It seems a lot of readers are on our wavelength — they just love reminiscing about student radio station WRIU. Here are a couple more notes from alumni:

Apparently, Jim Norman’s visit from the authorities had little lasting effect upon WRIU’s attempt to become a radio station. In 1958, I obtained a reel of Neoprene rubber telephone “drop” wire, which I connected to the output of the line amplifier in the old Western Electric audio console in WRIU’s second-floor student union studios. I then strung the wire through trees to dormitories, sororities, and fraternities, where the phone wire was to be connected to another amplifier feeding WRIU’s signal thru capacitors into power lines which, acting as antennas, radiated the station’s transmissions inside the buildings.

The phone wire exited to the street from the attic of the student union building, where I remember the smell of French fries venting on the roof from the snack bar three floors below. That sweet odor haunted me 30 years later when I was a newsman for an Atlanta talk radio station near a Frito-Lay factory. Years passed before I could link the Frito-Lay fragrance with that of the French fries wafting through the attic of URI’s Memorial Union, from which I was busy snaking telephone cable around the campus for a radio signal few would get and, to my dismay, even fewer would listen to!

—Joel Newman ’61  •  Newport, RI

Applying to the pharmacy program as a transfer student in the fall of 1972, the college radio station at URI was part of the attraction. Once at URI, my interest in college life revolved around science and communications, and I became a WRIU station official and on-air DJ.

Then, the station faced the front of the Union building by the ram mascot statue, so we were literally viewing and echoing what was going on from the hub of student life. I was put in charge of PR and promotion of the station, to raise awareness, along with public service activities. Some alumni may recall WRIU stickers on every campus phone, or various trinkets given away during student events. Heavily promoted was our play-by-play of Ram athletics away games every semester, and collaboration with The Cigar on news events around the campus.

Having to make some career decisions, pharmacy ultimately won out over radio, but WRIU remains a cherished adventure with friendships and life skills learned that could not have happened anywhere else.

—F. Randy Vogenberg ‘75  •  Greenville, SC