88.5 WFDD Remembers Dr. Julian Burroughs

Dr. Burroughs with WFDD General Manager Denise Franklin in 2008

To read more about Dr. Burroughs' work for WFDD radio over the decades - and to see photographs - visit the Wake Forest Radio website at http://wakeforestradio.com/tributes/julian_burroughs.html

The staff and alumni of 88.5 WFDD fondly remember Dr. Julian Burroughs (March 19, 1929 - May 7, 2008)

Sixty years ago Dr. Julian Burroughs was a freshman at Wake Forest College - back when it was located in Wake County. It was then he got involved with the young and struggling college radio station, WFDD. Dr. Burroughs passed away last week. He was 80. In his remembrance the family has named three organizations accepting donations in Dr. Burroughs' name: The Fine Arts Ministry at Centenary Methodist Church, The Kate B. Reynolds Hospice Home and WFDD. In March of 2008, WFDD named a production studio in Dr. Burroughs' honor. WFDD's Jeff Tiberii spoke with a former student and colleague who reflected on the man who pioneered broadcast and media studies at Wake Forest University.

Listen: mp3

Jane Gutsell, a Wake Forest University alumna, stopped by our studios and shared her memories of Dr. Burroughs with WFDD's Kathryn Mobley for wfdd.org.

You may make a memorial gift to WFDD here >>

Dr. Julian Burroughs was a 1951 Wake Forest College graduate and earned his masters and doctorate degrees at the University of Michigan. He worked as WFDD’s student station manager from 1950-1951. From 1958 to 1994, he was a professor of Speech Communication at Wake Forest University, and served as WFDD’s first non-student station manager from 1958 to 1981. During his tenure, WFDD became a non-commercial educational station in 1961; became the first FM stereo station in Winston-Salem, with the addition of a new 36,000-watt antenna purchased with the help of local listeners (1967); and became the first National Public Radio ® affiliate station in the state of North Carolina (1971).

Dr. Burroughs’s leadership at 88.5 WFDD and his time as professor of Speech Communication enabled hundreds of students to learn the elements of broadcasting. Students who worked under Dr. Burroughs at WFDD often produced daily broadcasts, including an early morning show, Renaissance, which complemented NPR®’s afternoon broadcast of All Things Considered. Many of these students continued on to careers in broadcasting and journalism, or in the field communication or media studies education.

88.5 WFDD · Your NPR News & Triad Arts Station from Wake Forest University · wfdd@wfu.edu
P.O. Box 8850 · Winston-Salem, NC 27109 · 336-758-8850