WWCU FM 90.5 is a radio station licensed to Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. The station plays a classic hits format.
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.
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:
1967: WWOO switches its unofficial call letters to WCAT, and moves its studios to what is now the radio lab in the Killian building.
May 1976: The FCC grants a construction permit for an FM radio station to Western Carolina University. Work begins in an unused basement section of the Moore Building to build the area's first FM radio station.
January 24, 1977: WWCU FM signs on the air broadcasting at 10 watts of power at 91.7 on the FM dial. Dee-Jays refer to the new station (called "U-92-FM") as "the 10 watt blow torch of the Tuckaseegee Valley." The station purchases its first jingle package, "Music Radio" from JAM Creative Productions in Dallas, Tx. This jingle package is the same package used by WLS in Chicago.
1981: WWCU FM upgrades from class D to A with 327 watts of effective radiated power at a new frequency of 90.5 FM.
1984: WWCU FM begins broadcasting in stereo and begins broadcasting 24 hours on weekends, with live dee-jays.
1989: WWCU undergoes major studio upgrades.
September 1995: The station's first website debuts.
February 1998: WWCU FM begins the process of applying for a construction permit from the FCC to increase power from 327 watts to 760 watts and raise the antenna an additional 12 feet (3.6 m) up the tower. WWCU also begins broadcasting 24 hours a day with a crude but effective broadcast automation system.
September 1998: FCC approves WWCU's application for a power increase and issues a construction permit for 760 watts.
November 16, 1998: WWCU-FM installs a new transmitter and increases its power to 760 watts. The 15-year-old transmitter that was replaced is retired.
Summer 2001: WWCU joins the ABC Radio Network and begins broadcasting hourly news updates delivered via satellite.
Fall 2002: WWCU joins the ChevronTexaco Metropolitan Opera radio network. A three-meter (ten-foot) satellite dish and receiver to receive this series of broadcasts was provided to WWCU at no cost by ChevronTexaco.
December 13, 2002: WWCU moves from its home of more than 25 years in the Moore Building to its newly built, state-of-the-art studios in the restored Old Student Union.
August 2, 2003: WWCU FM completes the first stage of its "Move to the Mountain".
September 2003: WWCU holds its first ever alumni reunion. More than 30 alumni attend.
August 2005: WWCU FM completes move of the transmitter site to Cutoff Mountain, increasing coverage into Haywood County.
U-92 FM (original, 1977-1980)
FM-905 (1981-1982)
91-FM (1983-1987)
Power 91 (1988-1991)
Cats Radio Z-91 (1992-1993)
Channel Z (1994-1997)
Z-91 (1997-1999)
Power 90 dot 5 (2000-current)
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