Radio WWUH-FM (Alternativeuh-fm)

WWUH is a non-commercial radio station licensed to the University of Hartford in West Hartford, Connecticut, USA. The station was started on July 15, 1968 and has a Public Alternative Radio format.

On July 15, 1968, Western Union delivered a very important telegram to the station's offices on the third floor of the Gengras Student Union building. The telegram, from the Federal Communications Commission, authorized Program Test Authority for WWUH, giving the University of Hartford permission to turn on their new radio station.

The students who had worked so hard for three years wasted no time. At 4:05 PM that afternoon, after a short ceremony, they threw a switch and WWUH went on the air for the first time as The Voice of the University of Hartford. Family and friends of the people who had worked so hard to put the station together, who were tuned to 91.3 at that exact time, heard “The Star Spangled Banner” followed by “WWUH, West Hartford” spoken by Clark Smidt. WWUH was born!

From day one, the station was committed to providing the greater Hartford area with professionally produced alternative programming that was not available on the commercial stations. The 1,800-watt signal was one of the strongest of any college station in New England, and WWUH made its debut as the first educational station in the seven-state region to broadcast in stereo. At sign-on, the station counted 701 albums in its collection.

The first daily schedule ran from 4 PM to 1 AM. Even with this abbreviated schedule, listeners started to take notice. Students produced news and public affairs programs with an emphasis placed on alternative news and progressive issues of concern to the immediate area were produced and aired. Many considered the community affairs programs provocative and even controversial, but people liked what they heard, and the University was very happy about the positive response they were getting about their new station. Early programming consisted of classical, folk and jazz music, with two newscasts a day. Progressive rock also appeared on the schedule, occupying the “graveyard shift,” which ran from midnight to 3 AM each night. It was called “The Gothic Blimp Works,” a program name that is still used today. WWUH's broadcast of progressive rock music preceded the start of WHCN, which calls itself "Hartford’s First Rock Station." The histories of WWUH and WHCN intertwine often, starting with the fact that many WWUH rock music programmers were responsible for changing WHCN's format from classical music to rock music.

The WWUH transmitter, affectionately known as “Mother,” was located in Room 330 of GSU, and the antenna sat atop a 90-foot tower also located at Gengras. The station started out broadcasting 100% of the time in stereo at a time when many of the "major" commercial station were still mono. The first transmitter was the RCA BTF-1, donated by WTIC where its 1,000 watts were fed in to a 3 bay Collins antenna. Even with the power of 1,800 watts, the antenna was so low compared to the surrounding terrain that the station covered only about a five-mile radius.

WWUH was dedicated on November 20, 1968 to the memory of Louis K. Roth whose encouragement and generosity, and that of his family, helped make possible the creation, expansion and continued operation of WWUH. It was named "The Louis K. Roth Memorial Station" in a ceremony presided over by University Chancellor Woodruff. The plaque commemorating the dedication hung outside the air studio in the Gengras Student Union building for 21 years. In 1989, the plaque was temporarily removed for cleaning and then remounted outside the new air studio in the Gray Center.