The Innovation News Center is the home of the College of Journalism and Communications’ news, weather and sports operations. The two-story, 14,000-square-foot space provides nearly 100 seats for reporters, producers and editors working together to report the news in English and Spanish for the College’s many distribution channels, including WUFT-TV, WUFT-FM 89.1/90.1, ESPN 98.1/850 WRUF-AM, WRUF-TV 6, wuft.org, wruf.com, Noticias WUFT and other affiliated platforms.
The facility allows the College’s students to learn to report for multiple platforms in a real-world environment that prepares them to produce content at any type of media organization.
The INC is organized around the super desk. Producers and editors from television, web and audio converge in the multi-platform driven space to manage the most current local, national and international news. Adjacent are pods of seating for students as they report and produce stories. Sprinkled throughout are television and radio editing stations and audio booths. The space also includes a studio and additional live shot areas where students create video content for broadcast and streaming on WUFT-TV, WRUF-TV and digital platforms.
The second-floor space includes a video editing laboratory, a conference room, a broadcasting space for the Orange & Blue Sports Network and the college’s multi-platform contemporary hit radio station, GHQ. All of these spaces overlook the news floor and are connected by two open staircases, bathed in natural light from the clerestory window.
For a list of news awards won by student journalists, click here.
What We Do
The Innovation News Center produces more than six hours of broadcast content every day, plus digital stories, for the media properties within the College. These products include:
Hourly News & Sports Updates
At the top of nearly every weekday hour on WUFT-FM, you’ll hear student audio journalists (and occasionally staff) provide local news updates. These are stories they’ve independently researched, from conversations they’ve had directly with sources. They’ve also written each story, voiced it in one of our professional-grade studios, and mixed it at a Digital Audio Workstation. These newscasts and longer stories are specifically crafted with North Central Florida in mind. You can hear their work by asking your smartphone or smart speaker to “play WUFT,” or listen on the radio on 89.1/90.1 FM.
Students working for ESPN 98.1/850 WRUF-AM also produce short updates about the latest in the local and national sports scene.
Gator Gameday
This live, student-produced football preview show airing before each University of Florida game, offering fans the latest updates, expert analysis, and a dynamic look at the game-day experience. Modeled after ESPN’s College GameDay, UF students produce Gator Gameday and gain hands-on experience in reporting, anchoring, directing, and producing. The show delivers sports storytelling across multiple platforms, including WRUF-TV and Sports@CJC on YouTube.
This Week in Gator Sports
This weekly sports roundup show highlights top stories, standout performances and upcoming events across University of Florida athletics. The student-produced segments blend professional insight with student storytelling and production. Each episode features in-depth reporting, athlete interviews and expert commentary to keep Gator fans informed and engaged.
Midday
WUFT Midday was launched in the fall 2024 semester as a broadcast on WRUF-TV. It serves as a training newscast for students working to gain experience in the areas of shooting, writing, directing and anchoring. WUFT Midday prepares students for the station’s flagship First at Five newscast.
First at Five
Each weeknight at 5 p.m., WUFT News produces a live newscast staffed by a team of student anchors and producers under the supervision of professional news managers for the PBS affiliate, WUFT-TV. This is considered the “flagship” TV experience and is designed to provide a testing ground for local TV news.
WRUF-TV and WRUF Weather
The 24/7 news, weather and sports format TV station is broadcast digital over-the-air and on Cox cable. Students produce news and sports updates that are interspersed with weather updates by the College’s professional meteorologists and student meteorologists in training (MITs). Trainees work through a progression of courses and independent studies, and produce weather segments on WRUF-TV, provide reports for the College’s radio stations and anchor weather on WUFT-TV’s First at Five newscasts.
WUFT.org
The news content the INC produces is posted to WUFT.org, which serves the local news audience across a 13-county coverage area. The site features original enterprise stories, multimedia special reports, video casts, podcasts and newsletters.
Photojournalism team
Our visual journalists complement every aspect of the INC through daily assignments, including sports, portraits and breaking news, and through collaborations with reporters on enterprise stories. Our partnership with the college’s Fresh Take Florida news service takes us across the state, covering legislative issues from land, sea and air to elevate the storytelling.
Noticias WUFT
This Spanish-language platform is where bilingual students produce news content for television, radio, digital press and social media. Under the supervision of professionals news manager, reporters do a weekly radio show that airs Saturday mornings on WUFT-FM, 89.1, which you can find in the archives of “Lo Escuchaste en Noticias WUFT.” Every Thursday, students also produce a live afternoon newscast on Facebook that includes local, state, national and international segments along with sports and entertainment. Besides the newscast, beginner students have the opportunity to practice their writing, producing and on-air performance skills with social media mini shows “Noticias en 90” and “Deportes en 60”. You can also stay informed through digital reports at noticiaswuft.org that capture the service to the Hispanic Community.
Environment & Ag Desk
Our Florida Environment & Ag Desk covers the environment, climate, farming and rural issues statewide. We publish in-depth, multimedia stories on the environment and help train student journalists in specializations, including water, climate and agriculture, each of which are in demand as newsrooms around the nation expand coverage of climate change and other environmental pressures.
Learn more about the Innovation News Center’s faculty and staff.