At night, to protect other stations on 870 AM, a clear channel frequency, WHCU reduces power to 1,000 watts using a directional antenna.

Weekday mornings kick off with Ithaca's Morning News with Joe Salzone, followed by nationally syndicated talk programs: The Hugh Hewitt Show, The Sean Hannity Show, The Mark Levin Show, CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor, Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal and Markely, Van Camp & Robbins.

On weekends, shows on money, health, gardening, home repair, technology and the law are heard.

It is also the flagship of Cornell University Big Red football, hockey and men's lacrosse broadcasts.

[5] Beginning in April 1917, due to the start of U.S. involvement in World War I, most civilian stations had to suspend operations.

However Cornell was issued a special permit by the War Department to operate a station in conjunction with a campus military unit.

[7] Effective December 1, 1921, the Department of Commerce, which regulated radio communication at this time, adopted regulations to formally establish a broadcast service category, which set aside the wavelength of 360 meters (833 kHz) for "entertainment" broadcasting, and 485 meters (619 kHz) for "market and weather reports".

[8] On May 27, 1922, Cornell University was issued a broadcasting station license with the sequentially assigned call letters WEAI, for operation on 360 meters.

WHCU and its sister stations WYXL, WQNY and WNYY were purchased by Saga Communications in 2005, under the name Cayuga Radio Group.

[17] WHCU won a 1946 Special Citation of Honor Peabody Award for its program, "Radio Edition of the Weekly Press.