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 Christian radio conglomerate Salem Communications; however this deal was unsuccessful, leading to C-SPAN’s accepted purchase of WDCU. Once the station was purchased, broadcasting of C-SPAN Radio on WCSP-FM began on October 9, 1997.
As WCSP-FM
C-SPAN Radio expanded its coverage by signing programming agreements in 1998 with two subscription-only satellite radio systems: CD Radio and General Motors' XM Satellite Radio, bringing the station to a nationwide audience in 2001. Temporarily for a year during the XM and Sirius merger in 2007 and 2008, it was not heard on Sirius, and it is not currently available on radios only compatible with the older Sirius system. The station was added to XM Radio Canada on April 1, 2007. The FM range of the radio station extends as far north as Hanover, Pennsylvania, south around 15 miles beyond Fredericksburg, Virginia, west to 5 miles east of Front Royal, Virginia and east to Cambridge, Maryland. C-SPAN offers three channels of programming for listeners within the FM signal radius with HD radios, using digital technology to multicast all three channels at 90.1 FM. The three channels offer different programming: WCSP-FM's usual programming is broadcast on 90.1 HD-1; 90.1 HD-2 simulcasts C-SPAN, broadcasting coverage of the House of Representatives plus other C-SPAN programming; 90.1 HD-3 simulcasts C-SPAN2, broadcasting coverage of the Senate and audio of Book TV. , C-SPAN Radio can be accessed via any phone at 626-8888. C-SPAN's mobile app on iOS and Google Play allows access to all three of WCSP's HD streams, in addition to C-SPAN3.
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. Regular programs broadcast on the radio station include Today in Washington and Prime Minister's Question Time. The station also broadcasts full gavel-to-gavel coverage of political conventions in election years. 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 five Sunday morning talk shows, without commercials, in rapid succession. All programs on C-SPAN Radio are broadcast commercial-free. WCSP-FM 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 hearspoken words during oral arguments for several of the Court's most influential cases, including the Texas v. Johnson argument over flag-burning in 1989, and the Miranda v. Arizona argument in 1966. In September 2010 the Supreme Court began releasing audio recordings of the week's oral arguments each Friday, thereby allowing C-SPAN Radio to broadcast a selection of current arguments. Prior to this arrangement, recordings of oral arguments were occasionally made available on a same-day basis, which C-SPAN would request in cases of high public interest.
