communigator

College restructures radio properties

Last fall the College launched new formats on its heritage commercial radio stations WRUF-AM and WRUF-FM, aligning them to better compete in the Gainesville-Ocala radio market, while still providing the maximum in student experience.

WRUF-AM was launched as “WRUF Sportsradio 850,” now serving as the outlet for the ever-growing emphasis on sports media and production. More than 40 students are involved in the daily production of local sports-focused programming. The first Arbitron ratings book showed the new format was achieving success as the station outperformed the ESPN and Fox Sports affiliates in the market.

As part of the restructuring, WRUF-AM’s strong news operation consolidated its faculty and staff talents with those at WUFT-FM, as the College’s 100,000-watt public radio station joined the growing number of national public radio stations airing primarily news and public affairs programming.

“Through the consolidation of our College radio news operation to a single facility we’re able to provide our students with the best possible experience producing content for multiple platforms under the guidance of great leadership from Tom Krynski, Forrest Smith, TEL 1981 and Donna Green-Townsend,” said Randy Wright, executive director of media properties. “Focusing WRUF, Sportsradio 850 programming on sports and WUFT-FM on news/talk, we’ve created a real-world environment at UF where our students are learning to create content that competes in the marketplace on highly successful media properties and prepares them for a successful career.

“Along with that transition to a single radio news facility the second floor WUFT-FM newsroom, which has been expanded and remodeled, will be renamed the ‘Red Barber Newsroom’ in the months to come, honoring the famous WRUF alum who enjoyed a decades-long career in broadcasting and was a proud Gator,” Wright said.

“Through the consolidation of our College radio news operation … we’re able to provide our students with the best possible experience producing content for multiple platforms.” —Randy Wright

WRUF-FM, which had seen declining ratings for a number of years, was launched as the market’s only contemporary country radio station “Country 103.7, The Gator” in October, and the station has been met with a great deal of enthusiasm by listeners and advertisers. Country remains America’s most popular radio format and “The Gator” has a strong emphasis on localism with a high-profile morning show and engaging programming including Gator athletics.

Rock104.com lives on via the web and other new media applications, thanks to the work of the College’s media professionals and a large group of students led by senior Chris Coleman, TEL 2011. The station, with an emphasis on local bands and music, and community and campus involvement, now provides students with another outlet to learn how different multimedia can be used in this new communications era.