WMEB-FM is a non-commercial radio station owned and operated by the University of Maine, broadcasting on 91.9 FM from its campus in Orono and a transmitter located in Old Town. The station is run by university students and programs an alternative rock music format. History Early years In October 1961, the University of Maine applied for a construction permit to build a new FM station in Orono, which would broadcast with an effective radiated power of 375 watts; this was granted by the Federal Communications Commission on January 10, 1962. Going on the air as WMEB-FM from studios in Stevens Hall, the station began broadcasts on October 1, 1962. WMEB-FM represented the third generation of broadcasting at UMO. The first station on the campus, WGBX, broadcast from 1926 to 1928 and featured programming mostly presented by faculty. In 1953, after three years of technical and funding setbacks, WORO, a carrier current station, was established, but this proved impractical to maintain as more students and faculty lived off campus. The format, typical of 1960s college radio stations, featured a mix of talk and music shows; in 1964, the music played on WMEB-FM consisted of an hour of easy listening programming and three hours a day of classical music, supplemented by an hour of campus and local news. In 1968, WMEB-FM broadcast a 15-week radio course, "Understanding Music", from the university's continuing education division. Increasing student involvement The University of Maine started a second radio station on September 14, 1970: WMEH, the first transmitter in today's Maine Public Radio network. The introduction of a public radio service led to the specialization of WMEB as a student-run station. In 1971, it began overnight broadcasting on the weekends, and all but two of its programs that fall were student-produced. Alongside a steady expansion of the station's broadcasting hours and of the Stevens Hall studios came a weekend block of progressive rock music, which was starting to displace the existing easy listening programming. In the second half of the 1970s, WMEB-FM was hit by financial woes. The university's department of broadcasting and the student senate both thought the other should be primarily responsible for funding the station. In October 1979, students staged an 86-hour "Beggar's Banquet" radiothon to raise money for station operations. The "Banquet" was not even the only marathon broadcast that WMEB aired that semester: in December, one disc jockey pulled a 100-hour