WLRH-FM

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WLRH-FM, 89.3, is a National Public Radio-affiliated station in Huntsville, Alabama. It primarily features classical music programming on weekdays and folk, jazz, and weekly feature programs on weekends. WLRH-FM serves the northern counties of Alabama and several counties in southern middle Tennessee. The station maintains studios on the campus of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, although UAH is not its licensee; the Alabama Educational Television Commission rents a building from the university for that purpose. WLRH-FM's signal, which is transmitted from a tower on Green Mountain in southeastern Huntsville, travels in about a 60-mile radius. Nearby competing public radio stations include the Alabama Public Radio network (via its Muscle Shoals translator), Birmingham's WBHM-FM, Nashville, Tennessee's WPLN-FM, and WSMC-FM in Collegedale, Tenn., near Chattanooga.

Contents 1 History 2 Local Hosts 3 Weekly Local Programs 4 Miscellanea 5 External links

[edit] History

Although Huntsville is only the state's fourth-largest city, it has boasted for many years a large population of highly-educated, affluent professionals such as technicians, engineers, and entrepreneurs, mostly associated with the U.S. Army's Redstone Arsenal installation, NASA's George C. Marshall Space Flight Center and contractors. Many of these individuals were responsible for organizing an unusually high-quality performing arts scene for such a small city in the 1960s. Huntsville received Alabama's first public radio station license, and broadcasts began on October 13, 1976 from the Times Building on Holmes Avenue. The state's largest city, Birmingham, followed suit two months later when WBHM-FM signed on in December.

Within months, the original licensee, the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library, realized that it had gotten in over its head with operating a full-service radio station, and the AETC bailed it out by acquiring WLRH's license, which it has held ever since. The station carried, as was customary for public stations during that era, mostly classical music programming, with jazz late nights and on weekends. In 1987, after significant listener growth, UAH offered the AETC use of a newly-constructed facility on its campus, several miles to the west of downtown; WLRH took the offer and remains at that location today.

In the early years, the station carried some unusual programs, most notably a weekly hour-long German-language news and features show for the benefit of several natives of that land who worked in Huntsville's aerospace and defense industry. It also was the home of northern Alabama's first call-in radio talk show, which had a very different flavor than those found on commercial stations today (in fact, when the format's popularity exploded elsewhere in the 1990s, WLRH dropped the show, partly because it no longer filled a need and partly because of the commercial shows' polarizing conservative ideology and uncivil tendencies, neither of which find favor with most public radio listeners). Although WLRH's program lineup is somewhat more conventional these days, conforming more to network expectations and standardized tastes, some distinctive local shows continue (see below).

[edit] Local Hosts

Susan Sanderson--"Morning Edition"
Ginny Kennedy--morning classical music (Mondays, Wednesdays)
Judy Watters--morning classical music (Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays)
Beth Norwood--afternoon classical music
Kendal O'Bryan--"All Things Considered"

Mrs. Watters is the sole remaining announcer from the station's beginning 30 years ago. For many years in the 1980s and 1990s, she and husband Harry hosted the Saturday morning feature show "Sundial", well remembered by many residents of the Tennessee Valley for its gentle humor, listener participation games and unusual musical selections. Mrs. Watters discontinued the program when her husband died.

[edit] Weekly Local Programs

Reelin' in the Years--hosted by former Huntsville television sports anchor Bob Labbe, this Friday-night show features songs from the host's extensive collection of 45 R.P.M. records, covering popular music from the 1950s through the 1980s.

Brass, Reeds, and Percussion--the longest-running specialty show on the station, dating from the late 1970s. Darryl Adams, a retired engineer and amateur band musician, plays concert and marching band numbers on this program, which may be the only one of its kind in the entire country. The program is heard early Saturday afternoons.

Talkin' the Blues--a one-hour examination, heard Saturday evenings, of various aspects of blues music, hosted by a blues musician himself, "Microwave Dave" Gallaher. Gallaher, who has a band that plays nightclubs throughout the southeast, in fact began the program while performing during a pledge drive for the station one year. Gallaher also does this show for Huntsville's other public station, WJAB-FM, the Alabama A&M University NPR outlet.

Jazz Expressions--originally known as "Jazz Fusion," this several-hour broadcast heard overnight Saturdays is hosted by Ken "Gentleman K" Gurley, who in the 1980s was on the paid staff of WLRH as a nightly announcer, but now only hosts weekly in a volunteer capacity. The show features mostly "straight-ahead" or bebop jazz for its first 90 minutes and then mostly contemporary or fusion jazz afterwards.

[edit] Miscellanea

George Dickerson, a former South Bend, Ind. television news anchor, has been WLRH's only general manager. It is believed that he is the longest-tenured manager of an American public radio station (and perhaps all public broadcasting), having served over 30 years.

WLRH is the Alabama Educational Television Commission's only radio property; that state government agency is better known as the operator of the Alabama Public Television network. For many years in the 1990s and early 2000s, WLRH mentioned the fact that UAH housed the station in its identifications, but many people did not listen carefully to the phrase "studios and offices are located", thereby wrongly inferring that UAH was in fact WLRH's licensee. Beginning in 2005, though, the station has corrected some of its identification spots to include mention of the AETC, in order to counter potential confusion.

One distinctive programming practice of WLRH is its frequent announcements throughout the broadcast day of underwriting donations made by individuals or families, in addition to the usual businesses and non-profit organizations. Usually, these messages honor birthdays or wedding anniversaries.

[edit] External links

• WLRH
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WLRH