WHCU

Infobox Radio Station
name = WHCU


area = Ithaca, NY
branding = "News-Talk 870"
slogan =
airdate = 1912
frequency = 870 (kHz)
format = news-talk
power = 5,000 watts (day)
1,000 watts (night)
class = B
facility_id = 18048
coordinates = coord|42|27|54|N| 76|22|23|W|region:US_type:city Daytime
coord|42|21|49|N| 76|36|20|W|region:US_type:city Nighttime
owner = Saga Communications
website = [http://www.whcu870.com/ whcu870.com]
callsign_meaning = W Home of Cornell University

WHCU (870 kHz) is a radio station in Ithaca, New York that programs a news/talk format. The station has been owned by Saga Communications since the early 2000s.

History

The forerunner to WHCU began in 1912 as an experiment in the School of Electrical Engineering at Cornell University. The original call letters were 8YC, later changed to 8XU. A forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission issued a broadcast license on May 27, 1922, with the call letters WEAI. The new station took to the air on January 23, 1923. The station was used as a vehicle for promoting the university's extension service and all of its programming was educational in nature.

In 1932, Cornell joined with the Elmira Star-Gazette to start radio station WESG in Elmira, which shared programming with WEAI. The Star-Gazette managed the station during this period, however, the FCC ordered Cornell in 1940 to run the station itself or surrender the license. Within 12 hours of the deadline, the station signed on with borrowed staff and equipment.

The stations went their separate ways. WESG became WENY and WEAI became WHCU, which stands for Home of Cornell University.

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 sister station WYXL to Eagle Communications in 1985. Six years later, the stations moved into a new complex on Hanshaw Road, northeast of Ithaca in the town of Lansing.

The station has carried news-talk programming at least since the mid 1980s. It also has carried Cornell University sports, CBS Radio news, National Football League games and New York Mets baseball.

Logo gallery

External links