WVOF (88.5 FM) is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission 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 radi ...

licensed to

Fairfield, Connecticut Fairfield is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It borders the city of Bridgeport and towns of Trumbull, Easton, Weston, and Westport along the Gold Coast of Connecticut. Located within the New York metropolitan are ...

, United States. The station is owned by

Fairfield University Fairfield University is a private Jesuit university in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1942. In 2017, the university had about 4,100 full-time undergraduate students and 1,100 graduate students, including full-time a ...

. As of August 2008, the station has been a partner with

Connecticut Public Radio Connecticut Public Radio is a network of public radio stations in the state of Connecticut, western Massachusetts, and eastern Long Island, affiliated with NPR (National Public Radio). It is owned by Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network, wh ...

and carries Connecticut Public Radio and

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

programming.

History

WVOF commenced operations in the spring of 1970 as a carrier current radio station heard on 620 AM serving the residence halls located in the quadrangle of Fairfield University. A carrier current system is a method of broadcasting utilizing the electrical wires in a building as an antenna. This type of operating does not require the station to be licensed by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisd ...

(FCC). In the early 1970s, then-station manager Stan Hrniak (who later went on to work for

Connecticut Public Television Connecticut Public Television (CPTV) is the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member network for the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is owned by Connecticut Public Broadcasting, a community-based non-profit organization that holds the licenses ...

) made the first application to the FCC for an FM license. The first antenna was placed on Canisius Hall. The station's broadcasts were piped into the Barone Campus Center. WVOF's record library was kept in the basement of Regis Hall and the early news broadcasts were produced with the aid of a

UPI United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ...

rip-and-read teletype. By 1976 there were two broadcast studios and one production studio in the cramped quarters. Some of the early student personalities during that time 1970-76 included Hrniak, a senior when the station "went FM" who hosted music and news events, who is widely credited with being the single most influential person responsible for navigating the station's initiative to move to FM; Mick McCullough, who later became station manager and a music host;Bill O'Neal, a Maine native who worked professionally for a number of stations in Portland after graduating from Fairfield in 1972; Mary Beth Carmody, one of the station's first female hosts; Rich Mcheer, a hockey announcer when the Stags had a club hockey team that played at Bridgeport's Wonderland of Ice; and Doc Hynes, who was a music host and basketball play-by-play announcer who teamed with McCullough blending sports and comedy during game broadcasts, which occasionally got them in hot water with the university administration. During the mid-1980s, the station was under the leadership of Music Director Sean "The Hag" Hagearty. In 2002, the Fairfield University's radio station opened for business in a new three-studio complex in the John A. Barone Campus Center. WVOF regularly hears from listeners in South America, Europe, the West Coast and Canada.

Connecticut Public Radio

On June 19, 2008, the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Corporation and Fairfield University announced a partnership between

("WNPR") and WVOF. WVOF broadcasts WNPR's program schedule every weekday morning from 5 to 10 a.m., every weekday afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m., and weekend mornings from 5 a.m. to noon.

Sports Radio

Bridgeport Bluefish

In 2002, WVOF began carrying

Bridgeport Bluefish The Bridgeport Bluefish were an American minor league baseball team based in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The team was a member of the Liberty Division of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, which was not affiliated with Major League Baseb ...

baseball games, and on July 12, 2006, it carried the Atlantic League All-Star Game.

Fairfield Stags Basketball

WVOF is the home of

Fairfield Stags The Fairfield Stags are the athletic programs representing Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. Most of the programs are members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) and classified as Division I (non-football) in the Natio ...

men's and women's basketball. Men's basketball coverage is led play-by-play analyst

Bob Heussler Bob Heussler (born Brooklyn, New York), currently resides in Hamden, Connecticut and is a radio sports broadcaster at WFAN in New York for thirty years. He made regular appearances on the '' Mike and the Mad Dog'' and Mike's On programs since 1993. ...

with color commentary from Stag basketball legend Joe DeSantis '79. Women's basketball coverage is led by play-by-play analyst John Cummings with color commentary from former UConn guard Maria Conlon. Fairfield University students participate in the production and color commentary for both the men's and women's games.

Fairfield Stags Lacrosse

WVOF is also the home of several

men's lacrosse home games each year.

Fairfield alumni in TV, radio, film, and other media

* Sonia Baghdady - News Anchor

WTNH WTNH (channel 8) is a television station licensed to New Haven, Connecticut, United States, serving the Hartford–New Haven market as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WCTX (channel 59), ...

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

winner *

Burt Kearns Burt Kearns is an American author, television and film producer, writer and director, and journalist, known for his work in reality television and his controversial 1999 tabloid television memoir, '' Tabloid Baby''. His latest book, a biography o ...

'78 - television and film producer, writer, director, journalist and author * Donna Savarese - News Anchor

KMOV KMOV (channel 4) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with CBS and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power Circle owned-and-operated station KDTL-LD (channel 16). The two stations ...

& Edward R. Murrow Award winner

References

* {{NPR Connecticut Mass media in Bridgeport, Connecticut Fairfield University Fairfield, Connecticut Mass media in Fairfield County, Connecticut VOF Western swing VOF NPR member stations Radio stations established in 1970 1970 establishments in Connecticut