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WGCU-FM is an NPR-member radio station. Licensed to Fort Myers, Florida, USA, the station is owned by Florida Gulf Coast University.
WGCU's schedule consists of jazz and NPR news and talk. WGCU also operates WMKO-FM 91.7, a full-time satellite station licensed to Marco Island to serve the Naples area.
WGCU-FM first signed on in 1983 as WSFP-FM, a station owned by the University of South Florida in Tampa, owners of public broadcasting stations WUSF FM and TV. At the time, Fort Myers / Naples was the only media market in Florida without any public broadcasting stations. WSFP-FM was largely a rebroadcast of WUSF-FM.
The broadcast license was transferred to the new Florida Gulf Coast University in 1996, while the finishing touches were being put on Florida's newest university. WSFP-FM changed its calls to WGCU-FM on June 13, 1997, two months before FGCU opened.
Broadcasting from its transmitter site in southern Charlotte County, WGCU-FM's signal is barely listenable in Naples, though its grade-B signal reaches much of northern Collier County. Soon after FGCU opened, it requested funding for a second station to serve the Naples area. WMKO signed on for the first time in 1999.
In 2009, WGCU moved its classical music programming to a 24/7 feed on its digital subchannel.
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