| WUTC | |
| City: | Chattanooga, Tennessee |
| Area: | Chattanooga metropolitan area - Tennessee Valley |
| Format: | Public Radio - Adult Album Alternative - News - Talk |
| Erp: | 30,000 watts |
| Haat: | 271m (889feet) |
| Class: | C1 |
| Facility Id: | 69325 |
| Callsign Meaning: | University of Tennessee at Chattanooga |
| Affiliations: | National Public Radio Public Radio Exchange American Public Media |
| Owner: | University of Tennessee at Chattanooga |
| Licensing Authority: | FCC |
| Website: | wutc.org |
WUTC (88.1 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported public radio station in Chattanooga, Tennessee, serving the Chattanooga metropolitan area and the Tennessee Valley. It is owned and operated by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and broadcasts from UTC campus. It is a member station of National Public Radio and broadcasts news programs plus a variety of music, including adult album alternative and related genres.
WUTC has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 30,000 watts. The transmitter tower is on Sawyer Cemetery Road in Walden. The signal can be heard in parts of Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina.
WUTC airs a mix of news and talk programs and adult album alternative (AAA) music shows on weekdays with other genres heard on weekends. Popular weekday shows from NPR include Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Fresh Air. Once-a-week specialty shows include On The Media, The Moth Radio Hour, Latino USA, Travel with Rick Steves, The New Yorker Radio Hour, Radiolab, The TED Radio Hour, Freakonomics Radio, Left, Right and Center and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.
Weekday music shows are hosted by Richard Windham (late mornings) and Haley Solomon (early evenings). Specialty music shows, heard nights and weekends, include programs on acoustic, bluegrass, jazz, folk, blues and Celtic music. The station seeks donations on the air and on its website.
WUTC signed on the air in .[1] In its early years, it aired a classical music radio format, with news and educational shows. Another Chattanooga non-commercial station, 90.5 WSMC-FM, also airs classical music. WUTC's studios were in Race Hall on the UTC campus.
Until 1988, WUTC rebroadcast the morning programming of WUOT-FM in Knoxville. At that point, WUTC obtained its own satellite downlink and was able to obtain nationally syndicated programming from public radio networks on its own.
In October 1995, WUTC became the exclusive home in the Chattanooga market for several NPR programs, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Car Talk and Weekend Edition. That's when 90.5 WSMC-FM dropped most NPR programming due to conflicts with religious programming on its schedule. WSMC-FM is owned by Southern Adventist University and it devotes some hours on Fridays and Saturdays to Adventist programming.[2]
Today, WUTC maintains a mix of syndicated programming and local music shows in its weekday schedule, with a focus on syndicated shows almost exclusively on weekends. In July 2002, WUTC began streaming its broadcast online. In May 2006, it became the first Chattanooga radio station (public or commercial) to simulcast its broadcast in HD Radio format. In 2022, WUTC moved its studios and offices from its longtime location in Cadek Hall to the UTC Administrative Services Building on Palmetto Street.
In March 2017, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga fired WUTC reporter Jacqui Helbert, who had interviewed state politicians about a transgender bathroom bill. The political figures alleged they did not know she was a journalist even though she was reportedly wearing headphones and a microphone with the WUTC logo.
The dismissal came after state legislators complained to university officials. Station and university officials said that Helbert breached journalistic ethics by not identifying herself as a journalist or giving the legislators a chance to comment before the story aired. However, critics claimed station and university officials overreacted out of fear that the legislature would reduce the station's funding.[3] [4] [5] [6]