Students Say Goodbye to WBOR's Longtime Home
By Rebecca Goldfine
In the weeks leading up to the switch, the station's managers organized a few special events, including hosting a community open house and carving out enough airtime to let seniors on the management team host their “swan songs” well before May. (It is a longtime WBOR tradition to invite seniors to do a twenty-four-hour, round-the-clock version of their shows right before they graduate).
Recognizing the end of WBOR's time in Coe with these ceremonies is important, said general manager Mason Daugherty ’25, because “this place has had a long legacy and been an important part of many people’s lives.”
In 1995, left Moulton Union for Coe's basement. Over the last three decades, its warren of small rooms seems to have absorbed some of the personalities of every DJ who has hosted a show there. The walls and ceiling tiles carry the scribbled drawings and musings of many students—they're sweet, funny, profane, irreverent, confessional, even wistful. Stickers and concert posters are everywhere, along with colored lights, a few found objects, framed photographs, and shelves and shelves of CDs and records.
On January 6, Daugherty will press the off button for the final time in Coe. He plans to invite anyone with ties to the station to witness the act.
Then he'll work with a radio technician to transition the whole operation to the first floor of Coles Tower. He anticipates the station channel will be down for about two weeks. When the station reopens, most likely by the start of the second semester in late January, the managers will hold a celebratory ribbon cutting.
Photos of the recent WBOR community open house. By Mason Daugherty ’25.
Saying Hello Before Goodbye
On the evening of December 5, Daugherty and Emma Olney ’25, co-station manager, brought snacks and a “RIP Dudley Coe” cake to the station, inviting anyone to swing by the open house.
“It is a dedicated time and last chance for people to say hello before it is gone, both for the College community and the WBOR community,” Daugherty said before the event.
He's also been encouraging all of the DJs (they number more than 200, and include students, staff, faculty, and community members) to savor these final days and “pay attention to smaller details.” The management, too, has been gathering some of the station's quirky paraphernalia for preservation in ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾'s Special Collections.
Khuê Anh Tran ’25, one of WBOR's thirteen station managers, has had a WBOR radio show since her sophomore year called "" for which she curates eclectic playlists based on changing weekly themes. (A recent theme was “driving songs for girls who don’t drive.” She, herself, does not have a license. Nonetheless, she often finds herself identifying good tunes for the road.)
Tran stepped up to become part of station management this fall, a move that she said has reinforced her appreciation for the station and the WBOR community, a group that's united by a love for music and the medium of radio.
“I am definitely in the grieving phase,” she said, even though she’s known about the impending demise of Dudley Coe for a while. “I get easily attached to physical spaces, and this one has been my favorite physical space on campus.”
Station manager Abhi Peddada ’27, who has had a show called "" since his first semester at ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾, called his emotions at this point “bittersweet.”
For his final show in Coe, he and a co-host played songs that connected to times of personal change and growth for them, appropriate for a “a time of change for the station.”
They ended the show with two love songs, odes to the station, by and .
A gift to WBOR directly supports sound, engineering, and production equipment, as well as studio outfitting materials like upgraded furniture and lighting.
If 100 Polar Bears support this campaign, they will unlock a $15,000 challenge gift from WBOR's generous supporter, Bob Lochte '72.
“I have a lot of love for Dudley Coe and our current station—it has so much character and wonderful energy. It truly feels like the one authentic lived-in space on campus,” Peddada said.
All the writing and stickers on the walls, he added, are like a catalog of the people who have come through the space, “which is so beautiful.”
Still, he said, that unique “vibe and energy...can be replicated and brought over” to the new station in Coles Tower.
Plus, the new space, though quite a bit smaller, comes with a few major perks: air conditioning and accessibility—“for the first time in the station’s history,” Daugherty said. “And it has windows.”
“Though I’m feeling a bit melancholic," he added, "if you spend enough time here, you realize a part of it is pretty dingy. And it’s ninety degrees in the summer.”
Both Tran and Peddada say that even as they mourn, they're also looking forward to the new chapter.
“As we approach the next semester, I will transition to a space of more hope and acceptance,” Tran said. “There is something exciting about getting to help shape the new space, which will hopefully become for future generations of students what Dudley Coe has been for us.”
Daugherty said the station managers are purposefully taking a light touch when it comes to moving things over. They're bringing the stop light, filing cabinet, big desk where DJs sit, and a few other “knickknacks.”
“There’s a tension between leaving room for creativity and cherishing old things,” he said. “But we won’t decorate too much. It's like a blank canvas.”
Peddada said he’s confident the new station will quickly assume its own character. “I feel it will organically evolve into what it will be, and there will be a beauty in seeing what happens. New spaces give birth to growth, and I’m excited to see where WBOR goes.”
