WHYY-FM (90.9 MHz, "91 FM") is a public radio station licensed to serve Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Its broadcast tower is located in the Roxborough neighborhood while its studios and offices are located on Independence Mall in Center City Philadelphia. The station, owned by WHYY, Inc., is a charter member of NPR and contributes several programs to the national network.

History

WHYY signed on the air on December 14, 1954, owned by the Metropolitan Philadelphia Educational Radio and Television Corporation. It was the first educational station in Philadelphia. The transmitter, originally located at 17th and Sansom Streets in Philadelphia, was donated by Westinghouse Broadcasting. In 1957, it added a sister television station, WHYY-TV on channel 35.

In 1963, WHYY-TV moved from channel 35 in Philadelphia to the stronger channel 12 in Wilmington, Delaware. At the time, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations did not allow co-owned stations in different broadcast services to share the same base callsign if they did not have the same or adjoining city of license. Although Philadelphia and Wilmington are a single television market, then as now they are separate radio markets. As a result, the radio station was forced to change its call sign to WUHY-FM to match the renamed WUHY-TV on channel 35. The FCC removed this restriction in 1983 and the radio station was allowed to reclaim the WHYY-FM calls.

When NPR was formed in 1970, the station (then still known as WUHY-FM) became a charter member and was one of the 90 stations that carried the initial broadcast of All Things Considered.

Programs produced

thumb|The WHYY Headquarters on 6th Street, across from [[Independence Mall (Philadelphia)|Independence Mall and the National Constitution Center, in Philadelphia]]<big>Radio</big>

  • Fresh Air: A weekday radio interview program and podcast focusing on contemporary arts and issues. It is hosted by Terry Gross and Tanya Mosley. It is one of public radio's most popular programs. It is broadcast on 650 National Public Radio stations across the country, as well as in Europe on the World Radio Network. The program has received numerous accolades, including two Peabody Awards.
  • The Connection with Marty Moss-Coane: A weekly interview program covering “wide-ranging conversations“ about human connection and isolation. Moss-Coane previously hosted Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane, a daily program that followed a similar format.
  • The Pulse: A program that focuses on health, science and innovation in the Philadelphia region. The show is hosted by WHYY's Behavioral Health Reporter Maiken Scott and distributed on the Public Radio Exchange.
  • Studio 2: A thrice-weekly program covering local and national news in the Delaware Valley. Listeners can call-in and email during the broadcast to contribute. The show is hosted by Avi Wolfman-Arent and Cherri Greg. The program also streams live on YouTube.

<big>Podcasts</big>

  • Hittin’ Season: A podcast that covers the Philadelphia Phillies. It is a production of Billy Penn at WHYY, a local news and lifestyle site. It is hosted by John Stolnis, Liz Roscher, and Justin Klugh. Philadelphia’s public art is among the most prolific in the United States and the world. It is hosted by Conrad Benner,
  • Peak Travel: A podcast covering the impact of travel on local communities.
  • Stop and Frisk: Revisit or Resist: A five-episode podcast covering gun violence in Philadelphia and stop-and-frisk policies. The podcast was produced by Temple University’s Logan Center for Urban Investigative Reporting.

Format change

Until 1990, WHYY served the region as a non-commercial station with a format that featured mostly classical music with some jazz and folk music. The management decision to establish a news/talk radio format was a departure from the classical music that most public radio stations were programming. The format switch left the privately owned WFLN as the only Philadelphia classical station and resulted in protests from many of the station's listening audience who were among WHYY's major contributors. After WFLN's new owners also abandoned the classical format in the late 1990s, Temple University's WRTI (90.1 FM) began programming classical music during the day to serve the displaced listeners.

New Jersey expansion and controversy

thumb|Dorrance Hamilton Media Commons, part of the WHYY building near [[Franklin Square (Philadelphia)|Franklin Square]]

On June 6, 2011, the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority agreed to sell five FM stations in Southern New Jersey to WHYY. The purchase was made through an anonymous one-million dollar grant and a non-cash agreement that included scholarships for students and teachers. The five stations were previously the southern portion of the New Jersey Network's statewide radio service.

The transaction was announced by Governor Chris Christie, as part of his long-term goal to end state-subsidized public broadcasting. The governor's critics maintained that scrapping New Jersey Network effectively ended all non-commercial statewide news coverage. It was also noted that the sale eliminated a source of legislative oversight frequently critical of the Christie administration.

WHYY assumed control of the stations through a management agreement on July 1, 2011, pending FCC approval for the acquisition. At that point, the stations began to simulcast WHYY-FM programming. The five stations are: