WTOP-FM

This article is about radio station WTOP-FM. For other stations that use or have used the WTOP call sign, see WTOP (disambiguation).

WTOP-FM
Broadcast areaWashington metropolitan area
Frequency103.5 MHz (HD Radio)
BrandingWTOP Radio; WTOP News
Programming
FormatAll-news radio
Subchannels
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
WBQH, WFED, WSHE
History
First air date
September 12, 1948; 76 years ago (1948-09-12)[1]
Former call signs
  • WQQW-FM (1948–1951)
  • WGMS-FM (1951–2006)
Former frequencies
101.7 MHz (1948)[1]
Call sign meaning
carried over from 1500 AM, which was regarded as "the top of the dial"
Technical information[2]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID11845
ClassB
ERP
  • 44,000 watts (analog)
  • 2,110 watts (digital)
[3]
HAAT158 meters (518 ft)
Transmitter coordinates
38°56′10.6″N 77°05′31.5″W / 38.936278°N 77.092083°W / 38.936278; -77.092083
Repeater(s)
Links
Public license information
Webcast
Websitewtop.com

WTOP-FM (103.5 FM) – branded "WTOP Radio" and "WTOP News" – is a commercial all-news radio station licensed to serve Washington, D.C. Owned by Hubbard Broadcasting,[4] the station serves the Washington metropolitan area, extending its reach through two repeater stations: WTLP (103.9 FM) in Braddock Heights, Maryland,[5] and WWWT-FM (107.7) in Manassas, Virginia.[6] The WTOP-FM studios, referred to on-air as the "WTOP Glass-Enclosed Nerve Center",[7] are located on Wisconsin Avenue in the Washington D.C. suburb of Chevy Chase, Maryland, while the station transmitter is located on the American University campus.[8] Besides a standard analog transmission, WTOP-FM broadcasts over three HD Radio channels,[9][10] and is available online.

WTOP-FM is the successor to the original WTOP, an AM station at 1500 kHz, which held the WTOP call sign from 1943 until 2006, and adopted an all-news format in March 1969.[11]

  1. ^ a b "One Firm Buys All First Week on WQQW-FM" (PDF). Broadcasting. August 30, 1948. p. 60.
  2. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WTOP-FM". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  3. ^ "FCC 335-FM Digital Notification [WTOP-FM]". fcc.gov. Federal Communications Commission. February 10, 2012. Archived from the original on March 4, 2017. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
  4. ^ "WTOP Facility Record". Federal Communications Commission, audio division. Archived from the original on March 4, 2017. Retrieved September 11, 2013.
  5. ^ "WTLP Facility Record". Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  6. ^ "WWWT Facility Record". Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  7. ^ "The story of the 'Glass-Enclosed Nerve Center'". WTOP Radio. August 5, 2010. Archived from the original on January 27, 2020. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  8. ^ "FM Query Results for WTOP". fcc.gov. Federal Communications Commission. Archived from the original on March 4, 2017. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
  9. ^ http://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?id=8 Archived October 2, 2015, at the Wayback Machine HD Radio Guide for Washington D.C.
  10. ^ "W282BA Facility Record". Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  11. ^ Pointer, Jack (April 2019). "'You turn us on and we're there': Looking back at 50 years of news on WTOP". WTOP. p. April 1, 2019. Archived from the original on April 5, 2019. Retrieved April 29, 2019.