WGBH (FM)

For the television station, see WGBH-TV.

WGBH
Broadcast areaGreater Boston
Frequency89.7 MHz (HD Radio)
RDSWGBH RADIO
BrandingGBH 89.7
Programming
Language(s)English
FormatPublic radio
Subchannels
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerWGBH Educational Foundation
History
First air date
October 2, 1951; 73 years ago (1951-10-02)
Former call signs
  • WGBH (1951–1954)
  • WGBH-FM (1954–1973)
Call sign meaning
Great Blue Hill
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID70510
ClassB
ERP98,000 watts
HAAT198 meters (650 ft)
Transmitter coordinates
42°12′42.3″N 71°6′49.1″W / 42.211750°N 71.113639°W / 42.211750; -71.113639 (WGBH)
Links
Public license information
Webcast
Websitewww.wgbh.org/Radio

WGBH (89.7 FM, "GBH 89.7") is a public radio station located in Boston, Massachusetts. WGBH is a member station of National Public Radio (NPR) and affiliate of Public Radio Exchange (PRX) and American Public Media (APM). The license-holder is WGBH Educational Foundation, which also owns company flagship WGBH-TV and WGBX-TV, along with WGBY-TV in Springfield.[citation needed]

The station, dubbed Boston Public Radio in 2009, renamed Boston's Local NPR, broadcasts a news-and-information format during the daytime (including NPR News programs and PRX's The World, which is a co-production of WGBH and PRX, and formerly the BBC World Service), and jazz music during the nighttime.[citation needed]

Prior to December 1, 2009, the station had a mixed news and entertainment format, featuring local jazz and blues programs, with the station tagline being ‘’Boston’s NPR Arts & Culture Station’’, to differentiate it from all news WBUR-FM, also located in Boston and known at the time as "Boston's NPR News Station". Following the rebranding, much of the station's culture-related programming was dropped in favor of nationally syndicated NPR, PRI, and APM programs.[citation needed]

WGBH radio transmitter atop Great Blue Hill

"GBH" stands for Great Blue Hill, the site of WGBH's FM transmitter in Milton, Massachusetts, as well as the original location of WGBH-TV's transmitter.[citation needed] Great Blue Hill has an elevation of 635 feet (193 m), is located within the Blue Hills Reservation, and is the highest natural point in the Boston area. Mai Cramer, longtime host of the program Blues After Hours, jokingly maintained that the station's call sign stands for: "We Got Blues Here!"[citation needed]

According to Nielsen data aggregated by Ken Mills, a Minneapolis broadcast consultant, as of June 2017 the number of WGBH's listeners has nearly doubled since 2012, increasing from 235,200 to 445,200. WGBH is the 10th-most-popular NPR news station in the United States.[2]

  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WGBH". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ Arsenault, Mark (June 4, 2017). "In well-mannered public radio, an airwaves war". The Boston Globe. Retrieved June 4, 2017.