WVUM has been around since 1968, that's a long time in the world of FM radio.

Recently added:  Listen to the  PAMS Jingle Package (14 Meg m4a file) produced by General Manager Robert Mann in the Fall of 1968-69.  "PAMS was the most famous jingle company in the world for radio and it was very unusual for a college station to have them. Their most famous jingles were the WABC, New York jingles."   You can still hear some of these on the air today. 

Here's a great site about the history of the University of Miami School of Communication

Off the top of my head...

Help me fill in some dates and details here.   Many of you worked hard to get this station where it is today... let's hear your stories.

Interesting stories I'll do some day...

March 22, 2000 (source: U of Miami Web Site)

UM'S STUDENT RADIO STATION NOW BROADCASTING ON THE INTERNET

Coral Gables, FL -- The University of Miami's student-run radio station, WVUM 90.5 FM, can now be heard anywhere in the world now that it has begun live audio streaming on the Internet. Known as "The Voice of the University of Miami" for the past 30 years, the alternative music station can be heard by logging onto the station's Web site, www.miami.edu/wvum

"Broadcasting live on the Web is just one part of WVUM's total Web presence," said DJ Vicky Garza, a UM junior studying marketing. Through the end of the month, Web surfers can cast their vote for a new logo for the station. Ultimately, the radio station plans to add Internet access inside the studio so song requests can be made via e-mail and to create an archive of songs by local bands on their Internet site so listeners can download their music.

For a schedule of WVUM shows, visit www.miami.edu/wvum
 

July 5, 2000

LIGHTNING STRIKE DAMAGES UM STUDENT-RUN RADIO STATION (source: U of Miami Web Site)

Students Accepting Donations To Repair WVUM 90.5 FM

CORAL GABLES, FL The University of Miami's student-run radio station, WVUM 90.5 FM, suffered approximately $10,000 worth of damage and was temporarily knocked off the air last Friday, June 30, after an antenna was struck by lightning.

The 1,500-watt station, based on UM's Coral Gables campus, suffered serious damage but is back on the air thanks to some creative re-wiring by student engineers. The radio station, however, desperately needs to replace the valuable broadcasting equipment that was damaged in order to operate normally.

"We had to use some of the equipment from our production studio to get us back on the air," said Tom Wisdom, one of the engineers who was in the studio shortly after the lightning strike. "We are a non-profit organization and are going to need help to get the station back up to speed."

Although currently on the air, WVUM is operating without some microphones, broadcast CD and cassette players, and their emergency alert equipment. The popular 30-year-old station, run mostly by students in the School of Communication, is currently accepting tax-deductible donations to replace the damaged equipment.

To make a donation, please call WVUM 90.5 FM at (305) 284-3474. For more information about WVUM 90.5 FM, visit their web site at www.wvum.org.

HURRICANE INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS AND PARENTS (source: U of Miami Web Site)

Students are requested to keep their radios tuned to local station WINZ (940 AM) or to the campus radio station WVUM (90.5 FM), if in operation, for storm advisories and general information. The following procedures are recommended in order to provide maximum safety and protection for students.

Priorities - School of Communication - Donor Profiles (source: U of Miami Web Site)

ROBERT MANN

University of Miami Trustee Robert “Bob” Mann (B.A. ’70) says that he’s been very fortunate in his life. Yet, by many accounts his alma mater is the lucky one. Since arriving on the Coral Gables campus as an undergraduate in the late 1960s, Mann has left an indelible mark on the University of Miami. And he shows no signs that he’s finished.

Originally from Shaker Heights, Ohio, he says he was attracted to the university because of its strong program in radio and television broadcasting. In fact, the University of Miami was the only school the young Mann considered.

As a student, he was one of the original co-founders of student-run WVUM, along with fellow communication graduates Jim Fleming and Peter Berlin, and served as the radio station’s first general manager. Created in 1967 to inform the university community of campus events and to provide an educational tool for students in the university’s broadcast program, the station continues to provide South Florida with an alternative to commercial radio. (And with its presence on the World Wide Web, WVUM’s message is today heard by listeners around the globe.)

While an undergraduate, Bob’s academic and extracurricular achievements were readily acknowledged. He was a member of Alpha Epsilon Rho, the honor society of the National Broadcasting Society, and the Order of Omega, an honorary fraternity; in 1968 he was tapped for Iron Arrow, the university’s highest honor and oldest tradition.

After graduating in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications, he embarked on numerous and varied professional ventures, including an art gallery in Coconut Grove, which dealt primarily in nineteenth and early twentieth century American art.

Following in his father’s footsteps, he and his brother Thomas started a pharmaceutical company, U.S. Biochemical Corporation, in 1973 based in Boulder, Colorado. Before it was sold in 1993 to Amersham PLC, a world leader in medical diagnostics, the biotechnology company developed the world’s leading system for sequencing DNA—Sequenase—as well as numerous products for genetic engineering, the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease, and anti-retroviral drugs such as AZT. As testimony to the company’s impact in the field, one of U.S. Biochemical’s scientists, Dr. Thomas Cech, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discoveries about the catalytic properties of RNA.

However, mass communications—and indeed the School of Communication—he claims, remain his true love. Since moving back to South Florida in 1997, he returns to campus often. Most recently, he attended the filming of MSNBC’s Hardball: The College Tour at the School of Communication’s Frances L. Wolfson Building. “That was a terrific experience,” Mann said. “It provided great exposure for the university and for the school’s new building.”

The $10 million, state-of-the-art Wolfson Building was dedicated on March 26, 2001 to provide students with a competitive edge in the rapidly expanding communications industries. The new building marks the first time the school has housed all of its programs under one roof; however, a major need for space remains unmet. A 25,000-square foot addition to the Wolfson Building is currently being planned, which will create a Center for Student Activities at the school. Mann recently made a $500,000 commitment to this new student center, an appropriate area of support for a man who believes in the strengths, imagination and talents of the school’s student body as well as its administration.

“The school has a wonderful staff, starting with its two deans—Dean Edward Pfister and Associate Dean Bob Hosmon,” Mann states. “With dramatic changes in information technology, the School of Communication represents the future. It’s important that the University of Miami is one of the predominant institutions in this field, and my goal is to help ensure that the School of Communication is the best in the country.”

As a member of the university’s Board of Trustees, Mann’s valued guidance and support speak volumes. But once again, he says that he’s the fortunate one to be involved with his alma mater at this exciting point in its history. “The university has great leadership, starting at the top with President Shalala,” said Mann. “She is a dynamic, imaginative leader who interacts well with the students and brings prestige and creditability to the institution.”

More than thirty-five years after first setting foot on the university’s campus, the same can be said of Mann himself.

- D'Ann Tollett

What stories can you come up with?   Send me some.

01/31/2008

Entire Contents Copyright Ray J. Vaughan 2004