series of indiscretions by ownership led to the revocation of its license. Station volunteer staff blamed recent troubles facing WGTB-FM on the station manager that been brought on board following the 1976 shutdown. Despite the formation of an Alliance to Preserve Radio at Georgetown that opposed the UDC sale, WGTB-FM went off the air at 12:34 p.m. on January 31, 1979, as a crowd of 400 people protested in Healy Circle, with most of them marching to FCC headquarters. Together with protests about United States involvement in Iran, the WGTB rally marked the most protest activity on the campus since 1971. On March 12, 1980, the FCC approved the sale of WGTB-FM to UDC; the call letters were changed to WDCU on June 6. However, the 90.1 frequency remained silent for another two years following FCC approval, with the university seeking a move of the studios and transmitter. It was not until March 1982 that the station unveiled its plans for a jazz music station with weekend classical music programming and six hours a week in Spanish, with the station finally signing on May 1. The University of the District of Columbia constantly struggled to bring in money for the station, which had just three full-time employees and never raised more than $200,000 in any year since its launch. However, the station did win a major power boost in 1994 after ending a six-year fight with television station WFTY, which broadcast from the Hughes Memorial Tower next to the site where WDCU was already broadcasting; the increase to 50,000 watts also filled in reception issues in parts of the District and added some 900,000 people to the station's coverage area. When the District's financial situation worsened and prompted the creation by Congress of a District of Columbia Financial Control Board with the authority to close its financial shortfalls, combined with a $16 million budget deficit at UDC, it became obvious that WDCU was going to be sold. After months of speculation and rumors of interest by George Washington University, WETA and others, WDCU was put up for sale in May 1997, when the board retained a station brokerage. In late June 1997, UDC trustees voted to sell WDCU to Community Resource Educational Association, a nonprofit affiliate of Christian religious broadcaster Salem Communications, for $13 million; the university retained the station's recording library. This came after a joint bid by WAMU