About 300 alumni and supporters of WFUV-FM (90.7) celebrated the public radio station’s 60th anniversary during an evening of festivities on Friday, Oct. 26, that featured a panel discussion moderated by rock historian and veteran disc jockey Pete Fornatale (FCRH ’67).
The panel discussion, which was held at O’Keefe Commons on the Rose Hill campus, included some of the radio station’s more famous alumni, including Charles Osgood (FCRH ’54), anchor of CBS News’ Sunday Morning, and focused on both the station’s past and future. A reception followed in Keating Hall, along with tours of the station’s new state-of-the-art facilities. The band Ollabelle, a longtime favorite of WFUV listeners, also performed.
Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, told attendees that panel members’ recollections of WFUV’s past shows how successful the station has become since founding in 1947. “It is a joy to have you here, it is a grace to have you back, it was a special grace to be over in O’Keefe Commons a little while ago for the symposium,” Father McShane said. “It was fascinating, it was entertaining, it was uplifting, and it was therefore an event that was worthy of WFUV and I think Fordham as well.”
WFUV airs news from National Public Radio and an eclectic mix of music throughout the day. It has about 300,000 listeners a week, and is staffed by 27 employees and more than 70 students. In the 2006-2007 fiscal year, the station increased its underwriting by 30 percent, crossing the $1 million mark in revenue for the first time in its history.
