WHRV is a
Public Radio
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
formatted
broadcast
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...
radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
licensed to
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...
, serving
Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James River, James, Nansemond River, Nansemond and Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's ...
.
It is the flagship
National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...
member station for Hampton Roads, and is a sister station to the area's
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
member,
WHRO-TV
WHRO-TV, virtual channel 15 (ultra high frequency, UHF digital terrestrial television, digital channel 31), is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) network affiliate#Member stations, member television station city of license, licensed to both Hamp ...
. It airs a mix of NPR news and talk programming,
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
, blues, and folk music.
It is owned by the
Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications Association
The Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications Association (HRETA) is a consortium of public school districts in southeastern Virginia that holds the licenses for the public television and radio stations in the Hampton Roads television market. I ...
,
a consortium of 19 Hampton Roads and
Eastern Shore school districts. Studios are located at the Public Telecommunications Center for Hampton Roads on the campus of
Old Dominion University
Old Dominion University (Old Dominion or ODU) is a public research university in Norfolk, Virginia. It was established in 1930 as the Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary and is now one of the largest universities in Virginia with ...
in Norfolk. The transmitter is located in
Suffolk, Virginia
Suffolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and as such has no county. As of the 2020 census, the population was 94,324. It is the 9th most populous city in Virginia and the largest city in Virginia by boundary land area as ...
.
WHRV broadcasts in the
HD Radio
HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...
(hybrid) format.
History
The station first signed on in 1973 as WTGM, owned by the Virginia Cultural Foundation.
[ Within only two years, however, the station ran into severe financial straits, forcing HRETA (then known as the Hampton Roads Educational Television Association) to step in and rescue the station. HRETA changed the calls to WHRO-FM in 1978 to match the television station. In the early 1980s, a feasibility study indicated that a second public radio station could be viable.][ However, it was not until 1988 that HRETA won a second noncommercial license, on 90.3.]WHRO-FM
WHRO-FM is a Public Radio broadcast radio station, broadcasting a classical music format. WHRO is licensed to Norfolk, Virginia, serving Hampton Roads. WHRO-FM is owned and operated by the Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications Associatio ...
call letters. NPR programming remained on 89.5 under new call letters, WHRV.
HD Radio
Repeaters
WHRV operates a number of full-powered repeater stations to serve portions of the Eastern Shore and Southside Virginia
Southside, or Southside Virginia, has traditionally referred to the portion of the state south of the James River, the geographic feature from which the term derives its name. This was the first area to be developed in the colonial period.
Duri ...
.
Additionally, the station operates a 250 watt translator station
A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...
, W269BQ, at 101.7 MHz in Virginia Beach
Virginia Beach is an independent city located on the southeastern coast of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The population was 459,470 at the 2020 census. Although mostly suburban in character, it is the most populous city ...
, which serves sections of that community that do not get a clear signal from 89.5.
References
External links
WHRV Online
*
1973 establishments in Virginia
Public radio stations in the United States
NPR member stations
Radio stations established in 1973
HRV
HRV
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