Duke University Archives. Collection description
Extent: 6.7 linear ft. (8 Hollinger boxes)
History: Founded in 1950 after several years of planning, WDBS began as a student-run AM station sponsored by the student government. In 1971, with the aid of a University loan, the station received an FM license, and operated under the control of WDBS, Inc., a non-profit corporation affiliated with the University. Its area of coverage included Durham, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, and Burlington. AM service on campus was provided by the student-run station, WDUK. In 1983, due to financial difficulties, WDBS's license was sold to Classic Ventures, Inc. of Durham, while WDUK received approval and funding to convert to FM broadcasting as WXDU, the present campus radio station.
Contents: Tape recordings, annual reports, correspondence, program guides and other printed matter, histories of the station, record industry publicity packets, and other material with bulk dates 1954-1980 concerning the founding and operation of the student radio station and the Duke Broadcasting System. The tape recordings include speeches by figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Floyd McKissick, Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew, and Terry Sanford, and performances by the Concert Band and Glee Club, along with coverage of campus events in the late 1960s-early 1970s. The annual reports (1950, 1954-1970) of the station managers include minutes of the Radio Council, WDBS's Board of Directors until 1971, and financial statements, engineers' reports and related records. The subject files include Radio Council minutes, correspondence of Prof. Joseph C. Wetherby, Council chair and long-time faculty advisor to the station, and petitions to the Council for positions with the station, ca. 1962-1970. A 1970 proposal to the Duke Board of Trustees to fund an FM license includes transcripts of telephone interviews with station managers at other schools, among them Yale, Dartmouth, and Cornell. The subject files also contain correspondence, clippings and printed matter, scattered financial records, and technical materials dealing with matters such as advertising rates and campus noise regulations, and wire service bulletins about the 1968 Presidential campaign. There are also histories of the station to 1968 written by student managers J.R. Brubaker and J.W. Veatch, and a small amount of material concerning station WDUK. The program guides, 1973-1980, contain articles of contemporary interest in addition to program listings. Record company promotional materials include photographs, posters, news releases and biographical information on recording artists and groups of the early 1970s, such as Joni Mitchell, Loudon Wainwright III, and the Guess Who.
Guides: A listing of tape recordings is available.
Organization: Box #1: Annual reports, arranged chronologically. Box #2: Subject files, arranged alphabetically. Box #3: Program guides, arranged chronologically. Box #4: Publicity materials, unarranged. RS Box #5-8: Tapes, unarranged.
Related material: Joseph C. Wetherby Papers, University Archives
Appraisal: The collection's research strengths lie in two areas: a student activity in the period from 1950 to 1970 is well documented in the subject files, histories and reports; campus cultural trends in the period 1970-1980 are documented in the Program Guides and, to a lesser extent, in the promotional materials, and, possibly, the tape recordings. Apart from newspaper clippings, there is little information concerning the station's operation after 1980.