WRHU
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| WRHU | |
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| City of license | Hempstead, New York |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 88.7 MHz |
| First air date | June 9, 1959 at 4:44 pm |
| Format | Public broadcasting and college radio |
| ERP | 470 watts circular polarization |
| HAAT | 55 meters |
| Class | A |
| Callsign meaning | We're Radio Hofstra University |
| Owner | Hofstra University |
| Website | www.wrhu.org |
WRHU-FM is a venerable non-commercial radio station located in Hempstead, Long Island, New York (USA), at 88.7 on the FM dial.
While other public stations emphasize network programming, WRHU is known for its award-winning, locally produced entertainment and public-affairs shows. The variety in the weekday music schedule takes listeners from classical music to jazz, from new music to metal. Weekend music shows include Italian, Irish, reggae, soul, hip-hop, middle age, country and polka music programming.
The outlet, which is owned by Hofstra University, was founded in 1950 as WHCH[citation needed], a campus-limited station, and received its broadcast license in 1959, using the call letters WVHC. It became WRHU (for Radio Hofstra University) in 1983. [1]
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[edit] Programming
WRHU was among the first outlets (public or commercial) in the United States to promote what became the New Wave movement. The daily Airwave show and Saturday-night hip-hop P5 (Post Punk Progressive Pop Party) and Jugglin Time (old school reggae and dance hall) are among the New York metropolitan area's oldest new-music-oriented radio programs. The Post Punk Progressive Pop Party was created by Bob Goldsmith and Sal LoCurto and first aired in 1978. The show was inspired by the fall of the legendary rock format at WPIX-FM (now WQCD) in New York.
WRHU has the largest radio news staff on Long Island. Reporters cover many local stories on a daily basis which air on WRHU's daily talk, information and public-affairs programming including the Morning Wake-Up Call and Newsline shows. Since 1966, WRHU has provided regional Election Night coverage, for which it has received several prestigious awards for excellence in recent years. Most recently, the election special has won repeated top honors from the Long Island Coalition for Fair Broadcasting, beating both commercial and public stations. In fact WRHU is the only radio station on Long Island (commercial or non commercial) that provides long form content rich election coverage to the community.
WRHU student reporters win numerous awards. In the extremely competitive national Hearst Journalism contest, WRHU student reporters win annually. In the 2007-2008 Hearst competition WRHU student reporters placed 1st and 3rd respectively. The station has also received a number of RTNDA awards, LI Press Club Awards, and FOLIO awards from the Fair Media Council for its public affairs show, Long Island Community Spotlight, as well as the annual Election Night coverage.
WRHU's 40-plus program formats include a number of weekend programs that have helped the station raise money to fund its educational mission over the years. Basia's Polka and Oberek Time, Irish Country with Tony Jackson, The Long Ireland Show and Ciao Italy help the station maintain strong ties to various ethnic communities through Long Island's Nassau County. Programs like Out Behind the Barn and Rhythm and Blues Serenade also assist the station in fund-raising efforts. The latter has also come to play a crucial role in preserving doo-wop music in the NY metro area since WCBS-FM dropped its oldies format.
Throughout its history, WRHU-FM has long provided coverage of Long Island sports -- Hofstra athletics as well as local and major league sports events, including PGA golf tournaments and Brooklyn Cyclones baseball.
On October 10, 2003, WRHU made a commitment to maintaining a 24-hour program schedule, and has since done so without the use of voice-tracking or automation. Prior to the round-the-clock schedule, the station would power down at 3 AM and resume programming at 5AM. The two hours of additional programming were filled in by a program dubbed Out of Phase by then-Operations Manager Joel Meyer. The program highlights other formats at the station that air 5 days per week. The 24/7/365 schedule is unusual for a college-owned radio station, but supports more than 40 different formats of music, news and sports.[citation needed]
[edit] History
After more than eight years as a carrier-current-only campus station, WHCH became WVHC on June 9, 1959. One of WVHC's founders, Jeff Kraus, served as station and then general manager for more than 30 years, until his death in 1993. Since then, the Hofstra Radio Alumni Association has administered the Jeffrey C. Kraus Radio Scholarship awards program in memory of the station's longtime guiding spirit.[2]
WVHC was among the first college-owned radio stations to broadcast in a professional-style format. During its first 40 years on the FM dial, the station grew from a six-hour-a-day weekday schedule to 20 hours on weekdays, 19 hours on weekends; and from air facilities in the basement of Mason Hall (the Little Theatre) on the Hofstra campus to studios and production facilities in the Memorial Hall Learning Technology Center. The station began broadcasting from its current facilities at Dempster Hall in October 1994.[citation needed]
In 1962, WVHC was granted an increase of power from the original 10 watts to 250 watts. The station's power output was boosted to 320 watts by the 1970s. In 1978, with a new antenna on the roof of the Constitution Hall (Tower C) residential building, the station boosted its power output to the current 470 watts.[citation needed]
During the 1960s and 70s, WVHC maintained two dial positions -- the broadcast frequency at 88.7 FM and carrier-current location at 630 AM.[citation needed]
For all its growth over the years, it's ironic that WVHC/WRHU nearly didn't make it out of its first decade as an FM broadcaster. In summer 1967, the administration of the financially-struggling university voted to eliminate WVHC -- sparking both protest rallies and fund-raising efforts to save the station. By August 22, Hofstra announced that $17,200 had been budgeted to guarantee the station an additional year of life -- $13,000 of that coming via a grant from the Hempstead Public Schools. For the next year, WVHC aired daytime programming revolving around the Hempstead school community's activities.[citation needed]
During the 1990s, WRHU's election coverage was also aired by commercial broadcasters such as WGBB and WLIR and public station WBAU as part of the Island Radio News (later Hofstra Radio News) network -- designed partly as a revival of the Long Island Network election coverage of the 1960s aired by WGBB, WVHC and other local stations.[citation needed]
WRHU is based at the Hofstra School of Communication and provides vital on-air broadcast training to Hofstra students, both on the air and in the areas of production and management.[citation needed]
[edit] They worked at 88.7 FM
- Alan Colmes - Radio personality and host of Hannity and Colmes on Fox News Channel
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. |
- Charlie Kaye - Executive Producer of CBS Radio News
- John DeBella - Philadelphia morning radio show host at WMGK
[edit] External links
- WRHU-FM website
- History of Hostra Communications
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WRHU
- Radio Locator information on WRHU
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