Faculty Group Will Weigh WHRB Incorporation Plea

A meeting of the Faculty Committee on Student Activities today will consider an application for the incorporation of WHRB. At the same time, the station is waiting for equipment to carry out a change of frequency from 820 kilocycles to 550.

The incorporation, according to station officials, will make an "honest woman" out of the Network in business and legal relations, by legally establishing all responsibility for WHRB activities with the members. They claim that now the "ownership" of the station is nebulous, and no one member can be held responsible in cases of technical or financial difficulties. (The University incurs no financial responsibility for undergraduate groups.)

Name to Be Changed

Members of the Network say that under incorporation they will be legal joint "owners." The proposed name of the station is Harvard Radio Broadcasting Company, Inc.

A strong reason for the move, officials hinted, is to show their desire for responsibility and reliability should the Federal Communications Commission require college stations to have a license.

Thus they feel that incorporation, as well as raising the station in the eyes of potential advertisers and creditors, would aid relations in a licensing application. Chief Engineer D. Ben Minnich '51 added, however, that improvement in the quality of equipment would be another requirement.

Dean Watson, chairman of the Student Activities committee, said yesterday that the application will probably get a technical OK from committee members, with the request that he personally look into the matter further.

Change in Wave Length

Of first priority in current improvement and repair work is the change of dial position. The present frequency is "uncomfortably close" to that of several local stations. On the advice of the technical director of a Boston station, WHRB has chosen 550, a frequency comfortably clear of the professional networks. Equipment has been ordered, Minnich said, and the change will be made as soon as it arrives.

Eventual licensing, the executives admitted, would also make a merger with Radio Radcliffe legally possible. At present, it is illegal for an unlicensed station to give technical aid to another non-profit station. On the question of aiding the Annex network, however, Susan Wilson '52, president of Radio Radcliffe, said that most recent discussions dealt primarily with the problem of these two stations, plus that of the Business School, fighting for advertising in the Square.