The records of the Campus Broadcasting Network fall into the following series: Organizational Files, Administrative Files, Financial Files, Personnel Files, General Manager's Topical Files, News Files, and Printed Materials.
The Campus Broadcasting Network was founded in 1948 as a student-run "carrier-current" station serving the dormitory residents of the University of Michigan. Established as a non-commercial, educational free-form radio station, WCBN was both a local source of entertainment and news as well as a place where future broadcasters could receive training much like the Michigan Daily did for print journalists. During 1972-73, WCBN filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission for an FM license that would allow the station to increase its power and thus add to its listening audience. With license approved, the station required more than seventy student volunteers to staff the radio station which then operated eighteen hours each day. In 1973, "WRCN" was established as the AM counterpart to WCBN. By 1976, the FM station WCBN, which was on-the-air twenty-four hours per day, seven days a week, had a staff of two hundred University of Michigan students and community members.
Providing broadcasting experience for students constitutes only one facet of WCBN-FM's operation. Known for its diverse programming, the station is a unique option for residents of the Ann Arbor community. In addition to news broadcasts, poetry readings, and other cultural and educational offerings, WCBN is virtually the only Michigan radio station to retain a "freeform" format. Avant garde and experimental, its musical repertoire spans the entire spectrum.
