WBUR is a major source of news and information in New England and one of the country's top ranked public radio stations. With a format of news and information, WBUR provides thorough and intelligent coverage of national, international and regional news and issues from National Public Radio, the BBC, Public Radio International and American Public Media and WBUR's own newsroom. WBUR produces more than 3 hours of original news and programs that are distributed to other public radio stations around the country, on XM satellite radio, on podcasts and streamed on WBUR.org.

Mission Statement

As New England's leading source of news and information, The WBUR Group believes that responsible, in-depth, objective journalism can help people better understand issues affecting them, can assist them in making informed decisions and can improve the world around all of us. We provide access to different voices and different viewpoints which enables all of us to understand how events can change the lives of others and can change the way we, ourselves, view the world.

A Short History of WBUR

WBUR-FM went on the air at 4:00 PM on March 1, 1950, as a 400-watt non-commercial educational FM station licensed to Boston University In its early years, the WBUR-FM staff was a mixture of amateurs, professionals, volunteers, and students.

View Pictures of WBUR View 360° IPIX of studio

Through the 1960s, more and more radio professionals joined WBUR and gradually transformed its format. By 1971, WBUR had enough full-time employees to qualify for status as a public radio station and applied to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for certification. In 1980, the station began to receive programming from National Public Radio via satellite. By 1982, WBUR had established its identity as a news station, with NPR's "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered" broadcast every weekday, and local news programming produced by a staff of young reporters.

John F. Kennedy in 1951, during a WBUR interview in his first political campaign.

During the 1980s, WBUR began to receive significant recognition, and listeners in the Boston area starting tuning to the station in greater numbers.

In 1984, the station won three Associated Press Awards for news coverage. Since that time, WBUR has won more than eighty additional Associated Press awards, culminating in March 1999, when WBUR-FM was named "News Station of the Year."

In May 1987, WBUR won the 1986 George Foster Peabody Award, the most prestigious national award for broadcasters, for "Liberation Remembered," a four-part series on the Holocaust. Since that time, WBUR has won the Peabody two more times, including an award for "Car Talk" in 1993.

On May 25, 2000, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting named WBUR's General Manager Jane Christo the recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award, the highest individual honor in public radio, in recognition of lifetime achievement.

WBUR-FM has won more than one hundred other awards for its news coverage, including recognition from the Radio and Television News Directors' Association, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Public Radio News Directors, the Public Radio Program Directors, the Massachusetts Broadcasters' Association, Ohio State University, Columbia University, the American Bar Association, the American Medical Association and many other professional and academic organizations.