The Florida Space Grant Consortium sponsors the Stardate radio broadcast at 10 radio stations in Brandenton, Dade City, Gainesville, Leesburg, Marianna, Miami, Orlando, Palatka, Panama City, and Tampa. The broadcasts are once daily for 5 days a week. In some cities the broadcasts are daily (every day and every week).
StarDate radio is the longest-running science feature in the country celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1997. StarDate began as a telephone message service and soon went on the air in Austin as a daily radio program, originally titled “Have You Seen the Stars Tonight?” With a new name and a grant from the National Science Foundation, the series began national distribution in 1978. Each month, StarDate offers a balance of astronomy and space-science topics. About half of each month’s programs are related to skywatching: eclipses, meteor showers, planetary conjunctions, stars and constellations, and so on.
Other topics are related to important anniversaries (the birthdays of important astronomers or anniversaries of key scientific discoveries or space-exploration accomplishments); recent discoveries in astronomy, astrophysics, and physics; Earth’s place in the cosmos; and a variety of topics that may be related only peripherally to the core subject of astronomy, but that help place astronomy in a broader historical, scientific, and cultural perspective.
Stardate Affiliates in Florida | ||
City and State | Station/Frequency | Air Time(s) |
Dade City, FL | WDCF AM 1350 | Mon – Sun 9:00AM |
Gainesville, FL | FIT | Mon – Fri 6:29PM |
Inverness, FL | WJUF FM 90.1 | Mon – Fri 6:29PM |
Key West, FL | WKIZ AM 1500 | Mon – Sun 7:00AM Mon – Sun 8:00AM Mon – Sun 9:00AM Mon – Sun 10:00AM Mon – Sun 12:00PM Mon – Sun 2:00PM Mon – Sun 5:00PM Mon – Sun 6:00PM Mon – Sun 9:00PM Mon – Sun 10:00PM |
Leesburg, FL | WLBE AM 790 | Mon – Fri 12:15 PM |
Marianna, FL | WTYS FM 94.1 | Mon – Sun 6:30AM |
Orlando, FL | WMFE FM 90.7 | Mon – Thu 6:58PM Fri 7:58PM |
Palatka, FL | WIYD AM 1260 | Mon – Sun 10:39AM Mon – Sun 10:20PM Mon – Sun 2:40AM |
Panama City, FL | WKGC FM 90.7 | Mon – Fri 11:58AM |
St Augustine, FL | WFCF FM 88.5 | Mon – Sun 9:00AM |
Tampa, FL | WHNZ AM 1250 | Mon – Fri 7:31PM Sat – Sun 10:00AM |