WMHT-FM (89.1

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 ...

) is a listener-supported, non-commercial

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...

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 ...

Schenectady Schenectady ( ) is a City (New York), city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the United States Census 2020, 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-most populo ...

, and serving the

Capital District A capital district, capital region, or capital territory is normally a specially designated administrative division where a country's seat of government is located. As such, in a federal model of government, no state or territory has any politic ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. It has a

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

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, ...

, with most programming originating in-house, but with some shows and news from

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

American Public Media American Public Media (APM) is an American company that produces and distributes public radio programs in the United States, the second largest company of its type after NPR. Its non-profit parent, American Public Media Group, also owns and o ...

and the

Public Radio Exchange The Public Radio Exchange (PRX) is a non-profit web-based platform for digital distribution, review, and licensing of radio programs. The organization is the largest on-demand catalogue of public radio programs available for broadcast and internet ...

. It is 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 WMHT Channel 17, the

PBS 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 educat ...

member station for the Albany/Schenectady/

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

media 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 station, television and radio broadcasting, ra ...

. WMHT-FM 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 6,100 watts. The

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 ...

is located on the

Helderberg Escarpment The Helderberg Escarpment, also known as the Helderberg Mountains, is an escarpment in eastern New York (state), New York, United States, roughly west of the city of Albany, New York, Albany. The escarpment is the northeastern extremity of th ...

antenna farm on Pinnacle Road in

New Salem, New York New Salem is a hamlet in the town of New Scotland, Albany County, New York, United States. It is located in a valley at the foot of the Helderberg Escarpment along New York State Route 85. A local fair and car show is held every year in this ...

. WMHT-FM broadcasts using

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 ...

technology.http://www.wmht.org/radio/classical/hd-radio/ WMHT HD WMHT-FM programming is also heard on a part-time basis on FM 88.7

WRHV WRHV (88.7 FM) is a classical music-formatted radio station licensed to Poughkeepsie, New York and serving the Mid-Hudson Valley of New York state. The station is owned by WMHT Educational Telecommunications and is a satellite of Schenectady's W ...

Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie ( ) is a city within the Town of Poughkeepsie, New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie is in the Hudson River Valley region, midway between the core of the New ...

, which is involved in one of the last radio timeshare arrangements in the United States alongside

State University of New York at New Paltz The State University of New York at New Paltz (SUNY New Paltz or New Paltz) is a public university in New Paltz, New York. It traces its origins to the New Paltz Classical School, a secondary institution founded in 1828 and reorganized as an ...

-owned WFNP-FM. From October 2005 to March 2006, WMHT-FM programming was also heard on co-owned FM 97.7

WBKK WBKK (820 AM) is a radio station licensed to Wilton, Minnesota, serving the Bemidji market area. The station airs a Catholic talk format as an owned and operated affiliate of Real Presence Radio. Its 10,000 watt transmitter and towers are loc ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

. That station now airs an

adult album alternative Adult album alternative (also triple-A, AAA, or adult alternative) is a radio format. See pages 9 and 10Mills, Joshua. "A New Radio Music Format: Rock for Prosperous Adults" New York Times, Feb 28 1994, p. 2. ProQuest. Web. Accessed September 4, ...

format, also heard on WMHT-FM's HD2

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 ...

History

From its founding in 1972, WMHT-FM has been a classical music station. The plans for the format came into being in the wake of 92.3

WFLY WFLY (92.3 FM, ''FLY 92.3'') is a contemporary hit radio station licensed to Troy, New York, and serving the Capital District. The station is owned by Pamal Broadcasting and is considered the company's flagship station. The radio studios and ...

leaving the classical format in

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

and an ensuing protest from prominent members of the community. Although a number of PBS stations were launching sister NPR news and information stations, the presence of NPR

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 ...

90.3

WAMC WAMC-FM (90.3 FM) is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Albany, New York, United States, featuring a public radio format. Owned by "WAMC Northeast Public Radio" with a legal name of "WAMC", WAMC-FM's primary signal encompa ...

in Albany kept WMHT from such an opportunity. WMHT decided to go in a different direction by launching a classical station. WMHT paid

Siena College Siena College is a Private college, private Franciscan college in Loudonville, New York, United States. It was founded by the Order of Friars Minor in 1937 and is named after the Franciscan friar Bernardino of Siena. The college enrolls approxi ...

-owned

WVCR-FM WVCR-FM ''(88.3 The Saint)'' is a variety hits radio station located in Loudonville, New York, owned by Siena College, and primarily staffed by students from the college. The station broadcasts on 88.3 MHz at an effective radiated power of 2, ...

to vacate its 89.1 frequency, switching to 88.3 MHz. On , WMHT-FM officially

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. Because the WMHT

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 ...

, which stood for "Mohawk–Hudson Television", was already established for Channel 17, the FM station took the same call letters. The Mohawk-Hudson Council on Educational Television was the original name of the organization that put Channel 17 on the air. WMHT-FM's signature program is "Bach's Lunch," a program originally conceived by Pam Mittendorff and Chris Wienk of

WSHU-FM WSHU-FM (91.1 FM) is a NPR-affiliated radio station operated by Sacred Heart University. Licensed to Fairfield, Connecticut, it serves the Connecticut and Long Island area with news and classical music programming. Programs produced at WSHU an ...

Fairfield, Connecticut Fairfield is a New England town, town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It borders the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Bridgeport and towns of Trumbull, Connecticut, Trumbull, Easton, Connecticut, Easton, Weston, Connecticut, W ...

. Wienk brought the program to WMHT-FM after it stopped airing on WSHU-FM. In July 2007, WMHT launched

-licensed

WEXT WEXT (97.7 Hertz, MHz) is a listener-supported, public broadcasting, public FM broadcasting, FM radio station broadcasting an adult album alternative radio format, format. City of license, Licensed to Amsterdam, New York, the station serves the ...

(97.7), branded as "Exit 97.7", after the purchase of the commercial license for WBKK, which removed the station's main competitor in the market. WEXT currently runs a non-commercial

(AAA) format, along with a focus on local Capital Region artists.

Original programming

*''Bach's Lunch'': A program of

Baroque music Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Classical music, Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance music, Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Class ...

airing on weekdays at noon. The host is Chris Wienk. *''WMHT Live'': A full-length concert program featuring recordings of recent classical concerts in the

. *''No Ticket Required'': A program of concert excerpts featuring recordings of recent classical concerts in the

. *''Serenade'': A program of classical music featuring nocturnes, adagios and andantes produced by Wayne Henning.

RISE

WMHT also provides an information service for those who are blind and "print-disabled" known as ''RISE'', which has been in operation since 1978. ''RISE'' programming is on the subcarriers of both WMHT-FM and WRHV-FM (even when WRHV-FM is not on the air).

References

External links

WMHT-FM's website
{{coord, 42.6253, N, 74.0101, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title MHT-FM NPR member stations Classical music radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1972

History

Original programming

RISE

See also

References

External links