User:WWB Too/WCSP-FM

WCSP-FM, also known as C-SPAN Radio, is a radio station licensed to the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN) in Washington, D.C. The station broadcasts on 90.1 MHz and is on-air 24 hours a day. Its studios are located on Capitol Hill in C-SPAN’s headquarters. In addition to WCSP-FM, C-SPAN Radio programming is also available online at c-span.org and via satellite radio on XM Satellite Radio.

As WGTB and WDCU
The station was originally licensed to Georgetown University under the callsign WGTB, and was programmed by Georgetown students with a progressive rock format. In 1979, the Georgetown administration decided that the station did not fit with the public image they desired for the university, and sold the station to the University of the District of Columbia for US$1. UDC took ownership officially on March 12, 1980 and WGTB became WDCU, with a jazz format. During a budgetary crisis in mid-1997, the school sold WDCU for $13 million to C-SPAN, a non-profit funded by the cable television industry. UDC had planned to sell the station to Salem Communications (a Christian broadcast network), however this deal was unsuccessful, leading to C-SPAN’s offer to buy the WDCU. Once the station was purchased, broadcasting of C-SPAN Radio WCSP began on October 9, 1997.

As WCSP
C-SPAN Radio expanded its coverage by signing programming agreements in 1998 with two subscription-only satellite radio systems: CD Radio (later re-named Sirius) and General Motors' XM Satellite Radio, bringing the station to a nationwide audience in 2001. , Sirius Satellite Radio no longer carries WCSP-FM. The station was added to XM Radio Canada on April 1, 2007.

C-SPAN Radio can be accessed via any mobile phone, thanks to a partnership with AudioNow. In addition to this service, a C-SPAN Radio application allows users to listen to the station via their iPhone.

Programming
C-SPAN Radio broadcasts public-affairs programming, including some audio simulcasts of C-SPAN's flagship television programs like Washington Journal and some radio-only programming such as the famous tape-recorded Oval Office conversations from the Johnson and Nixon administrations, oral histories, and some committee meetings and press conferences not shown on television due to programming commitments. The radio station does not try to duplicate C-SPAN television coverage, and takes a more selective approach to its broadcast content.

In the early period of C-SPAN Radio's existence, programming also included coverage of local events and government hearings affecting only the Washington region. A unique part of WCSP's programming is its rebroadcast of the Sunday morning talk shows, without commercials, in rapid succession. All programs on C-SPAN Radio are broadcast commercial-free.

WCSP is the first radio station to broadcast audiotape of historical U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments, with announcers explaining the court decision at the end of the recording. The broadcasts of the Supreme Court arguments have provided listeners in the U.S. and Canada with the opportunity to hear the actual words spoken in session during several of the Court's most influential rulings, including the Texas v. Johnson argument over flag-burning in 1989, and the Miranda v. Arizona argument in 1966.