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.
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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