The station first broadcast on October 16, 1972, with a 3,200 watt signal. In 1977, WUOG's wattage was increased to 10,000 watts, and in 1994 the station reached its current 26,000 watts, making it one of the most powerful college stations in the country.[citation needed] The transmitter sits atop § Brumby Community on the UGA campus, broadcasting at an effective radius of 60 miles or 100 km.
With the exception of a period of time in 1981 and 2005 when the station was shut down for non-compliance of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules, WUOG has operated for 18 to 24 hours each day. The station is maintained and run entirely by a 200-student staff of volunteers. 18 executive members oversee the staff and the day-to-day operation of the station.
WUOG offers regular rotation programming as well as specialty shows. "Rotation" consists of new and old music of any genre that falls within the bounds of WUOG's music philosophy. Once stated as the axiom "If they don't need us, we don't need them", the music philosophy strives to include artists whose music is rarely heard elsewhere. WUOG also carries specialty show programming ranging from Middle Eastern music to new wave, oldies to bluegrass music. News shows, talk shows and sports shows air throughout the week. The program "Live in the Lobby," broadcast on Tuesday and Thursday each week, features live on air in-studio sessions from local Georgia musical artists.
It was on WUOG that R.E.M. were first broadcast; a live recording of "Hippy, Hippy Shake" was played in the summer of 1980. Drummer Bill Berry was also in a short-lived combo of radio personalities from the station, known as the WUOGerz.[4]
In late June 2006, it was discovered that the station was causing electromagnetic interference to a nuclear chemistrylaboratory on campus. To alleviate this, the station temporarily went off-air on weekdays from 7AM and resumed broadcast at 4PM, as well as late nights and weekends, while the lab work was done. Electronic filters eliminated the problem on July 13, allowing WUOG to return to a normal schedule. [1][2][3]
On February 21, 2009, the lobby of the new WUOG station inside of Tate was named in honor of Wilbur Herrington. The Wilbur Herrington Lobby memorializes Wilbur's service as station engineer since the station's first broadcast in 1972. Herrington had received help in the early stages of applying for an FCC license from broadcast engineers at Athens commercial station WRFC(AM) (960 kHz), chiefly Larry Melear (a graduate of the UGA School of Broadcasting) and Everett Langford.
