WHMP (1400 AM) 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 broadcasting a

news/talk Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, interviews ...

format. Licensed to

Northampton, Massachusetts The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence, Massachusetts, Florence and ...

, it serves the

Pioneer Valley The Pioneer Valley is the colloquial and promotional name for the portion of the Connecticut River Valley that is in Massachusetts in the United States. It is generally taken to comprise the three counties of Hampden County, Massachusetts, Ha ...

, with studios on Hampton Avenue. It is owned by Saga Communications, and operates as part of its Northampton Radio Group. WHMP is powered at 1,000 watts, using a

non-directional antenna In radio communication, an omnidirectional antenna is a class of antenna which radiates equal radio power in all directions perpendicular to an axis (azimuthal directions), with power varying with angle to the axis (elevation angle), declining t ...

. Its programming is also heard on

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...

station W268CZ at 101.5

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

in Northampton, and on an

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 ...

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

WRSI WRSI (93.9 FM broadcasting, FM, "93.9 The River") is a radio station city of license, licensed to serve Turners Falls, Massachusetts. The station is owned by Saga Communications and licensed to Saga Communications of New England, LLC. It airs a ...

(93.9 FM) in Turners Falls.

Programming

Weekdays begin with news, talk and information shows hosted by Jess Tyler, Bill Newman and Buz Eisenberg. The rest of the schedule is

nationally syndicated Broadcast syndication is the practice of content owners leasing the right to broadcast their content to other television stations or radio stations, without having an official broadcast network to air it on. It is common in the United States whe ...

talk programs: ''

The Stephanie Miller Show ''The Stephanie Miller Show'' is a syndicated progressive talk radio program that discusses politics, current events, and pop culture using a fast-paced, impromptu, comedic style. The three-hour show is hosted by Stephanie Miller and is syndica ...

, The Thom Hartmann Show,

The Ramsey Show ''The Ramsey Show'' (formerly known as ''The Dave Ramsey Show'' and ''The Money Game'') is an American self-syndicated radio program hosted by finance author Dave Ramsey and a rotating group of co-hosts, that airs Monday through Friday from 2:0 ...

with

Dave Ramsey David Lawrence Ramsey III (born September 3, 1960) is an American radio personality who offers financial advice. He is the founder and CEO of Ramsey Solutions and a co-host of '' The Ramsey Show'', a nationally syndicated radio program. He ...

Armstrong & Getty ''Armstrong & Getty'' are the hosts of ''The Armstrong & Getty Show,'' a nationally syndicated morning drive radio show hosted by Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. The talk show format is a mixture of libertarian and conservative political commentary, ...

, CBS Eye on The World with John Batchelor, America Tonight with Rich Valdes'' and ''

This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal ''This Morning: America's First News'' (formerly ''The Wall Street Journal This Morning'') is a two-hour radio news/talk program hosted by Gordon Deal and Jennifer Kushinka, who replaced long-serving co-host Gina Cervetti on January 2, 2015. I ...

''. Weekends feature specialty shows on health, pets, technology, travel, cars and gardening. Syndicated programs include ''

The Kim Komando Show Kimberly Ann Komando (born July 1, 1967) is an American radio personality and the host of two daily radio shows and one weekend radio show about consumer technology. On her weekly call-in show, she provides advice about technology gadgets, websi ...

, The Car Doctor with Ron Ananian, World Travel with Rudy Maxa, Rich DeMuro on Tech,

The Lars Larson Show Lars Kristopher Larson (born March 6, 1959)"Lars Kristopher Larson". ''Who's Who in the West'', 26th ed. Accessed June 17, 2013 via LexisNexis. is an American conservative talk radio show host based in Portland, Oregon. Larson worked in televis ...

'', along with a Sunday morning

polka music Polka is a dance style and genre of dance music in originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though generally associated with Czech and Central European culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the A ...

show and a Sunday evening

Old-Time Radio The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the earl ...

show. Most hours begin with an update from

CBS News Radio CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It ...

History

WHMP

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

the air in December 1950. For much of its early decades, it aired a full service format of middle of the road (MOR) music, news, talk and sports. It had been an

affiliate Affiliation or affiliate may refer to: * Affiliate (commerce), a legal form of entity relationship used in Business Law * Affiliation (family law), a legal form of family relationship * Affiliate marketing * Affiliate network or affiliation platfo ...

of the ABC Information Network. In 1965, it added an FM

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

, 99.3 WHMP-FM (now WLZX-FM). During the 2000s and 2010s, WHMP was

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) ...

on WHMQ (1240 AM) in Greenfield and WHNP (1600 AM) in East Longmeadow. WHNP and WHMQ previously simulcast sister FM stations; WHNP was a simulcast of WAQY-FM (as WAQY, WMRE, and WPNT) until 2000 (it carried a promotional loop for

Six Flags New England Six Flags New England, formerly known as Gallup's Grove (1870–1886), Riverside Grove (1887–1911), Riverside Park (1912–1995) and Riverside: The Great Escape (1996–1999), is an amusement park located in Agawam, Massachusetts. Opening in ...

for several months after dropping the WAQY simulcast), while WHMQ repeated WHAI-FM (as WHAI) until 2001. WHMP's network of stations constituted part of a network of progressive talk stations throughout the northeastern United States that were owned by Saga Communications (others included

WNYY WNYY (1470 AM) is a radio station broadcasting an oldies format. Licensed to Ithaca, New York, United States, the station is owned by Saga Communications, and operates as part of its Cayuga Radio Group serving the Ithaca area. History WNYY, most ...

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

, and WKVT in

Brattleboro, Vermont Brattleboro (), originally Brattleborough, is a New England town, town in Windham County, Vermont, United States, located about north of the Massachusetts state line at the confluence of Vermont's West River (Vermont), West River and the Connec ...

); these, in turn, were among the last progressive talk stations still on the air in early 2017. Because of the migration of most progressive talk shows to off-air platforms, Saga announced plans to drop the format from WNYY in Ithaca effective February 1, 2017; WHNP received WNYY's

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

under a policy that allows translators to be moved up to 250 miles from their original city of license. On February 3, 2017, following the translator's move, WHNP dropped out of the simulcast with WHMP and became WLZX, a simulcast of WLZX-FM 99.3.Laser 99.3 Adds Second Signal
Radioinsight - February 3, 2017 WHMP logo

WHMP was previously carried on translator W245BK (96.9 FM) in Amherst. Following the launch of W268CZ, the 96.9 facility was repurposed as an

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...

station, fed by the HD3 channel of WLZX-FM, in June 2018. Until February 1, 2021, WHMQ in Greenfield had its own translator, W298CA (107.5 FM); that facility then launched a

soft adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

format originating from the HD2 channel of

WPVQ-FM WPVQ-FM (95.3 Hertz, MHz, "Bear Country 95.3") is a radio station city of license, licensed to serve Greenfield, Massachusetts. The station is owned by Saga Communications and licensed to Saga Communications of New England, LLC; it operates as pa ...

. Saga Communications surrendered WHMQ's license 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 ...

on March 20, 2023, and it was deleted the same day.

Translators

References

External links

* * * {{Saga Communications 1950 establishments in Massachusetts Mass media in Hampshire County, Massachusetts News and talk radio stations in the United States Northampton, Massachusetts Progressive talk radio Radio stations established in 1950 HMP