News
Our new antenna!
New Antenna Bay
Our new antenna arrived today! It’s an 8-bay antenna, so there will be 8 of these fancy bent pieces of copper on our tower. We’re at low power right now, but by the beginning of next week we expect to be back!
Info Sessions
Love music? Interested in being on the radio? Come learn more about Georgia Tech’s student-run radio station WREK Atlanta at one of our info sessions! These meetings will explain how our training process works.
The first meeting will be on Tuesday, September 6th at 3:00pm in the Piedmont Room in the Student Center.
The second meeting will be on Wednesday, September 7th at 11:30am in the Pine Room in the Student Center.
Please email operations.manager@wrek.org with your name and what meeting you plan on attending so we can try to get an idea of how many people are coming. Please note that the meetings are identical and you only have to attend one of them.
Pizza will be served at both sessions, so come on out!
WREK going to 100,000 watts
Antenna Installation Pre-Inspection
WREK is nearing the end of the tremendous task of bringing our station to 100,000 watts, the maximum power level for an FM radio station. (we’re currently at 40,000 watts) Starting on August 15, 2011, we will begin tower work for the upgrade process. Since we have to complete both structural modifications and replace our antenna, listeners should expect some off-air time and reduced power. You may have some difficulty hearing WREK on your radio during this time. We expect the process to take around 4 weeks. Online streaming will NOT be affected, so you can still hear all your favorite shows from anywhere!
Once the new antenna is installed, WREK will be coming back as one of the very few college radio stations at the full 100,000 watts with HD Radio and still managed entirely by students. You’ll be able to hear us at a much larger radius and get a better signal in the city as well.
Stay tuned for more information as this project nears completion…
Georgia Tech SGA funds WREK Antenna Upgrade to Complete Power Increase
The Georgia Tech Student Government Association today approved funding for half of the cost of the new antenna and related tower upgrades which will complete our FCC-authorized coverage increase (click for more). WREK was issued this construction permit in September 2008, and has been working long hours since then to upgrade to the necessary transmission equipment to complete this increase in power, signal quality, and reach.
Installed in 2008, our wonderful new combined FM and HD Radio transmitter has the capability to take us to 100,000 W EIRP. The transmitter was procured with financial support from the Student Government, alumni, and our listeners. We know embark on the last leg of this 10 year project. Over the next several months we will be working non-stop to finish planning and implementing tower upgrades, antenna design, commissioning for construction of the antenna, and installation.
Our 30 year old antenna is certainly due for an upgrade, and now we can improve our coverage in the process! We could be a 100,000 Watt station by Fall 2011, perhaps sooner. The details will take a few more months to nail down. With a few hundred more hours of research, engineering, regulatory work, and negotiations left for our student engineers and our alumni friends to do, we’re working hard to bring more of you the healing energy of quality, diverse programming that is WREK. If you would like to help our worthy cause, you can donate or just write us a letter or call us. We’d love to here from our faithful listeners.
Our Georgia Tech alumni friends at Cavell Mertz have offered their antenna system engineering expertise to do what others said couldn’t be done. We thank them for their invaluable assistance. In addition, many WREK staff and alumni have worked thousands of hours over the past several years to reach this point. To find out how we got here and who made it happen, please take a look at the stories of our past work leading up to this achievement by clicking the links above.
WREK now on TuneIn on Android, iOS, and more
You can now use TuneIn to listen to WREK on your Android, iOS, and Blackberry phones, tablets, and devices, plus Google TV, Yahoo! Connected TV, Roku, WDTV, Chumby (incl. Sony versions), and even on the Web. And of course, the website continues to stream and to offer replay of the last two weeks of wonderful programming as well, as it always has.
