WRFC (960 kHz) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

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 ...

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 ...

. It airs a

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

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 was compelle ...

, mostly using programming from

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN ...

. Owned by

Cox Media Group CMG Media Corporation ( doing business as Cox Media Group) is an American media conglomerate principally owned by Apollo Global Management in conjunction with Cox Enterprises, which maintains a 29% minority stake in the company. The company pri ...

, the television and radio subsidiary of

Cox Enterprises Cox Enterprises, Inc. is a privately held global conglomerate headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, with approximately 55,000 employees and $21 billion in total revenue. Its major operating subsidiaries are Cox Communications and ...

, the station is

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a family, familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to r ...

to radio stations

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 ...

WGAU WGAU (1340 AM, "News-Talk 1340") is a radio station licensed to serve Athens, Georgia, United States, that broadcasts a news/talk format. The transmitter is located at the studios (with WNGC) in Five Points. WGAU began broadcasting on May 1, 19 ...

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 ...

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 ...

WXKT WXKT (103.7 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a Variety Hits format as "103.7 Chuck FM". Licensed to Maysville, Georgia, it serves the Gainesville area and can generally be heard as far west as Doraville and as far south as Athens. It first ...

and the WSB family of stations in nearby

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

. WRFC has studios in downtown Athens. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...

is located off West Vincent Drive in the North Valley neighborhood, northwest of Athens.

Programming

WRFC features local sports shows during weekday morning and afternoon

drive time Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this cl ...

, as well as a

Georgia Bulldogs The Georgia Bulldogs are the athletic teams that represent the University of Georgia. The female athletic teams are sometimes referred to as Lady Bulldogs. The Bulldogs compete in NCAA Division I and are members of the Southeastern Conference ( ...

hour at noon. The rest of the schedule uses programming from

. The station carries

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, as well as

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) East division. The Braves were founded in ...

baseball games and

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The Falcon ...

football games Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

History

On May 1, 1948, WRFC first

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature, placing one's name on a document * Signature (disambiguation) * Manual communication, signing as a form of communication using the hands in place of the voice * Digital signature A digi ...

the air. It was originally owned by L. H. Christian, with the

call sign 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 ass ...

chosen for his father, Robert Franklin Christian. The station began as a 1,000-watt

daytimer A clear-channel station is an AM radio station in North America that has the highest protection from interference from other stations, particularly concerning night-time skywave propagation. The system exists to ensure the viability of cross-co ...

, required to go off the air at night. The studios were at 279 North Lumpkin Street, in Athens. WRFC later operated for many years at 5,000 watts non-directional daytime and 500 watts directional nighttime using a three

tower array A tower array is an arrangement of multiple radio towers which are mast radiators in a phased array. They were originally developed as ground-based tracking radars. Tower arrays can consist of free-standing or guyed towers or a mix of them. Tower ...

northeast of Athens, with studios in an impressive mansion in downtown Athens. It featured 4

full service Full service or Full Service may refer to: * Full-service radio, a wide range of programming * Full Service Network, a communications company Entertainment * "Full Service", a song by the New Kids on the Block from their album ''The Block'' * Ful ...

formats throughout its history, such as Top 40, middle of the road, and adult contemporary formats of popular music, news, and sports. On February 20, 1971,

NORAD North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and protection ...

broadcast a normal required weekly test of the

Emergency Broadcast System The Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), sometimes called the Emergency Broadcasting System or the Emergency Action Notification System (EANS), was an emergency warning system used in the United States. It replaced the previous CONELRAD system an ...

. However,

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile ...

reported that the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

used the wrong tape by accident, initiating an Emergency Action Notification, normally issued by the president. It prompted all north Georgia radio stations by order of the FCC to operate under emergency procedures and feed the broadcast from primary station 750 WSB in Atlanta through their transmitters. Everett Langford was at the microphone at WRFC and had no idea what had happened. He listened to WSB but heard no emergency announcements. He was attempting to call the owner, L.H. Christian, when he heard the corrected message from the Air Force. Listeners could hear in his voice that he was very relieved it was only a mistake. In 1981, WRFC dropped its Top 40 format and went into a short-lived MOR format. This didn't last long. WRFC dropped MOR and went into

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

in 1982. When 1993 rolled along, the station began adding talk programs and sports programming from ESPN, although their adult contemporary format remains in place until the station dropped adult contemporary a year later in 1994. In January 2008, WRFC was sold (along with sister stations

, and

) to Cox Radio in Atlanta. Southern Broadcasting of Athens and associated owners continue as a wholly owned subsidiary of Cox."Deals," ''Broadcasting & Cable'', January 28, 2008.

Former on-air staff

* John Holliman (news, later with CNN) (deceased) * Bill Hartman (sports and news) * Johnny Jay (real name: Howard Toole) * Larry Melear (1965–75) (was also chief engineer 1965–70 and 1971–75) (deceased) * Jim Byard (1968 -1970) * Tom Collins (1968 - 1971) * Earl Pledger (1969–71) * Everett Langford (1967–71) (was also chief engineer 1970–71) *

Ed Thilenius Edward Albert Thilenius (December 4, 1924 – March 23, 1981) was an American sports announcer. He served as the play-by-play voice of the University of Georgia Bulldogs football team from 1955 through 1965 and was part of the inaugural Atlanta F ...

(sports) * A.O. "Red" Healan * Kate Murphy (Kathleen Emerson-Lambert) * Jim Koger * Morris "Night Owl" Knight * Larry Johnson * Charles Pinckney * Craig Williams * Jim Powell * Chris Jones (sports and news 1970-1974) * Bob Burton (news) * Phil Scoggins (sports and news) * Garry Glenn (sports and news) * Tony McVeigh (news)

References

External links

{{Athens, Georgia RFC Cox Media Group Radio stations established in 1948