WGCU-FM

WGCU-FM
City Fort Myers, Florida
Broadcast area Southwest Florida
Frequency 90.1 MHz (also on HD Radio)
Repeater(s) 91.7 WMKO-FM (Marco Island)
First air date 1983
Format News/Talk/Jazz
HD2: Xponential Radio
ERP 100,000 watts
HAAT 248 meters
Class C1
Facility ID 69042
Transmitter coordinates 26°48′55.2″N 81°45′42.5″W / 26.815333°N 81.761806°W / 26.815333; -81.761806
Callsign meaning W
Gulf
Coast
University
Former callsigns WSFP-FM (1983-1996)
Affiliations NPR
Owner Florida Gulf Coast University
Webcast Listen Live
Website news.wgcu.org

WGCU-FM (90.1 FM) is an NPR-member radio station. Licensed to Fort Myers, Florida, USA, the station is owned by Florida Gulf Coast University. WGCU also operates WMKO-FM 91.7, a full-time satellite station licensed to Marco Island to serve the Naples area. WGCU's schedule consists of jazz and NPR news and talk.

WGCU-FM first signed on in 1983 as WSFP-FM, a station owned by the University of South Florida in Tampa, owners of public broadcasting stations WUSF FM and TV. At the time, Fort Myers / Naples was the only media market in Florida without any public broadcasting stations. WSFP-FM was largely a rebroadcast of WUSF-FM.

The broadcast license was transferred to the new Florida Gulf Coast University in 1996. WSFP-FM changed its calls to WGCU-FM on June 13, 1997, two months before FGCU opened.

Despite operating at a full 100,000 watts, the main WGCU-FM signal is barely listenable in parts of Collier County. This is because its transmitter is located in southern Charlotte County—presumably to protect WVUM in Miami at nearby 90.5. However, its grade-B signal reaches much of northern Collier County, including much of Naples itself. Soon after FGCU opened, it requested funding for a second station to improve its coverage in Naples. WMKO signed on for the first time in 1999.

For its first 13 years as a locally focused station, WGCU-FM aired a mix of NPR news and classical music. In 2009, WGCU moved its classical music programming to a 24/7 feed on its second digital subchannel. In 2012 when Classical South Florida affiliate WNPS signed on in the market, the HD-2 changed to exponential Radio, a AAA format produced by WXPN in Philadelphia. In July 2015 when Classical South Florida was sold, an HD-3 was added featuring a classical music format.

Both WGCU and WMKO run a 67 kHz subcarrier featuring a Radio Reading Service for the visually impaired.

WGCU is also referenced for hurricane information on signs across southwest Florida.

See also


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