Bomb Scare Forces WHRB Shut-Down

An anonymous bomb threat to WHRB yesterday afternoon caused the radio station to shut down for more than an hour as Harvard police evacuated Memorial Hall and searched the building.

Police were unable to find any explosive devices and the building was reopened two hours after the phone call was received.

The threat came from an unidentified woman who called the student radio station's Memorial Hall studio at 3 p.m.

According to Gregory A. Dohi '86-'87, whose classical music program was airing at the time, the caller said, "There's a bomb in your building" and then hung up abruptly.

WHRB staffer Michael C. Dorf '86, who had answered the call, notified the Harvard police. On their arrival, police asked students to leave the building during what would become the first of two evacuations.

Only Aaron D. Edison '88 and Dohi remained in the studio during the first evacuation to continue broadcasting. Edison said both assumed personal responsibility for their own safety, saying, "no one was terribly concerned, but there was always the off chance..."

Edison said that the search revealed nothing unusual, so WHRB's staff returned to "business as usual," though the police continued to check the building for explosives.

Half an hour later, building manager Robert Hart recommended that the building be evacuated until the police completed their search, although he said "it's probably nothing." Hart said students could legally remain inside, but the building was soon empty. It was later locked.

Dohi interrupted the music broadcast to sign off with routine station identification and a simple announcement that the station would be going off the air until 5 p.m. Then, he switched off the transmitter for the first time since the 24-hour-a-day station started broadcasting this fall. He said he did not mention the threat on the air or to callers because he did want to alarm them.

The evacuation also preempted a 4:30 p.m. karate class.

Dohi said WHRB had never been threatened before, adding that he saw no motivation for a bombing, since "sometimes we may be a bad radio station, but we're never that bad."

Hart said an intruder could have entered Memorial Hall's upper floors, which are usually left unlocked during the day, or most of the basement, which is accessible through open service entries. Hart said the WHRB studio's only door is kept locked at all times.

After the continued search found nothing, "Afternoon Concert" resumed at 5 p.m.

A Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra rehearsal at 7 p.m. yesterday proceeded as planned.

Chief Johnson said he recalled "three or four" similar incidents over the past two years.

The last bomb-related incident involved a Business School student who stored a deactivated hand grenade in his campus mailbox in late September.

In the Business School case, an alarmed mailman notified the Harvard police, who in turn called in a Boston police bomb squad to remove the grenade. The student received the dummy grenade because his comments earned him the "Bomb of the Week" award from his classmates