In 1965, Auburn was one of the few universities its size to not have a radio station. But student support was high for the idea. A survey during that year’s fall registration indicated 94% of students wanted a new station. In October of 1965, the student activity fee was raised one dollar to finance the station. The Board of Trustees delayed approval, and Auburn president Harry M. Philpott appointed a committee to study the station. Then nothing happened. Two years later, H. Floyd Vallery, assistant to Philpott, defended the delay, saying “If we’re going to have a radio station, we’re going to have a good one.” A second proposal failed in fall of 1967.
The idea of a campus radio station would not go away, but was the administration willing to act? James E. Foy, dean of student affairs, said in a 1969 Plainsman article, “In order to be worthwhile, the station would have to attract a substantial number of listeners and there are already four stations in the area.”
But change was in the air in 1969, even on the sleepy Auburn campus. Students wore black armbands and held rallies at Toomer’s corner in protest of the Vietnam War. Even the bad boys of rock-n-roll, the Rolling Stones, had negotiated a contract to play in Memorial Coliseum in November. Controversial plays “Hair” and “Jesus Christ Superstar” would soon be performed on campus. The Plainsman reported in February that more than 500 students were enrolled in “Free University,” a series of 25 alternate classes run by volunteers covering topics the university wasn’t teaching.
With Haley Center nearing completion, and the need for more constant student communication (the venerable Plainsman only came out each Thursday), momentum was building as the 1970s arrived. And so was a determined engineering major named Chris Youtz ’71.
Youtz had no intention of being a DJ, but he did believe Auburn deserved a radio station. In January of 1970, Youtz’s passion earned him a leadership position on a presidential taskforce established by SGA president David Hill ’70 to develop a station proposal. Youtz was later elected SGA treasurer, and his knowledge of campus funding and politics would prove instrumental.
“I sat down and started trying to work out just what would be involved to create a station, and that’s when I started digging through all the information from the FCC and reviewing the history,” Youtz said. Youtz saw several things working in their favor. One was pent-up student and campus support. Youtz got letters of support from the speech department, university relations, the educational television department and others. A survey in May of 1970 showed 99.5% of Auburn students wanted a radio station. The Plainsman ran favorable editorials. But most importantly, the now-complete Haley Center already had a nonworking radio station built for communication majors to practice being DJ’s and newscasters.
“It seemed foolish to me that they built a practice radio station, when we could have an actual one,” Youtz said. Youtz reached out to campus radio stations at places like Georgia Tech and Samford University, getting valuable advice on programming and needed equipment. He also—politely—rejected a local station’s offer to run student programming for one hour, every Saturday afternoon, in lieu of not starting up a campus station.
But Philpott was not ready to approve. He wanted assurances the station would have some academic oversight and partnership, perhaps fearing it would simply become a mouthpiece for the unrest on campus. On April 16, 1970 he formed another committee to make recommendations that included Youtz, a War Eagle Girl, a football player, a local station owner and Dean Foy, among others. Youtz thought the fix was in.
“The football player never attended a single meeting, the local radio guy didn’t want the competition and Dean Foy was opposed to the station. So I thought we were doomed,” Youtz said. But after some lobbying, the committee voted 4-3 to recommend the station. A proposal for $15,269.35 to fund it was submitted to the concessions committee. The department of speech would partner with the station and it would be overseen by the Publications Board (soon to be renamed the Communications Board) which also monitored the Plainsman and the Glomerata.
On May 28, 1970 Philpott recommended approval of a 10-watt campus radio station, and on June 1 the board of trustees approved it.
In January of 1971, a letter was sent to the FCC requesting call signs. Youtz had listed his choices in order of preference: WEGL, WRGL, WXAU, WWAU and WQAU. He got his first choice.