WYPL (89.3
FM) is a non-commercial
radio station
Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...
that serves the area of
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...
, in the United States. The station is licensed to the
Memphis Public Library & Information Center and provides an open
radio reading service
A radio reading service or reading service for the blind is a public service of many universities, community groups and public radio stations, where a narrator reads books, newspapers and magazines aloud for the benefit of the blind and vision-imp ...
to patrons, a type of service usually available elsewhere in the United States only on special leased receivers. This station is only of two such open-air broadcasting operations in the United States; the other is located in
New Orleans
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
.
Volunteers present daily readings of ''
The Commercial Appeal
''The Commercial Appeal'' (also known as the ''Memphis Commercial Appeal'') is a daily newspaper of Memphis, Tennessee, and its surrounding metropolitan area. It is owned by the Gannett Company; its former owner, the E. W. Scripps Company, also ...
,'' ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...
,'' and other newspapers. The station also features book readings, author interviews, news programming provided by BBC News, and audio
simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...
s of the midday newscasts of
WMC-TV
WMC-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Gray Media alongside low-power broadcasting#Television, low-power Telemundo affiliate WTME-LD (channel 14). The two stations s ...
(Channel 5), along with the ''
NBC Nightly News
''NBC Nightly News'' (titled as ''NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas'' for its weeknight broadcasts ) is the flagship daily evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NBC television network ...
.'' The station has been selected by the
American Foundation for the Blind
The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is an American non-profit organization for people with vision loss. AFB's objectives include conducting research to advance change, promoting knowledge and understanding, and shaping policies and practice ...
as the Model Radio Reading Service.
Locally-produced programs include ''Book Talk'', which features interviews with authors; ''Library News''; ''Eye On Vision'', which features interviews with doctors and also provides information on research and development in vision and eye care; and ''Night Owl'', a story-reading program aimed at children aged six and under, co-ordinated to a probable bedtime.
It is unknown exactly when the station first signed on the air as a subcarrier station but it moved to the 89.3 frequency on April 17, 1991; that frequency first went on air as WLYX (whose date of first operations is also unclear), a station licensed to Southwestern at Memphis (now
Rhodes College
Rhodes College is a private liberal arts college in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Historically affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA), it is a member of the Associated Colleges of the South and is accredited by the Southern Associa ...
), and was branded as "The Alternative." The freeform college rock station was operated by a student and volunteer staff with broadly eclectic tastes, and was widely influential in bringing genres such as punk and new wave to the Memphis area in the early 1980s. The station was discontinued in 1989, when Rhodes president
James Daughdrill, a strong social conservative, decided that WLYX was not in keeping with the college's core mission.
In perhaps something of a tribute to the old WLYX, though, WYPL added music programming in the evenings during the 2010s, mainly nostalgic material relating to Memphis' heyday from the 1950s to the 1970s as a recording center for rock, soul and blues music.
See also
*
Radio reading service
A radio reading service or reading service for the blind is a public service of many universities, community groups and public radio stations, where a narrator reads books, newspapers and magazines aloud for the benefit of the blind and vision-imp ...
*
WRBH, the only other open-air reading service in the U.S.
References
External links
*
WYPL Program Schedule
YPL
Radio reading services of the United States
Radio stations established in 1991
1991 establishments in Tennessee
{{Tennessee-radio-station-stub