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WEMU Staff Looks Back On 55 Years Of Service To The Community... And Beyond

89.1 WEMU

Today marks 55 years since 89.1 WEMU first went on the air.  On this day of on-air celebration, WEMU's news director David Fair, general manager Molly Motherwell, and weekday jazz host Michael Jewett get together to discuss WEMU's legacy and what they hope the future will bring.

HISTORY OF 89.1 WEMU

WEMU began broadcasting at a frequency of 88.1 FM in 1965 from the Quirk Building on Eastern Michigan University's campus. In 1976, the station moved to King Hall, and in February 1977, WEMU began to feature a primarily jazz format.  Later that year, in October 1977, WEMU changed to its current 89.1 FM frequency.  The next major addition came on April 7, 2004, when WEMU added digital broadcasting.  Located online at WEMU.org, the station streams live 24 hours a day.

According to a 2017 tour of WEMU, the station holds one of the largest jazz broadcast libraries in the United States, with nearly 100,000 records and CDs in its collection.

Still broadcast out of King Hall on the Eastern Michigan University Campus, WEMU currently shares the building with the student newspaper The Eastern Echo and the Early College Alliance program.

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Michael Jewett is the long-time host of 89.1 Jazz every weekday afternoon. Besides his on-air work; Michael is WEMU’s Operations Manager. Mr. Jewett started working for WEMU in 1983. He’s been on the air longer than any other current WEMU music host.
Contact David: dfair@emich.edu
Mary Motherwell, known as Molly, joined the WEMU staff in November of 1991 as Marketing and Development Director after stints in public relations at Domino’s Pizza International, and as an account executive first at the old Ypsilanti Press and then the former WIQB-FM. In December 2010, upon his retirement, she succeeded Arthur Timko as General Manager, only the third GM in WEMU’s 57 year history.
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