WDOM began operations as a carrier current station for the campus in 1949; it began broadcasting on FM for the entire Providence area in 1966. It continues to service the Providence College community and the city of Providence. The station broadcasts indie, hip-hop, alternative, punk, electronica, rap, dance, classic rock, jazz, and country music.
History
On April 28, 1949, WDOM launched as a carrier current radio station serving the Providence College campus on 1450 kHz; a highlight of the first day of programming was an interview with Harry James on the "Guest Band of the Day" segment.[4] That first year, the station broadcast Tuesday and Thursday nights.[5] For 1951, the station broadcast on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, airing for three hours each day.[6] The early years were marked by six frequency changes in the first decades of operation; WDOM moved to Aquinas Hall in 1953, but inconsistency in WDOM's broadcasts prompted a student congress investigation.[7]
More reliable and successful broadcasts came in the mid-1950s as the result of a new transmitter, built by physics students, and equipment donations.[7] By 1964, however, the station had become a non-entity on the campus. The student newspaper, The Cowl, described it as a "phantom frequency" that had only sporadically broadcast.[8]
On November 5, 1965, the Federal Communications Commission awarded Providence College a construction permit for a 10-watt FM station on 91.3 MHz.[9] It was the culmination of FM plans first laid more than 15 years prior. In 1948, the college had obtained a construction permit for a station at 89.9 MHz;[10] at the time Albertus Magnus Hall—the science building which housed the studios—was built, it was mentioned that the plans included FM broadcasting.[11]
After going on the air on March 15, 1966,[12] WDOM increased its broadcast hours—airing ten hours a day[13]—and expanded its sports coverage, including freshman basketball and varsity hockey games.[14] The station continued to broadcast only during the school year.[15] Its music format was Top 40.[16]
WDOM grew over the course of the 1970s. The station moved from Alumni Hall to larger quarters in Joseph Hall early in the decade.[16] It had expanded its broadcast day to 21 hours by 1974 and was airing a mix of progressive rock, in-house educational and block programming; it also began to seek a power increase.[17] By 1976, 100 students were involved in the operation of the station, compared to the 15 to 20 who had been around for the FM launch a decade prior.[16] The station's classical record library received a major boost when the former WPJB-FM, which had exited the format, donated its collection to WDOM in 1976.[18]
In the end, however, it was not increased student involvement that prompted Providence College to pursue a facility upgrade, but rather a 1978 FCC rulemaking that required as many 10-watt noncommercial educational stations—like WDOM—as possible to upgrade to at least 100 watts.[19] The college applied to increase power to 125 watts and was approved by the commission on September 8, 1980,[9] and the improved facilities were activated on December 5.[20] The station continued to balance its rock output with jazz and classical programming, unduplicated in Providence.[21] However, even as these programs remained a part of the station's lineup, rock programming was the priority by the mid-1990s at WDOM; it was followed closely by the Urban Beatz hip-hop show on the weekends, which generated the most callers of any program on the station.[22][1] The station had also begun 24-hour broadcasting on weekends.[22] In the late 1990s, WDOM moved to a new on-campus location in the Slavin Center, giving it higher visibility.[1]
In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, WDOM broadcast Rhode Island Public Radio when WELH, then the network's main transmitter, was knocked off the air. After sending out a message seeking aid, Providence College president Brian Shanley invited the public radio network to use WDOM's facilities, enabling RIPR to continue broadcasting to the immediate Providence area.[23]
Much of the station's equipment was overhauled in 2014; some of it had been in continuous use since the 1990s.[24]