The Radio Club began at College at Brockport in the late 1950’s and, shortly thereafter, efforts began to acquire a FM frequency. Starting in 1957, the Radio Club began broadcasting via public address to the student union on the Brockport campus. On May 1, 1964, the station, then known as WBSN began transmitting to the entire campus via telephone lines. In January 1970, the station moved into its present facilities in the Seymour College Union and became WBSU-AM.
Following many years of hard work and patience, WBSU-FM was born on January 14, 1981 with 10 watts at 88.9. Thanks to the efforts of many people including the FM Task Force, Lloyd Trufelman, Dr, Melvin Smagorinsky, Edward Rothstein, Chief Engineer Bernard Lynch, Brian Issacson, Dr. Fred Powell, Martha Walstrum, Frank Filardo, Terrin Hover, Harry Goldberg, Scott Fishman and many others, the dream finally became a reality. Our first General Manager was David Van Wie and he spearheaded an immediate power increase to 150 watts in May of that year. Following Van Wie four years later was Timothy Lyman who was instrumental in the May, 1989 move to 89.1 at 7,338 watts where we now stand.
The 1990’s brought much technological change to the station starting with a computerized music playlist in 1992, new studio consoles in 1992 and 1994, and digital equipment during the summer of 1995. Our web site was created in 1997 and we began webcasting in 1999. Our latest digital upgrade came in January 2005 and we installed a digital phone editing system in August 2005.
WBSU-FM became 89.1 the Point with a new logo on June 10th, 1998 in an effort to simplify the stations nickname. Our hope was to make us easier to remember and make the station more marketable.
The station has been recognized four times by the New York State Broadcasters Association for excellence in broadcasting in competition with other professional stations around the state as well as ten other awards from national organizations since 1988. The station received two awards from the Broadcast Education Association in 2003 and two from the now-defunct National Association of Collegiate Broadcasters in the 1990’s. College Broadcasters, Inc. (CBI) has recognized the station as a national finalist in their National Student Production Awards competition once in 2003, twice in 2004, once in 2005, twice in 2007 and once more in 2008. The success of our alumni is our ultimate legacy as they continue to represent Brockport in their broadcast and related careers in New York City, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Atlanta and Tampa nationally and Rochester, Utica, Buffalo, Binghamton, Albany and Syracuse more locally.
To all those who have come before us, we thank you for helping to make the station all that it is today. To all those yet to come, we hope that you will continue the legacy started several decades ago.
The Point has marked a new milestone. On Sunday, October 19th at 1:00pm, the Point successfully began broadcasting from a much larger studio within the station. It was the former home of "Circuit," the Point's DJ training grounds which are now located in the old FM studio. With the move, the Point had a digital upgrade with a Wheatstone Evolution 6 board. The 31 steps and finished product with photos are below.
Phase 1 - Clean out Circuit room [Completed] Phase 2 - Remove shelfing units [Completed]
Phase 3 - Soundproof floor tiles so they don't creak [Completed] Phase 4 - Soundproof walls [Completed]
Phase 5 - Paint current logo on back wall [Completed]
Phase 6 - Install 3 new push doors on studio entryways [Completed]
Phase 7-13 - Order new studio furniture, temperature gauge, CD players, cassette aircheck machine, mic booms, and speakers [Completed] Phase 14 - Disassemble existing Circuit Board, equipment, and furniture [Completed]
Phase 15-24 - Install new transmitter line wiring, phone lines, temperature gauge, EAS monitor wires, new door light, studio furniture, mic booms, studio speakers, CD players and order digital board. Move racks across hall. [Completed]
Phase 25-30 - Move FM CD cases, 360 phone recording system, AudioVault computer, show prep computer, Telos phone unit, microphones, and EAS unit to new studio [Completed]
