2009 was an interesting year in the history of WRBC. The saw several key changes and its prominence on campus grow to a significant degree. It was a year marked by a variety of concerts, excellent programing, and a few bumps along the way. The WRBC board and the station at large has worked hard to make 2009 one of the best years in our over 50 year history on FM and hopes to build on that momentum in 2010.

Thus, here is a partial rundown of everything that was accomplished over the past year.

January 15: Winter Semester general meeting, we welcome new members onto the board and completely fill the schedule for the third semester in a row.

January 17: Concert by Black Taxi (With Class of 2010 Co-Presidents and Bates Musicians’ Union)

February 28: Concert by FM Belfast (With Bates Musicians’ Union)

March 6: 30th Annual Trivia Night

March 21: Bates Public Art Club, Musicians Union, and WRBC collaborate to bring present “DISCHARGE” featuring numerous campus electronic musicians and artists.

March 26: WRBC helps to support the Bates College Art-In to help give student art a home in the otherwise dormant Chase Hall

May 22: First Ever WRBC Field Day

May 23: Concert by Friends Academy (With Shred Club and Class of 2010 Co-Presidents)

September 10: Fall Semester General Meeting (results in forth consecutive semester with a full schedule)

September 17: The Matt and Kim Ticket Trivia Extravaganza — A miniature Trivia Night style ticket give-away event.

September 18: Concert by Matt and Kim (With Chase Hall Committee)

October 10: Concert by Glenn Jones

November 14: WRBC and the Bates Libertarians present “unDISCHARGED” featuring Anamanaguchi and other campus electronic musicians.

November 23: The Monkey is re-established as a Blog

Additionally, we made numerous upgrades to the station throughout the year including computer upgrades and other new equipment. The board is currently developing a digital music library, online playlist tracking, and a more streamlined application process. We also had a very successful t-shirt sale.

For fiscal year 2010, we were only one of three clubs at Bates to see our budget rise from fiscal year 2009. After issues in February and March, WRBC established a healthy working relationship with the Chase Hall Committee with a new liaison program, which has benefited both clubs and the student body as a whole.

Additionally, WRBC moved up to #18 in the College Radio Rankings published by the Princeton Review and got several mentions on the pages profiling Bates in their book chronicling America’s Best Colleges. WRBC events were never poorly attend and always received positive reviews from the campus media as well as the overall student body. In 2009, WRBC was featured in newspapers throughout New England and the station was even mentioned in Iceland’s #1 newspaper. WRBC expanded its internet capabilities to include a Twitter page alongside our existing Facebook and MySpace pages, and our website received over 18,000 hits with visitors coming from all fifty states and 118 different countries including China, Pakistan, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, and Australia.

It has been a busy year for WRBC, and as the station moves forward providing the best non-commercial free-format radio programming, increasing collaboration with other clubs and our role in the community, both Bates and Lewiston-Auburn, remain our top priority.

Thanks for listening.

-Doug Ray

Doug Ray is the co-host of Saltimbocca & Escargot, Sundays at 8-10 PM Eastern Time on WRBC.

A 30-plus-year devotee of the so-called “Takoma School,” Glenn Jones has led Boston’s “avant-garage” instrumental rock band, Cul de Sac since 1989. With Cul de Sac, Jones has recorded nine albums, including a soundtrack for cult-director Roger Corman, and collaborations with guitarist John Fahey and former Can vocalist Damo Suzuki.

Jones has written extensively on the steel-string guitar’s leading lights: John Fahey, with whom he was friends for nearly 25 years, and Robbie Basho, who befriended Jones during the five years before his death in 1986. He’s toured with Peter Lang, and with some of the best of the new breed of solo guitar upstarts: Harris Newman, Sean Smith, and James Blackshaw, among others.

Jones’ second solo album, Against Which the Sea Continually Beats, was issued by Strange Attractors in March 2007.

Micah Blue Smaldone is a Portland-based musician, member of l bands such as The Pinkerton Thugs and Blood on Blood. He has been noted for playing a wide range of musical styles including punk, hardcore, folk, ragtime, and blues.