By Hannah Osborne
WRFG, Radio Free Georgia, has spent the last 50 years airing progressive content and hand-picked music on the Atlanta airwaves.
The station is celebrating its golden anniversary this summer after first coming onto the air in 1973 with just 18 watts, giving the station very little coverage in the beginning.
“They didn’t know about hills,” says WRFG co-founder Harlon Joye of the coverage area being further limited by the landscape of Atlanta.
WRFG’s arrival in the Atlanta market filled a number of voids for many Atlanta listeners. Included in these voids were progressive content and blues, hip hop and afro-beats music. WRFG prides itself on its service to listeners of all walks of life, particularly those from underserved and underrepresented communities.
“We [WRFG] are programming content that a large minority of listeners want to hear,” says Joye.
“WRFG has made significant changes in broadcasting in Atlanta, affecting politics and music genres of the market,” says Joye.
The service to this listener niche has ensured the longevity of the station for the past five decades. Comparably most stations in Georgia opt to cater to the majority of listeners in order to ensure station profitability. WRFG’s choice to target marginalized markets and hand-picked music gives the station an edge.
Uniquely, WRFG programs are largely volunteer-based, aside from special projects or shows funded by grants. This has allowed the station to invest in a broad range of program topics and styles, with each broadcaster typically only hosting one show per week.
“At the beginning, everyone was more interested in getting on the air and broadcasting than getting paid,” says Joye.
Without corporate funding, this desire and listener support has allowed the station to sustain itself for the past 50 years.
One such grant-funded program came onto the air in November of 1979. WRFG received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, leading the station to produce the nationally acclaimed series, “Living Atlanta: Atlanta Life From World War I Through World War II6.” The “Living in Atlanta” series reflects the lives and people of Atlanta from WWI through WWII. Series episodes feature individuals from all walks of life that lived in Atlanta from 1916 to 1946. The series concluded in 1980.
The series proved to be so valuable that the station is currently re-airing the episodes every Monday, Thursday and Friday through Sept. 22. The series can also be accessed on the WRFG website.
In addition to its “Living in Atlanta” series, the station is most gratified by the gaps it was able to fill in the coverage of the Atlanta prison riots of 1987. Due to previously established relationships, the station was one of few that prisoners were willing to communicate with during the riots. Due to this ability to communicate directly with prisoners, WRFG found many news outlets coming to its station for information on the riots.
After 50 years the station celebrated its milestone with a party on July 15, 2023, hosted at The Rialto Center for the Arts. The event was hosted by Ahzjah Simons and Dazon Dixon Diallo, with acknowledgments by Wanique Shabazz. Julie Dexter, Ruby Velle and Mausiki Scales, and the Common Ground Collective all performed at the event.
Joye shares that at the celebration he was able to interact with a number of longtime listeners that shared the impact that WRFG has in their everyday lives. One listener shared with Joye that turning on WRFG “lifted her up” and “helped her survive” during a difficult time in her life.
“WRFG has made significant changes in broadcasting in Atlanta, affecting politics and music genres of the market,” says Joye.
The value of the station will continue to reflect on the continued independent broadcasting of WRFG.
