Owned by Case Western Reserve University, the station serves Greater Cleveland and is student-run, carrying a combined college and variety format.

WRUW-FM's studios are located in the Mather Memorial Building on the Case Western Reserve campus at University Circle, while the station's transmitter resides in East Cleveland.

WRUW has its earliest roots in "WFSM", started in 1946 by the Flora Stone Mather Radio Club at what was then Western Reserve University which presented programming via a public address system.

WRUW began as a 10-watt monoaural station, gained stereo capability in 1974 and saw a power increase to 1000 watts in 1980.

Summer events include Studio-A-Rama (mainly Indie rock and pop acts), usually held the Saturday after Labor Day.