WHIV-LP is a community radio station on 102.3 FM in

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, covering the Mid-City area. It is owned by the New Orleans Society for Infectious Disease Awareness (NOSIDA) and broadcasts from studios on Orleans Avenue and a transmitter atop the Tulane Tower office complex.

History

In March 2014, the New Orleans Society for Infectious Disease Awareness, formed five years prior to raise

HIV/AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

awareness in the New Orleans area, received a construction permit for a new low-power (LP) FM radio station, which it announced would feature a community format with "programming dedicated to human rights and social justice". The selection of the call letters was intended by its founders to help reduce the stigma surrounding HIV; in 2016, New Orleans had the third-highest HIV infection rate in the United States, attributed to cultural stigmas in the Black community, local laws and high poverty rates. WHIV-LP began broadcasting on December 1, 2014—

World AIDS Day World AIDS Day, designated on 1 December every year since 1988, is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease. The acquired immu ...

. Originally with a talk-heavy lineup that drew heavily from the

Pacifica Radio Network Pacifica Foundation is an American nonprofit organization that owns five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations known for their progressive/liberal political orientation. Its national headquarters adjoins sta ...

, the station expanded its music programming in 2016 and had 70 different hosts and DJs by 2017. Originally housed at the Odyssey House drug treatment center, WHIV-LP moved to its own quarters on Orleans Avenue in 2015. Less than a year later, the station suffered major damage in the

2016 Louisiana floods In August 2016, prolonged rainfall from an unpredictable storm resulted in catastrophic flooding in the state of Louisiana, United States; thousands of houses and businesses were submerged. Louisiana's governor, John Bel Edwards, called the di ...

, with several pieces of equipment and furnishings being ruined.

Other uses of the call letters

A fictional radio station named WHIV is mentioned in New Orleans writer

Poppy Z. Brite William Joseph Martin (born May 25, 1967), formerly Poppy Z. Brite, is an American author. He initially achieved fame in the Gothic fiction, gothic horror genre of literature in the early 1990s by publishing a string of successful novels and shor ...

's 1996 novel ''

Exquisite Corpse Exquisite corpse (from the original French term ', ) is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule (e.g., "The ''adjective'' ''noun' ...

'', though there is no relation to the present station. In that book, WHIV is a pirate radio station on a boat from which an HIV-positive character, Lucas Ransom, broadcasts.

References

External links

* {{New Orleans Radio Radio stations in New Orleans, WHIV-LP Low-power FM radio stations in Louisiana 2014 establishments in Louisiana Radio stations established in 2014 Health in Louisiana Health communication