WFSU is the callsign (or variations thereon) for public

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 ...

s operated by

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of and the only incorporated municipality in Leon County, Florida, Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Fl ...

Stations

WFSU operates three radio stations that serve northern Florida:

WFSU-FM

WFSU-FM (88.9 FM) is a Tallahassee-based news/talk/public affairs station carrying several

NPR 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 ...

programs and overnight

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. Also relays to the following translators:

WFSQ & WFSL

WFSQ (91.5 FM) is a Tallahassee-based

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 ...

station. Also heard on WFSL (90.7 FM) in

Thomasville, Georgia Thomasville is the county seat of Thomas County, Georgia, United States. The population was 18,881 in 2020. The city deems itself the "City of Roses" and holds an annual Rose Festival. The city features plantations open to the public, a histor ...

, and relays to the following translator:

WFSW

WFSW (89.1 FM) is a

Panama City Panama City, also known as Panama, is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has a total population of 1,086,990, with over 2,100,000 in its metropolitan area. The city is located at the Pacific Ocean, Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, i ...

-based news/talk/public affairs station. Offers many of the same programs as WFSU. Also relays to the following translators:

History

Florida State entered radio on January 21, 1949, when WFSU started as a student-run radio station at 660 AM. Due to the terms of its license, the signal was limited to the confines of the Florida State campus. It was on the air for three hours every night during the week, with a lineup of campus news, interviews, music and an occasional radio drama. The station was forced off the air in April

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

due to complaints that the signal was leaking off campus. Florida State applied for a low-powered FM license, and WFSU returned to the air at 91.5 FM in July

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

. Soon afterward, it joined the National Association of Educational Broadcasters, allowing it to significantly upgrade its programming with offerings from

and

Radio France Radio France () is the French national public radio broadcaster. Stations Radio France offers seven national networks: *France Inter — Radio France's "generalist media, generalist" station, featuring entertaining and informative talk mixed wi ...

. It also began carrying Seminoles football games because no commercial station in Tallahassee would carry them. In

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

, WFSU-FM became a charter member of NPR, and was one of the 90 stations to carry the initial broadcast of ''

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 ...

.'' In the 1970s, it shifted to a format of mostly classical music. The station continued to grow during the 1980s, but was somewhat hampered by problems with its signal. Unlike most NPR stations of the time, it had no backup power source for its transmitter, resulting in frequent outages. The station's reception was also marginal at best in the northeastern part of the city, which is very hilly. To solve the problem, WFSU won approval for a new station on 88.9 FM, operating from a new tower northeast of Tallahassee. All NPR news and information programming moved there on October 14, 1990. Classical music remained on 91.5, which received new call letters, WFSQ. However, due to the legal structure of the changeover, the

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 j ...

considers WFSQ to be the same station as the old WFSU. To improve its coverage on the Georgia side of the market, Florida State started WFSL in

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

. WFSW signed on in

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

, providing Panama City with a second NPR service, alongside Gulf Coast Community College's WKGC-FM. Panama City is one of the smallest cities in the country with separate NPR stations.

Controversy

In June 2011, it was revealed that WFSU will receive $2.8 million in funding for various services related to Florida government. This is despite the $4.8 million of funding to other public radio and television stations vetoed by Governor

Rick Scott Richard Lynn Scott ( Myers; born December 1, 1952) is an American attorney, businessman, politician, and United States Navy, Navy veteran serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States senator from the state of F ...

in May 2011.

References

External links

WFSU website
{{NPR Georgia NPR member stations Florida State University Classical music radio stations in the United States FSU-FM NPR member networks Radio stations established in 1949 1949 establishments in Florida FSU-FM