WABE
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| WABE | |
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| City of license | Atlanta, Georgia |
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| Broadcast area | Atlanta metropolitan area |
| Branding | 90.1 FM WABE (on FM and HD) WABE Classical (on HD-2) WABE News (on HD-3) |
| Frequency | 90.1 MHz (Also on HD Radio) 90.1 HD-2 for Classical music 90.1 HD-3 for News & Talk |
| First air date | 1948 |
| Format | Public radio |
| ERP | 96,000 watts |
| HAAT | 250.4 meters |
| Class | Class C1 Non-Commercial FM Station |
| Facility ID | 3538 |
| Callsign meaning | W Atlanta Board of Education |
| Affiliations | National Public Radio Public Radio International American Public Media |
| Owner | Atlanta Public Schools / Atlanta Educational Telecommunications Collaborative, Inc. (Board of Education, City of Atlanta) |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | www.pba.org |
WABE 90.1 is a radio station in Atlanta, Georgia that is affiliated with National Public Radio. WABE has a mostly classical music format, but airs newscasts from NPR as well. The station is owned and operated by the Atlanta Board of Education (hence the callsign "ABE"). The station's signal reaches practically all of the northwestern and north central parts of the state. It is the dominant public radio station in metropolitan Atlanta; Georgia Public Broadcasting serves most of the remainder of the state with such programs.
WABE also broadcasts the Georgia Radio Reading Service and educational programming via subcarriers on its frequency.
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[edit] History
WABE has always been operated by the city school system; it started in 1948 and may well have been the first-ever noncommercial radio station in the Southern U.S., at least on the FM band. Its first studios were located in the former Atlanta City Hall; the station moved, along with television station WETV (now WPBA), channel 30, into facilities in northeastern Atlanta in 1958, where both stations remain to this day.
The school board used WABE strictly as a medium for educational (i.e., in-school) broadcasts until sometime in the early 1970s, when classical music broadcasts (and likely evening broadcasts also) premiered on the station. The early 1970's also saw the beginnings of NPR network programming, an increase of transmission power, and the introduction of stereo broadcasting. By the early 1980s, the educational programs heard during school hours moved, thanks to the development of subcarrier technologies, to subchannels, leaving the main FM frequency free to broadcast music and news shows for adults. The station finally expanded its hours to around-the-clock service and established a tower on Stone Mountain, which it used until 2004, when transmission moved to the tower of sister TV station WPBA in the DeKalb County portion of East Atlanta.
WABE has since that time grown steadily in listeners served, mainly because Atlanta is one of the nation's fastest-growing metropolitan areas, and the fastest-growing of the largest 15 or so.
[edit] Local weekday hosts
Steve Goss - joined WABE after 28 years at 94.9 FM (WPCH, later WLTM) as local host of Morning Edition.
Lois Reitzes -- is the longtime host of the morning classical program "Second Cup Concert" and of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra broadcasts. She came to WABE in 1979 from WFIU-FM in Bloomington, Ind. Reitzes served as a classical host for WFIU while at Indiana University working toward a double major in piano and musicology. Reitzes is also an accomplished pianist.
Wanda Yang Temko -- hosts the Afternoon Classics classical program. Like Lois Reitzes, Temko graduated from IU-Bloomington's music school and announced on WFIU-FM. She sings in operatic performances in the Atlanta area as well as with the Atlanta Symphony Chorus and the Atlanta Festival Singers, and teaches voice as well. Temko also announces on Saturday afternoons and hosts the Sunday evening program The Art of Song.
John Lemley -- joined the station's on-air team in 1997 as host of an afternoon classical program, Daytime; the program is now known as Afternoon Classics (see above). In 2005, he was named local anchor of NPR's daily news magazine, All Things Considered. Lemley also serves as producer and host of WABE's Tapestry, a weekly program of choral music. Lemley can also be heard on WABE's companion television station, WPBA-TV, as daytime voiceover announcer. Lemley came to WABE from WBHM-FM in Birmingham, Ala., where he also served as afternoon host. In Birmingham, from 1987 to 1997, he was also one of the biggest names in the Magic City's theatre scene, performing with Town & Gown Theatre, Summerfest, Birmingham-Southern Theatre, and Birmingham Children's Theatre.
Robert Hubert -- a veteran of over two decades on WABE's staff, Hubert hosts the evening classical program Nocturne and serves as the station's music librarian and webmaster. He also hosts Atlanta Music Scene, heard on Monday evenings during his regular program.
[edit] Local specialty program hosts
H. Johnson -- a legendary Atlanta broadcaster in his own right, he has hosted the Saturday-night Jazz Classics show since the early 1980s. Johnson, known only by his first initial (he has admitted on the air to Herman), for many years was a disc jockey on WAOK-AM, one of Atlanta's heritage African-American stations.
Valerie Jackson -- hosts the book-review program Between the Lines, heard early Thursday evenings. She is the widow of the late Maynard Jackson, mayor of Atlanta during the mid- and late-1970s.
[edit] Miscellanea
WABE's call sign was WPBA-FM for a month in 1984, at the same time WETV's callsign changed to WPBA. The radio station's call sign was changed back because of confusion.
[edit] External links
- WABE Website
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WABE
- Radio Locator information on WABE
- Query Arbitron's FM station database for WABE
- WABE is at coordinates Coordinates:
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| Public schools in Atlanta, Georgia |
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|---|---|
| High Schools |
Carver • Douglass • Grady • Mays • North Atlanta • South Atlanta • Southside • Therrell • Washington |
| Middle Schools |
Brown • Bunche • Coan • Harper-Archer • Inman • Kennedy • King • Long • Parks • Price • Sutton • Sylvan Hills • Turner • Walden • Young |
| Elementary Schools |
Adamsville • Beecher Hills • Benteen • Bethune • Blalock • Bolton Academy • Boyd • Brandon • Burgess/Peterson • Capitol View • Cascade • Centennial Place • Cleveland Ave. • Connally • Continental Colony • Cook • Deerwood Academy • Dobbs • Dunbar • East Lake • Fain • Fickett • Finch • Garden Hills • Gideons • Grove Park • Heritage Academy • Herndon • Hill • Hope • Humphries • Hutchinson • Jackson • Jones • Kimberley • Lin • Miles • Morningside • Oglethorpe • Parkside • Perkerson • Peyton Forest • Rivers • Scott • Slater • Smith • D.H. Stanton • F.L. Stanton • Thomasville Heights • Toomer • Towns • Usher • Venetian Hills • Waters • West Manor • White • Whitefoord • Williams • Woodson |
| Non-Traditional Schools |
APS/CEP School • Crim Open Campus • West End Academy |
| Charter Schools |
Achieve Academy of Atlanta • Atlanta Charter Middle School • Charles R. Drew Charter School • KIPP Academy • Neighborhood Charter School • SIAT • Tech High School • BEST Academy • C.S. King Academy • University Community Academy |
| Sports Facilities | |
| Broadcasting |
WABE • WPBA (TV) |
