ABOUT US

Information About WMFO Radio

WMFO broadcasts from the Medford campus of Tufts University and our "City of License" (with the FCC) is Medford, Massachusetts. Our signal is on 91.5 MHz on the FM band, and our coverage area is bordered by Melrose to the north, Allston & Back Bay to the south, Watertown to the west and out over the Atlantic Ocean to the east. (See coverage maps) Originally WMFO was a 10 watt "Class D" (refers to the FCC license) station but in 1979 the FCC discontinued "Class D" licenses so a power upgrade to a 125-watt "Class A" license was applied for and granted.

WMFO is staffed by a mix of Tufts students and local community volunteers. Students manage the station, with the assistance of a faculty advisor and appointed volunteers. We broadcast 24 hours a day (for most of the school year), 7 days a week, and 365 days a year (barring local weather emergencies — we do get the occasional blizzard here!)

A Little History of WMFO

WMFO signed for the first time in January 1970, from the second floor of Curtis Hall (today WMFO is on the third floor) on the Tufts Medford campus. The first song was "Here Comes the Sun" from The Beatles' Abbey Road album, played in all its glory on vinyl at 33 1/3 RPM (vinyl, baby - VINYL!).

FM Signal Coverage Maps

The coverage map below shows our broadcast range on our FM frequency. Since we are co-channel (meaning we're on the same frequency - 91.5FM) with WUML to the north (U-Mass Amherst), and WMLN (Curry College) to the south...reception of WMFO does depend heavily on the quality of your radio. Clock radios are notorious for poor tuners and can have trouble receiving WMFO even in our primary coverage area (see below). Digital car radios and home-component stereos (assuming a good antenna) usually are much better and we've had reports of listeners well outside our normal broadcast range.

You can see on the maps that our coverage area is not a circle...it's "directional" to the east to prevent us from interfering with WDJM (Framingham State College) to the west...and also WUML / WMLN. Local terrain (i.e. hills, valleys, tall buildings) also plays a factor in the shape of our coverage area.

The different boundaries show the outer limit you can pick up WMFO on with a decent radio. The "protected" map is determined by FCC calculations and shows our "primary broadcast area" (in FCC lingo it's the "60dBu contour")...within that area no other licensed station may legally interfere with our signal...this is legally our "broadcast range". But the physics of FM broadcasting mean that our signal is perfectly receivable well beyond our legal broadcast range.