WBHM
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| WBHM | |
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| City of license | Birmingham, Alabama |
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| Broadcast area | Birmingham area |
| Branding | NPR News Classical Music |
| Frequency | 90.3 MHz |
| Repeaters | WSGN 91.5 MHz (Gadsden) |
| First air date | December 5, 1976 |
| Format | News Talk Information |
| Audience share | 2.5 (FALL 2007, RRC[1]) |
| ERP | 32,000 watts |
| HAAT | 370.0 meters |
| Class | C1 |
| Facility ID | 4240 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Callsign meaning | BirmingHaM |
| Affiliations | American Public Media, National Public Radio, Public Radio International |
| Owner | University of Alabama at Birmingham (Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama) |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | http://www.wbhm.org |
WBHM (90.3 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a News Talk Information format. Licensed to Birmingham, Alabama, USA, the station serves the Birmingham area and through repeater WSGN also serves the Gadsden area. The station is licensed to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where it maintains its studios. WBHM features programing from American Public Media, National Public Radio and Public Radio International.[2]. The station is a National Public Radio affiliate. It also primarily features classical music programming, except for several weekly feature shows from NPR, Public Radio International, and American Public Media on weekends.
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[edit] History
Even though Huntsville beat Birmingham, the state's largest city, in getting Alabama's first public radio station in October 1976, WBHM did not follow far behind, beginning operations on December 5. WBHM became Birmingham's first full-time classical station since the demise of a commercial FM outlet, WSFM, which gave way to the present WDJC-FM in 1967.
Except for the expansion of nationally-distributed weekend feature shows like Car Talk, A Prairie Home Companion, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and This American Life, WBHM's schedule has largely remained constant over its three decades of broadcasting. As with most other markets in the country, the drive-time NPR newscasts have become the most-listened-to programs on the station's daily lineup. WBHM augments the national coverage with frequent local features from its news staff.
Some jazz and folk music programs aired on Saturday evenings during the 1980s, but only Echoes and Music From the Hearts of Space, both experimental music programs, represent non-classical genres these days. Central Alabama listeners can hear various types of music on Alabama Public Radio instead, whose Tuscaloosa signal can be received clearly in much of the Birmingham area.
[edit] WSGN
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WSGN-FM began operation as WEXP for experiment on February 11, 1975 primarily as a training facility for Gadsden States radio-tv broadcasting department. The station was built with donations of equipment from several Alabama radio stations and from Rick Maze of Birmingham, Al plus purchases from the State of Alabama Surplus Property warehouse. Construction was performed by Don Smith and Bob Mayben, teachers in the broadcast department, and a generous donation of time, material and personnel from WBRC TV in Birmingham. The station was operated by students and faculty for many years. When both Smith and Mayben left the school for other interests, new instructor Neil Mullen took over the station operation and a programming deal was struck with the University of Alabama in Birmingham to provide classical music programming. The call letters of WSGN date back to the beginning of radio broadcasting in the state, and were formerly located in Birmingham at 610 on the AM dial. In fact, there was a WSGN-FM in the 50's which today is known as WDJC in Birmingham. The call letters were changed under Mullens' leadership when WSGN 610 AM was sold to a company that did not want to use the call letters, but did not want another station in Birmingham to be able to use them, so another deal was struck to re-name WEXP as WSGN. As of 2008, the WEXP call letters are located in Brandon, Vermont.[3]
[edit] Local Hosts
- Steve Chiotakis - Morning Edition
- Andrew Yeager - All Things Considered
Except for a half-hour Mondays through Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. currently hosted by Lissa LeGrand, WBHM no longer has local hosts for classical music. Since the early 2000s, it has exclusively relied on the Classical Public Radio Network (a joint production of KUSC-FM in Los Angeles and Colorado Public Radio) to provide programming in the middle of the day, evenings, and overnight.
[edit] Weekly Local Programs
Tapestry--heard Thursday evenings at 6:30 p.m., the show spotlights aspects of Birmingham's local artistic and musical scene, with an emphasis on avant-garde and unusual expressions. Greg Bass hosts. Tapestry is produced by Tanya Ott and Michael Krall. The show is also rebroadcast Saturdays at 11:30 a.m. and available as a podcast.
[edit] Miscellanea
On a sub-carrier channel, WBHM operates the Alabama Radio Reading Service, which broadcasts readings from the Birmingham News and popular magazines for blind and visually-impaired residents of the Birmingham area. The other public radio stations in Alabama also offer the service, provided through a grant by the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services.
Perhaps the station's most accomplished alumnus is John Lemley, who hosted Afternoon Music and All Things Considered on WBHM from 1992 to 1997. He now serves as the All Things Considered host each weekday afternoon on Atlanta's WABE-FM, that city's main NPR outlet. Lemley was further known as an accomplished actor while residing in Birmingham.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- WBHM official website
- Alabama Radio Reading Service
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WBHM
- Radio Locator information on WBHM
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WSGN
- Radio Locator information on WSGN
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