WDIY

WDIY
City Allentown, Pennsylvania
Broadcast area Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania
Branding Lehigh Valley Public Radio
Slogan Many Choices. Real Voices.[1]
Frequency 88.1 MHz
Translator(s) See § Translators
First air date January 8, 1995
Format Community/Public Radio (Program Schedule)
Language(s) English
ERP 300 watts
HAAT 257 meters (843 ft)
Class A
Facility ID 36992
Transmitter coordinates 40°33′54.00″N 75°26′26.00″W / 40.5650000°N 75.4405556°W / 40.5650000; -75.4405556 (WDIY)
Callsign meaning Do It Yourself[2][3]
Affiliations National Public Radio
Owner Lehigh Valley Community Broadcasters Association, Inc.
Webcast Listen Live
Website www.wdiy.org

WDIY (88.1 FM) is a community public radio station licensed to Allentown, Pennsylvania, with studios in Bethlehem and transmitter atop South Mountain. The station is the NPR member for the Lehigh Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, and also serves parts of western New Jersey.

WDIY has an air staff of over 90 volunteers and a professional staff of six employees, including an executive director. The station is licensed to Lehigh Valley Community Broadcasters Association, Inc., a nonprofit organization whose mission "is to engage the Lehigh Valley community through a wide-ranging exchange of music, arts, news and culturally diverse information."[4][5]

Background

WDIY began broadcasting on January 8, 1995 operating at 100 watts.[3] Before then, the Lehigh Valley was one of the few areas of Pennsylvania without a locally-focused NPR station. WHYY-FM in Philadelphia provides grade B coverage of most of the Lehigh Valley, while WVIA-FM in Scranton and WRTI-FM in Philadelphia have long operated low-powered translators in the region.

Although WDIY's transmitter power was fairly modest for a full NPR member on the FM band, its transmitter on top of South Mountain enabled the station to reach most of the immediate Lehigh Valley region. In 2015, the Federal Communications Commission approved a request to triple the station's power to 300 watts. As a result, WDIY's primary coverage area now includes over a half-million people, while the station's full reach extends 70 miles, providing at least secondary coverage from Clinton, New Jersey to Reading, Pennsylvania.[6][7]

Programming

WDIY's program schedule includes NPR's Morning Edition, Fresh Air with Terry Gross and All Things Considered weekdays, with classical music and adult album alternative music between the news shows. Early evening programming during the week includes locally-produced public affairs programs as well as NPR's TED Radio Hour and On the Media. Weeknights and weekends, the station features a variety of music, including folk, blues, electronic, jazz, world music, alternative rock, classical, avant-garde and ethnic music. The station also carries NPR's Weekend Edition on Saturday and Sunday mornings and Ask Me Another on Saturday morning.[4]

Translators

WDIY began broadcasting on 88.1 FM at 100 watts. Even with its transmitter located atop South Mountain at 843 feet above average terrain, its signal was for the most part limited to Lehigh and Northampton counties. Easton, the region's third-largest city, only received a grade B signal.[6][8] To boost its coverage, WDIY installed two translators. One, located at 93.9, serves the area around Easton, as well as western Warren County. The station's other translator at 93.7 serves the Trexlertown and Fogelsville areas in western Lehigh County. With its increase to 300 watts in 2015, the station not only covers the Valley but can now be heard in the surrounding regions of eastern Pennsylvania and western New Jersey.[5]

Call signFrequency
(MHz)		City of licenseFacility
ID		ERP
W		Height
m (ft)		ClassTransmitter coordinatesFCC info
W229AO93.7Fogelsville, Pennsylvania8825580−5 m (−16 ft)D40°35′6″N 75°37′2″W / 40.58500°N 75.61722°W / 40.58500; -75.61722 (W229AO)FCC
W230AG93.9Easton, Pennsylvania369947−7 m (−23 ft)D40°41′53″N 75°12′30″W / 40.69806°N 75.20833°W / 40.69806; -75.20833 (W230AG)FCC

See also

References

  1. ↑ "WDIY Home Page". WDIY-FM. Retrieved 2018-04-12.
  2. ↑ "Call Letter Meanings". American Radio History. Retrieved 2018-04-12.
  3. 1 2 "WDIY History: The Start-Up of WDIY". wdiy.org. Retrieved 2018-03-07.
  4. 1 2 "WDIY Schedule". Retrieved 2018-03-07.
  5. 1 2 "WDIY-FM 88.1 MHz". Radio-Locator. Retrieved 2018-03-07.
  6. 1 2 Kennedy, Sam (2015-12-15), "WDIY triples signal strength", The Morning Call, retrieved 2018-03-07
  7. ↑ McGroggan, Shamus (2018-02-09), "Karen El-Chaar Elected President of WDIY's Board of Directors", Valley Ledger, retrieved 2018-03-07
  8. ↑ Bresswein, Kurt (2015-12-16). "Hear the power: WDIY-88.1 FM triples its signal wattage". lehighvalleylive.com. Retrieved 2018-03-07.


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