WRUC

Infobox Radio station
name = WRUC
airdate = 1920
frequency = 89.7 MHz
city = Schenectady, New York
area = Schenectady, Capital District
format = Student Run
owner = Union College
power = 100 W
erp = 100 W
class = A
callsign_meaning = Wireless Radio of Union College
website = [http://wruc.union.edu/ http://wruc.union.edu]

WRUC (89.7 FM) is the campus radio station of Union College in Schenectady, New York. The 100-watt station also streams on the Internet at [http://wruc.union.edu/ wruc.union.edu.]

The station is widely recognized as America's first college radio station, [http://www.collegetoolkit.com/Colleges/Profile/196866.aspx] and has been broadcasting since October 14, 1920. The New York Times noted in its April 25, 1921 edition that a broadcast by the Union College radio club could be heard 1,000 miles away. The paper also detailed one month later an experiment in which a baby being pushed in a carriage through Schenectady was able to receive a radio broadcast.

The station previously aired on 640 AM and on 90.9 FM, before assuming its current dial position in the mid 1980s.

While some of these claims are disputed, station records indicate that it was the "first station in the nation", airing experimental content before Pittsburgh's KDKA. It is also believed to have aired one of the first sports broadcasts in the country.

The station currently operates regularly only when Union College is in session.

Among the station's most famous alumni is Dick Ferguson, the 2002 National Radio Award winner, as named by the National Association of Broadcasters. [http://www.nab.org/Newsroom/PressRel/RS2002/R0402.htm] Ferguson retired as the Executive Vice President of Cox Radio in 2006.

External links