WXXI (1370

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

non-commercial A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that is not carried out in the interest of Profit (economics), profit. The opposite is Commerce, commercial, something that primarily serves profit interests and is focused on bu ...

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 ...

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

. It broadcasts news, talk and informational programming as a member station of

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 ...

(NPR). WXXI, along with

WXXI-FM WXXI-FM (105.9 FM) is a non-commercial radio station in Rochester, New York, United States. It broadcasts news, talk and informational programming as a member station of National Public Radio (NPR). WXXI-FM is owned by the WXXI Public Broadcas ...

(105.9), WXXO (91.5 FM), and

WXXI-TV WXXI-TV (channel 21) is a PBS member television station in Rochester, New York, United States. It is owned by the WXXI Public Broadcasting Council alongside NPR members WXXI (1370 AM), WXXI-FM (105.9), and WXXO (91.5 FM). The three outlets ...

(channel 21), are owned by the

WXXI Public Broadcasting Council The WXXI Public Broadcasting Council is a community non-profit organization of some 36,000 subscribing members in the Rochester, New York metropolitan area that owns that city's major public television and community radio stations, a newspaper, a ...

. The

studio A studio is a space set aside for creative work of any kind, including art, dance, music and theater. The word ''studio'' is derived from the , from , from ''studere'', meaning to study or zeal. Types Art The studio of any artist, esp ...

s and offices are on State Street in Rochester at the Public Broadcasting Center. WXXI holds periodic on-air

fundraiser Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

s to support the station. WXXI is powered at 5,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s from a single

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 ...

by day. At night, to protect other stations on

1370 AM The following radio broadcasting, radio stations broadcast on AM broadcasting, AM frequency 1370 kHz: 1370 AM is a regional broadcast frequency, on which Class B and D stations broadcast. Argentina * LRA 54 in Ingeniero Jacobacci, Rio Negro ...

from interference, 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 ...

with a four-

tower array A tower array is an arrangement of multiple radio towers which are mast radiators in a phased array. They were originally developed as ground-based tracking radars. Tower arrays can consist of free-standing or guyed towers or a mix of them. Tower ...

that concentrates the signal in Rochester and its inner suburbs. 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 on French Road in

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

. Programming is also heard on WXXI-FM 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 ...

of WXXO.

Programming

Most of WXXI's weekday programming comes from NPR, along with local newscasts. NPR shows include ''

Morning Edition ''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 a ...

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

Fresh Air ''Fresh Air'' is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States since 1985. It is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show's hosts are Terry Gross and Tonya Mosl ...

, 1A,

Marketplace A marketplace, market place, or just market, is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a ''souk'' (from ...

'' and '' Here and Now''. Weekdays at noon and repeated at 9 p.m., a local two-hour interview and call-in show is heard, ''Connections with Evan Dawson''. The

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

airs overnight. On weekends, shows from NPR are heard along with local newscasts. Programs include '' Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, It's Been A Minute, On The Media,

Hidden Brain ''Hidden Brain'' is a science podcast hosted by Shankar Vedantam. Background The show originally began as a segment of '' NPRs ''Morning Edition''. The first episode of the podcast focused on a concept called "switchtracking". Vedantam fou ...

, TED Radio Hour,

Radio Lab ''Radiolab'' is a radio program and podcast produced by WNYC, a public radio station based in New York City, and broadcast on more than 570 public radio stations in the United States. The show has earned many industry awards for its "imaginati ...

Latino USA ''Latino USA'' is a nationally syndicated public radio program and podcast produced by The Futuro Media Group and distributed nationwide by the Public Radio Exchange (PRX), after 27 years of being distributed by NPR. The program is anchored by ...

, Travel with

Rick Steves Richard John Steves Jr. (born May 10, 1955), known professionally as Rick Steves, is an American travel writer, activist, and television personality. His travel philosophy encourages people to explore less-frequented areas of destinations and ...

The Splendid Table ''The Splendid Table'' is a weekly radio program about food hosted by Francis Lam. The program began in 1997 on Minnesota Public Radio, and was originally hosted by Lynne Rossetto Kasper until her retirement in 2017. It is produced and distribu ...

, Milk Street Radio'' and ''

The New Yorker Radio Hour ''The New Yorker Radio Hour'' is a radio show and podcast produced by ''The New Yorker'' and WNYC Studios. It is hosted by David Remnick, who has been editor of ''The New Yorker'' since 1998. The first episode of ''The New Yorker Radio Hour'' ...

''. WXXI has won numerous local, state and national awards for its programs, newscasts and investigative reporting.

History

WSAY

The station

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 on October 27, 1936, as WSAY. It was a facility founded and built by Gordon P. Brown as a small local area station with a 250 watt signal on 1210 kHz. As a result of the

North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA, ; ) refers to a series of international treaties that defined technical standards for AM band (mediumwave) radio stations. These agreements also addressed how frequency assignments were d ...

(NARBA), it moved to 1240 kHz in 1941. In the pre-war era WSAY became best known as the home of local music programs at a time when its network-affiliated competitors were airing a mix of local news and sports with national drama, comedy and music/variety shows supplied by the NBC and CBS networks. WSAY also was the first station to hire an African-American announcer for a regular shift. Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, WSAY received FCC permission to improve its signal by moving to the regional 1370 kHz frequency. It relocated its transmitter from a downtown Rochester building with rooftop antenna to a modern four-tower plant in suburban Brighton. It increased power first to 1,000 watts and shortly afterward to 5,000 watts full-time. Over the next three decades, WSAY operated under a number of formats, from

adult standards Adult standards (also sometimes known as the nostalgia or Big Band format) is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations. Adult standards started in the 1950s and is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly tho ...

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

Progressive Rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

Country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

WRTK

Gordon Brown owned WSAY until his death in 1979. His estate sold it to future

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is a broadcasting company of the United States and is the second largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States ahead of Audacy and behind iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdi ...

CEO Lew Dickey and his family. The Dickey family operated 1370 AM from 1980 to 1984. It also tried a variety of formats from personality

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 ...

to country to

talk radio 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, Interview (jo ...

. In 1982, the

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 ...

was switched to WRTK.

Public radio

The license and facility was sold to the WXXI Public Broadcasting Council in early 1984. It briefly was taken

dark Darkness is the condition resulting from a lack of illumination, or an absence of visible light. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low luminance because the hue-sensitive photoreceptor cells on the retina are ...

as it prepared for a new format. In the summer 1984, it relaunched as WXXI (AM) with a round-the-clock noncommercial schedule of news, talk and public affairs. While the AM station focused on spoken-word programming, its

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 ...

, WXXI-FM (91.5) was able to offer a full schedule of

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 ...

. On January 10, 2014, WXXI began simulcasting on FM translator W266CL. It originally was heard on 101.1 MHz. It moved to 107.5 FM on October 4, 2016, and the call sign was changed to W298CH. In August 2023, WXXI entered into an agreement to sell W298CH to the Ibero-American Action League, owners of WEPL-LP who used it to boost WEPL's reach in the market. On October 7, 2022, WXXI announced its purchase of the license of WJZR (105.9 FM). WXXI announced its intention to relaunch 105.9 under a new call sign with a simulcast of WXXI (AM)'s public radio programming; the new

went on the air May 24, 2023.

References

External links

FCC History Cards for WXXIWXXI official website
{{NPR New York NPR member stations XXI Radio stations established in 1936 1936 establishments in New York (state)