WSIE steps into a new era with a stronger signal
EDWARDSVILLE, Illinois — On a bright May morning inside Dunham Hall, the heartbeat of WSIE 88.7 — The Sound — pulsed a little stronger. The heritage jazz station, which first hit the airwaves in 1970, gathered donors, students, volunteers and longtime supporters for a ribbon cutting that marked something far bigger than a new tower […] The post WSIE steps into a new era with a stronger signal appeared first on St. Louis American.
Black News 
EDWARDSVILLE, Illinois — On a bright May morning inside Dunham Hall, the heartbeat of WSIE 88.7 — The Sound — pulsed a little stronger.
The heritage jazz station, which first hit the airwaves in 1970, gathered donors, students, volunteers and longtime supporters for a ribbon cutting that marked something far bigger than a new tower and HD transmitter.
“This feels like a gift to me personally,” said Paula Bridges, SIUE’s executive director of University Marketing and Communications. “Now they have access to it further in the further reaches of the region. Whereas now it’s been extended, it’s been amplified and we can share in the love of the artist and the music that they’re playing.”
For a station built on jazz — and the generations who have loved, lived and learned through it — reach matters.
“This has been a project over 20 years in the making,” said General Manager Jason Church. “My predecessors have tried time and time again to get a new transmitter and a new antenna.”
The station’s previous transmitter dated back to 1986 — well past its expected lifespan.
Church explained that listeners in Chesterfield, O’Fallon, Baldwin and other pockets of the St. Louis region are now picking up the signal with clarity.
“It gives us a new lease on life — literally,” he said.
And for a community-supported station that depends on listener donations, that reach is everything.
WSIE’s story has always been about more than equipment. It’s about the students who learn to announce their first on-air breaks. The volunteers who keep specialty shows alive. The donors who believe jazz still deserves a home on the FM dial.
Bridges captured that spirit in her opening remarks.
“The volunteers and students who developed their accounts have kept us using a lie and its mission strong,” she said. “Today is more than a celebration — it’s a long-standing commitment to musical excellence across our campus, the St. Louis region and nationwide.”
Church echoed that gratitude, calling out former engineers, longtime sponsors, and the students who keep the station’s sound fresh.
“I’ve been a huge fan of this radio station ever since I was a youngster,” he said. “It’s a project of passion for me. My goal is to make sure that this place outlasts my time here.”
Robyn Boyce — associate director for corporate support and one of the station’s most visible ambassadors — expressed witnessing WSIE’s generational impact.
She remembers the students lighting up when Samara Joy won her Grammy. It sparked the memory of the first time she saw Joy perform at Jazz St. Louis a few years ago — and how it brought her parents back to her in a rush of sound and memory.
“I cried because I saw my mom and dad standing up there,” she said. “They passed on long ago, but they were right on that stage dancing. This music keeps you alive. It keeps you moving. It’s great music.”
Boyce also sees WSIE as a bridge — connecting young listeners to the roots of the music they hear sampled in hip-hop, R&B and pop.
“All that sampling came from somewhere,” she said. “If you have these conversations with young people today, you have to share with them that they started all of this way back in the day.”
For Bridges, the new transmitter is as much of a cultural amplifier as it is a technical upgrade.
“WSIE has been laboring in the love and legacy of music for decades,” she said. “But if your transmitter only goes so far, you can only reach so many people. Now… we can extend further west, south, east and north.”
She hopes listeners — especially young ones — understand that jazz is the foundation beneath nearly every genre they love.
“I hope they understand that great music is great music, no matter what the genre,” Bridges said. “And jazz is at the core of American music.”
The post WSIE steps into a new era with a stronger signal appeared first on St. Louis American.
