WEHR — Penn State’s East Halls-based Radio Station

The History of WEHR at Penn State University…

WEHR, the East Halls Radio Station, went on the air at Penn State in 1972 as a sub-kilowatt AM station serving the East Halls dormitories only. At the time, every residence hall area (North, South, East, West, Pollock) had a station station of its own. WEHR was the last remaining survivor of the dormitory stations when it shut down permanently in 2005.

At its inception, WEHR was conceived as an alternative to the commercial stations of the time, and as a center for the student body’s musical expression. Originally housed in 10 Geary Hall, the station moved to a brand new studio in 101 Johnston Commons in 1994.

Chartered as a student organization and overseen by Residence Life, WEHR operated with a full line of broadcast-quality or near broadcast-quality equipment. In its later years, the station offered programming ranging from ambient to hardcore rap to alternative rock to talk and humor.

WEHR housed a vast collection of vinyl records on campus, second only to vinyl holdings of Penn State’s other student-run station, The LION 90.7fm (WKPS). The station was essentially freeform, with each two-hour time slot left up to the disc jockey.

By the late 1990s, WEHR no longer operated on the AM airwaves, and was instead broadcast over Channel 21 of Penn State’s Housing and Food Services cable television system.

By 2005, with university-funding having ceased and no consistent management or oversight, the station was on the verge of shutting down permanently.

The studio equipment was, by and large, in almost complete disrepair, and after being removed from Channel 21, there was neither funding nor an outlet for the music once provided by East Halls Radio. WEHR, the last remaining survivor from the days of residence-hall specific radio stations at Penn State, went defunct.