WSMC-FM

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WSMC-FM, 90.5, is the Chattanooga, Tennessee area's only radio station featuring classical music programming. It is licensed to Southern Adventist University (SAU), a four-year institution located in nearby Collegedale. Its signal reaches parts of the states of Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama.

Founded in 1961, the station programs classical music (including opera and similar genres) during most of the broadcast day Sundays through Thursdays. The station also airs news programs from the BBC, Public Radio International, National Public Radio, and American Public Media. SAU students constitute the preponderance of the announcing staff.

The call letters, WSMC, came from an earlier name of Southern Adventist University, Southern Missionary College.

1 Religious Programming Controversies
2 Demographic Analysis
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Religious Programming Controversies

Because of the religious doctrine of the licensee's church body, the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, WSMC is required to stop broadcasting news programs at sundown on Fridays. In the 1990s, this caused conflict with NPR, which objected to its signature newscast, "All Things Considered" (ATC), being interrupted in progress. Coinciding with this dispute, several interest groups took exception to WSMC's continued affiliation with NPR, which is in turn funded largely by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, itself subsidized by Federal appropriations. The upshot of their arguments was that because WSMC broadcast religious programming on Saturdays, it therefore was ineligible to receive federal funding (or programming provided therefrom) due to concerns about separation of church and state. Some individuals also alleged that the religious programming, mandated by the university's administration, amounted to a disregard of the larger public in the Tennessee Valley, in favor of catering to a small religious minority.

Instead of modifying its Friday and Saturday programming practices in response to those complaints, however, college officials and station management decided to discontinue most NPR programming, news included. Replacing "ATC" were Public Radio International's "The World" and American Public Media's "Marketplace", which could air on a delayed basis, instead of live, as "ATC" does. "Talk of the Nation" is the only regularly-scheduled NPR-produced program remaining on WSMC's schedule; most of the other programs moved to WUTC, which replaced WSMC as the Chattanooga market's flagship NPR station.

[edit] Demographic Analysis

Besides airing classical music, some religious programs on Saturdays, and news programs, WSMC also airs "Cowboy Jubilee," a nostalgic program of Western music. Generally speaking, WSMC attracts an educated but culturally conservative suburban audience.

Chattanooga FM radio stations (Arbitron #107)

By frequency: 88.1 | 88.9 | 89.7 | 90.5 | 91.5 | 92.3 | 93.1 | 93.7 | 94.3 | 95.3 | 96.5 | 97.3 | 98.1 | 100.7 | 101.9 | 102.3 | 102.7 | 105.5 | 106.5 | 107.9