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''Broadcasting'', November 1, 1937, pages 60-61. In addition, in January 1938 the band's first 25 channels, from 41.02 to 41.98 MHz, were reserved for non-commercial educational stations. (Although there had been stations operated by educational institutions on the standard AM band since the early 1920s, there had not been a separate license classification for them.) WUKY began broadcasting on October 17, 1940 as WBKY, a 100-watt station on 42.90 MHz in Beattyville. The original program director was Ruth Foxx Newborg, and from the beginning the station was owned by University of Kentucky. Its primary mission was to serve rural schools, and at its start the schedule was limited to noon to 2:00 p.m. on weekdays. The station soon ran into technical and financial problems, and suspended operations after June 27, 1941. WBKY was the last of three educational station assignments granted on the Apex band. At the time the Apex band was established the FCC noted that "The Commission at an early date will consider carefully the needs and requirements for high-frequency broadcast stations using both conventional Mmodulation and frequency modulation". The commission's studies soon found significant advantages to FM transmissions over the Apex AM signals, with sound quality, and especially resistance to interference from static, including from lightning, found to be far superior for FM. In May 1940, the FCC announced the creation of an FM broadcast band, effective January 1, 1941, operating on 40 channels spanning 42–50 MHz, with the first five channels reserved for educational stations. This new assignment also resulted in the elimination of the Apex band, and the Apex stations were informed that they needed to either go silent or convert to FM. The deadline for the switch to FM transmissions was extended for WBKY, and it continued to be authorized for amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions on 42.9 MHz until May 1, 1944.
"WUKY Turns 75"
by Tom Godell, ''Radio World'', October 1, 2015.
University of Kentucky
FCC History Cards for WUKY
(covering WBKY 1939-1979) {{Coord, 37.879, N, 84.326, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title adult album alternative radio stations in the United States NPR member stations radio stations established in 1940 UKY University of Kentucky
WUKY (91.3
. The station broadcasts from state of the art MHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...
) is a listener-supported, public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
FM 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 ...
in Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County. By population, it is the List of cities in Kentucky, second-largest city in Kentucky and List of United States cities by popul ...
. Owned by the University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...
(UK), it has an Adult Album Alternative
Adult album alternative (also triple-A, AAA, or adult alternative) is a radio format. See pages 9 and 10Mills, Joshua. "A New Radio Music Format: Rock for Prosperous Adults" New York Times, Feb 28 1994, p. 2. ProQuest. Web. Accessed September 4, 2 ...
radio format
A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...
, airing more than 100 hours of music per week. Some news and informational programming is supplied by 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 ...
(NPR), Public Radio International
Public Radio International (PRI) was an American public radio organization. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, PRI provided programming to over 850 public radio stations in the United States.
PRI was one of the main providers of programm ...
(PRI), American Public Media
American Public Media (APM) is an American company that produces and distributes public radio programs in the United States, the second largest company of its type after NPR. Its non-profit parent, American Public Media Group, also owns and oper ...
(APM) and the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...radio studio
A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enoug ...
s in northwestern Lexington at the intersection of Greendale Road and Spurr Road.
WUKY is supported by its listeners, with periodic fundraiser
Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...
s airing during the year. It also receives funding from the university, as well as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, ...
, and its underwriters. WUKY has an effective radiated power
Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would hav ...
(ERP) of 100,000 watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...
s, the maximum for most FM stations in the U.S.
History
Establishment as AM Apex station WBKY
Organized radio broadcasting was introduced in the United States in the early 1920s, and by the mid-1930s the standard AM broadcast band was considered to be too full to allow any meaningful increase in the number of stations. Looking to expand the number of available frequencies, theFederal 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) began to issue licenses to parties interested in testing the suitability of using higher transmitting frequencies between roughly 25 and 44 MHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...
. These stations were informally known as "Apex" stations, due to the tall height of their transmitter antennas, which were needed because coverage was primarily limited to local line-of-sight distances. These original Apex stations operated under experimental licenses, and like standard broadcasting stations used amplitude modulation
Amplitude modulation (AM) is a modulation technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting messages with a radio wave. In amplitude modulation, the amplitude (signal strength) of the wave is varied in proportion to ...
(AM) transmissions.
In October 1937, the FCC announced a sweeping allocation of frequency assignments that included a band for Apex stations, consisting of 75 channels with 40 kHz separations, and spanning from 41.02 to 43.98 MHz."Upper Bands Set Aside for Television"''Broadcasting'', November 1, 1937, pages 60-61. In addition, in January 1938 the band's first 25 channels, from 41.02 to 41.98 MHz, were reserved for non-commercial educational stations. (Although there had been stations operated by educational institutions on the standard AM band since the early 1920s, there had not been a separate license classification for them.) WUKY began broadcasting on October 17, 1940 as WBKY, a 100-watt station on 42.90 MHz in Beattyville. The original program director was Ruth Foxx Newborg, and from the beginning the station was owned by University of Kentucky. Its primary mission was to serve rural schools, and at its start the schedule was limited to noon to 2:00 p.m. on weekdays. The station soon ran into technical and financial problems, and suspended operations after June 27, 1941. WBKY was the last of three educational station assignments granted on the Apex band. At the time the Apex band was established the FCC noted that "The Commission at an early date will consider carefully the needs and requirements for high-frequency broadcast stations using both conventional Mmodulation and frequency modulation". The commission's studies soon found significant advantages to FM transmissions over the Apex AM signals, with sound quality, and especially resistance to interference from static, including from lightning, found to be far superior for FM. In May 1940, the FCC announced the creation of an FM broadcast band, effective January 1, 1941, operating on 40 channels spanning 42–50 MHz, with the first five channels reserved for educational stations. This new assignment also resulted in the elimination of the Apex band, and the Apex stations were informed that they needed to either go silent or convert to FM. The deadline for the switch to FM transmissions was extended for WBKY, and it continued to be authorized for amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions on 42.9 MHz until May 1, 1944.
Transfer to FM
In June 1944 WBKY was issued permission to move from Beattyville to the Lexington campus of the University of Kentucky. In early 1945 the station was reactivated as an FM station, still transmitting at 42.9 MHz, from its current home at McVey Hall on the university campus. In July 1945 the FCC announced that, due to interference concerns, it was reallocating the current FM "low band" frequencies to other services, and existing FM band stations would be relocated to 88-106 MHz (later expanded to 108 MHz). WBKY began testing the transmitter for its new assignment of 91.3 MHz in June 1947, although for a time it continued to also broadcast on its original 42.9 MHz frequency in order to ease the transition. In 1948 the station reported that due to the lack of listeners with FM radios, it was on the air for only 6 hours per week, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings. WBKY helped create NPR, and was one of the 90 stations that carried the inaugural broadcast of ''All Things Considered
''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...
'' when it debuted in 1971. On October 1, 1989 the station changed its call letters to WUKY, to better reflect its affiliation with the University of Kentucky. Longtime ''All Things Considered'' host Noah Adams
Noah Adams is an American broadcast journalist and author, known primarily since 1987 from National Public Radio.
Career
A former co-host of the daily ''All Things Considered'' program, Adams is currently the contributing correspondent at ...
began his career at WBKY. The station celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2015.by Tom Godell, ''Radio World'', October 1, 2015.
References
External links
*University of Kentucky
FCC History Cards for WUKY
(covering WBKY 1939-1979) {{Coord, 37.879, N, 84.326, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title adult album alternative radio stations in the United States NPR member stations radio stations established in 1940 UKY University of Kentucky