WWCU

WWCU
City of license Cullowhee, North Carolina
Broadcast area Jakcson and Haywood counties in western North Carolina
Branding Power 90.5
Frequency 90.5 MHz
Format Classic hits
ERP 240 watts
HAAT 289.0 meters
Class A
Facility ID 71766
Callsign meaning Western Carolina University
Owner Western Carolina University
Website www.wwcufm.com

WWCU (90.5 FM) is a radio station licensed to Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. The station plays a classic hits format.[1]

WWCU broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week from studios in the Old Student Union on the Western Carolina campus as Jackson County's only local FM radio station. Student staff members work in an academic environment with studios similar to those found in commercial stations.

The main transmitter is located on the ridge between Cullowhee and Waynesville, which it now reaches along with Canton. There is a booster station, WWCU-FM1, in Cullowhee as the town is somewhat blocked from the main signal by terrain shielding. From 1977 to 2004, the transmitter site now used for the booster station was the main station transmission site, located on the ground floor of the Moore Building on the Western Carolina campus.

WWCU airs mostly classic rock and pop music from the 1970s and 1980s. There are announcers on the station during regular rotation. There are also specialty shows during the evening and weekend hours.

WWCU is the flagship station for the Catamount Sports Network and provides coverage of Catamount Football, Catamount Basketball (Men's & Women's) and Catamount Baseball. The station also serves as the official radio station for the Fine and Performing Arts Center at Western Carolina.

Contents

History

In the autumn of 1947, "WWOO" AM 550 signed on from the Joyner Building (destroyed by fire in the early 1980s) as the first radio station in Jackson County. This station was carrier current, meaning that instead of broadcasting from a radio tower into the open air where anyone with a radio could pick it up, it transmitted, through phone lines, to small transmitters located in the basements of each dorm and building using the electrical wiring of that building as an antenna, broadcasting 15 watts of power. (Listeners had to be in the building to pick it up). Later the studios were moved to the Stillwell building (which at that time was the library) overlooking Memorial Football Stadium which was located where the Natural Science Building is today.

Other major events in the station's history include:

Former Station Names

WWCU Announcers Who Have Gone on to Careers in Radio, Recording, Voiceovers, or Other Positions Related to the Broadcasting Industry

References

  1. ^ "WWCU Facility Record". Federal Communications Commission. http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?call=WWCU. 

Droopy-Drew Parham (KISS 95.1, WSOC 103.7)

External links