WUMB Debuts New Station at WNEF 91.7
University
Reporter 
Institute
for Community Inclusion, A National Center,
To Move To UMass Boston
Russert
to Speak at Commencement
Fulbright
Scholar Aids
Environmental Management in China
WUMB
Debuts New Station at WNEF 91.7
Educator
Inspires Beacon Leadership Students
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in America
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Best
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Annual
“Teaching for Transformation” Conference Held at University
Revealing
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PeopleSoft:
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By Pat Monteith
Dozens of local dignitaries and supporters turned out for a truly wonderful “grand opening inaugural celebration” of WUMB’s WNEF repeater station — in spite of a winter snowstorm complete with 50 mile per hour winds! The festivities were held on Sunday, January 13, at the La Piazza Coffeehouse in Amesbury, MA. Helping with the celebration were WUMB announcers Dick Pleasants, Marilyn Rea Beyer, Dave Palmater, and Gail Gilmore, along with special guest musicians Cheryl Hoenemeyer, Cormac McCarthy, and Taylor and Jake Armerding. Harriet Stanley, state representative, and Bill Piercy, executive director of the Newburyport Chamber of Commerce, were among the attendees.
Chancellor Jo Ann Gora said, “As a community service of UMass Boston, WUMB has long shaped the preservation and future of folk music. The station will help bring the network’s quality programs to a new and wider audience of folk and public radio listeners.”
At the urging of local residents in northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire, staff at WUMB has been working for nearly three years to launch the new station, on the last viable non-commercial FM frequency in the area. To research the possibility, WUMB hired a consulting firm, scouted locations, and applied for funding to construct a transmitter/antenna facility in the Newburyport/Amesbury area. In November 2000, WUMB received approval from the Federal Communications Commission to build the station and a grant from the Department of Commerce’s Public Telecommunications Project, which covered 75 percent of the project’s funding.
Now folk and public radio fans in the areas can hear 100 percent of WUMB programming on WNEF 91.7 FM. This will expand the UMass Boston Public Radio Network to five stations for which the studios at UMass Boston serve as the central hub. WUMB is heard on 91.9 FM in Boston, in Worcester, and on Cape Cod, and on 1170 AM in Orleans, on the Lower Cape.