WGAU is a radio station licensed to serve Athens, Georgia, United States, that broadcasts a News/Talk format. The transmitter is located at the studios in Five Points. WGAU began broadcasting on May 1, 1938. It was purchased in 1956 by Clarke Broadcasting Company, owned by H. Randolph Holder and Tom Lloyd, two broadcasters who also owned WLAQ in Rome, Georgia, and WGRI in Griffin, Georgia. Holder was a popular Athens newsman whose morning and midday news commentaries had a wide following. The station has played many different musical formats before switching to the current format of news and talk in the early 1990s. Over the years, it served as a launching pad for a number of successful broadcasters who worked at WGAU during their student days at the Henry Grady College of Journalism at the nearby University of Georgia: Harry Chapman, later with WTVF in Nashville, Tennessee, and Bruce Bartley, the lead newscaster of Atlanta's WSB Radio. Country legend Bill Anderson was a DJ on WGAU in the 1950s when he was 19, and was fired for playing country music. In an interview with Tim Bryant , Bill said H. Randolph Holder, owner of WGAU, offered him a job under the condition he would not play country music. One evening, Bill was running an Atlanta Crackersbaseball game which became rained out. Instructions in the studio said if the game gets rained out, to switch to the CBS Radio Network. When Bill switched to the network, The "Louisiana Hay Ride" was on, and Johnny Horton's "Honky Tonk Man" was playing. Before the song was finished, Holder had called Bill to get the programoff the air. Holder fired Bill that following Monday, but got him a job at a new radio station in Commerce. WGAU, along with sister WNGC, was sold to Southern Broadcasting in 1999. In January 2008, it was announced that WGAU and WNGC were sold to Cox Radio in Atlanta. WGAU was the home to many University of Georgia sports, which air now on sister "Sports Radio 960 WRFC" Current notable local programming includes "Classic City Today" with Tim Bryant and "Newsmakers" with Tim Bryant. Notable syndicated programming includes talk shows by right-wing conservatives Brian Kilmeade, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Dana Losech as well as consumer advocate Clark Howard and the paranormal Coast to CoastAM radio show. The station is an affiliate of the Atlanta Bravesradio network, the largest radio affiliate network in Major League Baseball. The station is also affiliated with Fox News Radio and The Weather Channel.
