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A Tale of a Radio Station |
| About WUGA |
From WUGA's 10th Anniversary program
guide, August 1997
Just before 6:00 a.m. on the morning of August 28, 1987,
WUGA-FM signed on for its first day of broadcasting to
Athens and the surrounding area. To our listeners, WUGA's
history begins at that moment, but for the many people
who played a part in bringing the radio station to life,
the story began much earlier.
As an idea, a hope, and an aspiration, WUGA is as old
as The University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education
that serves as its home. The earliest floor plans for
the Georgia Center show a radio station in room 151, which
is now WUGA's on-air control room. Plans for a radio station
were set aside during the Georgia Center's early years,
as other efforts took priority.
By the early 1980s, public radio had become an important
part of the American cultural scene. Established in 1971,
National Public Radio was a presence in most major metropolitan
areas and at institutions of learning and research. Its
absence at The University of Georgia was becoming increasingly
conspicuous and was sometimes cited as an obstacle to
faculty recruitment.
Under the direction of Director Edward G. Simpson, Jr.,
the Georgia Center sought to address the UGA community's
need for a public radio station. A second grant from the
W.K. Kellogg Foundation to The University of Georgia in
1984 provided the means toward that end by specifically
designating funds for a public radio station. In 1985,
the Georgia Public Telecommunications Commission (GPTC)
created Peach State Public Radio, with the mission of
bringing public radio to as many Georgians as possible.
Later the same year, the Georgia Center formed a committee
to study the logistics of putting a radio station on the
air. The committee served under the leadership of William
H. Hale, Jr., who was then the Georgia Center's associate
director for Communication Services.
On September 1, 1986, WUGA became an entity. As a unit
within the Production Services Department of the Georgia
Center's Division of Communication Services, WUGA at that
point consisted of an office occupied by two people. The
process of becoming a radio station would take almost
an entire year -- 361 days, to be exact.
Along with his other duties at the Center, Jim Shehane
was the first station manager. As program director, Bill
Burpitt was responsible for determining what sort of radio
station WUGA would be. Then, as now, I held the title
of music director. Phil Allen of the Georgia Center's
engineering department had the task of designing and putting
together the station's facilities. News director Mary
Kay Mitchell and producer David Bryant came aboard in
January, 1987, and office manager Abbie Thaxton joined
the staff in July.
Meanwhile, Dr. Simpson, along with the University's interim
president, Henry King Stanford, and other officials, was
involved in negotiations with the Georgia Public Telecommunications
Commission. The ultimate result was a unique partnership,
under which the GPTC holds the station's license and provides
access to most nationally-distributed programs, while
the Georgia Center operates the station and provides a
slate of programs specifically for the local audience,
including the University community.
During its year of preparation the radio staff was peripatetic,
moving through a series of at least three different temporary
offices. We finally moved into our permanent location
late in the spring. By this time, it had been decided
that the station would be called WUGA. The original license
application had requested the call letters WLLL, a reference
to the Georgia Center's longtime slogan of "life-long
learning." Radio staffers were not unhappy to learn
that those call letters were already assigned to another
station. Just try saying "WLLL" rapidly. The
call letters WUGA (which had been in use elsewhere in
1972, when the campus student station signed on) turned
out to be available, and proved satisfactory to all.
By late July, final preparations were underway. Almost
all control room equipment had been installed. Office
cubicles had been installed in the outer portion of room
151. A small but serviceable music library had been assembled.
Announcer/operators had been hired and were training.
Everything seemed to be on track for our planned sign-on
date of August 10, a Monday. Late on the preceding Friday,
though, we learned that the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) would not grant final approval for regular broadcast
operation until our transmitting antenna had passed an
additional round of tests. Thus began a frustrating span
of nearly three weeks, during which WUGA was on the air
for one or two hours daily for test purposes. The necessary
approval was finally granted, and we moved quickly to
begin regular operations on Friday, August 28.
WUGA's first day on the air was similar to the days that
followed. It began with Morning Edition, the middle of
the day was devoted to our music programs, and the late
afternoon brought All Things Considered and our local
news magazine. The first day was a Friday, so the night
was filled with jazz, while week nights were devoted to
classical music.
The first day was also typical of many that would follow,
in that we had scarcely been on the air twenty minutes
when WUGA experienced its first transmitter power outage.
Initially, power failures at the transmitter were frequent,
but the utility providing service to the transmitter worked
diligently to address the problem. Over the next two years,
power service to the transmitter became much more reliable.
After a little more than a year of operation, WUGA became
a separate department within the Division of Communication
Services, and Bill Burpitt took on the duties of station
manager. He was succeeded in 1989 by Gene Craven, who
remained at the helm until April, 1997, when he became
manager of a new public radio station in Fort Myers, Florida.
Currently, Jerry L. Hargis is WUGA's acting station manager
in addition to his duties as the Georgia Center's associate
director for Communication Services.
During his time as station manager, Gene Craven was able
to solve one of WUGA's most persistent problems. Very
soon after the station signed on, we realized that our
signal was difficult to receive in many parts of Athens,
and especially on the UGA campus. There appeared to be
no solution, but after a great deal of research, a way
was found to double the station's power and switch to
a non-directional antenna. With support from the University
and the Athens community, a more powerful WUGA became
a reality. However, some listeners in the downtown area
still have difficulty receiving our main channel because
of topography; these listeners can now tune to our low-power
translator at 97.9 FM.
In ten years, WUGA has had some proud moments, as well
as some embarrassing ones. The news department, directed
by Mary Kay Mitchell, has received national recognition
for its local news programs. Beginning on our first day
of broadcasting, Centerlines was a daily 15-minute magazine
of local news and events. It was replaced in 1992 by The
Commons, a daily half-hour program that has twice been
judged best in the nation by public radio news directors
around the country.
As for the embarrassing moments, everyone who speaks into
a microphone has them. Tapes that roll at the wrong speed,
words that become tangled on the tongue, gross mispronunciations
of exotic foreign names, or worse yet, pronunciation of
an ordinary American English word as though it were foreign.
If not quite everyday occurrences, these are still a part
of life on the air. They make up a large part of the stories
radio people tell, but the most memorable do not translate
well to print.
Many talented people have passed through WUGA over the
years, and a number of them have gone on to careers in
public radio. Mark McCain, one of our original announcers,
is now a station manager in Kansas. Angela Elam, who joined
us midway through our first year and departed on the station's
fifth anniversary, is now the producer and host of an
independent, nationally-syndicated program. Several WUGA
alumni have moved on to Peach State Public Radio headquarters,
including its current music director, Winston King. Indeed,
out of the seven former hosts of Night Music (a weeknight
program produced by WUGA for the state network), five
have gone on to work at network headquarters, as well
as two former alternate hosts.
After ten years, WUGA has logged more than 85,000 hours
on the air. If we have learned in that time to better
serve the needs of the listening audience in the University
community and the Athens area, we may consider ourselves
successful.
--Robb Holmes, June, 1997 |
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