WHVR (1280

kHz 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 uni ...

) is a commercial AM radio station in

Hanover, Pennsylvania Hanover is a borough in York County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 16,429 at the 2020 census. Located southwest of York and north-northwest of Baltimore, Maryland, the town is situated in a productive agricultural region. It i ...

, serving the

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

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 ...

. The station is owned by Forever Media, through licensee FM Radio Licenses, LLC and broadcasts an

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, known as "Happy 95.3". WHVR also carries

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles (also known as the O's) are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. As one of the America ...

baseball games. By day, WHVR is powered at 5,000 watts. To protect other stations on

1280 AM The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 1280 kHz: 1280 AM is a regional North American North America is a continent in the Northern and Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Oce ...

from interference, WHVR reduces power at night to 500 watts. It uses a

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna that radiates or receives greater radio wave power in specific directions. Directional antennas can radiate radio waves in beams, when greater concentration of radiation in a certain directio ...

at all times. Programming is also heard on FM

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 ...

W237EN at 95.3

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 Hanover. The translator has 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 250 watts.

History

On January 7, 1949, WHVR first

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. It was a

daytimer A clear-channel station is a North American AM radio station that has the highest level of protection from interference from other stations, particularly from nighttime skywave signals. This classification exists to ensure the viability of cross ...

with a power of 1,000 watts. Its radio studios were in the Hanover Trust building. John D. Bair was the president and Production Manager. Initially the station was on the air from 6:30 am until local sunset. WHVR was a pioneer in remote pickup with a 26.35 MHz unit that would allow broadcasting back to the station events where a phone line was not available. On August 1, 2005, WHVR changed their format to classic country, branded as "Real Country 1280 WHVR". On March 20, 2017, WHVR changed formats from classic country to classic hits, and switched branding from "Real Country 1280 WHVR" to "Classic Hits 1280 and 95.3 WHVR". On May 21, 2019, WHVR, along with

WGET GNU Wget (or just Wget, formerly Geturl, also written as its package name, wget) is a computer program that retrieves content from web servers. It is part of the GNU Project. Its name derives from "World Wide Web" and " ''get''", a HTTP reque ...

in Gettysburg, began

simulcasting 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) ...

format, along with the new launch of W229DK, 93.7 FM which rebroadcasts WGET. Collectively, the AM stations and FM translators are known as ''Happy 1280, 1320 AM & 95.3, 93.7 FM''. On January 1, 2022, the stations shifted their format to

contemporary hit radio Contemporary hit radio (CHR, also known as contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top ...

. With this change, they ended their simulcast and were branded as "Nu 95.3" and "Nu 93.7", respectively, though both stations featured identical playlists supplied by

Westwood One Westwood One, Inc. is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1976. The co ...

. The "Nu" branding was shared with WNUU (92.7) in nearby Starview. On November 1, WHVR and WGET dropped their Top 40/CHR format and began stunting with

Christmas music Christmas music comprises a variety of Music genre, genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas and holiday season, Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of Christmas ...

, branded as "Santa 95.3", with a new format to launch in January 2023. On January 1, the stations returned to an adult contemporary format and the "Happy" branding. WNUU concurrently made identical format changes and became WPPY. The stations again began playing Christmas music under the "Santa" name on November 1.

Previous logo

References

External links

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FCC History Cards for WHVR
{{Adult Contemporary Radio Stations in Pennsylvania 1949 establishments in Pennsylvania Mainstream adult contemporary radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1949 HVR