WHIL-FM

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WHIL-FM, 91.3, is a public radio station in Mobile, Alabama. It primarily features classical music programming in the daytime, along with other genres in the evenings. WHIL-FM serves the extreme southern tip of Alabama along the state's portion of the Gulf Coast (and some counties to the north, in southwestern Alabama), as well as counties in southeastern Mississippi and northwestern Florida. The station maintains studios on the campus of Spring Hill College, a Jesuit institution that started the station and holds the broadcast license, although a non-profit community board now manages the station on a day-to-day basis. WHIL-FM's signal travels in about a 45-mile radius. Nearby competing public radio stations include the Biloxi translator of the Mississippi Public Broadcasting network and WUWF-FM in Pensacola, Fla..

Contents 1 History 2 Local Hosts 3 "Radio Avalon" 4 "Liquid Aire" 5 Miscellanea 6 External links

[edit] History

WHIL-FM had perhaps one of the most inauspicious beginnings of any public radio station in the U.S. Only one week after its first broadcast on September 5, 1979, Hurricane Frederic struck the Alabama Gulf Coast, rendering the station silent for some time thereafter due to transmitter and tower damage. From those rough beginnings, the station grew to provide one of the few non-commercial radio services available to the region with programming not designed for religious proselytization. These days, it uses the branding "Fine Arts Radio for the Gulf Coast," a summary of its mission and scope.

Of the five public radio stations and networks located in Alabama, WHIL is the only one not operated by an agency or educational institution of the state. It was the fourth chronologically, with Huntsville, Birmingham, and Troy preceding Mobile; only Tuscaloosa (Alabama Public Radio) came later, in 1982.

[edit] Local Hosts

Kris Pierce--"Morning Edition"
Kurt Garrett--morning classical music
Ben Harper--afternoon classical music
Theola Bright--"Jazz Connection"; Saturdays, 8-11 p.m.
Sally Pearsall--"Sacred Sounds"; Sundays, 7-9 a.m.
Charlie Smoke--Sunday afternoon classical music (requests)

[edit] "Radio Avalon"

Thomas "Catt" Sirten, an independent producer in nearby Daphne, Ala., hosts this four-hour show Mondays through Fridays from 8 p.m. to 12 Midnight. The show is essentially an easy-listening blend of jazz, Celtic, New Age, and other "adult progressive" genres. The program began in 1994 as a spin-off of his "Sunday Jazz Brunch" show, heard from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on that day of the week; Sirten began his shows on Mobile-area commercial stations before moving to public radio.

[edit] "Liquid Aire"

Chris Stevens hosts this show, heard Sunday evenings from 10 to 12 Midnight, featuring acid jazz, ambient, and Electronica music. It evolved from a former show of his titled "New Frontiers."

[edit] Miscellanea

In the mid-to-late 1990s, Spring Hill College officials took exception to some news reports on National Public Radio about subjects such as abortion rights and homosexuality. Because these seemed to denigrate the positions of the Roman Catholic Church, the parent organization of the college, WHIL discontinued airing NPR news programs for several years. However, protests from disappointed and angry listeners prompted WHIL to restore "Morning Edition," although it still continues to preempt "All Things Considered" in favor of classical music and Public Radio International's "Marketplace".

[edit] External links

• WHIL
• "Radio Avalon" site
• "Liquid Aire" site--blog format

• Query the FCC's FM station database for WHIL