WGAU (1340
AM, "News-Talk 1340") is a
radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
licensed to serve
Athens, Georgia
Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the sta ...
, United States, that broadcasts a
news
News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...
/
talk
Talk may refer to:
Communication
* Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people
* Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people
* Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct
...
format. The transmitter is located at the studios (with
WNGC
WNGC (106.1 FM) is a Cox Media Group radio station in North Georgia that plays country music; it was at 95.5 from 1968-1999. Its city of license is Arcade with studios in Athens. Its transmitter is in Lula, Georgia.
Station history
Prior to De ...
) in Five Points.
WGAU began broadcasting on May 1, 1938. It was purchased in 1956 by Clarke Broadcasting Company, owned by H. Randolph Holder and Tom Lloyd, two broadcasters who also owned WLAQ in Rome, Georgia, and WGRI in Griffin, Georgia. Holder was a popular Athens newsman whose morning and midday news commentaries had a wide following.
The station has played many different musical formats before switching to the current format of news and talk in the early 1990s. Over the years, it served as a launching pad for a number of successful broadcasters who worked at WGAU during their student days at the Henry Grady College of Journalism at the nearby University of Georgia: Harry Chapman, later with WTVF in Nashville, Tennessee, and Bruce Bartley, the lead newscaster of Atlanta's WSB Radio. Former WGAU news director
John Holliman
John Holliman (October 23, 1948 – September 12, 1998) was an American broadcast journalist. He was a member of the original reporting corps for CNN, serving as its agriculture correspondent after serving in the same capacity for Associa ...
went on to be a news reporter for CNN. He rose to prominence as one of CNN's "Boys of Baghdad" during the first
Persian Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
in 1991 and was one of only three journalists reporting from
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
when allied bombing of the city began. He was later known for his coverage of
science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
,
technology
Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...
, and
space exploration
Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. While the exploration of space is carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration though is conducted both by robotic spacec ...
. In May 1999,
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
dedicated the
Launch Complex 39 Press Site
The Launch Complex 39 Press Site is a news media facility at Launch Complex 39 at the Kennedy Space Center, John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Merritt Island, Florida where journalists have observed every U.S. crewed space launch since Apollo 8 ...
auditorium at the
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...
in Holliman's name.
Country legend
Bill Anderson was a DJ on WGAU in the 1950s when he was 19, and was fired for playing country music. In an interview with Tim Bryan
Bill said H. Randolph Holder, owner of WGAU, offered him a job under the condition he would not play country music. One evening, Bill was running an Atlanta Crackers baseball game which became rained out. Instructions in the studio said if the game gets rained out, to switch to the CBS Radio Network. When Bill switched to the network, The "Louisiana Hay Ride" was on, and Johnny Horton's "
Honky Tonk Man (song), Honky Tonk Man" was playing. Before the song was finished, Holder had called Bill to get the program off the air. Holder fired Bill that following Monday, but got him a job at a new radio station in Commerce.
In January 2008, it was announced that WGAU and WNGC were sold (along with sister stations
WGMG
WGMG (102.1 FM) is a radio station broadcasting an Adult Contemporary format. Licensed to Crawford, Georgia, United States, with studios in Athens, Georgia. The station is owned by Cox Media Group. Its studios are located in Bogart, and its tra ...
,
WPUP
WPUP (100.1 FM, "Power 100.1") is a radio station broadcasting a Top 40 (CHR) format. Licensed to the Athens suburb of Watkinsville, it serves the Athens metropolitan area. It first began broadcasting in Washington in 1970. It is currently ow ...
,
WRFC) to Cox Radio in Atlanta. WGAU was the home to many
University of Georgia
, mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things."
, establ ...
sports, which air now on sister "Sports Radio 960 WRFC"
Current notable local programming includes "Classic City Today" with Tim Bryant and "Newsmakers" with Tim Bryant. Notable syndicated programming includes talk shows by right-wing conservatives
Brian Kilmeade
Brian Kilmeade (born May 7, 1964) is an American television and radio presenter and political commentator for Fox News. On weekdays he co-hosts the morning show, ''Fox & Friends'', and he hosts the Fox News Radio program ''The Brian Kilmeade Sho ...
,
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III ( ; January 12, 1951 – February 17, 2021) was an American conservative political commentator who was the host of '' The Rush Limbaugh Show'', which first aired in 1984 and was nationally syndicated on AM and FM r ...
,
Sean Hannity
Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is an American talk show host, conservative political commentator, and author. He is the host of ''The Sean Hannity Show'', a nationally syndicated talk radio show, and has also hosted a commentar ...
and
Dana Losech as well as consumer advocate
Clark Howard
Clark Brian Howard (born June 20, 1955) is a popular consumer expert and podcast host of ''The Clark Howard Show''.
Life and career
Howard grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. His parents, Bernard and Joy Garson Howard, were prominent members of Atl ...
and the paranormal ''
Coast to Coast AM
''Coast to Coast AM'' is an American late-night radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics. Most frequently the topics relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was hosted by creator Art Bell from its inception in 19 ...
'' radio show.
The station is an affiliate of the
Atlanta Braves
The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. The Braves ...
radio network, the largest radio affiliate network in
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
.
The station is also affiliated with
Fox News Radio
Fox News Radio is an American radio network owned by Fox News. It is syndicated to over 500 AM and FM radio stations across the United States. It also supplies programming for three channels on Sirius XM Satellite Radio.
History
In 2003, ...
and
The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather forecas ...
.
References
External links
WGAU official website
*
{{coord, 33, 56, 28, N, 83, 23, 56, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title
GAU
News and talk radio stations in the United States
Cox Media Group
Radio stations established in 1938