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WRUF (AM)

1928 establishments in FloridaRadio stations established in 1928Radio stations in FloridaUniversity of Florida
WRUF ESPN98.1 850 logo
WRUF ESPN98.1 850 logo

WRUF (850 kHz) is an AM radio station that operates from the University of Florida's main campus in Gainesville, broadcasting at 850 kHz. WRUF is a sports station that covers University of Florida athletics. Unlike its public sister stations, WUFT TV and WUFT-FM, WRUF is a commercial station and, despite being state-run, is run no differently from privately owned commercial stations. The station signed on in October 1928 and is the fifth-oldest station in the state. WRUF featured a mixture of local and syndicated programs, including Jim Bohannon, Dr. Joy Browne, Larry King Live and Sporting News Radio, plus religious programming on Sunday mornings, including Bill Gaither, The Director of Programming is Rob Harder, Assistant Program Director/Brand Manager is Seth Harp and the Sports Director is Steve Russell. WRUF's sports news departments, staffed almost entirely by School of Journalism students, are fairly large for a station of its size; by at least one account it has the largest local radio news department in Florida. A WRUF microphone used by UF alumnus Red Barber during the 1930s is part of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum's collection. It has been displayed in the museum's "Scribes and Mikemen" exhibit and from 2002 to 2006 it was a part of the "Baseball as America" traveling exhibition. In 2010, WRUF changed their format from news and talk (previously in existence since 1993 and known as Newsradio AM 850 WRUF) to sports (Sportsradio 850) and on June 29, 2012, WRUF received the ESPN Radio affiliation.The station is an affiliate of all three of the city of Tampa's major professional sports teams: the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball, the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League, and since 2020, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League. It is the flagship station for the Florida Gators football, basketball, baseball, women's basketball, lacrosse, soccer and volleyball. On August 19, 2015, WRUF began simulcasting on FM translator W237EJ 95.3 FM in Gainesville. It exists mainly to fill in the gaps because Tower #3 of their directional AM array failed in 2016, and the FCC granted permission to operate non-directionally after sunset at 25% of licensed power. Shortly afterward, the station changed its branding from "ESPN 850" to "ESPN 95.3," after the translator. On December 1, 2016, WRUF switched its FM translator from W237EJ 95.3 FM Gainesville (now simulcasting WUFT-FMHD3 as CHR-formatted GHQ) to W251CG 98.1 FM Gainesville.

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WRUF (AM)
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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 29.642777777778 ° E -82.420277777778 °
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WRUF-AM (Gainesville)

Tower Road Multi-use Path
32607
Florida, United States
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WRUF ESPN98.1 850 logo
WRUF ESPN98.1 850 logo
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Arredondo, Florida
Arredondo, Florida

Arredondo, Florida is an unincorporated community in Alachua County, about seven miles southwest of Gainesville on the highway from Gainesville to Archer. It was established as a shipping station on the Florida Railroad that ran from Fernandina through Gainesville to Cedar Key, largely absorbing an earlier community called Kanapaha. The Florida Railroad later became part of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, which abandoned the line from Archer to Cedar Key in 1932. The tracks were removed in the 1970s. The name of the community comes from the Arredondo Grant, a Spanish land grant that includes much of Alachua County and parts of Levy and Marion counties. A post office opened in Arredondo in 1873 and remained in service until 1925.The area around Arredondo was used to raise cattle in the middle of the 19th century, and some cattle-raising continued into the 1880s. In the 1850s, cotton growers from South Carolina established plantations, including the Haile Homestead, in the area, which was then called Kanapaha. The soil around Arredondo is fertile, with underlying deposits of phosphate rock contributing to the fertility. After the Civil War, the cotton planters and newcomers to the area turned to vegetable, fruit and tree-nut production. In the 1883 season, 80,000 crates of vegetables were shipped from the Arredondo station. Strawberries shipped to New York in early February sold for $3.00 a quart.Farmers began experimenting with the commercial production of tomatoes in the area of Arredondo in 1870. In 1872, 20 acres (8.1 ha) were planted to tomatoes, and Arredondo became the center of tomato-growing in Florida. Tomatoes were a profitable crop. In 1882, Florida tomatoes sold for $4.00 to $4.50 per bushel crate in Chicago. As railroads extended further south in Florida, tomato-growing also moved south, permitting an earlier harvest for shipment to the north. Commercial tomato growing, and commercial vegetable growing in general, had ceased in the area around Arredondo by 1900.