The Radio Club began at SUNY 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 website was created in 1997 and we began webcasting in 1999.

 

A planned move to full digital capability began in the late 2000’s with a digital phone editing system in August 2005, a new Wheatstone consoles in all four production or air studios with our Production II studio in August 2012, Production I in Fall 2013, news/sports studio in spring 2015 and main studio in October 2016.

 

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 and twice in their college competition (2018) around the state as well as 14 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 in 2003 (1), 2004 (2), 2005 (1), 2007 (2), 2008 (1), 2009 (1), 2011 (1), 2013 (1) and 2015 (2) and from College Media Association in 2014.  

 

The success of our alumni is our ultimate legacy as they continue to represent Brockport in their broadcast and related media careers in New York City, Richmond, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Atlanta, Phoenix and Tampa nationally and Rochester, Utica, Buffalo, Binghamton, Albany and Syracuse more locally.

 

The station began a WBSU Hall of Fame with an April 14, 2018 inaugural induction class of eight ceremony:​

 

• Bernard Lynch-former Chief Engineer who helped design the station's current facility in the Seymour Union and oversaw the transition to FM in 1981.

 

• David Van Wie-the station's first FM General Manager from 1981-1983.

 

• Michael Doyle ‘80-currently managing 14 markets as Regional President/President of Sales Operations at Entercom

 

• Scott Fishman '’79-Senior Vice President and Executive Producer at Spike TV, now known as Paramount Network

 

• Ron Reger '71-early station manager as a student and former Vice President and Radio G.M. of WTAR/WLTY in Norfolk, VA

 

• Stacey Fitch '85-Vice President, ESPN Production Operations

 

• Tiffanie Wong '95-Operations Supervisor at CNN, NYC

 

• Ryan Nobles '98-Washington Correspondent at CNN

 

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