City Dudley, Massachusetts Frequency 95.1 MHz
(Channel 236) | Branding The Golden 95.1! First air date 1975 | |
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Broadcast area Dudley/Webster, Massachusetts;
Thompson/Quinebaug, Connecticut Slogan "The station that doesn't always play it first!" | ||
WXRB (95.1 FM, "The Golden 95.1") is a non-commercial, educational radio station located in Dudley, Massachusetts, licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to WXRB-FM Educational Broadcasting, Inc. (a non-profit organization). Its studios and transmitting facilities are located on the campus of Nichols College, which previously owned the station as WNRC until a stronger signal at 97.5 MHz signed on in February 2005. The college later sold the original WNRC to Peter Q. George, the station's engineer, who had been programming 95.1 after the frequency swap. WXRB transmits in stereo & with RBDS.
The station is named (in tribute) for XERB ("The Mighty 1090"), the famous 50,000 watt Mexican "Border Blaster" radio station from which famous disc jockey Wolfman Jack (the late, Robert Weston Smith) broadcast in the mid-1960s and early 1970s. George has said that he is a lifelong fan of Wolfman Jack.
WXRB, (one of the very first non-commercial all-oldies radio stations in North America) features a 24/7 automated all-oldies format, in stereo, focusing on the years 1954-1979, similar to the original "R-KO-matic" (pronounced "ARKO-matic") automated music format at WRKO-FM and WROR (now WBZ-FM) in Boston, Massachusetts. WXRB frequently carries sports programming produced by the students at WNRC-LP, featuring the Nichols College Bison sports teams. Two traditions that continue to endure on WXRB are the yearly broadcast of Orson Welles and The Mercury Theatre On The Air's original 1938 presentation of "War Of The Worlds" every Halloween night and the yearly airing of Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" twice on Thanksgiving Day.