WKCR-FM

WKCR-FM

New York, New York United States
Broadcast area	New York metropolitan area
Frequency	89.9 MHz (HD Radio)
Branding	WKCR 89.9FM NY
Programming
Format	College radio
Subchannels	HD2: WWFM simulcast (Classical) HD3: NPR
Ownership
Owner	Columbia University
History
Founded	February 24, 1941 (1941-02-24)
First air date	May 14, 1956 (68 years ago) (1956-05-14)[1]
Call sign meaning	"King's Crown Radio"[2]
Technical information[3]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	68270
Class	B1
ERP	1,350 watts
HAAT	284 meters (932 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	40°45′21.4″N 73°59′08.5″W / 40.755944°N 73.985694°W / 40.755944; -73.985694
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Webcast	Listen live
Website	www.cc-seas.columbia.edu/wkcr/

WKCR-FM (89.9 FM) is a radio station licensed to New York, New York. The station is owned by Columbia University and serves the New York metropolitan area. Founded in 1941, the station traces its history back to 1908 with the first operations of the Columbia University Radio Club (CURC). In 1956, it became one of the first college radio stations to adopt FM broadcasting, which had been invented two decades earlier by Professor Edwin Howard Armstrong. The station was preceded by student involvement in W2XMN, an experimental FM station founded by Armstrong, for which the CURC provided programming. Originally an education-focused station, since the Columbia University protests of 1968, WKCR-FM has shifted its focus towards alternative musical programming, with an emphasis on jazz, classical, and hip-hop.

WKCR has been described as one of the premier stations for jazz in the United States, having been involved in the New York jazz scene from its founding; one of its first broadcasts was the earliest performance by Thelonious Monk on radio. Through The Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Show, it has played an instrumental role in the development of hip hop since the 1990s. It was also one of the first stations in the United States to broadcast salsa music.

The station made its first AM broadcast out of John Jay Hall and its first FM broadcast from Philosophy Hall, where Armstrong had invented FM. In 1958, it moved its transmitter to the DuMont Building on Madison Avenue. Following a decade of bureaucratic struggle against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Federal Communications Commission, it began transmitting from an antenna atop the World Trade Center in 1985. After the towers' destruction in 2001, the station broadcast for a brief period of time from a backup transmitter on the roof of Carman Hall, before moving to 4 Times Square in 2003, where it remains today. Its studios are currently located in Alfred Lerner Hall.