KWGS (89.5 FM) is a listener-supported,

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 ...

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 ...

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...

. KWGS and its

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

88.7 KWTU are owned and operated by the

University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a Private university, private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Presbyterian Church, although it is now nondenominational, and the campus ...

. The studios and offices are located in Kendall Hall near the intersection of 5th Place and Florence Avenue, on the university's campus. KWGS is a Class C1 station. It has an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ha ...

(ERP) of 50,000

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 South 273rd Avenue East, off the

Muskogee Turnpike The Muskogee Turnpike, also designated State Highway 351 (SH-351), is a controlled-access toll road in eastern Oklahoma. Route description Opened in 1969, the 53-mile (85.2 km) route begins at the Broken Arrow Expressway ( SH-51) southe ...

in Broken Arrow. KWGS is licensed by the

U.S. Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains ju ...

to broadcast using

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

technology. The HD2

subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compressi ...

plays

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and the HD3 subchannel carries 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 ...

Programming

News makes up the majority of programming on KWGS. It 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. It airs shows from NPR and other public radio networks on weekdays, including ''

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 ''Fresh Air'' is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States since 1985. It is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show's hosts are Terry Gross and Tonya Mosl ...

, 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 ...

''. The

runs overnight. On weekends, KWGS carries hour-long specialty shows, including '' Snap Judgment, Radiolab, The Moth Radio Hour, Selected Shorts, It's Been A Minute, Freakonomics Radio,

This American Life ''This American Life'' is a weekly hour-long American radio program produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media and hosted by Ira Glass. It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in the United States and internationally, and is ...

, Latino USA,

Hidden Brain ''Hidden Brain'' is a science podcast hosted by Shankar Vedantam. Background The show originally began as a segment of '' NPRs ''Morning Edition''. The first episode of the podcast focused on a concept called "switchtracking". Vedantam fou ...

, To the Best of Our Knowledge, The Splendid Table, The TED Radio Hour'' and '' Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me''. Music shows are heard on weekend evenings, mostly

as well as

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

and

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 ...

. The station airs ''

American Routes ''American Routes'' is a weekly two-hour public radio program that presents the breadth and depth of the American musical and cultural landscape. Hosted by Nick Spitzer, ''American Routes'' is syndicated by 225 stations, with over half a million ...

'' on Sunday evenings.

History

KWGS is Tulsa's oldest FM station. It was established in the 1940s, through the initiative of TU speech professor Ben Graf Henneke, who later became president of the university. The call letters are the initials of Tulsa oil executive and philanthropist William G. Skelly, who provided the funding. The station signed on the air on . For most of its first decades, it was a

college radio Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produced ...

station, offering students a chance to develop broadcasting skills. Few people owned FM receivers in that era, so the station did not have a large audience outside the campus. In the 1960s, it increased its power to 4,100 watts, using a 500 foot (152 meter)

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 ...

. That allowed it to be heard around Tulsa and adjacent suburbs. Then in the 1980s, the station got a signal upgrade. It increased both power and tower height to current levels. And it switched to a public radio news and information format, becoming a member of

.''Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 1990'' page B-252. Retrieved Aug. 16, 2024.
/ref> Until the early 2000s, KWGS's schedule included some classical music, along with its news and information programming. Management wanted to give classical listeners a full time station. In 2004, co-owned 88.7 KWTU came on the air, offering classical and other genres of music. That allowed KWGS to air all news, talk and information most days, with some music on weekends.

References

External links

Voices of Oklahoma interview with Ed Dumit.
First person interview conducted on September 29, 2011 with Ed Dumit, former art producer for KWGS. {{coord, 36.021, N, 95.676, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title WGS News and talk radio stations in the United States NPR member stations Public radio stations in the United States University of Tulsa 1947 establishments in Oklahoma Radio stations established in 1947