WUSC AM/FM Radio Alumni Association

History of WUSC - USC's campus radio station

The University of South Carolina received its first operator's permit for a campus radio station on May 1, 1946. WUSC signed on the air for the first time at 640 KC (KiloCycles) in 1947, when it became "The Voice of Carolina". The station began "broadcasting" at 100 watts with a closed-carrier signal. We're not sure when (or even WHY) it switched to the 730 frequency. (If you know about this AM frequency change, please Tell Us!) Believe it or not, WUSC used to run paid commercials (including cigarette ads) back in the old days, but to listen to the old WUSC-AM signal, you had to plug an antennae wire from your radio into a jack on your dorm room wall!

WUSC was first allocated a FM frequency (89.9 Mhz) in 1958, but (for whatever reasons) it remained as an AM station with a closed carrier signal for almost another 20 years. In 1971, it took on a progressive format. The push to go FM continued and the last semester for antiquated WUSC-AM was Fall of 1976. By that time, there were not many students on campus that could actually hear the signal and for those who did, the signal had a bad hum. Despite that, students still listened to it! After LOTS of hard work and fine leadership by Station Manager Andy Ellis, WUSC finally got its long-awaited open air FM license to broadcast at 10 watts in "glorious monophonic sound".

WUSC-FM went on the air for the first time ever at 8AM on the morning of January 17, 1977. The big news that day was the execution of Gary Gilmore. He was the first man legally executed after the U. S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, which it had banned 5 years earlier. WUSC-FM did a fine job covering the story and reported some good news from the event. Within hours of the execution, two people received corneas from his eyes. Gilmore's famous last words, "Let's do it" also seemed to apply to WUSC-FM on that day. It was exciting!

Click image above to see ad the same size as printed!

This ad in The Gamecock newspaper is how we announced WUSC-FM's first day on the air. Burger King was nice enough to pay for it and a large supply of bumper stickers. There is NO other mention of WUSC-FM anywhere in this issue, dated January 17, 1977 - a deliberate oversight! It is obvious now The Gamecock was jealous of their new "competition" in student media. Why? We begged literally every record company we could find to send us boxes of free LP records and most were happy to help. We ended up giving an album away about every fifteen minutes for close to 2 weeks straight. Do the math and you'll realize it was HUNDREDS of records! Everybody on the staff was greatly relieved when the last free LP was finally won. Some initial WUSC-FM programming included the "Golden Age" radio programs of The Shadow and Fibber McGee and Molly. (Here's a short/slow-loading Real Audio clip of The Shadow starring Orson Welles.) A&M Records was so impressed by our launch, they hosted a party for WUSC-FM staff in a penthouse suite at what was The Carolina Inn on Assembly Street. Indeed, those were "the days of wine and vinyl"!

Above is the front cover of a publication called "Student Activities Skinny" from March 1977. After giving away literally hundreds of free records over the air, our reputation grew rapidly. We heard most commercial stations in town were quite impressed with our launch. The annual WUSC-FM 24 Hour Beatles Specials (2 different events - one for the group and the other featuring all of their solo material) are still legendary (at least the old jocks think so). For WUSC-FM alumni who did not know, the Beatles Marathon tradition did continue on for years! (Update: It was reborn in 2003, but (sadly), has now been discontinued.