WBEW (89.5 FM) is a

non-commercial educational A non-commercial educational station (NCE station) is a radio station or television station that does not accept on-air advertisements (television advertisement, TV ads or radio advertisement, radio ads), as defined in the United States by the Fed ...

(NCE), Class B1

public radio Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive ...

station at Chesterton in

Northwest Indiana Northwest Indiana, nicknamed "The Region" after the Calumet Region, is an unofficial region of Northern Indiana, northern Indiana, United States that is located at the northwestern corner of the state. Though there is no official definition of th ...

. Since June 2007, the station has been branded Vocalo, initially airing listener submitted content and later airing an urban format. It is owned by Chicago Public Media and is a sister station to

WBEZ WBEZ (91.5 FM) – branded ''WBEZ 91.5'' – is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, and primarily serving the tri-state region of the Chicago metropolitan area. It is owned by Chicago Public Media and is f ...

in Chicago. WBEW broadcasts in the

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. HD radio generally simulcast, simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD R ...

format.

History

The station began broadcasting in early 2001, holding the call letters WAJW.Call Sign History
fcc.gov. Retrieved January 6, 2022.
, BostonRadio.com. July 15, 2002. Retrieved January 6, 2022.
Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2003-2004
',

Broadcasting & Cable ''Broadcasting & Cable'' (''B&C'', or ''Broadcasting+Cable'') was a telecommunications industry monthly trade magazine and, later, news website published by Future US. Founded in 1931 as ''Broadcasting'', subsequent mergers, acquisitions and ...

, 2003. p. D-158. Retrieved January 6, 2022.Format Changes & Updates
, ''The M Street Journal''. Vol. 18, No. 06. February 7, 2001. Retrieved January 6, 2022. It was owned by Auricle Communications.Radio Business
, ''

Radio & Records ''Radio & Records'' (''R&R'') was a trade publication providing news and airplay information for the radio and music industries. It started as an independent trade from 1973 to 2006 until VNU Media took over in 2006 and became a relaunched sister ...

''. July 12, 2002. Retrieved January 6, 2022. WAJW aired a freeform radio format, largely simulcasting WFMU 91.1 in

East Orange, New Jersey East Orange is a City (New Jersey), city in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 69,612, an increase of 5,342 (+8.3%) from the 2010 United States ...

. In November 2002, the station was purchased by Chicago Public Media for $550,000 and its call letters were changed to WBEW. Chicago Public Media simulcast 91.5

on the station from November 2002 until June 2007.

Vocalo

The station split from its simulcast with WBEZ in June 2007 and was branded "Vocalo". Initially, Vocalo hosts played content that listeners had uploaded to the Vocalo.org website. It was launched with the desire to reach a more racially diverse and younger audience than NPR. By August 2010, Vocalo had begun to base their playlist on hip-hop, dance, and R&B, and in 2014 adopted the slogan "Chicago's Urban Alternative". In January 2016, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) gave Chicago Public Radio $450,000 to refine Vocalo's format, so that the format's viability in other markets could be researched. On April 3, 2024 Chicago Public Media announced it would discontinue the Vocalo radio broadcast, claiming that the operation had lost money for several years and had an average weekly audience of only 11,000 listeners. The cut drew criticism from the station's union,

SAG-AFTRA The Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists

, as it coincided with a $6.4 million studio upgrade at WBEZ’s Navy Pier office and a 19% pay increase for Chicago Public Media’s CEO, Matt Moog. The cuts also came only 2 years after CPM acquired the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

'' for $61 million. The announcement included 14 layoffs in total with additional cuts to the WBEZ podcast team and non-newsroom ''Sun-Times'' employees.

References

External links

Vocalo.org
WBEW's official site * {{Northwest Indiana Radio BEW Urban contemporary radio stations in the United States Public radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 2001 2001 establishments in Indiana Porter County, Indiana