WHEB (100.3
FM) is a
commercial radio
Commercial broadcasting (also called private broadcasting) is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship, for example. It was the United States' first model ...
station
licensed
A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...
to
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census it had a population of 21,956. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination on ...
, and serving the
Seacoast Region of New Hampshire and
Southern Maine. The station airs a
mainstream rock
Mainstream rock (also known as heritage rock) is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada.
Format background
Mainstream rock stations represent a cross between classic rock, active rock and alternativ ...
radio format
A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...
and is owned by
iHeartMedia
iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...
. WHEB broadcasts in the
HD Radio
HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. HD radio generally simulcast, simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD R ...
format. WHEB's studios, offices and
transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...
are on
Lafayette Road
Lafayette or La Fayette may refer to:
People
* Lafayette (name), a list of people with the surname Lafayette or La Fayette or the given name Lafayette
* House of La Fayette, a French noble family
** Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757� ...
in Portsmouth.
Programming
WHEB is the home of regional comedy radio show, ''The Morning Buzz'', hosted by Greg Kretschmar. Other programming features local or national DJs. It is consistently one of the top two stations in the
Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
' Portsmouth-
Dover
Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...
radio market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...
.
History
The station originated as the second incarnation of an FM adjunct to an existing AM station,
WHEB
WHEB (100.3 FM broadcasting, FM) is a commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and serving the Seacoast Region of New Hampshire and Southern Maine. The station airs a mainstream rock radio format and is o ...
on 750 kHz. The AM station held a limited-time authorization which meant it could only broadcast until sunset in Atlanta, Georgia, where the frequency's dominant station,
WSB, was located.
WFMI
In 1947, construction began on an FM station that could also provide nighttime service, WFMI on 97.3 MHz, licensed to Portsmouth, but with a remote transmitter site located atop the middle peak of Saddleback Mountain. At a 1948 congressional hearing, Bert Georges, Vice President and general manager of WHEB, Inc., testified that: "I believe that FM is superior to AM and superior to any other aural service. I believe in years to come it will be the leading method of aural broadcasting. . . I believe that FM is here to stay, and I think it is going to supplement AM for a while and then definitely supplant it in the future." However, acceptance of FM was slow, and a local survey found that only 22 percent of homes had FM receivers. This in turn reduced the value and revenues of advertising, and when WFMI contracted sponsorship for a basketball tournament in March 1949, it was only able to charge 20 percent of the standard rate paid for WHEB. WFMI was deleted a few months later on August 25, 1949, at "Request of applicant".
WHEB-FM / WPFM / WHEB
The economics for FM stations had somewhat improved in the early 1960s, and Knight Broadcasting of New Hampshire started to make plans to return to the band. In March 1962, a fire destroyed the WHEB (AM) studios,
and a year later operations moved into a newly built facility. In June 1962, Knight Broadcasting had filed an application for a new FM station in Portsmouth that was approved in December, and the new facility included studios for the not-yet-operating FM station.
The FM station was authorized for operation on 100.3 MHz. Assigned the
call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...
WHEB-FM, it began broadcasting on January 14, 1964, with a reported 60% duplication of programming of the AM station.
[ The two stations ]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) ...
a full service Full service or Full Service may refer to:
Entertainment Books
* ''Full Service'' (book), a 2012 memoir by Scotty Bowers
* '' Full Service No Waiting'', a 1998 album by Peter Case
Music
* "Full Service", a song by the New Kids on the Block fr ...
middle of the road (MOR) format, and the FM station allowed listeners to continue hearing programming after the AM station signed off for the day.
At first, WHEB-FM was authorized for an effective radiated power
Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ha ...
(ERP) of 5,650 watts, significantly less than its later output. In 1967 WHEB-FM changed its call sign to WPFM, while continuing to simulcast 750 WHEB most of the day. In 1971 the call letters were changed back to WHEB-FM.
In the early 1980s, WHEB-FM got an ERP boost to 31,000 watts, coupled with its own separate programming, a Top 40
In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...
format. The station adopted the nickname "The Star Station", and many listeners had a very popular yellow square sticker on their cars with a star in the middle and the call sign under it. In one promotion, this sticker could be used to get gas for 25 cents a gallon, causing long lines out onto Route 1
The following highways are numbered 1.
For roads numbered A1, see list of A1 roads.
For roads numbered B1, see list of B1 roads.
For roads numbered M1, see List of M1 roads.
For roads numbered N1, see list of N1 roads.
For roads numbered S ...
. The AM station continued its full service MOR sound. Within a few years, WHEB-FM switched to an album rock
Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM broadcasting, FM radio format created in the United States in the late 1960s that focuses on the full repertoire of Rock music, rock albums and is currently associated ...
format. The AM station, still only a 1,000–watt limited-time station, became a simulcast of WHEB-FM, for several more years.
In 1991, Knight Broadcasting decided the AM station was no longer needed, and was shut down, and the license handed in to the Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
for deletion. With the WHEB call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...
no longer used on AM 750, WHEB-FM dropped the FM suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...
from its call letters and became simply WHEB. (Portsmouth's other AM radio station, WMYF (1380 AM), was shut down in 2015; it by then had itself come under common ownership with WHEB.)
Also in the 1990s, 100.3 WHEB got a boost in its ERP to 50,000 watts, the maximum power permitted for most New Hampshire FM stations. In 2000, WHEB was acquired by Clear Channel Communications
iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...
, the forerunner to iHeartMedia
iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...
.
In August 2021, the station's property in Portsmouth, including its radio tower, was listed for sale at $3.6 million.
References
External links
{{IHeartMedia
1964 establishments in New Hampshire
IHeartMedia radio stations
Mainstream rock radio stations in the United States
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Radio stations established in 1964
HEB