WRCU-FM (90.1 FM) is

Colgate University Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York. The college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York and operated under that name until 1823, when it was renamed Hamilton Theologi ...

's student-run

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 ...

. It is located in

Hamilton, New York Hamilton is a town in Madison County, New York, United States. The population was 6,690 at the 2010 census. The town is named after American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. The Town of Hamilton contains a village also named Hamilton, the s ...

, and broadcasts a wide variety of music to the

central New York Central New York is the central region of New York State, including the following counties and cities: With a population of about 773,606 (2009) and an area of , the region includes the Syracuse metropolitan area. Definitions The New York ...

region.

Format

Like many

college radio Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produced ...

stations, WRCU's main

format Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informatio ...

is freeform, specializing in independent rock music,

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

, hip-hop, and world music. However, the station also has a large variety of specialty show formats, covering genres from

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

Celtic music Celtic music is a broad grouping of music genres that evolved out of the folk music traditions of the Celtic people of Northwestern Europe. It refers to both orally-transmitted traditional music and recorded music and the styles vary considerab ...

. WRCU also has a handful of

talk shows A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show ...

, covering sports and politics. When the station is not on the air, late at night and during school breaks, it simulcasts

WRVO WRVO Public Media is a non-profit public radio network in Oswego, New York licensed to the State University of New York at Oswego, operating from studios in the Penfield Library on the SUNY Oswego campus. Its multi-station network serves more than ...

, the local

NPR 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 ...

affiliate.

History

According to alumni, the first movement for radio at Colgate was in 1913, where the "Radio Club of Colgate" was formed by students who were interested in communications.Hubbard, John D.
WRCU, the first station in the '90s
, ''The Colgate Scene'', March 1997. Retrieved 2007.06.20. The station started in the 1950s by a handful of students who were merely tinkering with random parts. They began broadcasting on AM (600 & 640 kHz) using carrier current on the campus under the

call letters In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

WCU. The call sign was changed to WRCU in 1958 and coverage was expanded over the Hamilton community by broadcasting over the town's power lines. The station acquired a license from the

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 jurisdiction ...

(FCC) to broadcast as an FM station, with the call letters WRCU-FM in 1970.

Famous alumni

Joe Castiglione Joseph John Castiglione (born March 2, 1947) is an American radio announcer for the Boston Red Sox baseball team,Joe Castigl ...

Lin Brehmer Lin Brehmer (August 19, 1954 – January 22, 2023) was an American disc jockey and radio personality at WXRT in Chicago. Brehmer hosted mornings on WXRT from 1991 to 2020, and middays from early 2020 until taking a leave of absence to undergo ...

References

External links

WRCU 90.1 FM

WRCU.FM
* {{coord, 42.811, N, 75.532, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title Colgate University NPR member stations RCU-FM RCU-FM Radio stations established in 1951 1951 establishments in New York (state)