WRFC (960

kHz 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 uni ...

) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

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 ...

Athens, Georgia Athens is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Downtown Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta. The University of Georgia, the state's flagship public university and an Research I university, ...

. It airs a

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

, mostly using programming from

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...

. Owned by

Cox Media Group CMG Media Corporation (doing business as Cox Media Group) is an American media conglomerate principally owned by Apollo Global Management in conjunction with Cox Enterprises, which maintains a 29% minority stake in the company. The company p ...

, the television and radio subsidiary of

Cox Enterprises Cox Enterprises, Inc. is an American private company, privately held global conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, with approximately 55,000 employees and $21 billion in total revenue. Its major ope ...

, the station is

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to ref ...

to radio stations

WNGC WNGC (106.1 FM broadcasting, FM) is a radio station in North Georgia that plays country music; it was at 95.5 from 1968-1999. It is owned by Cox Media Group and is part of Cox Radio. Its city of license is Arcade, Georgia, Arcade with studios i ...

WGAU WGAU (1340 AM, "News-Talk 1340") is a radio station licensed to serve Athens, Georgia, United States, that broadcasts a news/talk format. The station is owned by Cox Media Group. The transmitter is located at the studios (with WNGC) in Five Poi ...

, WGMG,

WPUP WPUP (100.1 FM, "Power 100.1") is a radio station broadcasting a top 40 (CHR) format. Licensed to the Athens suburb of Watkinsville, it serves the Athens metropolitan area. It first began broadcasting in Washington in 1970. It is currently o ...

, WXKT and the WSB family of stations in nearby

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. WRFC has studios in downtown Athens. 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 located off West Vincent Drive in the North Valley neighborhood, northwest of Athens.

Programming

WRFC features local sports shows during weekday morning and afternoon

drive time Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this c ...

, as well as a

Georgia Bulldogs The Georgia Bulldogs are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Georgia. The Bulldogs compete in NCAA Division I and are members of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The offic ...

hour at noon. The rest of the schedule uses programming from

. The station carries

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

sports, as well as

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Eas ...

baseball games and

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The Falcons were founded o ...

football games Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' generally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonl ...

History

On May 1, 1948, WRFC first

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

the air. It was originally owned by L. H. Christian, with the

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

chosen for his father, Robert Franklin Christian. The station began as a 1,000-watt

daytimer A clear-channel station is a North American AM radio station that has the highest level of protection from interference from other stations, particularly from nighttime skywave signals. This classification exists to ensure the viability of cross ...

, required to go off the air at night. The studios were at 279 North Lumpkin Street, in Athens. WRFC later operated for many years at 5,000 watts non-directional daytime and 500 watts directional nighttime using a three

tower array A tower array is an arrangement of multiple radio towers which are mast radiators in a phased array. They were originally developed as ground-based tracking radars. Tower arrays can consist of free-standing or guyed towers or a mix of them. Tower ...

northeast of Athens, with studios in an impressive mansion in downtown Athens. It featured 4 full service formats throughout its history, such as Top 40, middle of the road, and adult contemporary formats of popular music, news, and sports. On February 20, 1971,

NORAD North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ; , CDAAN), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and pr ...

broadcast a normal required weekly test of the

Emergency Broadcast System The Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), sometimes called the Emergency Action Notification System (EANS), was an Emergency population warning, emergency warning system used in the United States. It was the most commonly used, along with the Local ...

. However,

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

reported that the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...

used the wrong tape by accident, initiating an Emergency Action Notification, normally issued by the president. It prompted all north Georgia radio stations by order of the FCC to operate under emergency procedures and feed the broadcast from primary station 750 WSB in Atlanta through their transmitters. Everett Langford was at the microphone at WRFC and had no idea what had happened. He listened to WSB but heard no emergency announcements. He was attempting to call the owner, L.H. Christian, when he heard the corrected message from the Air Force. Listeners could hear in his voice that he was very relieved it was only a mistake. In 1981, WRFC dropped its Top 40 format and went into a short-lived MOR format. This didn't last long. WRFC dropped MOR and went into

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

in 1982. During this time WRFC adopted the moniker Stereo One, when it became the first-in-Georgia, and one of the first in the US AM Stereo radio stations with upgraded transmitting equipment. Though the format was short-lived, WRFC was also one of the first stations to use Compact Discs when that recorded media format debuted. When 1993 rolled along, the station began adding talk programs and sports programming from ESPN, although their adult contemporary format remained in place until the station dropped adult contemporary a year later in 1994. In January 2008, WRFC was sold (along with sister stations WGMG,

, and

) to Cox Radio in Atlanta. Southern Broadcasting of Athens and associated owners continue as a wholly owned subsidiary of Cox."Deals," ''Broadcasting & Cable'', January 28, 2008.

Former on-air staff

* John Holliman (news, later with

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

) (deceased) * Bill Hartman (sports and news) * Johnny Jay (real name: Howard Toole) * Larry Melear (1965–75) (was also chief engineer 1965–70 and 1971–75) (deceased) * Jim Byard (1968 -1970) * Tom Collins (1968 - 1971) * Earl Pledger (1969–71) * Everett Langford (1967–71) (was also chief engineer 1970–71) * Ed Thilenius (sports) * A.O. "Red" Healan * Kate Murphy (Kathleen Emerson-Lambert) * Jim Koger * Morris "Night Owl" Knight * Larry Johnson * Charles Pinckney * Craig Williams * Jim Powell * Chris Jones (sports and news 1970-1974) * Bob Burton (news) * Phil Scoggins (sports and news) * Garry Glenn (sports and news) * Tony McVeigh (news) * Andrew McElhannon (On-Air Talent) * Gerald Bonney (as Gerry Marshall)

References

External links

{{Athens, Georgia RFC Cox Media Group Radio stations established in 1948