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History Of WRUF
Thanks to Marc
Tyll for this history of WRUF
WRUF-FM began operations in 1948 with 27,500
watts operating on 103.7 mHz as North Central Florida’s ONLY FM radio station.
There were very few FM stations in 1948 with WDBO-FM
92.3 Orlando, being the next FM station, within 100 miles of
Gainesville, which began in operation 1952. WRUF-FM
was constructed and owned by the University of Florida. By the early to mid 60s, WRUF-FM
began programming Beautiful Music combined with classical music, billed as
"Fine Arts Radio". In the early '70s the format became totally beautiful music with special
weekend classical music and other fine arts programming. As
a beautiful music station, WRUF-FM became
known as "Stereo 104" and was North Central Florida’s CBS Radio
affiliate, broadcasting CBS World News and the popular CBS Mystery
Theatre. Weekends consisted of the classical sounds of Mozart, Strauss,
Beethoven, Chopin and many others. Sunday afternoons consisted of
Fine Arts and cultural programming where you could hear your favorite Opera
selections.
In 1979 at the height of the '70s disco era, WRUF-FM
made a bold move when program director Harry Guslott hired Professor Chuck
Woods to produce and host "Studio 104" heard Saturday evenings.
"Studio 104" consisted of all the hottest disco tunes that were being
played on Top 40 radio and also heard in all the dance clubs. "Studio
104" was quite a contrast from normal "Stereo 104" programming
and became a huge hit among the University students and the general population.
By mid 1981, WRUF-FM constructed a new 1,000
foot tower and raised the power to 100,000 watts, greatly extending their
coverage area into Ocala, Palatka, the Gulf Coast, and all of North Central
Florida. The station could be heard from Ocala to Valdosta, Georgia, and soon
after completing the power increase, WRUF-FM
made another bold move when Progressive Rock station WGVL-FM 105.5
switched format to Contemporary Hits as "Kiss 105". WRUF-FM
saw a void left by WGVL and made the jump to Progressive Rock, dropping
all "Stereo 104" programming. Gone were all the cultural and fine arts
programming. The CBS Radio Network was replaced with CBS Radio-Radio,
a news network geared towards AOR radio listeners. However all was not lost for
Fine Arts listeners. The University of Florida constructed a new 100,000
watt non-commercial FM station broadcasting on 89.1 known as "Classic
89". The call letters were WUFT-FM and, with he exception of the CBS
Mystery Theatre, all former "Stereo 104" programming was placed on
"Classic 89". "Rock
104", as it was called, started out as a hard rock Top 40 sounding station,
but quickly eliminated all the Top 40 music and added only hard rock tunes to
the play-list. "Rock 104" was widely accepted and embraced by the
market as it filled a void left by the former "Quadship" WGVL-FM
105.5. "Rock 104"
made a few music adjustments over the years going from hard rock, to classic
rock, and back to mainstream AOR, but has always remained a highly rated radio
station within the Ocala/Gainesville market. Soon Jacksonville based syndicated Lex
and Terry were added to the line-up as the new "Rock 104" morning
show. The rest of the broadcast day is hosted by communications students who
receive college credit for interning on "Rock 104". In 2001, after 20
years as the market’s album rock station, Rock 104 completely revamped its
programming to Active/Alternative rock, but remains known as "Rock
104".
From Don Smith, who was with
WRUF-AM&FM between 1950 and 1954 adds to the history of WRUF-FM.
"...The management of WRUF --
which operated well beyond the 1950s as a separate component of the University
of Florida and with no academic function whatsoever -- used the new FM
facility mostly as a training ground for on-air talent who hoped to
"graduate" to the AM side. Typically, it separated its daily
duplication each afternoon and broadcast its own schedule of mainly sustaining
programs. Some of these were parts of the MBS schedule disdained by AM;
most were locally originated music shows that tilted toward an easy
listening format. And, from time to time, WRUF-FM aired University of
Florida sporting events (baseball, basketball, track) as yet another means of
giving young talent an opportunity to develop those skills.
From Edison
McIntyre
I worked for WRUF-FM in 1975-76 while attending the University
of Florida as a broadcasting major. I already had a degree in
music and was primarily interested in the classical programming on the
FM side of WRUF; unlike many of the student broadcasters who
worked there, I never aspired to "graduate" to the AM side.
In 1975-76, we ran classical music programs M-F, 7pm-11pm. The
first three hours were produced by "Radio Center," a part of
UF's College of Journalism and Communications, supervised by Dr.
Mickie Edwardson and Dr. Sid Pactor of the broadcasting
faculty. Broadcasting students scripted the programs and did the
announcing. Drs. Edwardson and Pactor did most of the music selection,
and I was proud when they allowed me to assume that function for several
months in 1975-76. For a time, WRUF-FM's staff, for which I
also worked, did the 10-11pm hour of classical music, but sometime late
in 1975 or early in 1976, that last evening hour of classical music was
eliminated and reverted to the "beautiful music" format that
dominated the rest of the station's schedule at that time.
On weekends, the WRUF-FM staff also did some classical music
programming -- usually 7pm to 10 or 11pm Saturday and for a few hours on
Sunday afternoon and evenings. WRUF-FM also presented the
live Metropolitan
Opera broadcasts on Saturday afternoons (December through April)
for many years, until they moved over to WUFT-FM. And for a
time in 1975 -- I'm not sure how long this went on -- there also was a
two-hour folk music program on WRUF-FM on Saturday afternoons
(4-6pm or in that neighborhood). I don't recall that there was
much jazz programming on WRUF-FM at that time, but there may have
been in earlier years. In 1975-76, Radio Center did produce a short jazz
program that was played on Friday nights, as well as a weekly program of
Broadway scores and songs. We were trying to be a
"public" radio station in presenting a diverse array of
musical programming. I recall that neither Dr. Edwardson nor WRUF-FM
station manager Bob Leach were very pleased when I programmed
20th-century, atonal compositions, especially back-to-back-to-back.
I learned that trying to "educate" listeners about modern
music wasn't very productive if they had already tuned you out -- an
important lesson for a young broadcaster.
Technically a commercial station, WRUF-FM was heavily subsidized
by the university; even in the non-classical blocks, ad spots were rare,
compared to the AM station. WRUF-FM's "beautiful music"
format in that era was called "Stereo Montage," and it was
roundly disliked by most of the (mostly student) announcers who ran the
board and spun the LPs on the FM side. ("Stereo Garbage,"
"Stereo Garage," "Stereo Barrage," etc.) We
had about 600-800 LPs that we used -- divided among instrumentals, male
vocals, and female vocals -- and we announcers would cycle through each
group, one cut per album, according to a rigid format (mostly instrumental
cuts, no more than two or three vocals per hour). There was a
slight element of creativity in this, because the announcer got to
choose the cut played from each LP, but I don't recall that we did
much voicing, or back-announcing of the selections we played. At
the top of every hour, we ID'd, of course, and ran network news (CBS). I
was very pleased when Bob Leach called me one day while I was on
the air to commend me for my "Stereo Montage" selections.
Alas, sometime in the fall of 1975 or thereabouts, Leach decided to
abandon the announcer-selected LPs and started subscribing to an
"easy listening" tape service. That significantly reduced
interest among many students in working on the FM side, already
considered the less challenging aspect of the WRUF operation.
"Everybody" wanted to do the rock jock thing on the AM side,
of course.
Sid Pactor is still at UF in an emeritus status, but Bob Leach
left us long ago, and just this past June 15, Mickie Edwardson passed
away. I worked for WRUF-FM for about fifteen months before leaving
Gainesville to work for a couple of non-commercial classical stations in
North Carolina. My experience at WRUF-FM and Radio Center was
invaluable, and the people I worked with were great teachers.
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