The station was founded by The Licking County Fund for Public Giving, on behalf of the Newark City School District.
The station broadcast on channel 28 until 1970, when the Ohio ETV Network Commission, The Ohio State University (owners of WOSU), and Nationwide Broadcasting requested that the station move to channel 31, with Nationwide providing funds for the move.
[1] In 1970 WGSF became a member station of PBS, and was soon connected to the national feed, ending reliance of WOSU for networked programming.
The following day after the station's closedown, WOSU opened W31AA, a low-powered repeater operating on the former WGSF's channel.
In 2003, Newark High School's Brad Philhower and Nick Iannitto produced a documentary on the 40th anniversary of WGSF titled Ruby Waves.