(580 WRIC-AM to 90.7 WXIN-FM)

In 1971, a small group of students formed the Rhode Island College Radio Club. By 1976, the club had grown large enough to gain funding from Student Community Government. During the next three years, there was a large amount of planning, preparation, and hard work done to start up a radio station on the campus. The original proposal in 1977 stated that there was to be a 10-watt FM station to serve the campus. However, due to delays, the plan became impossible due to the FCC placing a ban on 10-watt FM radio stations.

It was proposed that a more powerful station be built, but by 1979, this did not seem realistic. The club initiated a new idea: a carrier-current campus station. A carrier current station uses telephone lines to transmit the signal from the studio to several small AM transmitters located in a variety of buildings on campus. At RIC, all of the dorms, the Student Union, and Donovan Dining Center had these small transmitters installed. On Monday, May 5, 1979, WRIC signed on playing album-oriented rock under this carrier-current system on 580 AM. Greg Renyolds was the first General Manager of WRIC.

Due to the low sound fidelity as well as a limited audience, plans still went ahead for building a larder FM station. By 1983-1984 there was a proposal for a 14,000 watt station that would have the transmitter located on Channel 6's tower in Tiverton. Channel 6 decided that they did not have room, and yet another plan fell through.

During this time, the programming on WRIC diversified, including rock, jazz, dance, and many talk shows. They also began hosting a variety of events both on and off campus. In September 1984, the station's call letters were changed to WXIN, because there was already a WRIC located in Virginia. In the late 1980's, a closed circuit FM service joined the AM service on campus. This service began on 88.1 FM. During this time, music programs began to phase out the talk shows, and Top 40/CHR, Metal, and Urban music joined the lineup. The AM carrier service was abandoned in the late 1980's in favor of the low power service on 88.1 FM.

In 1993, the Wheeler School obtained a license from the FCC to construct a 125-watt station on 88.1 FM, bringing an end to the closed circuit service on that frequency. WXIN made an agreement to share time with Wheeler on 88.1, now called WELH. RIC did broadcast from WXIN's studio, linked to 88.1 by phone lines, until recently, on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday nights. The closed circuit campus service was re-assigned to 90.7 FM, which is where it broadcasts from today.

90.7 WXIN consists of an executive and subsidiary board. The executive board is elected by the station members. The general manager runs the day-to-day operation of the radio station. The program director is in charge of content as well as organization of on-air broadcasting. The business director is in charge of handling the station's budget and paying expenses. The sales manager is in charge of marketing the station, as well as seeking out advertising and underwriting. Finally, the production director is in charge of producing items such as station ID's or any other type of recording that the station needs.

The executive board hires the subsidiary board. The positions consist of four music directors (one for each format) that make play lists for DJ's and determine what music will or will not be played. There are two promotion directors that help raise awareness and listener ship of the station through various events and activities. The news director handles the news department, and the traffic director determines what promotional and underwriting spots as well as public service announcements will be played. Finally, there are two board members who are contracted and do not hold voting rights on the board, these are the technical director, who is in charge of maintaining all of the station's equipment and making sure it's in working order; and the webmaster who designs and develops the station's website (www.ricradio.org)

WXIN operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with live shows from 8AM to 2AM daily. WXIN also provides programming from its studios on 88.1 WELH FM Providence every Sunday from 6AM to 2AM. WXIN's broadcasts can also be heard over the Internet, with our stream provided by Live365.com.



E-mail: generalinfo@ricradio.org