KWGS 89.5 FM is the flagship

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

station in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

. The station was Oklahoma's first FM radio station and is one of two stations operated by the

University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church and the campus architectural style is predominantly Collegiate Gothic. The school traces its origin to ...

. The station was established in 1947 through the initiative of TU speech professor

Ben Graf Henneke Ben Graf Henneke (May 20, 1914 – November 13, 2009) was the president of the University of Tulsa ("TU"), in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, from 1958 to 1967. A professor of speech and theatre, he wrote an early textbook on radio announcing, an ...

, later president of the university. The call letters are the initials of Tulsa oil man and philanthropist William G. Skelly, who provided the funding. TU's other radio station is a

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

station,

KWTU KWTU (89.7 MHz) is a non-commercial FM radio station in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It airs a classical music radio format, mostly from American Public Media's ''Classical 24'', a nationally syndicated music service. KWTU is owned and operated by The ...

. KWGS is licensed by the

U.S. Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdictio ...

to broadcast in the HD (hybrid) format.http://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?id=64 HD Radio Guide for Tulsa

References

External links

Voices of Oklahoma interview with Ed Dumit.
First person interview conducted on September 29, 2011 with Ed Dumit, former art producer for KWGS. WGS NPR member stations University of Tulsa 1947 establishments in Oklahoma Radio stations established in 1947 {{Oklahoma-radio-station-stub