WHRP (94.1 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 ...

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

to serve

Gurley, Alabama Gurley is a town in Madison County, Alabama, United States, and is included in the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the population of the town was 816. History The community takes its name from the Gurley fami ...

, United States. The station is owned by

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is an American broadcasting company and is the third largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States behind Audacy and iHeartMedia. As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership of 428 stations in 8 ...

and the license is held by Cumulus Licensing LLC. WHRP broadcasts an

urban adult contemporary Urban adult contemporary, often abbreviated as urban AC or UAC, (also known as adult R&B,) is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have hip hop music ...

music format to the

Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in ...

, market. Its transmitter is located southeast of downtown Huntsville, but its main studios are in

Athens, Alabama Athens is a city in and the county seat of Limestone County, in the U.S. state of Alabama; it is included in the Huntsville-Decatur-Albertville, AL Combined Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city is 21,897. Histo ...

Programming

Notable personalities on WHRP include local weekday hosts Toni Terrell with the "At Work Network" mid-days, Big O ( The Mayor of Soul) Saturday mornings with Classic Soul on "The Time Tunnel", and Huntsville radio veteran Kevin "The Nighthawk" Williams weekends. Notable syndicated hosts include

Tom Joyner Thomas Joyner (born November 23, 1949) is an American retired radio host, former host of the nationally syndicated ''The Tom Joyner Morning Show'', and also founder of Reach Media Inc., the Tom Joyner Foundation, and BlackAmericaWeb.com. Early l ...

of ''The Tom Joyner Morning Show'',

Michael Baisden Michael Baisden (born June 26, 1963) is a nationally syndicated radio personality and host of ''The Michael Baisden Show''. The show is currently syndicated by Baisden Media Group in partnership with SupeRadio and AURN (American Urban Radio Ne ...

of ''The Michael Baisden Show'' and Keith Sweat of ''The Keith Sweat Hotel''. Notable former on-air personnel include Bobby Wonder, Nia Noelle and Ronnie Rio. Former WXQW mid-day host Chuck Boozer, apparently local, was actually the evening host at WWMG-FM in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

. Boozer recorded his WXQW air shift in about forty minutes on a computer in Charlotte as digital voice tracks for later playback on the air in Huntsville. This use of "

voice tracking Voice-tracking, also called cyber jocking and referred to sometimes colloquially as a robojock, is a technique employed by some radio stations in radio broadcasting to produce the illusion of a live disc jockey or announcer sitting in the radio st ...

" is a practice common to many Clear Channel-owned radio stations, as then-WXQW was at that time.

History

This station received its original construction permit from the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

on January 19,

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

. The new station was assigned the call letters WDJU by the FCC on March 14, 1995. In June 1995, control of permit holder Digesu Broadcasting, Inc., was transferred from Frank Digesu Sr. to R. Parker Griffith and Thomas H. Griffith. The transfer was approved by the FCC on August 9, 1995. In October 1995, Digesu Broadcasting, Inc., reached an agreement to sell this station to Griffith Broadcasting, Inc. The deal was approved by the FCC on November 30, 1995, and the transaction was consummated on the same day. The new owners had the FCC change the callsign for the station, still under construction, to WXQW on November 10, 1995. WXQW received its license to cover from the FCC on June 3, 1996. In June 1997, Griffith Broadcasting, Inc., reached an agreement to sell this station to Southern Star Communications, Inc. The deal was approved by the FCC on August 8, 1997, and the transaction was consummated on October 2, 1997. Southern Star Communications is a regional operating company of Capstar Broadcasting Corporation. On October 1, 1997, the station flipped formats from

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as ...

music. In December 2005, Cumulus Media purchased this station (then known as WXQW) and sister station WWXQ (now WVNN) from the Capstar TX Limited Partnership division of Clear Channel Communications for a reported $3.3 million. On December 21, 2007, WXQW switched to the WHRP call letters of its sister station and that former WHRP was assigned new call letters

WWFF-FM WWFF-FM (93.3 MHz) is an American radio station licensed to New Market, Alabama, and serving the Huntsville, Alabama, market. Owned by Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts a oldies-leaning country music format branded as ''93.3 Nash Icon''. ...

. Several other unrelated stations have held the WHRP call letters over the years, including the current WQKR (1270 AM,

Portland, Tennessee Portland is a city in Sumner and Robertson counties in Tennessee. The population was 11,486 in 2010 according estimates by the U.S. census bureau and in 2020 the population was 13,156. Portland is a part of the Nashville Metropolitan Statistica ...

) which was known as WHRP from 1986 to 1990 and

WRJR WRJR (670 AM) is an adult album alternative formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Claremont, Virginia, serving Hampton Roads. WRJR is owned by Stu-Comm, Inc. 670 AM is a United States clear-channel frequency on which WSCR in Chic ...

(670 AM,

Claremont, Virginia Claremont is an incorporated town in Surry County, Virginia, United States. The population was 378 at the 2010 census. A granite marker stands as a memorial to the arrival of British settlers in the area. The town was incorporated in 1886, had a p ...

) which was known as WHRP from 2000 to 2001.

References

External links

WHRP official website
* {{Cumulus Media HRP Urban adult contemporary radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1996 1996 establishments in Alabama Cumulus Media radio stations