WYSO (91.3
FM) is a
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 radi ...
in
Yellow Springs, Ohio
Yellow Springs is a village in Greene County, Ohio, United States. The population was 3,697 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is home to Antioch College.
History
The area of the village had long b ...
, near
Dayton
Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...
, community owned and operated; formerly licensed and operated by
Antioch College
Antioch College is a private liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1852 as a non-sectarian institution; politician and education reformer Horace Mann was its ...
. 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 ...
member station for the
Miami Valley
The Miami Valley is the land area surrounding the Great Miami River in southwest Ohio, USA, and includes the Little Miami, Mad, and Stillwater rivers as well. Geographically, it includes Dayton, Springfield, Middletown, Hamilton, and other ...
, including the cities of Dayton and
Springfield. WYSO signed on in 1958 and has the distinction of being located in one of the smallest villages to host an NPR affiliate station. WYSO broadcasts in the
HD Radio format. WYSO was originally on 91.5 MHz. It moved to 91.3 MHz in 1980.
History
WYSO started in 1958 as a student and faculty station with a 10-watt transmitter located at the student union building of Antioch College, on the air for only 4 hours a day.
The station increased power from 16-watts to 360 watts in 1960, and the introduction of permanent paid staff began a move towards reflecting and serving a larger community. At that time, WYSO was known as a university-based community radio station. Significantly, several Antioch College students and other volunteers took it upon themselves to be involved with an incipient community and public radio movement in the United States. Several of those individuals have occupied key positions since that time—out of proportion to the Dayton market’s modest size.
Before NPR affiliation, nearly all of the station's programming was locally originated. The station had carried live
Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts, ad hoc networks set up by
anti-Vietnam War activists, and a few recorded syndicated programs. "WYSO People's News" a local news program, was aired in the 1970s and 1980s. The rest of WYSO's program schedule was eclectic and block programming. As at other community radio stations in the United States, NPR affiliation was viewed with suspicion by some insiders, but the attendant money from the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, ...
led to a permanent staff and a local fundraising mandate.
WYSO became an NPR member station and started broadcasting
All Things Considered
''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...
in 1973. The eventual popularity of NPR's news and information programming was not foreseen at the time and there were discussions about how the newly energized medium of noncommercial radio would best serve the community. The topic of local versus national origination was an important, but not the only, subject of debate. Of note, the decision to replace morning
Bluegrass music, local and unique to the region, with network news in the morning was undertaken in the late 1980s. Tom and Jim Duffee and other local bluegrass musicians introduced the genre on WYSO around 1970, and it was embraced by management at the time as a link with the larger Southwest Ohio community.
In 1991, under the direction of General Manager Brian Gibbons and Program Director Ruth Dawson Yellowhawk, WYSO began the process to increase power from 10,000 watts to 37,000 watts, with permits to go up to 50,000, allowing the station to be heard throughout the
Greater Dayton
The Dayton, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area, also known as Greater Dayton and the Miami Valley, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of three counties in the Miami Valley region of Ohio and is anchored by the cit ...
area and the
Miami Valley
The Miami Valley is the land area surrounding the Great Miami River in southwest Ohio, USA, and includes the Little Miami, Mad, and Stillwater rivers as well. Geographically, it includes Dayton, Springfield, Middletown, Hamilton, and other ...
. However, with an increased potential audience, the station was subsequently placed on a list in 1995 to lose CPB funding as part of a political focus on public broadcasting funding by the
104th United States Congress
The 104th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from January 3, 19 ...
and House Speaker
Newt Gingrich, who promised to zero out CPB funding. 80 public radio stations were initially listed for defunding due to either a lack of audience or a lack of fundraising. Controversial program changes during this period by Station Manager Norm Beeker, including adding programs such as
Fresh Air
''Fresh Air'' is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States since 1985. It is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show's host is Terry Gross. , the show was syndicated to ...
,
This American Life
''This American Life'' (''TAL'') is an American monthly hour-long radio program produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media and hosted by Ira Glass. It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in the United States and internatio ...
and
Marketplace
A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a '' souk'' (from the Arabic), ' ...
, cancelling
Pacifica News and moving to a 24-hour broadcast with the
BBC World Service overnight, increased the WYSO audience, the station established new highs in listener support, and the station was removed from the so-called "dis" list in 1998.
In the spring of 2002, a group of listeners formed "Keep WYSO Local" in response to cutbacks to local programming by GM Steve Spencer. The cutbacks included canceling volunteer-hosted shows like the evening jazz program, "Alternate Takes" and "Women in Music," which started in 1975 and was one of the country's longest running shows dedicated to women producers and musicians. Those changes made room on the WYSO schedule to carry the national music program
World Cafe. The changes led to protests in the Yellow Springs community as the group debated the future of the station with the university.
General Manager Neenah Ellis, working with leadership from the station, the licensee and the community, helped lead a process for WYSO to become independently owned and operated from Antioch College in 2019, for which the college received $3.5 million as compensation. The station continued in collaboration with the college, such as by remaining in the Kettering Building on campus and by working with college students as interns. Meanwhile, Antioch students have revived the low-watt, FCC-licensed radio station on campus — called Anti-Watt — which can be heard at 101.5 FM or streamed online.
In July 2021, the station announced it was relocating out of the Kettering Building on the Antioch College campus and into the Union School House owned by Iron Table Holdings, which in turn is owned by Yellow Springs resident and comedian
Dave Chappelle.
The building, built in 1872, is being fully renovated, and a two-story addition is being constructed on the west side.
[ The new location, expected to be operational by January 2024,] comes after expansion of WYSO’s staff, including a tripling of its reporting personnel in the prior 18 months.[ The station also expects to open an auxiliary 500-square-foot storefront in Dayton in early 2023.][
As of 2021, WYSO is a 50,000 watt station broadcasting 24/7 and reaching fourteen counties in southwest Ohio with a potential audience of nearly two million.][ Its staff of twenty-two full-time members and dozens of volunteers produce over 40 hours of original local content each week.][
]
Current Programming
Locally produced ''Rise When The Rooster Crows'', once a daily morning feature, now airs traditional Bluegrass music on Sunday mornings. The program moved to weekends when the station added ''Morning Edition
''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 A ...
'' from NPR, which has aired on WYSO since the late 1980s. Bluegrass music is also aired on Saturday evenings with the program "Down Home Bluegrass." The station carries programming from NPR, Public Radio International and BBC World Service, a segment where William Felker reads his book Poor Will's Almanack, and the locally produced Book Nook, hosted by Vick Mickunas featuring interviews with authors.
In early 2021 the station began a push to strengthen the music programming at WYSO, to fill the hole created locally with the termination of 89.7 WNKU's signal in 2017. Among the station's 14 local music programs are “Excursions”, broadcast weekdays, dance music on "Around the Fringe" each Friday night, and “The Outside,” an experimental and contemporary music show on Sunday nights.[
]
Current Management
Most local programming, as measured by airtime, is produced by volunteers. Volunteers, listeners and donors to the station have asserted an unofficial role in station governance since the 1970s when the station was managed under Antioch's Community Government. As a self-owned station, WYSO maintains that tradition with both a Governing Board for Miami Valley Public Media as well as a Community Advisory Board.[https://www.wyso.org/governance]
In December 2008, WYSO announced that Neenah Ellis, a public radio producer and host would be the station's next general manager
A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...
. She and her husband, NPR host and author Noah Adams
Noah Adams is an American broadcast journalist and author, known primarily since 1987 from National Public Radio.
Career
A former co-host of the daily ''All Things Considered'' program, Adams is currently the contributing correspondent at ...
, made their home in Yellow Springs. By late 2019, Neenah Ellis was President of WYSO-owner Miami Valley Public Media, Inc., and Luke Dennis, aka Lucas Dennis, was General Manager of the station.
References
External links
91.3 WYSO
*
FCC History Cards for WYSO
{{Authority control
Greene County, Ohio
YSO
NPR member stations
Radio stations established in 1958
1958 establishments in Ohio