Founded in 1956 by an equal number of students and staff, WVBC was the first radio station at Bridgewater College. WVBC "The Voice of Bridgewater College," broadcast from the second floor of Memorial Hall. It originally broadcast only as an AM station over the power lines at Bridgewater College though equipment was soon purchased to also broadcast on FM frequencies. At that time, WVBC hosted both live Bridgewater College content as well as rebroadcasted material from larger radio stations.
In 1961, BC changed the call letters of the station to WGMB after registering with the Federal Communications Commission. The station remained an AM station. In 1969, WGMB moved from Memorial Hall to the second floor of Rebecca Hall, which had recently been renovated. WGMB served students' needs as an extracurricular space, a communications training center, and a means of campus communication and entertainment. But it also suffered technical, budgetary, and support issues according to a Spring 2008 history of the radio station by Jennifer Upshaw, "An Oral History of WGMB: Its Key Events, Culture, and Role in The Bridgewater College Community as Told through the Voices of the Radio Station's Alumni."
In the early 2010s, WGMB was renamed BC Spark Radio. Campus radio broadcasting was later incorporated in BC's student-run news outlet, BCVoice.
Provisions of Use: Personal and non-profit use only. No cropping or altering of images in any way. Credit each image's source as "The Robert R. Newlen '75 and John C. Bradford Special Collections/Bridgewater College Digital Commons". Consider including a hyperlink to the image hosted on the Bridgewater College Digital Commons.
