WLOY (College Station)

WLOY Loyola College Radio is a non-commercial radio station owned and operated by Loyola College in Maryland, broadcasting at 1620 kHz on the AM band in Baltimore and Timonium, Maryland. WLOY operates multiple synchronized transmission locations under Part 15 of the FCC regulations, as well as on the Internet via multiple formats.

Pre-history

Loyola College originally hosted WLCR (Loyola College Radio) as a campus only carrier current AM operation. Conditions of this stations operations have been historically described as 'poor'. Not the content, but the physical location and frequent flooding and other issues common to the location. Although it's final broadcast date is unclear, it appears WLCR ceased to be by 1998.

Founding

A group of students and Fr. Michael Braden (founder of the campus TV operations) persuaded Fr. Harold Ridley, then President of the College, to start a new, state-of-the-art facility for students that would also embrace the Communications Department coursework as a laboratory. In 2000, Loyola hired LPB Communications, Inc. to develop a plan, budget and installation for these new facilities which were completed in the fall of 2002. John Devecka was hired as the Operations Manager, and the initial student staff was trained to begin broadcasting. William Coveney '03 was the first student General Manager, Kathryn Lowery '05 the first Music Director.

WLOY went live March 19, 2003 and has broadcast continuously since. WLOY operates full time, day and night, all year. From Funk to Punk, most genres have found some representation in the format.

Format

The standard format includes lighter material in the early day (Jazz, AAA, Blues, Reggae) while a variety of formats of increasing tempo as the day evolves. The hardest musical formats (Punk, Metal, Hip-Hop, Techno) are reserved for the post 10pm hours. Specific specialty shows include daily 11am-noon blocks of local music features. Thursday's host Karyn Oliver, past President of the Baltimore Songwriters Association has regular live performances from local artists and interviews with artists passing through from as far away as the Netherlands. Monday night 9pm to 11pm is "Shut Up! I'm On The Radio" which won Best Local Music Radio Show in Baltimore in 2006 from the Baltimore City Paper. Professional financial advisor Dena Frenkel hosts Centsable Finance Thursdays 1-1:30pm. Several sports and specialty shows appear throughout the week.

Associations

WLOY is a founding member of the Baltimore Community Radio Coalition, and carries programming produced by underrepresented communities within Baltimore City. As a member WLOY has contributed equipment, installation and training to the program in Dallas F. Nicholas Sr. Elementary School, among others. Material produced by Learning, Inc. and students at Dallas Nicholas airs Saturdays at noon and Sundays at 2pm as part of the community radio hour.

WLOY is a member of the Collegiate Broadcasters, Inc., the Broadcast Education Association, it's Operations Manager is a member of the Audio Engineering Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.

Community Service

In 2006, WLOY students and staff raised and donated over $10,000 for Xavier University of Louisiana for Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts.

In 2007, WLOY students and staff raised over $3,000 for the Middle Grades Partnership in Baltimore, MD for their programs that support public middle school students with after school and summer educational programming.

Awards

In 2006, WLOY was awarded Best Local Radio Show in Baltimore, by the Baltimore City Paper, for it's show "Shut Up, I'm On The Radio!".

External links

* [http://www.wloy.org Official Website]

*Karyn Oliver Show in City Paper [http://www.citypaper.com/music/artistprofile.asp?id=1428]

*City Paper Best of Baltimore Award [http://www.citypaper.com/bob/story.asp?id=12614]

*Xavier University donation photo [http://www.xula.edu/institutional-advancement/tmax_july06supp.html#5]

*Middle Grades Partnership site & press room [http://www.middlegradespartnership.org/pages/press.html]

*BEA organization newsletter mention [http://www.beaweb.org/divisions/bir/RAM_Novl06_Newsletter.pdf]

*RTNDF grant award for Dallas Nicholas project [http://hsbj.org/Announcements/grantwinners2007/]