KGOU (106.3

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

) is a

non-commercial A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that is not carried out in the interest of Profit (economics), profit. The opposite is Commerce, commercial, something that primarily serves profit interests and is focused on bu ...

, listener-supported,

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...

. It is licensed to

Norman, Oklahoma Norman () is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, 3rd most populous city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,026 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the most populous city and the county seat of Clevel ...

, and serves the Oklahoma City Metroplex."KGOU."
Accessed December 23, 2017. It is owned by the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the ...

, with the license held by the Board of Regents. It is operated by OU's College of Continuing Education (OU Outreach). Studios are in Copeland Hall on Van Vleet Oval, part of the OU campus. The staff consists of ten full-time and four part-time employees. KGOU is a Class A FM station. It has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 6,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s. 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 ...

is on East Indian Hills Road at 60th Avenue NE in Norman. Programming is also heard on four full-power satellites: KROU (105.7 FM) in Spencer, KWOU (88.1 FM) in Woodward, KOUA (91.9 FM) in Ada, and KQOU (89.1 FM) in Clinton. It also operates

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...

s in

Seminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ...

(103.1 FM), in Ada (97.9 FM), in Chickasha (106.9 FM) and in Shawnee (105.1 FM).

Programming

KGOU is a

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

(NPR) member station. On weekdays, KGOU has a news and information format with programming from NPR and other public radio networks. They include ''

Morning Edition ''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 a ...

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

, Fresh Air, 1A, Here and Now'' and ''

Marketplace A marketplace, market place, or just market, is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a ''souk'' (from ...

''. Evenings feature jazz music from The

WFMT WFMT (98.7 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, with a classical music radio format. It is part of Window to the World Communications, Inc, in the same company as Chicago's PBS member station WTTW. WFMT seeks donations ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Jazz Network. The

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

runs overnight. On weekdays at 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. and most of the day on weekends, KGOU airs one-hour specialty shows from NPR and other public radio networks. They include '' Reveal, Radiolab, Freakonomics Radio, This American Life, Zorba Paster on Your Health, Snap Judgment, The TED Radio Hour, The Splendid Table, To the Best of Our Knowledge, Travel with Rick Steves, Left, Right and Center'' and '' Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me''. Weekend evenings have shows devoted to

world music "World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, Cross-cultural communication, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

, bossa nova,

new age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...

, Broadway and Hollywood show tunes.

History

KGOU signed on the air on . It was originally licensed as a

commercial radio Commercial broadcasting (also called private broadcasting) is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship, for example. It was the United States' first model ...

station. KGOU had a

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

format and sold advertisements, even though it was owned by the University of Oklahoma, a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

. The

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

was atop Walker Dormitory. The station was an affiliate of the ABC FM Radio Network. In the early 1980s, OU decided to use KGOU as a public radio station and discontinue the rock music and commercial ads. The university applied to the FCC for a non-commercial license. The station's new public radio format, featuring news and talk, took effect on New Year's Day, 1983. The studios were originally located in Kaufman Hall on the OU campus. KGOU's main signal operates at 6,000 watts, which is fairly modest for a full NPR member station on the FM band. By contrast, Oklahoma State University's public radio station, 91.7 KOSU Stillwater, is powered at 100,000 watts and can also be heard in Oklahoma City. Soon after joining NPR, OU sought a license for a repeater station that would better cover Oklahoma City's northern suburbs. This station, 105.7 KROU, officially signed on the air on . This means listeners in the suburbs south of Oklahoma City can tune in 106.3 KGOU while those north of Oklahoma City can listen to 105.7 KROU. KROU was the first in a network of eight repeater stations and

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

s that cover much of central and western Oklahoma. KGOU renovated space in Copeland Hall on the OU campus in 2006. It moved its studios and offices to Copeland Hall that fall. A rebroadcaster in Clinton was added in December 2017. Cameron University transferred the license for a station at 89.1 FM to KGOU ownership. The move expanded KGOU's listener base to 32 counties, nearly all in central, western and east-central Oklahoma. The new call sign for the Clinton transmitter is KQOU.Pryor, Dick. "KGOU adds Clinton transmitter." KGOU. December 6, 2017.
Accessed December 23, 2017. It has an ERP of 40,000 watts, the most powerful station in KGOU's network.Radio-Locator.com/KQOU
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Repeaters

Translators

References

External links

KGOU station website
* * * * * * * * {{coord, 35.2895, N, 97.3586, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title GOU NPR member stations Jazz radio stations in the United States GOU Radio stations established in 1970 1970 establishments in Oklahoma