WFSU is the callsign (or variations thereon) for public radio stations operated by Florida State University in

Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the populatio ...

Stations

WFSU operates three radio stations that serve northern Florida:

WFSU-FM

WFSU-FM (88.9 FM) is a Tallahassee-based news/talk/public affairs station carrying several

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 ...

programs and overnight BBC World Service programming. Also relays to the following translators:

WFSQ & WFSL

WFSQ (91.5 FM) is a Tallahassee-based classical music station. Also heard on WFSL (90.7 FM) in

Thomasville, Georgia Thomasville is the county seat of Thomas County, Georgia, United States. The population was 18,413 at the 2010 United States Census, making it the second largest city in southwest Georgia after Albany. The city deems itself the "City of Roses" an ...

, and relays to the following translator:

WFSW

WFSW (89.1 FM) is a

Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...

-based news/talk/public affairs station. Offers many of the same programs as WFSU. Also relays to the following translators:

History

Florida State entered radio on January 21, 1949, when WFSU started as a student-run radio station at 660 AM. Due to the terms of its license, the signal was limited to the confines of the Florida State campus. It was on the air for three hours every night during the week, with a lineup of campus news, interviews, music and an occasional radio drama. The station was forced off the air in April

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yug ...

due to complaints that the signal was leaking off campus. Florida State applied for a low-powered FM license, and WFSU returned to the air at 91.5 FM in July 1954. Soon afterward, it joined the National Association of Educational Broadcasters, allowing it to significantly upgrade its programming with offerings from BBC World Service and

Radio France Radio France is the French national public radio broadcaster. Stations Radio France offers seven national networks: * France Inter — Radio France's " generalist" station, featuring entertaining and informative talk mixed with a wide variety o ...

. It also began carrying Seminoles football games because no commercial station in Tallahassee would carry them. In

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

, WFSU-FM became a charter member of NPR, and was one of the 90 stations to carry the initial 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 ...

.'' In the 1970s, it shifted to a format of mostly classical music. The station continued to grow during the 1980s, but was somewhat hampered by problems with its signal. Unlike most NPR stations of the time, it had no backup power source for its transmitter, resulting in frequent outages. The station's reception was also marginal at best in the northeastern part of the city, which is very hilly. To solve the problem, WFSU won approval for a new station on 88.9 FM, operating from a new tower northeast of Tallahassee. All NPR news and information programming moved there on October 14, 1990. Classical music remained on 91.5, which received new call letters, WFSQ. However, due to the legal structure of the changeover, 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 jurisdicti ...

considers WFSQ to be the same station as the old WFSU. To improve its coverage on the Georgia side of the market, Florida State started WFSL in 2003. WFSW signed on in 1996, providing Panama City with a second NPR service, alongside

Gulf Coast Community College Gulf Coast State College is a public college in Panama City, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System and offers the Associate of Arts degree, Associate of Science degree, certificates, and as of 2011, bachelor's degrees. History The ...

WKGC-FM WKGC-FM (90.7 FM) is a radio station licensed to Panama City, Florida, United States. The station is currently owned by Gulf Coast State College. WKGC-FM was the brainchild of two Gulf Coast students, Charles Wooten and Ron Johnson, who concoct ...

. Panama City is one of the smallest cities in the country with separate NPR stations.

Controversy

In June 2011, it was revealed that WFSU will receive $2.8 million in funding for various services related to Florida government. This is despite the $4.8 million of funding to other public radio and television stations vetoed by Governor Rick Scott in May 2011.

References

External links

WFSU website
{{NPR Georgia NPR member stations Florida State University Classical music radio stations in the United States FSU-FM NPR member networks Radio stations established in 1949 1949 establishments in Florida FSU-FM