WGCU-FM

WGCU-FM
City of license Fort Myers, Florida
Broadcast area Southwest Florida
Frequency 90.1 MHz (also on HD Radio)
Repeaters 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 67KHz 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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