Some 250,000 Greater Boston FM listeners may soon have the opportunity to find out whether or not their tastes are similar to those of Harvard undergraduates. While most students probably don't care very much one way or the other, at least one College organization is fervently hoping that some of these listeners will find the answer is "yes."

The organization, of course, is radio station WHRB which, pending FCC approval, plans to start FM broadcasts sometime early next spring. Superficially, this move will mean no basic change in the station's philosophy. As program director Gregory W. Harrison '57 explains it, "We've never tried to compete with the Boston popular music stations. What popular music we do play is usually jazz."

The station's president, Victor F. Andrew '57, goes one step further. "Even with FM," he says, "we'll still emphasize--and be geared to the tastes of--Harvard. We just hope the other 250,000 people who can listen to us will have Harvard tastes."

It was not mere whim nor proselytizing zeal which prodded the station into FM, however. Based on hard facts, the decision was made by the station's executives only when they became convinced that WHRB could best fulfill its purposes by serving considerably more people than those in the Harvard community.

Actually, WHRB has never been "broadcasting" at all, except inadvertently, since its founding--by the CRIMSON--in 1940. By using radio frequency lines, strung up throughout the University's steam tunnels, it has never transmitted programs through the air which, so far as the FCC is concerned, is the meaning of broadcasting.

Short Way Broadcasts

But the radio frequency lines are not infallible. A certain amount of what Andrew terms "spurious radiation" always exists. In the case of WHRB's system, this rarely extends more than 150 feet from the nearest line. Occasionally, however, it will be more--even considerably more.

Once, for instance, a studio technician listened to the station all the way back to Cambridge from a date out at Wellesley. Telephone lines, trolley tracks, and the like are unfortunately fine conductors of the signals.

Technically, it is virtually impossible to eliminate such spurious radiation from WHRB's present system. And the moment they occur the station, normally free from FCC control, automatically violates federal law by broadcasting without a license. So far, WHRB has managed to keep within the confines of the University well enough to satisfy the FCC. But there is always the chance that some day the Commission will make the station shut down, as it has already done with Wellesley's and a number of other college stations throughout the country.

Andrew readily admits that this radiation problem was one reason the station decided to add FM to its present system. Although it is the most publicized reason it is not the most important one, he insists. As he explains, "We decided to go into FM just because it's progress."

The main progress, Andrew says, will come in sound reproduction. "All the recent emphasis on long-playing records and high fidelity have made people come to expect high-quality reproduction," he says. And FM sound is better sound.

According to the station's own polls, about 40 percent of Harvard students have FM tuners at present. Andrew hopes the percentage will increase.

Financial Stability

Progress will come along another line as well. With FM and the large potential audience, the station plans to increase its advertising rates 50 percent. The resulting greater financial stability will allow the programming of more elaborate and more challenging shows, such as live dramas and concerts. This policy has already started, but on a very limited scale.

In this respect, WHRB is in a most fortunate position. Virtually every building in the University is directly hooked up to the station through a complicated array of audio lines. Consequently it can broadcast programs direct from Sanders Theatre, New Lecture Hall, Burr Hall, and dozens of other buildings. Through the Lowell Institute, WGBH actually paid for the installation of the audio lines, but they were installed, and are still supervised and maintained, by WHRB.