WDGC-FM is a

high school radio High school radio are radio stations located at high schools and usually operated by its students with faculty supervision. The oldest extant high school AM radio station is AM 1450 KBPS in Portland, Oregon. Portland radio station KBPS, first li ...

station located in

Downers Grove, Illinois Downers Grove is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. It was founded in 1832 by Pierce Downer, whose surname serves as the eponym for the village. Per the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the village was ...

. The station is shared between Downers Grove North and Downers Grove South high schools, with the

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

residing at Downers Grove North. When student DJs are not on the air, a computer program that plays songs on shuffle and inserts station identifications and

public service announcements A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. Oftentimes these messages feature unsettling imagery, ideas or behaviors that are des ...

is turned on.

History

WDGC-FM's origins lie in a

carrier current Carrier current transmission, originally called wired wireless, employs guided low-power Radio frequency, radio-frequency signals, which are transmitted along electrical conductors. The transmissions are picked up by receivers that are either conne ...

station started in 1966. It was then known as WDGN and operated at 600 AM. WDGC-FM was granted a construction permit on November 25, 1968.History Cards for WDGC-FM
fcc.gov. Retrieved May 18, 2020. On February 28, 1969, WDGC-FM began broadcasting with 10 watts of power on 88.3 FM. In 1974, the station's ERP was increased to 250 watts, using a directional antenna to protect nearby stations on adjacent frequencies. In 1997, the old transmitter was replaced with a new

Broadcast Electronics Broadcast Electronics (BE) is a manufacturer of AM and FM transmitters, Marti Electronics STL and RPU equipment, developer of the AudioVAULT radio automation system and parent company to Commotion - a social media company for radio. Founded in ...

transmitter. In 1998, the station purchased digital Pacific Research and Engineering Airwave consoles for both studios. The cart machines at the North studio were replaced with

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

minidisc MiniDisc (MD) is an erasable magneto-optical disc-based data storage format offering a capacity of 60, 74, or 80 minutes of digitized audio. Sony announced the MiniDisc in September 1992 and released it in November of that year for sale i ...

systems and a non-linear computer based

audio editing Audio editing software is any software or computer program which allows editing and generating audio data. Audio editing software can be implemented completely or partly as a library, as a computer application, as a web application, or as a loa ...

program. WDGC-FM was silent from June 1, 2019 to November 14, 2020.FCC Report 11/28: Illinois High School Station Fined To Settle Compliance Issues
, ''RadioInsight''. November 28, 2021. Retrieved December 10, 2021.FCC Fines District 99 Radio Station $1K For Rule Noncompliance
, Patch. December 3, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2021. Feder, Robert.
Robservations: ABC 7 wins late-news ratings in November; Sports anchor Dan Roan talks up retirement; WGN Radio overlooks Dan Hampton arrest
, RobertFeder.com. November 29, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2021. In November 2020, the station was fined $1,000 for failing to notify the FCC of its silent status and request authorization to remain silent in a timely fashion, making a false certification on its license renewal application, as well as other violations.

References

External links

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WDGC Radio AlumniCommunity High School District 99
{{Aurora-Elgin-Wheaton Radio DGC-FM High school radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1969 1969 establishments in Illinois