Night of the Living Radio exhibition in the Lally Reading Room

Where:

The Lally Reading Room (1st Floor of Schaffer Library)

When:

August 12th - November 12th, 2021

Night of the Living Radio: WRUC Past and Present celebrates the 101st anniversary of WRUC. The exhibit showcases materials from the WRUC collection and includes vinyl records, radio equipment, ephemera, and recordings of broadcasts that visitors may listen to on their phones.

The first broadcasts of the Radio Club consisted of sending transmissions in Morse code and streaming phonograph records, and soon after it began broadcasting campus events such as athletic games and dances. Call letters were changed to W2XBN for a few years and changed to W2GSB in 1932. The Radio Club engaged in famous historic events, such as, on May 6, 1921, a live broadcast from an antenna rigged up to a baby carriage and wheeled through downtown Schenectady. This was quite possibly the world’s first portable broadcast receiver.

Learn more and listen to recorded audio files by visiting the exhibit in person, or check out a portion of the exhibit's media at our online exhibit.