WRTI

WRTI (90.1 FM) is a non-commercial, public FM radio station licensed to serve Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is a service of Temple University. The Temple University Board of Trustees holds the station's license. The broadcast tower used by the station is located in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia at (40°02′30.1″N 75°14′10.1″W).[3]

"WJAZ" redirects here. For the former radio stations in Chicago, see WJAZ (Chicago).
WRTI
CityPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Broadcast areaDelaware Valley
Frequency90.1 MHz (HD Radio)
SloganYour Classical and Jazz Station[1]
Programming
Language(s)English
FormatAnalog/HD1/HD2: Classical/Jazz
Ownership
OwnerTemple University
History
First air date1953 (originally carrier current 1948-53)
Call sign meaningWRTI: Radio Training Institute[2]
Technical information
Facility ID65190
ClassB
ERP7,700 watts
HAAT371 meters (1,217 ft)
Transmitter coordinates40°02′30″N 75°14′10.1″W
Translator(s)See § Simulcasts and translators
Repeater(s)See § Simulcasts and translators
Links
WebcastListen Live
Websitewww.wrti.org

History

WRTI began in 1948 as an AM carrier current station. It was founded by John Roberts, professor emeritus of communications at Temple and long-time anchorman at WFIL-TV (now WPVI-TV). He helped found the School of Communications and Theater at Temple. The call letters stood for "Radio Training Institute." In 1952, the station received an FM transmitter, receiving a full license to cover the FM facility in 1953. After years of serving as a student laboratory, WRTI-AM signed off for good in 1968. WRTI-FM switched from block programming to an all-jazz format in 1969 after Philadelphia's commercial classical music station, WFLN, changed formats.[2]

Programming

WRTI is a music-intensive public radio service, broadcasting classical music during the day, and jazz at night.

The station features hosts Gregg Whiteside, Kevin Gordon, Bob Perkins, Bob Craig, Maureen Malloy, Bliss Michelson, Joe Patti, I. Robin Booker, Courtney Blue, Ryan Gottlieb, Rich Gunning and Debra Lew Harder. Long-time Jazz host Jeff Duperon died on June 17, 2019. He was 66.

WRTI also has special programs on Friday and Saturday evenings. Each Friday there's "The Bridge," with host J. Michael Harrison. This program explores the merging platforms of popular music and jazz. Saturday night, "Jukebox Jazz" features jazz cover pieces of popular music and songs that made the Top-40 charts. "El Viaje" hosted by David Ortiz, airs Saturday night and focuses on Latin Jazz, Mambo and Salsa.

WRTI also presents arts and culture programming. The multi-award-winning CrossOver, explores music as "the international language." The show, which presents music and conversation with some of the world's greatest artists and personalities, focuses not only on classical and jazz, but also music in the periphery of those two art forms. Featured have been Michel Legrand, Rick Braun, Byron Janis, Billy Joel, Eric Whitacre, Marvin Hamlisch, Michael Feinstein, Louis Lortie, Herbie Hancock, Yolanda Kondonassis, Branford Marsalis and many more.

The award-winning Creatively Speaking arts segments feature contributors Jim Cotter, David Patrick Stearns and Susan Lewis among others. Mr. Cotter heads WRTI's Arts and Culture desk. The forerunner of these features was a 30-minute Saturday morning arts magazine show, also called Creatively Speaking, which was cancelled in early 2013. It was felt that splitting up the show in segments and spreading them throughout the broadcast day and week would better serve the audience.

Some of WRTI's programming is centered on area arts organizations. Discoveries From the Fleisher Collection is hosted by Kile Smith, former curator of the Edwin A. Fleisher Collection of Orchestral Music at the Free Library of Philadelphia, the largest lending library of orchestral performance material in the world, and WRTI's Jack Moore.

The Wanamaker Organ Hour features recordings of performances on the organ by Mr. Conte and various guests. The Wanamaker Organ is housed in Macy's Center City Philadelphia department store and is the largest musical instrument in the world.

After a long hiatus, WRTI has recently resumed broadcasting full-length concerts by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Recorded each week at the Kimmel Center's Verizon Hall in Center City, and hosted by WRTI's Gregg Whiteside, this series brings the distinctive sound of the "Fabulous Philadelphians" in performance back to the Delaware Valley airwaves.

WRTI presents in-concert performances of South Jersey's Symphony In C Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra and others, as well as opera performances from the Academy of Vocal Arts and the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

WRTI is a network affiliate of NPR, PRI and APM, airing news and arts programming from these networks. Programs include NPR's Newscast Service, From The Top, and SymphonyCast. WRTI is also an affiliate of the WFMT Radio Network, broadcasting a wide range of programming from this Chicago-based syndicator including concert broadcasts from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, the Deutsche Welle Festival Concert series, and many more programs and concert series.

WRTI is also an affiliate of the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera Radio Network, airing the Met's Saturday Matinee performances live from December through May each year. In the Met's off-season, WRTI broadcasts the American Opera Series from the WFMT Radio Network. This series features performances by the San Francisco, Los Angeles and Houston Grand Operas, as well as the Lyric Opera of Chicago. With these series, WRTI broadcasts a full-length opera every Saturday afternoon.

WRTI also broadcasts using HD Radio.[4] Two stations (WRTI and WRTJ) broadcast HD2 programming as well.[5] Known as "WRTI-HD2," this auxiliary service broadcasts Jazz in the daytime and Classical music at night, opposite the station's analog/HD1 signal, thus providing a full 24 hours of classical and jazz programming for those with HD Radio receivers. The programming of both WRTI-FM and WRTI-HD2 also comprises two separate web audio streams. The "All-Classical" stream presents WRTI-FM's daytime programming, switching to WRTI-HD2's programming at night. The "All-Jazz" stream broadcasts WRTI-HD2's daytime programming, switching to WRTI's analog/HD1 signal at night. The web streams have proven popular with those who do not have an HD Radio receiver or are not within the coverage area of WRTI and WRTJ.

Simulcasts and translators

WRTI fronts a network of six full-powered repeater stations. Combined with the main WRTI signal and numerous low-powered translators, their footprint covers much of eastern Pennsylvania, as well as most of Delaware and the southern half of New Jersey.

Call sign Frequency City of license Facility ID ERP
W		 Height
m (ft)		 Class Transmitter coordinates Call sign assigned Notes
WJAZ91.7 FM (HD)Summerdale, Pennsylvania651841,000 (analog)
100 (digital)[6]		214 m (702 ft)A40°18′20.3″N 77°0′25.9″WJuly 27, 1990[7]Serves Harrisburg
WRTJ89.3 FM (HD)Coatesville, Pennsylvania90653460 vert, 1 horiz87.5 m (287 ft)A40°01′26.4″N 75°48′46.8″WJuly 11, 2007[8]Serves Chester County
WRTL90.7 FM (HD)Ephrata, Pennsylvania65177650 vert, 1 horiz265 m (869 ft)A40°19′22.3″N 76°11′50.8″WMarch 15, 1999[9]Serves Lancaster and Lebanon
WRTQ91.3 FM (HD)Ocean City, New Jersey6517613,500 vert, 1,360 horiz120 m (390 ft)B139°19′14.4″N 74°46′16.6″WMay 5, 1993[10]Serves Atlantic City
WRTX91.7 FM (HD)Dover, Delaware6518158096 m (315 ft)A39°12′3.4″N 75°33′53.7″WJuly 12, 1991[11]
WRTY91.1 FM (HD)Jackson Township, Pennsylvania651783,500264 m (866 ft)B141°02′40.3″N 75°22′43.6″WAugust 20, 1990[12]Serves Mount Pocono

Three full-power stations have translators that are licensed to simulcast the programming of their respective stations.

Broadcast translators of WRTI
Call signFrequency
(MHz)		City of licenseFacility
ID		ERP
(W)		Height
(m (ft))		ClassTransmitter coordinatesFCC info
W214AL90.7Denver, Pennsylvania651935261 m (856 ft)D40°19′22.3″N 76°11′50.8″WFCC
W221DG92.1Exton, Pennsylvania142298170186 m (610 ft)D40°03′31.6″N 75°35′52.8″WFCC
W246AA97.1Allentown, Pennsylvania6518310166.1 m (545 ft)D40°35′55.4″N 75°25′7.7″WFCC
W249AT97.7Reading, Pennsylvania6518210215.3 m (706 ft)D40°20′55.0″N 75°54′4.0″WFCC
W299BH107.7Marshallton, Delaware14239325049.5 m (162 ft)D39°42′31.0″N 75°33′58.0″WFCC
Broadcast translators of WJAZ
Call signFrequency
(MHz)		City of licenseFacility
ID		ERP
(W)		Height
(m (ft))		ClassTransmitter coordinatesFCC info
W259BU99.7York, Pennsylvania651871967.1 m (220 ft)D39°56′27.3″N 76°41′56.8″WFCC
Broadcast translators of WRTY
Call signFrequency
(MHz)		City of licenseFacility
ID		ERP
(W)		Height
(m (ft))		ClassTransmitter coordinatesFCC info
W235AA94.9Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania6518510286.8 m (941 ft)D41°11′11.3″N 75°51′31.7″WFCC
W256AB99.1Pottsville, Pennsylvania65179100107 m (351 ft)D40°40′36.3″N 76°11′48.7″WFCC
W291AP106.1Scranton, Pennsylvania6518010371.1 m (1,218 ft)D41°25′41.2″N 75°44′48.6″WFCC

A radio station with the call sign WJAZ is mentioned in the song "The Nightfly" on Donald Fagen's 1982 album The Nightfly.[13]

See also

References
  1. Most station breaks include "This is WRTI, Your Classical and Jazz Station"
  2. "About WRTI". WRTI. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
  3. "FM Query Results for WRTI". fcc.gov. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
  4. "HD Radio FAQ". wrti.org. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
  5. https://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?id=16 HD Radio Guide for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  6. "Engineering STA, Attachment 1 "Engineering Statement" [WJAZ]". fcc.gov. Federal Communications Commission. October 28, 2010. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  7. "WJAZ Call Sign History". CDBS Public Access Database. FCC Media Bureau. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
  8. "WRTJ Call Sign History". CDBS Public Access Database. FCC Media Bureau. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
  9. "WRTL Call Sign History". CDBS Public Access Database. FCC Media Bureau. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
  10. "WRTQ Call Sign History". CDBS Public Access Database. FCC Media Bureau. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
  11. "WRTX Call Sign History". CDBS Public Access Database. FCC Media Bureau. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
  12. "WRTY Call Sign History". CDBS Public Access Database. FCC Media Bureau. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
  13. "Lyrics - The Nightfly". Official Steely Dan. Retrieved May 23, 2013.

Other station data
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