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Adult album alternative public radio station in New York City From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
WFUV (90.7 FM) is a non–commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York. The station is owned by Fordham University, with studios on its Bronx campus and its antenna atop the nearby Montefiore Medical Center. WFUV first went on the air in 1947. It became a professional public radio station in 1990 and is one of three NPR member stations in New York City. Its on-air staff has included radio veterans Dennis Elsas, Vin Scelsa, Pete Fornatale, and Rita Houston.
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| Frequency | 90.7 MHz (HD Radio) [1] |
| Branding | 90.7 WFUV |
| Programming | |
| Language(s) | English |
| Format | |
| Subchannels | HD2: "FUV All Music" (Adult album alternative) |
| Affiliations | NPR |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Fordham University |
| History | |
First air date | September 24, 1947 |
Call sign meaning | Fordham University's Voice |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 22033 |
| Class | B |
| ERP | 47,000 watts |
| HAAT | 155 meters (509 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 40°52′48.4″N 73°52′38.5″W |
| Repeater(s) | 90.7 WFUV-FM3 (New York) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | wfuv |
Founded in 1947 by Fordham University, WFUV became a student-run 50,000-watt station in 1968-1969 before transitioning to a public station during the late 1980s.[3] WFUV is a National Public Radio affiliate.[4] The station's call letters stand for "Fordham University's Voice." Though operated as a professional public radio station, WFUV's mission also includes a strong training component for Fordham students. Students receive intensive instruction and are heard on the air in news and sports programming.[4] The station is known for its adult album alternative (AAA) format – a mix of adult rock, singer songwriters, world and other music, formerly branded as "City Folk" as well as Celtic music.[5]
The station serves 375,000 weekly listeners in the New York area and 100,000 more worldwide on the web each month.[6] As of January 2021, WFUV is the third most popular station in any rock music format in the New York market after WAXQ and WNYL.[7] In terms of weekly audience, it is the most listened to noncommercial alternative music station[lower-alpha 1] in the United States.[8] Of all noncommercial stations regardless of format, it is the third most popular in the New York market (after WNYC and WQXR) and 22nd most popular nationally (as of May 2018).[9]
Outside of its weekday AAA programming, WFUV airs a variety of specialty shows, which include genres such as folk music and early pop and jazz. National programs heard on WFUV, as of 2021, include World Cafe, The Grateful Dead Hour, and The Thistle and Shamrock. Since 1974 the station has maintained a program called Ceol na nGael, a Sunday tradition of airing a mix of Celtic music accompanied by Fordham University programming during the day and eclectic folk in the evening.[10][5] In-studio interviews and performances are also a prominent feature of its programming.
WFUV was founded in 1947 by Fordham University's communication department. Early programming was a mix of classical, popular, ethnic music and the University's sports broadcasts. Many chamber music and piano recitals were broadcast live from now-defunct Studio B in the 1950s. The station also broadcast a long-running series of live Sunday classical broadcasts from The Ethical Culture Society in Manhattan.[5]
WFUV was on the verge of going off the air in September 1968 due to budgetary cuts by the university, but the students and staff went on strike, organizing rallies and demonstrations in order to save the station. Around this time, the station became part of the school's Student Affairs division, which was run by students. It had been a 3,500-watt station from its inception until February 21, 1969, when its effective radiated power was increased to 50,000 watts.[3] WFUV's daily rock music programming also began in the late 1960s.[5]
WFUV began broadcasting in stereo on March 31, 1973.[3] In the mid 1980s, the station began to transition to a professionally-operated public station "to increase its public service and community impact".[5] WFUV has been a professional noncommercial radio station since 1990.[11] To be more competitive in the New York market at this time, it introduced a more folk and alternative music sound under the name "City Folk", as well as news/talk radio elements such as weather and traffic reports.[12] The station also adopted the nascent adult album alternative format.[13] This shift was overseen by longtime general manager Dr. Ralph Jennings and program director Chuck Singleton.[14]
In May 1994, Fordham started building a 480-foot-tall (150 m) transmission tower for WFUV on its Rose Hill campus, directly across from the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG)'s Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.[15] The NYBG, which did not know about the tower's construction, subsequently requested that construction of the tower be halted.[16] Construction was delayed for several months before the New York City Department of Buildings ruled that the tower could be built 25 feet (7.6 m) away from its originally proposed location.[17] However, both the NYBG and Fordham disagreed with the proposed compromise.[18] In 1997, the FCC ruled that the tower would negatively affect the NYBG if it were finished,[19] but a New York state court upheld its legality.[20] In 2002, Montefiore Medical Center offered to move WFUV's antenna to its own facilities on Gun Hill Road, one of the highest locations in the Bronx, and Fordham agreed. Fordham subsequently announced in 2004 that it intended to destroy the half-built tower on Rose Hill.[21][22]
In 2005, the studios, offices, and transmitter moved from the third floor of Keating Hall on Fordham's Rose Hill campus to Keating Hall's basement. The move allowed the station to improve its equipment and gain more space.[23] In 2011, music director Rita Houston took over as the station's program director from Chuck Singleton, who, in turn, became general manager;[24][25] Houston held the position through 2020. In June 2021, the station named Rich McLaughlin as program director; in addition to his career in radio and streaming music programming, McLaughlin is a Fordham University alumnus who worked for the station as an undergraduate as well as for its digital offering, The Alternate Side.[26][27]
Notable past-staff at WFUV include DJs Pete Fornatale and Vin Scelsa. Alan Light, former editor-in-chief of music magazines Vibe and Spin and music critic at the New York Times, was an on-air contributor and music critic during the mid-2000s at WFUV. Longtime DJ Rich Conaty presented his big band show The Big Broadcast on the station from 1972-1992, and again from 1998 until his death in 2016. Former program director and DJ Rita Houston, who worked at the station from 1994 until her death in 2020, was a noted New York tastemaker and early champion of artists like Brandi Carlile, Mumford & Sons, Adele, and the Indigo Girls.[28] Binky Griptite, best known as part of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, hosted the weekly show The Boogie Down from 2017 to 2021.[29]
Radio announcer Marty Glickman instructed students in the sports department after his retirement. Glickman was the radio announcer of the New York Knicks, New York Giants, and New York Jets, and the subject of the Martin Scorsese-produced 2013 HBO documentary film Glickman.
WFUV's rock music shows were formerly hosted by Fordham students, most notably Pete Fornatale, whose first show began in November 1964, when he was a sophomore and who returned to WFUV in 2001 after a 30-year hiatus, remaining until his 2012 death. Other alumni include:
News department alumni are/were heard on many stations and networks nationally. These include:
The sports department has produced numerous notable alumni, most notably, Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers announcer and Baseball Hall of Famer Vin Scully, who helped found WFUV. Other alumni include:
WFUV has received numerous awards and nominations from professional organizations on local, state, and national levels. In the early 2000s, the station was named one of the best radio stations in its category on multiple occasions by trade organizations. The Princeton Review named it one of the top twenty college radio stations every year from 2012 to 2020.[44][45][46] In 2013, Complex listed it as the eighth best college radio station in the country.[47]
WFUV is regularly distinguished for their newscasts and public affairs coverage.[48][49] Nationally, the newsroom has been awarded nearly every year over the past two decades by the Public Radio Journalist Association and the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation's Gracie Awards on both professional and student levels. Since 2009, assistant news and public affairs director Robin Shannon has been awarded six times by these two organizations for Best News Anchor/Newscast.[50] Former music and program director Rita Houston was awarded on multiple occasions by trade organizations FMQB, JBE, Gavin Report, and ASCAP for her work.[51]
Selected national professional awards (1998–present)[50]
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