WITF-FM (89.5 FM) is a

non-commercial A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that does not, in some sense, involve commerce, at least relative to similar activities that do have a commercial objective or emphasis. For example, advertising-free community ...

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

licensed A license (or licence) 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 party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

to serve

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the 9th largest city and 15th largest municipality in P ...

. The station is owned by WITF, Inc., and broadcasts NPR talk and news programming. It is co-owned with the area's

Public Broadcasting Service The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educa ...

(PBS) member station, WITF-TV (channel 33). Both stations are based at the Public Media Center in Swatara Township (with a Harrisburg mailing address), and broadcast from a shared tower located on Blue Mountain in Susquehanna Township. Like most NPR member stations, WITF-FM broadcasts fundraising appeals, seeking contributions from its listeners to support the station.

History

On April 1, 1971, WITF-FM

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature, placing one's name on a document * Signature (disambiguation) * Manual communication, signing as a form of communication using the hands in place of the voice * Digital signature A dig ...

the air, becoming the first station in Central Pennsylvania to broadcast a fulltime classical music

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 was compelle ...

. It was originally

Hershey Hershey may refer to: People * Hershey (name), a list of people with the surname, given name or nickname Places * Hershey, Nebraska, a village * Hershey, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community, home to the chocolate company * Hershey, Cuba, ...

(the license moved to Harrisburg in 1982). WITF-FM was founded as the

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 ...

to WITF-TV, which signed on seven years earlier. At first, the stations broadcast from "temporary" studios at the former Hershey Middle School, moving to Locust Lane in Harrisburg in 1982. On July 22, 2005, WITF-FM-TV began construction on their current 75,000 square foot facility in Swatara Township. Staff began moving into the facility on November 27, 2006. After airing a mix of classical music and NPR programming for much of its history, the station dropped all classical music programming on June 25, 2012. WITF-FM began a 24 hour schedule of news and information consisting of

syndicated Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

programs from NPR and other providers, along with local news and cultural arts reporting by the WITF staff. WITF has its own Multimedia News Department. It provides local and regional news coverage for both radio and TV. In 2012, StateImpact Pennsylvania won one of three 2013 Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Awards for its outstanding reporting on energy issues for focusing on the fiscal, environmental and social issues of gas drilling on Pennsylvania's economy. WITF reporter Scott Detrow contributed to the report. In 2016, WITF's reporting was honored with six regional Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association for excellence in broadcast and online journalism. Following the

January 6 United States Capitol attack On January 6, 2021, following the defeat of then-United States President, U.S. President Donald Trump in the 2020 United States presidential election, 2020 presidential election, a mob of his supporters attacked the United States Capitol, U ...

in 2021, WITF's news department began adding language to political news reports to point out that state legislators or members of Congress mentioned in the story advocated against certifying the Pennsylvania 2020 presidential election results. ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' media columnist Margaret Sullivan highlighted this move in a May 2021 column.

Simulcast and translator

WITF-FM broadcasts at 5,900 watts, which is fairly modest for a full NPR member on the FM band. As a result, even with its transmitter located atop Blue Mountain, it only provides a grade B signal to the largest city in its service area,

Lancaster Lancaster may refer to: Lands and titles *The County Palatine of Lancaster, a synonym for Lancashire *Duchy of Lancaster, one of only two British royal duchies *Duke of Lancaster *Earl of Lancaster *House of Lancaster, a British royal dynasty ...

.City grade and grade B coverage maps
/ref> To provide a stronger signal to listeners in Lancaster, WITF-FM programming is simulcast on the following

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 ''transla ...

: On January 9, 2009, WITF-FM also began

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/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, simult ...

ing its programming on WYPM:

References

External links

WITF official website
* * * *

(WITF; ''

''; May 2, 2021). {{NPR Pennsylvania NPR member stations ITF-FM Radio stations established in 1971 1971 establishments in Pennsylvania