WHIL-FM

Infobox Radio Station
name = WHIL-FM


area = Mobile, Alabama
branding = "WHIL-FM, 91.3"
slogan = "Fine Arts Radio for the Gulf Coast"
airdate = September 5, 1979
frequency = 91.3 MHz
format = Classical Music, Public Radio
erp = 100,000 Watts
class = C
owner = Spring Hill College
website = http://www.whil.org
callsign_meaning = Spring HILL College
affiliations = National Public Radio|

WHIL-FM (91.3 FM), is a public radio station in Mobile, Alabama. It primarily features classical music programming in the daytime, along with other genres in the evenings. WHIL-FM serves the extreme southern tip of Alabama along the state's portion of the Gulf Coast (and some counties to the north, in southwestern Alabama), as well as the Gulf Coast counties of southeastern Mississippi and extreme northwestern Florida.

The station maintains studios on the campus of Spring Hill College, a Jesuit institution that started the station and holds the broadcast license, although a non-profit community board now manages the station on a day-to-day basis. WHIL-FM's signal travels in about a 45-mile radius. Nearby competing public radio stations include WMAH-FM, the Biloxi outlet of the Mississippi Public Broadcasting network; and WUWF-FM in Pensacola, Florida.

History

WHIL-FM had perhaps one of the most inauspicious beginnings of any public radio station in the U.S. Only one week after its first broadcast on September 5, 1979, Hurricane Frederic struck the Alabama Gulf Coast, rendering the station silent for some time thereafter due to transmitter and tower damage. From those rough beginnings, the station grew to provide one of the few non-commercial radio services available to the region with programming not designed for religious proselytization. These days, it uses the branding "Fine Arts Radio for the Gulf Coast," a summary of its mission and scope.

Of the five public radio stations and networks located in Alabama, WHIL is the only one not operated by an agency or educational institution of the state. It was the fourth chronologically, after Huntsville's WLRH, Birmingham's WBHM, and Troy's WTSU; only Tuscaloosa (Alabama Public Radio) came later, in 1982.

Programming

In the mid-to-late 1990s, Spring Hill College officials took exception to some news reports on National Public Radio about subjects such as abortion rights and homosexuality. Because these seemed to denigrate the moral positions of the Roman Catholic order of the Society of Jesus, the parent organization of the college, WHIL discontinued airing NPR news programs for several years. Protests from disappointed and angry listeners prompted WHIL to restore "Morning Edition," but the station continued to preempt "All Things Considered" in favor of classical music and Public Radio International's "Marketplace". However, in response to a survey of local public radio listeners, WHIL returned "ATC" to its schedule in early 2007. [cite news | title = Mario Mazza General manager of WHIL-FM | work = Mobile Press-Register | location = Mobile, Alabama | date = 2007-03-01 | accessdate = 2008-01-03 | quote = WHIL-FM 91.3, Mobile's listener-supported fine arts and information radio station, is adding three high-profile National Public Radio programs to its lineup this week. [...] NPR's afternoon news program, "All Things Considered," will air from 4 to 6:30 p.m. weekdays beginning Thursday.]

Local Hosts

*Kris Pierce — "Morning Edition"
*Kurt Garrett — classical music — 9 a.m.-3 p.m., weekdays
*Marti Martin — "All Things Considered"
*Catt Sirten — "Radio Avalon" — 8 p.m.-12 a.m., weeknights; "Catt's Sunday Jazz Brunch" — 9 a.m.-2 p.m.

"Radio Avalon"

Thomas "Catt" Sirten, an independent producer in nearby Daphne, Alabama, hosts this four-hour show Mondays through Fridays from 8 p.m. to 12 Midnight. The show is essentially an easy-listening blend of jazz, Celtic, New Age, and other "adult progressive" genres. The program began in 1994 as a spin-off of his "Sunday Jazz Brunch" show, heard from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on that day of the week; Sirten began his shows on Mobile-area commercial stations before moving to public radio.

References

External links

* [http://www.whil.org/ WHIL official website]
* [http://www.radioavalon.com/ "Radio Avalon" site]
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