WHUR-FM

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WHUR-FM

City of license	Washington, D.C.
Broadcast area	Washington, D.C.
Branding	"96.3 WHUR"
Slogan	Sounds Like Washington
Frequency	96.3 MHz (also on HD Radio) 96.3 HD-2 for WHUR World 96.3 HD-3 for WHBC
First air date	1940s
Format	Urban Adult Contemporary
ERP	16,500 watts
HAAT	244 meters
Class	B (Non-commercial)
Facility ID	65707
Callsign meaning	We're Howard University Radio
Owner	Howard University
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	www.whur.com/

WHUR-FM is an Urban Adult Contemporary radio station that serves the Washington D.C. area. WHUR is licensed to Washington, D.C. and is owned by Howard University -- one of the few commercial radio stations in the United States owned by a college or university and the only independent, locally-owned station in the Washington, D.C. area. Also, the staff of the station mentors the students of the university's school of communications. The studios are located on campus (and is the only D.C. region urban contemporary station inside the District), and the transmitter tower is based in the Tenleytown neighborhood.

WHUR is also the home of the original Quiet Storm program, which loyal D.C. listeners have rated number one in the evening since 1976 and which spawned the namesake music genre that now airs on many radio stations across the United States. Jeff Brown hosts The Original Quiet Storm weeknights beginning at 7:30 p.m. In 2005, it also began broadcasting in IBOC digital radio, using the HD Radio system from iBiquity.

History

96.3 FM began back in the 1940s as Rockville, Maryland-based WINX, as an FM simulcast of WINX 1600AM. It had the slogan, "Sounds like Washington", to reflect the station's local ownership; and this slogan would be carried through until present-day format. WINX was originally owned by the Washington Post during the 1940s and early 1950s. United Broadcasting Corporation bought the station in the 1950s and moved the station from Washington to Rockville. During the 1950s the station played a wide variety of music and was known as the "Rockville Music Library". In the early 1960s, with the popularity of the FM band still fifteen years in the future, the AM station switched to top 40 format and took the FM along in the simulcast was one of Washington's most popular stations. The Post bought back WINX-FM and returned it to Washington DC, pairing it with their established WTOP-AM and the calls were changed to WTOP-FM. For a while, the station broadcast CBS Radio's early seventies "Young Sound" programming.

The Post later donated WTOP-FM to Howard University "to stimulate the intellectual and cultural life of the whole community and to train more people for the communications industry." On December 6, 1971, the station changed its call letters to WHUR-FM. WHUR became a jazz-formatted radio station, which it remained until the 1990s, when it switched to an Urban Adult Contemporary format.

By 1995, WHUR became one of the highest rated radio stations in the market, right behind WPGC-FM. Also that year, WHUR became the Washington radio and flagship affiliate of the syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show (TJMS). However, in 1999, ABC Radio Networks did not renew its contract with WHUR and moved the show to WMMJ, thus ending its four-year relationship with the station. WHUR was forced to produce its own locally-based morning drive show. This initially somewhat affected the station's dominance over rival 'WMMJ. WHUR in 2002 acquired The Michael Baisden Show and later in 2005, The Steve Harvey Morning Show. The station regained its top two spots in the market to date pacing #2 in the 12+ demographic and #1 in the 25–54 age group demographic and clearly the number one urban formatted station in D.C.

The Quiet Storm format of mellow, rhythm and blues/soul music, smooth jazz and love songs often played at night on many radio stations started at WHUR. The format originated when then intern Melvin Lindsey played a soothing string of songs during a particularly bad storm in the mid-1970s, even as power was cut to most of the other radio stations in the Washington, DC area. The Quiet Storm nighttime format has since been replicated to other major cities that have R&B station formats, such as San Francisco-based KBLX (which formerly utilized a 24-hour Quiet Storm format for three decades).

External links

WHUR Website
March 28, 2005 Michael Baisden replaced Doug Gilmore & Lorna Micheals on WHUR weekday afternoons Scroll down to 'radio' section
March 2006 DC Listeners Upset Over Switch To National Morning Radio Show

v t e Radio stations in the Washington, D.C. market

By AM frequency	Washington DC Washington DC 630 980 1120 1260 1340 1450 1500 Maryland 540 570 900 950 1030 1050 1160 1540 1560 1580 1600 Northern Virginia 730 780 920 1190 1220 1250 1310 1390 1460 1480

By FM frequency	Washington DC 88.5 89.3 90.1 90.9 93.9 96.3 97.1 98.7 99.5 100.3 101.1 103.5 107.3 Maryland 88.1 91.9 92.7 94.7 95.5 99.1 99.9 102.3 104.1 107.9 Northern Virginia 87.7 89.9 94.3 104.3 105.1 105.9 106.7 107.7

NOAA Weather Radio	162.45 162.55

By callsign	KHB36 WACA WAMU WASH WAVA WAVA-FM WBIG-FM WBQH WCRW WCSP WCTN WDCN-LP WDCT WETA WFAX WFED WFRE WGOP WGTS WHUR-FM WIAD WIHT WILC WJFK WJFK-FM WKDL WKDV WKIK WKIK-FM WKYS WLXE WLZL WMAL WMAL-FM WMET WMMJ WMUC WMZQ-FM WNEW-FM WNG736 WOL WPER WPFW WPGC-FM WPRS-FM WPWC WRQX WSPZ WTEM WTNT WTOP-FM WURA WUST WWDC WWGB WWRC WWWT-FM WWXT WWXX WYCB WZHF

Defunct Stations	WCAP WGMS WTWP WWZZ WHFS (FM)

Satellite radio local traffic/weather XM Channel 214 Sirius Channel 152 Washington DC metro markets Frederick, MD Fredericksburg, VA Baltimore See also List of radio stations in Washington, D.C. List of radio stations in Virginia List of radio stations in Maryland

Coordinates: 38°57′00″N 77°04′44″W / 38.950°N 77.079°W / 38.950; -77.079

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