WMBR during Freshman Picnic, 1985

The first MIT student broadcasting station was originally signed on in 1946 as WMIT, becoming WTBS in 1961.

In 1979, the call letters were sold to Ted Turner, and the station's call sign finally changed to WMBR, standing for: Walker Memorial Basement Radio. Licensed to Cambridge, MA and broadcasting on 88.1 FM, the radio station is all-volunteer and funded by listener donations and MIT funds.

I wound up…on the radio station doing newscasts, something I never would have expected to do, and which led to what I’m doing now….We couldn’t be the MIT radio station and not cover the science that went on there…So it led to a rigor which was extraordinary training.

Adam Clayton Powell III '67, Broadcast journalist and former WMBR News Director

On its 50th anniversary in 2013, WMBR received an MLK Leadership Award. The award honored WMBR for its diverse, community-based programming throughout the years--programs like Captain Al's "The Soul of the Movement," Muna Kangsen's and Julia Mongo's "Africa Kabisa," Brutus Leaderson's "Worldbeat," Cynthia Odu's "In Diaspora," and Alex McNeil's Martin Luther King Day line-up.