WVSG (AM)
St. Gabriel" | |
Technical information | |
---|---|
Licensing authority | FCC |
Class | B |
Power |
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Transmitter coordinates | 39°54′35″N 83°03′23″W / 39.90972°N 83.05639°W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Webcast | Listen live |
Website | stgabrielradio |
WVSG (820
WVSG broadcasts with 6,500
History
Ohio State University
The station, the oldest radio station in Columbus, was originally owned by Ohio State University. It was one of many radio stations signed on by universities in the early days of radio.
On March 23, 1920, the university was granted an experimental license with the call sign 8XI.[2] Its debut broadcast was on April 20, 1920. It featured a speech by university president William Oxley Thompson.[3]
In the fall of 1921 8XI's experimental license was deleted,[4] and the university was issued a Technical and Training School station license with the call sign 8YO.[5]
Effective December 1, 1921, the Department of Commerce, which regulated radio at this time, adopted regulations requiring that stations making broadcasts intended for the general public obtain a "Limited Commercial" license.[6] On June 3, 1922, the university was issued its first broadcasting station license, with the call sign WEAO. The call letters were randomly assigned from a sequential roster of available call signs.[7] In 1933, the call letters were changed to WOSU, representing Ohio State University's initials.[8]
In 1949, an FM station was added,
WOSU
For much of the 1960s and '70s, WOSU's programming was mostly locally originated, featuring diverse music programs from classical and jazz, and later included the seasonal
By the year 2000, WOSU primarily aired NPR news and talk programming, supplemented by programs from American Public Media and Public Radio International. It was also home to the Ohio State ice hockey and women's basketball broadcasts. On weekend evenings the station featured 12 hours of bluegrass music on a program called The Bluegrass Ramble, hosted by a group of three rotating announcers. In addition to its sports and news coverage, the station produced an award-winning talk show, Open Line with host Fred Andrle, who retired in May 2009 after 25 years in radio. In September 2009 Andrle's program was replaced by All Sides With Ann Fisher, hosted by former Columbus Dispatch reporter and columnist Ann Fisher, who came to WOSU with 20 years of journalism experience.
Ohio State eventually decided to concentrate its radio broadcasting efforts on the FM band. In 2010, the university purchased station WWCD at 101.1 FM, changing its call letters to WOSA. The 101.1 station mostly plays classical music, leaving WOSU-FM 89.7 FM to concentrate on news and informational programming. WOSU-FM 89.7 and WOSU 820 began simulcasting again, carrying NPR news and talk shows. The FM signal was branded as the main station, under the moniker "89.7 FM NPR News". The university also announced that it was putting WOSU 820 AM up for sale.
In September 2011, a deal was finalized to sell 820 AM, pending Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval. St. Gabriel Radio agreed to pay $2 million.[9] The sale and transfer of license was approved by the FCC on November 7, 2011.[10] No formal announcement of farewell or final goodbye to listeners was made prior to the final shutdown of WOSU. The station ended its regular NPR and local news broadcasts at 5 p.m. on December 9, 2011, after which it aired a continuous announcement loop informing listeners that its news and talk format would continue on 89.7 WOSU-FM. The announcements continued until 9:00 a.m. on December 14, when the signal was abruptly shut down in the middle of the sentence "I'm Mandie Trimble, W...", ending before the full WOSU call sign was spoken.
WVSG
New call letters were granted on December 15, WVSG.[11] The station returned to the air on December 17 after 3 days of silence. The station made its official debut at 6 p.m. on December 20.
The introduction of WVSG was part of a series of station acquisitions and deacquisitions by St. Gabriel Radio, Inc. in its work to provide Catholic programming for the
In 2007, St. Gabriel Radio began simulcasting WUCO's Catholic programming over
The transition of St. Gabriel programming from 1580 to 820 AM took place on at 6 p.m. on December 20, 2011, during the broadcast of "The Local Spotlight Show", which began that evening on WVKO and concluded on WVSG. WVKO (now WXGT) then began airing continuing announcements informing St. Gabriel listeners to switch to AM 820, until it returned to a progressive talk format at 6 a.m. on January 2, 2012.
St. Gabriel Radio also owned and operated WFOT 89.5 MHz, licensed to Lexington and serving the Mansfield area as a near-simulcast of the AM station. WFOT made its on-air debut in February 2007. WFOT now broadcasts the programming of Annunciation Radio based in Toledo.
St. Gabriel Radio's mission is to reach the entire Columbus diocese, and WVSG almost accomplishes this during the daytime hours, with the exception of the far southern region around Portsmouth.[9] In January 2019, the southern coverage was improved by establishing a simulcast over WSGR 88.3 FM in New Boston.[12]
References
- ^ Radio-Locator.com/WVSG
- ^ "New Stations: Special Land Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, April 1, 1920, page 5. The "8" in 8XI's call sign indicated that the station was located in the 8th Radio Inspection district, while the "X" signified that the station was operating under an Experimental license.
- ^ "Anniversary—WOSU's 25th", The Ohio State University Monthly, April 1945, page 3.
- ^ "Special Land Stations: Strike out all particulars", Radio Service Bulletin, November 1, 1921, page 7.
- ^ "New Stations: Special Land Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, November 1, 1921, page 3. The "Y" in 8YO's call sign indicated that the station was operating under a Technical and Training School license.
- ^ "Amendments to Regulations", Radio Service Bulletin, January 3, 1922, page 10.
- ^ "New Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, July 1, 1922, page 3.
- ^ Education's Own Stations (Ohio State University section) by S. E. Frost, 1937, pages 274-291.
- ^ a b "OSU sells 820 AM to Catholic station" by Bill Bush, Columbus Dispatch, September 10, 2011.
- ^ FCC application and approval for St. Gabriel Radio to purchase WOSU (FCC.gov)
- ^ "Call Sign History". Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
- ^ "St. Gabriel Catholic Radio: About Us" (stgabrielradio.com)
External links
- Official St. Gabriel Radio website (with streaming audio)
- St. Gabriel Radio on Facebook
- WVSG in the FCC AM station database
- WVSG in Nielsen Audio's AM station database
- FCC History Cards for WVSG (covering 1927-1980 as WEAO / WOSU)
- "Announcers Gather to Remember WOSU AM" by Tom Rieland, December 14, 2011 (WOSU.org)