The video of rapper Ice Cube strolling through the old WTBU studio is a study in contrasts. Everything about the station’s appearance says student-run: the inkjet-printed “Studio A” sign taped to the wall, the doors plastered with half-scratched stickers. The platinum-selling artist, complete with a crew member in branded Ice Cube coat, looks completely out of place: slick leather jacket, sharp LA cap, gold dog tag. But when he and the student DJs settle behind their mics for an on-air interview, they treat each other as professional equals. A College Music Journal Station of the Year winner for three years in a row, WTBU has earned its place on the national radio map.

For former WTBU DJ Christie Leist, Ice Cube’s visit—as part of the promotional tour for 2014’s Ride Along—was the standout moment from her time with BU’s student-run station. During her stint as a host on WTBU, listeners knew Leist (’17) as DJ Jump Street. The name was a nod to one of her favorite films: 21 Jump Street, the 2012 smash that pulled in more than $200 million at the box office and starred, you guessed it, Ice Cube.

“He wore his shades the whole time,” recalled Leist, also a former WTBU general manager. “He had a crew with him, the way you would expect Ice Cube to have. I’ve never been so star struck.”

Leist recounted her moment basking in some reflected star power during a WTBU alumni event held at the station to celebrate its October 2017 reopening. Just over a year before, the third-floor studio that had played host to Ice Cube had been ravaged by a three-alarm fire, leaving WTBU’s future uncertain. “There were rumors going around that the station wasn’t coming back,” said Leist. Believed to have been sparked by an equipment malfunction, the electrical fire caused more than $1 million in damages. “People were so heartbroken, because a lot of us on the e-board at the time practically lived at the studio,” Leist said. “So this was the destruction of our second home.”

But thanks to insurance coverage and successful fundraising—alums, staff, faculty, students and audiences contributed over $46,000 in donations—the studio was rebuilt into a state-of-the-art facility including an on-air studio, a live performance studio and high-quality acoustic capabilities.

At the alumni event, former WTBU staff explored the new 500-square-foot space and tested its high-tech equipment. Like Leist, they shared their memories of working at the station.

Until 1997, DJs were crammed into tiny studios in locations such as the Myles Standish Hall dorm. Even after the station was given a proper home at COM, conditions were often not much better.

“The microphones used to squeak; they used to fry while we were on the air,” said Russell Rubin (CGS’01, COM’03). “You wouldn’t know if you could finish a sentence, so we were quick.”

And while today’s WTBU broadcasts live and livestreams 20 hours a day, 7 days a week (and archives programming online), the station didn’t reach many off-campus listeners before livestreaming and satellite radio.

“You had to sit in the car in front of COM to hear the radio station”

Julie Hochheiser Ilkovich (’04) and Russell Rubin (CGS’01, COM’03)

Despite the station’s limitations, WTBU brought listeners the latest world news.

“The way we got our news is we had an Associated Press fax machine”

Cheryl Scaparrotta (’91)

DJs also broke important announcements about the music industry.

“Suddenly I hear four loud bells ring from the AP wire machine”

Rob Lipshutz (’79)

Students weren’t the only ones paying attention to WTBU—the record labels representing emerging artists were, too.

“Every single record company would send us their records”

Jay Roewe (’79)

Alums at the reopening party said that while working at WTBU helped prepare them for careers in communication, it was also a chance to connect with fellow music devotees—and have a little fun.

“I saw a bunch of people laughing, coming out of the newsroom”

Rob Lipshutz (’79)

Despite his reputation for controversy, Howard Stern (CGS’74, COM’76), who worked briefly at WTBU as a student, played a big role in the station’s postfire relaunch. WTBU management got advice on rebuilding from Stern after he invited the station’s executive board of students, Anne Donohue (’89), a COM associate professor of journalism and WTBU’s faculty advisor, and Jake Kassen (CGS’01, COM’03), COM’s technical operations manager, to visit his studios at SiriusXM Satellite Radio in New York City in June 2016.

“We based the layout, equipment and functionality of the new studio on the XM studios,” Kassen (above, far right), who was WTBU’s student engineer as an undergraduate, told Bostonia. “All of the back-end stuff is made by a company called Wheatstone, the standard professional broadcasting company. Practically all commercial studios in the country use Wheatstone. We can do a lot more interaction between the [on-air and performance] studios in real time now. We couldn’t do that before.”

WTBU’s technology has evolved, but its ability to create community has remained constant. At the grand reopening alumni event, Jeff Katten (Questrom’05), former DJ, technical director and general manager, said WTBU is “certainly one of the things that brings people together from all over the University, through all decades of time. It’s pretty rewarding to see that.”