WUMB Brief History and Overview
Mission Statement: WUMB Radio is dedicated to produce, acquire, and disseminate high quality, diverse and valued public service radio programming to significant audiences. The radio station is committed to serving as a local and national resource for the cultivation, promotion and preservation of various genres of folk music through its radio programming and selected enterprises.
WUMB-FM is a non-commercial, public radio station licensed to the University of Massachusetts, with studios at the UMass Boston Campus as the central hub for a network of nine stations in: Boston, Worcester and Falmouth at 91.9FM, Newburyport, Stow and Marshfield at 91.7FM, Gloucester at 91.5FM, Orleans at 1170AM, and Milford, New Hampshire at 88.7FM. All nine facilities simulcast the identical program schedule, which is produced from the central station. Our 24 hour a day broadcast schedule reaches over 80,000 individual listeners in over 275 cities and towns in eastern and central Massachusetts and Cape Cod, along with parts of Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Connecticut. A livestream of our programming can also be accessed online via our website. We currently reach another 80,000 listeners from all 50 states and 147 different countries via our livestream.
WUMB-FM was the last station in the Metro- Boston area to be granted an FM license from the Federal Communications Commission. We started out on the air with an all-volunteer announcing staff, later evolving to a professional staff in when we became a public radio affiliate of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The station was originally the aspiration of a group of UMass Boston students that later became a fourteen-year campaign to put WUMB live on the air.
We at WUMB radio are committed to providing unique and engaging programming. We are the country’s foremost radio station for folk and roots music, largely airing a mix including singer-songwriter, blues, Celtic, Americana, bluegrass and more. On weekends the station is a cultural center for traditional folk and Celtic music, as well as blues, local and world music. During the calendar year, we host local and national musicians to play live on air and to provide insight about their music. We also produce The Commonwealth Journal, a UMass Boston program dedicated to public affairs.
WUMB also hosts various public education endeavors, including our Acoustic Music Camps programs throughout the year around New England.