About Us

WRUW 91.1 FM is the campus radio station of Case Western Reserve University, located in the University Circle section of Cleveland, Ohio. WRUW is a non-profit, commercial free, all volunteer staffed radio station. WRUW operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year. Although WRUW is the student radio station of Case, numerous community volunteers and alumni are involved, giving WRUW a continuity not found in most college radio stations.

In addition to broadcasting at 15,000 watts, WRUW is also webcasting. WRUW streams its on-air signal, giving WRUW a world-wide audience. WRUW also archives every show on the air for a period one week, making them available for downloads.

WRUW prides itself on presenting a wide range of music not found on the commercial end of the dial. WRUW’s programming encompasses jazz, rock, blues, folk, electronica, polkas, metal, international, reggae, and other forms of audio entertainment, making it one of the most diverse radio stations in existence. Since being founded in 1946, WRUW has amassed an enormous music library, featuring over 100,000 albums and 45s and over 100,000 CDs. There are no playlists or “push boxes” at WRUW – each programmer is free to choose the content of their own weekly radio show. The guiding principle is to provide audio entertainment not readily available anywhere else. WRUW’s official motto is “More Music, Fewer Hits”.

WRUW also broadcasts public affairs programming, both syndicated and locally produced, providing viewpoints and perspectives not readily available in the mainstream media.

WRUW supports local music and live music with a weekly show called Live From Cleveland, which runs Thursday evenings, from 10 to 11 PM.Live From Cleveland affords local musicians, bands, and performers the opportunity to come to the studios of WRUW and perform live on the air for an hour. The performance is recorded as it happens, stored onto DAT or CD, and made available for play by the WRUW DJs. Additionally, WRUW offers its annual music festival Studio-A-Rama at the end of every summer. This is a free, open to the public, ten hour long outdoor concert featuring a national headliner (past headliners have included Guided By Voices, The New Bomb Turks, and The Upper Crust) and seven or eight local openers. The concert is broadcast and webcast live as it happens. WRUW also shows its commitment to the community by broadcasting and webcasting the main stage of the Hessler St. Fair, a two day festival held in the historic Hessler St neighborhood in University Circle, across the street from the studios of WRUW.

In a recent issue of Details magazine, WRUW was named “the [Cleveland] area’s most consistently eclectic college station.” Additionally, Scene Magazine (a weekly free alternative newspaper in Cleveland) named WRUW “Cleveland’s Best Radio Station” for 3 years in a row.

If you’re looking for radio the way it oughta be – no commercials, no jingles, no playlists, no payola, no corporate conglomerates – then you’ve found it at WRUW. Broadcasting at 15,000 watts, webcasting and archiving, and staffed by enthusiastic volunteer DJs who are given complete freedom to present the music of their choice in a unique, creative manner, WRUW is truly a beacon of light in a dark radio world.