WUSF (89.7 FM) is the flagship

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 ...

member station in the

Tampa Bay area The Tampa Bay area is a major populated area surrounding Tampa Bay on the west coast of Florida in the United States. It includes the main cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater. It is the 18th largest metropolitan area in the Unite ...

. It is licensed to

Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough C ...

and owned by the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF i ...

. WUSF signed on in 1963, seven years after USF's founding in 1956. It joined NPR in 1976 and was the first public radio station in the country—and the first station of any kind in Florida—to launch HD radio. WUSF's current format features news and talk programming 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, outsourced from NPR and other public radio production outfits. Its

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...

feed features classical music from sister station WSMR. In 2010, USF acquired

Sarasota Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sou ...

Christian radio station WSMR 89.1 MHz from Northwestern College of

Roseville, Minnesota Roseville is a city in Ramsey County, Minnesota, United States. It is one of two Twin Cities suburbs that are adjacent to both Saint Paul and Minneapolis (the other is Lauderdale). The land comprising Falcon Heights, Lauderdale, and southern R ...

. USF planned to change that station's format to

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" al ...

. It would inherit most of the classical music inventory of WUSF, which would switch to a format of NPR news and nighttime jazz programming. WSMR's current reception area is focused on the Sarasota-

Bradenton Bradenton ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city's population is 55,698. History Late 18th and early 19th centuries A settlement established by Maroons or escaped sl ...

area; however, the station's programming will be available online and on WUSF's HD subcarrier. WUSF's format was changed on September 15, 2010; WSMR's relaunch, also scheduled for that day, was delayed due to technical issues. WSMR's sale to USF also includes W280DW, a repeater of WSMR in Brandon that broadcasts on 103.9 MHz and serves Pasco and northern Hillsborough counties; the repeater will continue to repeat WSMR, with the new classical format. Two weeks after the failed launch of classical replacement WSMR, station management came under public scrutiny for neglecting to perform due diligence regarding the purchase of the WSMR transmitter. According to a Bradenton Herald article: :Arthur Doak, an engineer for the FCC, said there was no record of WUSF or Northwestern College conducting an inspection on the tower but said stations are entitled to a review of tower sites. :“If the buyer wanted it done to protect themselves, certainly they could,” Doak said. “That’s between the buyer and the seller.” On October 20, 2022, WUSF announced that it will drop jazz programming later that month.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wusf (Fm) NPR member stations University of South Florida media USF USF (FM) 1963 establishments in Florida Radio stations established in 1963

See also

References

External links