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WUSO (89.1 FM) is a radio station in
Springfield, Ohio Springfield is a city in Clark County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located in southwestern Ohio along the Mad River (Ohio), Mad River, Buck Creek, and Beaver Creek, about west of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus and northeast of ...
, United States. It is owned by Dayton Public Radio, Inc. and rebroadcasts the classical music programming of WDPR in
Dayton Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...
on a full-time basis from its transmitter atop Tower Hall on the Wittenberg University campus. From 1966 to 2019, WUSO was Wittenberg's student-run
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, with studios in Firestine Hall on the campus.


History


Radio returns to Wittenberg

Wittenberg University (WU) received a construction permit from 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 ...
(FCC) to build a new 10-watt radio station on the campus on October 11, 1965. Organization on campus for a new station had dated to 1961, when a radio club was formed with 35 students. Two years later, a student committee was formed to analyze the idea, and the university appropriated funds to purchase equipment. On February 20, 1966, WUSO began broadcasting. The station represented the return of broadcasting to the university, which had shown an interest in radio transmissions beginning in 1896. Signing on in 1922, station WCSO—the university being Wittenberg College at the time—operated until 1930, when it was shuttered as part of a consolidation that formed WGAR, a new station in
Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
. WUSO initially broadcast for six hours a day; by 1971, it was on for three hours in the morning and then 11 hours in the evening. The station survived a 1977 funding cut by the WU student government (SGA) that nearly threatened it with closure because it suggested relocating the facility without considering the technical and legal implications of such a move. Pressure from SGA forced cutbacks, such as the elimination of a news wire, as well as internal reforms. Studios were in the basement of Alumni House before relocating to Sprecher Hall in 1979. The move required major changes and left the station off the air for a year and a half, and it also saw the station convert to stereo broadcasting. Over time, WUSO began operating with a freeform format, a contrast to the
Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...
-heavy FM dial in the area. Programs ranged from Christian rock to jazz; in 1986, station manager Krista May did on-air shifts hosting a punk rock show under the name "Chrystal Meth". However, despite a series of efforts over the years, WUSO remained a 10-watt outlet. By 1986, the original transmitter was out of service for six weeks during the winter term. Even with 10 watts, the station attracted substantial interest on campus: there were 120 DJs in 1990. The station narrowly survived another financial challenge again in 1996 when the student senate made a grant to allow the station to purchase
Emergency Alert System The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a Emergency population warning, national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via Cable television, cable ...
equipment that it needed in order to meet requirements for the new service. The station abandoned Sprecher Hall in 1998 as part of its demolition, moving into the basement of Firestine Hall and replacing much of its equipment in the process.


Upgrade to 120 watts

As a Class D station operating on the same 10-watt basis as in 1966, WUSO was vulnerable. In the late 1970s, the FCC encouraged many stations to upgrade to Class A status—100 watts minimum—and left Class D stations a secondary service, vulnerable to being bumped by other stations. Furthermore, even though the transmitter was atop Tower Hall, students living there sometimes had trouble receiving the station. WUSO had twice solicited power increases, first in 1971 and then in 1986. However, such changes also would have come with needed upgrades to professionalize even as FCC restrictions tightened the ability of Class D stations to upgrade. Alongside moving to Firestine, the station mounted a third effort at a power increase, hoping to avoid the paperwork-related problems that had plagued past pushes. The proposed increase turned into a years-long legal battle in the wake of two related applications from Christian groups, the
American Family Association The American Family Association (AFA) is a conservative and Christian fundamentalist 501(c)(3) organization based in the United States.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 ...
educational radio stations, leaving the three applications—WUSO's improvement and the two new Christian radio stations, one for Urbana and one for
Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...
—in a mutually exclusive group. The three parties then filed a universal settlement, granting WUSO's improvement and the Delaware new station application, which was granted on April 25, 2003. In November 2004, WUSO upgraded from 10 watts to 120, improving its coverage area and signal strength in the Springfield area. In December 2003, Wittenberg athletics moved to WUSO from commercial station WULM; the move came in the middle of the basketball season after WULM refused to produce and carry broadcasts of Wittenberg women's basketball games. WUSO also initiated online streaming in 2006. WUSO's studios in the basement of Firestine Hall were flooded when a water pipe burst on April 8, 2012. Four feet of water inundated the facilities, and the studio equipment was a total loss. The station was off the air for nearly a year; the studios were rebuilt with increased space for live bands to play and an expanded lobby. By 2018, the station had 18 student-produced shows on its lineup.


Sale to Dayton Public Radio

In August 2017, WUSO entered into a partnership with WDPR Dayton Public Radio to rebroadcast its classical music programming from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays. As WDPR's signal does not reach Springfield, this expanded the service's coverage. In March 2019, WUSO began rebroadcasting WDPR on a full-time basis, and WU filed in December 2022 to sell the station outright to DPR for $94,580. The sale was consummated on March 13, 2023.


Notes


References


External links

* {{Dayton Radio
USO The United Service Organizations Inc. (USO) is an American nonprofit-charitable corporation that provides live entertainment, such as comedians, actors and musicians, social facilities, and other programs to members of the United States Armed F ...
USO The United Service Organizations Inc. (USO) is an American nonprofit-charitable corporation that provides live entertainment, such as comedians, actors and musicians, social facilities, and other programs to members of the United States Armed F ...
Radio stations established in 1966 Clark County, Ohio 1966 establishments in Ohio