History
Preparation
On June 2, 1949, the University of Tennessee filed paperwork with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It was seeking a construction permit to build a new noncommercial FM radio station in Knoxville. [5] The idea to bring the university a radio station had been a plank of future U.S. senator Howard Baker's campaign platform for student body president at UTK. [6]
The FCC approved the application a month later. The university announced that it would be building studios on the ground floor of Ayres Hall and had bought equipment from defunct radio station WKPB. [7] WKPB had been a commercial station on 93.3 FM owned by The Knoxville Journal that broadcast from October 15, 1947 until April 15, 1949. [8] [9] The Knoxville Journal, citing the uncertainty created by the advent of television, shut down the radio station and sold its equipment to the university and its records to the general public. [10] For a total of $16,000, the university had the equipment it needed to set up its own radio station. [11]
WUOT sign-on
WUOT signed on the air on October 27, 1949. [12] It was one of Eastern Tennessee's earliest FM stations. The first regular programming schedule included broadcasts for five and a half hours a day, and it boasted two full-time staff members. WUOT broadcast informational programs, classical music, and reports of student activities. Apart from the two staffers, it was operated by students. [13]
The radio station's facilities also provided a home for the university's offering of 25 radio programs, which were heard in 1950 on 17 commercial radio stations in Tennessee. [14] By 1956, the circulation of the university's productions had increased to 65 stations. [15]
Higher power
Originally broadcasting with 3,500 watts, the station could only be heard in and near Knoxville. WUOT got approval to increase power to 70,500 watts in 1955. [5] The station began operating from its new facilities on November 29. [16] This was made possible when station WROL gave the university a higher antenna and a 10,000-watt transmitter worth $50,000. [15] WUOT's transmitter facility was relocated to a parcel of university-owned land near the John Tarleton Institute. [17] WROL had operated an FM station until 1951. [18] A large crane was necessary to extend the tower a further 75 feet (23 m). [19]
The increase brought WUOT to listeners in Bristol, Chattanooga, and as far away as Asheville, North Carolina, and Blue Ridge, Georgia. [20] The WUOT transmitter was relocated to Sharp's Ridge in 1961. [5] In 1968, the station boosted its power to the maximum 100,000 watts and began FM stereo broadcasts. [21] In 1971, the station added additional hours of jazz music to its schedule in response to requests from inmates at the Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary. [22]
New studios
Discussions began to build a dedicated communications building in the mid-1960s. The station moved into its new Circle Park home in 1969. The facility offered WUOT more room, and newer equipment, than it had in Ayres Hall. [11] WUOT was a charter member of National Public Radio and carried the first broadcast of All Things Considered in 1971. With NPR programming, WUOT replaced its light classical "dinner hour" music, which prompted the ire of some listeners. [11] The station also began adding local news and public affairs programming in the mid-1970s. But this area of the station came in fits and starts until the mid-1990s, when the station significantly expanded its news operation. [11]
WUOT remained a fine arts-oriented station through the decades. But many UT students desired a station for rock music that catered more to their tastes. They would get one when 90.3 WUTK-FM went on the air in the early 1980s. [11] In one case, the presence of a classical music outlet in Knoxville was reassuring. When future interim UT president Jan Simek moved from California to take a faculty position in Knoxville in 1984, his mother worried that he might not be able to listen to "real" music. When she visited him in Knoxville and learned of WUOT, her fears were assuaged, and she ended up moving to Knoxville herself. [6] WUOT's reach expanded when the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga signed on its own FM station. WUTC 88.1 debuted in 1980. In order to get on air quickly, the new Chattanooga station simulcast WUOT's programming for a while. [23] The UTC station later ended its rebroadcast of WUOT when it was able to air its own programming. [24]
TruckBeat and classical music
In 2017, the station partnered with an independent producer to create "TruckBeat", a truck that traveled around Eastern Tennessee to areas not typically covered by public radio. One of the stories it reported was on the impact of the opioid epidemic on rural communities. The truck itself was a former WBIR-TV live truck that the station had purchased to cover the 1982 World's Fair. [25] TruckBeat was honored by the Online News Association for topical reporting among small newsrooms. [26]
While many public radio stations have switched to a format of mostly news, talk and information, WUOT remains true to its roots in music. More than half the weekday schedule is classical music or jazz. Listeners with receivers that can pick up HD Radio channels, WUOT's digital subchannel has additional public radio news shows.
