KIH20

Infobox Radio station
name = KIH20


city = Huntsville, Alabama
area = North Alabama
branding = NOAA Weather Radio
slogan =
airdate =
frequency = 162.400 MHz
format = NOAA Weather Radio
power = 1000 watts
class = C
callsign_meaning =
former_callsigns =
owner = NOAA/NWS
webcast = [http://audioplayer.wunderground.com/RobbyKG4PLK/Huntsville.mp3.m3u Listen Live]
website = http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hun/
affiliations =

KIH20 (162.400 MHz) is a NOAA Weather Radio station that serves the greater Huntsville, Alabama, area. It broadcasts weather forecasts and hazard information for Jackson, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marshall, and Morgan Counties in Alabama plus Giles and Lincoln Counties in Tennessee.

Controversy

As a cost-cutting measure, the National Weather Service attempted to close the Huntsville weather office and transfer broadcasting, forecasting, and warning duties to the Birmingham, Alabama, office in the late 1990s.cite news |page=B6 |work=Columbus Ledger-Enquirer |title=Alabama Briefs |date=1997-12-02 |quote=Years of wrangling over the fate of Huntsville's weather service office ends today when the agency shifts most of its north Alabama operations to Birmingham.] cite news |page=B2 |work=Columbus Ledger-Enquirer |title=Meteorologist Ordered Transferred |date=1998-08-27 |quote=Veteran meteorologist Gary Petti was ordered transferred from Alabama after U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer complained to the National Weather Service about his published comments on the possible closing of the Huntsville weather office. Cramer, D-Ala., said he was angry that Petti was quoted in a newspaper saying plans appear on track to close the Huntsville office after a test period measuring Birmingham's ability to monitor the area. The test ends next year.] cite news |page=B2 |work=Columbus Ledger-Enquirer |title=Congressmen Fight Meteorologist Transfer |date=1998-09-04 |quote=Four Alabama Republicans asked the commerce secretary on Thursday not to transfer a National Weather Service forecaster who was ordered out of Alabama after commenting on the possible closing of the Huntsville weather office.] Efforts by Congressman Bud Cramer kept the NWS from completely dismantling the Huntsville officecite news |title=The China Trade Wrangle: The Overview; The House Opens A Spirited Debate Over China Trade |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9803E4DC173DF937A15756C0A9669C8B63 |work=New York Times |date=2000-05-24 |first=Eric |last=Schmitt |coauthors=Joseph Kahn |quote=Representative Robert E. Cramer of Alabama, another Democrat, said he would favor the bill after he held discussions with Commerce Secretary William M. Daley over the fate of a National Weather Service monitoring station in Huntsville. The weather service, which is part of the Commerce Department, had indicated that it planned to close the weather tower. Mr. Cramer had been protesting the planned closure because his district often has tornadoes and relies on the weather stations for early warnings.] and eventually resulted in the office being once again full-staffed and equipped with modern Doppler weather radar gear.cite news |title=Huntsville learns to live with tornadoes |url=http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wthuntvl.htm |work=USA Today |date=1999-06-29 |first=Mark |last=Potok |quote=The National Weather Service, after a four-year battle by Cramer, has dropped plans to eliminate radar in Huntsville once Doppler radar is installed in Birmingham and elsewhere. Not only will Huntsville keep its radar, but Doppler will be added.] In November 2002, the National Weather Service announced that weather broadcast, warning, and forecast responsibilities for North Alabama as well as river forecast and flood warning duties would be returned to the re-opened Huntsville office on January 14, 2003.cite news |url=http://www.weather.gov/os/notification/old/scn02-56wfohun.txt |work=National Weather Service |title=Service Change Notice 02-56 |date=2002-11-14 |quote=NOAA WEATHER RADIO: THE NOAA WEATHER RADIO BROADCAST RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE HUNTSVILLE /NWR STATION KIH20/... FLORENCE /NWR STATION KIH57/ AND FT. PAYNE /NWR STATION WWF44/ TRANSMITTERS WILL BE TRANSFERRED FROM BIRMINGHAM TO HUNTSVILLE.]

History

KIH20 went on the air in July of 1976, and was one of the first NOAA weather radio transmitters in the country.Fact|date=February 2008 The antenna was originally on the WYUR-TV48 (now WAFF) tower on the south side of Monte Sano. Around 1980 it was moved to the APT/WHIQ-TV25 tower as APT began to cooperate with the National Weather Service on locating transmitters statewide. When Birmingham took over forecasting duties in 1997 the voice on this transmitter was changed to a computer-generated voice, in part to speed up the warning transmission process. This older transmitter began to malfunction and not activate alarms consistently around 1998 and was finally replaced with a new transmitter in 2003 when WHIQ's transmitter building on Read Drive was gutted by a fire.Fact|date=February 2008

Awards

In July 2007, the National Weather Service presented Lary Burgett, observation program leader for the Weather Forecast Office in Huntsville, with the Isaac M. Cline Award.cite news |title=Weather service honors area man with Cline Award |work=Decatur Daily |url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-32462849_ITM |date=2007-07-25 |first=Emily |last=Peck] The Cline Award "honors individual and team employees for operational excellence in the delivery of products and services in support of the National Weather Service mission".cite web |work=National Weather Service - Southern Region Headquarters |url=http://www.srh.noaa.gov/srh/srnews/stories/2007/cline2.htm |title=Southern Region Specialists Honored With National Isaac M. Cline Award |date=2007-08-14] Burgett was recognized for "providing the office with critical administrative and management support while maintaining an extraordinary level of work in his other responsibilities."cite web |url=http://www.srh.noaa.gov/srh/srnews/stories/2007/cline.htm |work=National Weather Service - Southern Region Headquarters |title=WFO Huntsville's Lary Burgett Receives National Isaac M. Cline Award |date=2007-07-24]

Coverage map

References

External links

* [http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hun/about_us/ About NWS Huntsville]
* [http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hun/nwr/index.php Huntsville's NOAA Weather Radio Coverage]