KUCI
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| City | Irvine, California |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | |
| Branding | Radio Free Orange County |
| Frequency | 88.9 MHz |
| First air date | 1968 |
| Format | Variety, College radio |
| ERP | 200 watts |
| HAAT | -3.0 meters |
| Class | A |
| Facility ID | 55570 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 33°38′41.00″N 117°50′36.00″W / 33.6447222°N 117.8433333°W |
| Owner | Regents of the University of California |
| Webcast | listen live |
| Website | kuci.org |
KUCI (88.9 FM) is a college radio station broadcasting a Variety format. Licensed to Irvine, California, USA, the station serves the Orange County area. The station is currently owned by Regents of the University of California.
Originally a student-run pirate radio station in 1968 only reaching a few miles from the UCI campus, KUCI broadcast taped music from a dormitory on campus. The tapes were made by Richard Privette, and the broadcast equipment was assembled by an engineering student named Craig Will. Shortly after, there was a nightly live music and talk show called Unreal Radio, with Lee Sailer and Zack Zenor, from Sailer's dormitory room.
KUCI became legal after it was forced to officially register with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) following a crack-down on illegal radio broadcasts in 1969. The legalization of the station was undertaken by Craig Will. 1969 was the first year that KUCI received funding from the Associated Students of UCI (ASUCI), which filed an application to register the station with the Federal Communications Commission. Will, unable to continue the process due to a wound from radiation testing and under the burden of his schoolwork, handed the project to Earl Arbuckle, who continued the work.
On October 16, 1969, the FCC granted KUCI Program Test Authority to broadcast on 89.9 MHz. The studio at the time was inside a small closet in the Physical Science Building. Evening-only broadcasts featured records from the disc jockey's own collection. The first song ever played on KUCI was "Sugar, Sugar" by the Archies.
In the spring of 1971, construction began on the third floor of UCI's Gateway Commons for studio and office space. By the fall of 1971, KUCI moved for the first time. At this time, the station's music library consisted of 400 records.
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