:
Classical Lunch every weekday noon to 1 p.m.
Mondays: Electric Kingdom 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Tuesdays: Hip Hop Shop 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Wednesdays: Counterpoint (political show) 7 to 8 p.m.; Metal Revolution 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Fridays: All Requests Show 3 to 6 p.m.; IBIS Sports (Hurricane Sports Talk Show) 6 to 7 p.m.
Saturdays: Metropolitan Opera 1 to 4 p.m.
Sundays: Beyond the Scope (National Sports Talk Show) noon to 1 p.m.