 | |
| Broadcast area | Central New York |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 870kHz |
| Branding | News-Talk 97.7 & 870 |
| Programming | |
| Format | News/talk |
| Network | CBS News Radio |
| Affiliations | Compass Media Networks Premiere Networks Salem Radio Network Westwood One Cornell UniversityBig Red Sports |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| WFIZ,WIII,WNYY,WQNY,WYXL | |
| History | |
First air date | May 27, 1922; 102 years ago (1922-05-27) (as WEAI) |
Former call signs |
|
Call sign meaning | "Home ofCornell University" (original owner) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 18048 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
|
| ERP | 175 watts (translator) |
Transmitter coordinates | |
| Translator(s) | 97.7 W249DW (Ithaca) |
| Repeater(s) | 95.5WFIZ-HD3 (Odessa) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | whcuradio |
WHCU (870AM) is acommercialradio station inIthaca, New York, that programs anews/talkradio format. The station has been owned by Saga Communications, operating as part of its Cayuga Radio Group, since 2005. Thestudios and offices are on Hanshaw Road in Ithaca.
By day, WHCU is powered at 5,000wattsnon-directional. At night, to protect other stations on870 AM, aclear channel frequency, WHCU reduces power to 1,000 watts using adirectional antenna. Programming issimulcast onFMtranslatorW249DW at 97.7MHz.
Since 2005, WHCU has been a station withconservative talk hosts. Weekday mornings kick off withIthaca's Morning News with Joe Salzone, followed bynationally syndicated talk programs:The Hugh Hewitt Show,The Sean Hannity Show,The Mark Levin Show,CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor,Coast to Coast AM withGeorge Noory,This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal andMarkely, Van Camp & Robbins.
On weekends, shows on money, health, gardening, home repair, technology and the law are heard. They includeThe Kim Komando Show,Bill Handel on the Law,The Takeout with Major Garrett,Rich DeMuro on Tech, theCBS News Weekend Roundup,The Larry Kudlow Show,The Lars Larson Show, Things Green with Nick Federoff, The Garden Club with Patrick Parent andIntelligent Medicine with Dr. Ronald Hoffman. The station is anetwork affiliate ofCBS News Radio and carries top of the hour news coverage, as well as one-minute bottom-of-the-hour news updates during its live, local programming. It is also theflagship ofCornell UniversityBig Red football, hockey and men's lacrosse broadcasts.
What is now WHCU was first licensed on May 27, 1922, toCornell University in Ithaca. However, by this time the school already had extensive experience with radio communication in its earliest stages. The school reportedly began experimenting with a spark transmitter forMorse code in 1906. It began radiotelephone work in 1910.[2]
In mid-1915, the university was issued a license to operate a "Technical and Training School" station, 8YC.[3] A year later, it was issued an Experimental station license with the call sign 8XT.[4] A later report states that the Experimental station's call sign was 8XU.[5]
Beginning in April 1917, due to the start of U.S. involvement in World War I, most civilian stations had to suspend operations. However Cornell was issued a special permit by the War Department to operate a station in conjunction with a campus military unit.[2] After the end of the war, in late 1919 the university was authorized to operate a "War Department Training and Rehabilitation School" station, WU6.[6] That was followed early the next year by the reactivation of Experimental station 8XU.[7]
Effective December 1, 1921, the Department of Commerce, which regulated radio communication at this time, adopted regulations to formally establish a broadcast service category, which set aside the wavelength of 360 meters (833 kHz) for "entertainment" broadcasting, and 485 meters (619 kHz) for "market and weather reports".[8] On May 27, 1922, Cornell University was issued a broadcasting station license with the sequentially assigned call letters WEAI, for operation on 360 meters.[9]
The station was used as a vehicle for promoting the university'sextension service and all of its programming was educational in nature.
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Cornell only had the resources to broadcast for a few hours per day. In 1932, an arrangement was made with theElmira Star-Gazette to lease unused hours to the newspaper. The station's main studio location was changed to the Mark Twain Hotel in Elmira,[11] however Cornell continued to be the station's licensee, and the transmitter remained in Ithaca. Reflecting the newspaper's now dominant role in operating the station, WEAI's call sign was changed to WESG,[12] and the newspaper made its debut broadcast October 2.[13]
In late 1939 theStar-Gazette established its own station,WENY in Elmira.[14] Although the newspaper had previously made an agreement to lease WESG through 1943, as of June 3, 1940, it terminated the lease and ended its association with WESG.[15]
The FCC ordered Cornell to run the station itself or surrender the license. Within 12 hours of the deadline, the stationsigned on with borrowed staff and equipment. On July 8, 1940, WESG's call letters were changed to WHCU, which stood for "Home of Cornell University".[16] WHCU's first complete studios and offices were completed in 1941. New studios were built in downtown Ithaca in 1957.
Cornell University sold WHCU and its sister stationWYXL to Eagle Communications in 1985. Six years later, the stations moved into a new complex on Hanshaw Road in the town ofDryden, northeast of Ithaca.
WHCU and its sister stations WYXL,WQNY andWNYY were purchased by Saga Communications in 2005, under the name Cayuga Radio Group.
In March 2010, WHCU returned to the FM airwaves when its sister stationWQNY launched News/Talk 870 on its HD3 channel. WHCU had been on a former WYXL translator (first at 95.5, then briefly at 95.9) before Saga turned off the translator, accommodating the introduction ofWFIZ into the market. The use of WQNY-HD3 overcomes the challenges of 870's night time pattern, especially outside of Tompkins County.
In August 2010, WHCU returned to analog FM broadcasting with the reintroduction of a translator at 95.9 FM. W240CB is a 250-watt translator located on Ithaca's South Hill, and it is licensed to rebroadcast WQNY. As with Hits 103.3 and 98.7 the Vine, the company uses the translator to rebroadcast the aforementioned HD3 signal.
WHCU had a three-and-a-half-hour local news and interview based morning show each weekday called theMorning Newswatch. On April 18, 2018, this program was canceled. On July 13, 2020, Ithaca's Morning News and Ithaca's Evening News were launched.
On August 30, 2018, WHCU switched its translator from W240CB 95.9 (and WQNY-HD3, which began stunting towards a new format at this time) to W249DW 97.7.[17]
WHCU won a 1946 Special Citation of HonorPeabody Award for its program, "Radio Edition of the Weekly Press."[18]