WHUR-FM
Encyclopedia
WHUR-FM is an Urban Adult Contemporary
radio station that serves the Washington D.C. area. WHUR is licensed
to Washington, D.C.
and is owned by Howard University
. Also, the staff of the station mentors the students of the university's school of communications. WHUR is also the home of the original Quiet Storm
, which loyal D.C. listeners have rated number one in the evening since 1976. Jeff Brown hosts the program Quiet Storm weeknights beginning at 7:30 p.m. In 2005, it also began broadcasting in IBOC digital radio
, using the HD Radio
system from iBiquity
.
. During the 1950s the station played a wide variety of music and was known as the "Rockville Music Library". In the early 1960s, with the popularity of the FM band still fifteen years in the future, the AM station switched to top 40 format and took the FM along in the simulcast was one of Washington's most popular stations. Station owners The Washington Post Company later moved WINX-FM to Washington DC and paired it with their established WTOP-AM and the calls were changed to WTOP-FM. For a while the station broadcast CBS Radio's early seventies "Young Sound" programming.
The Washington Post Company
later donated radio station WTOP-FM to Howard University "to stimulate the intellectual and cultural life of the whole community and to train more people for the communications industry." On December 6, 1971, the station changed its call letters to WHUR-FM. WHUR became a jazz
-formatted radio station which it remained until the 1990s when it switched to an Urban Adult Contemporary
format.
By 1995, WHUR became one of the highest rated radio stations in the market, right behind WPGC-FM
. Also that year, WHUR became the Washington radio and flagship affiliate of the syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show
(TJMS). However, in 1999,ABC Radio networks did not renew its contract with WHUR and moved the show to WMMJ, thus ending its four year relationship with the station. WHUR was forced to produce its own locally-based morning drive show. This initially somewhat affected the station's dominance over rival WMMJ
. WHUR in 2002 acquired The Michael Baisden Show and later in 2005, The Steve Harvey Morning Show. The station regained its top two spots in the market to date pacing #2 in the 12+ demographic and #1 in the 25–54 age group demographic and clearly the number one urban formatted station in D.C.
The Quiet Storm
format of mellow, rhythm and blues
/soul music
, smooth jazz and love songs often played at night on many radio stations started at WHUR. The format originated when then intern Melvin Lindsey played a soothing string of songs during a particularly bad storm in the mid-1970s, even as power was cut to most of the other radio stations in the Washington, DC area. Today, the station owns the rights to the name "Quiet Storm", and any radio station wishing to use the term must pay WHUR a royalty.
Urban Adult Contemporary
Urban adult contemporary is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have rap music on their playlists. The format was designed by Barry Mayo when he, Lee S. Simonson and Bill Pearson organized Broadcast...
radio station that serves the Washington D.C. area. WHUR is licensed
City of license
A city of license or community of license, in American and Canadian broadcasting, is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator....
to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and is owned by Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
. Also, the staff of the station mentors the students of the university's school of communications. WHUR is also the home of the original Quiet Storm
Quiet storm
Quiet storm is a late-night radio format, featuring soulful slow jams, pioneered in the mid-1970s by then-station-intern Melvin Lindsey at WHUR-FM, in Washington, D.C. Smokey Robinson's like-titled hit single, released in 1975 as the title track to his third solo album, lent its name to the format...
, which loyal D.C. listeners have rated number one in the evening since 1976. Jeff Brown hosts the program Quiet Storm weeknights beginning at 7:30 p.m. In 2005, it also began broadcasting in IBOC digital radio
Digital radio
Digital radio has several meanings:1. Today the most common meaning is digital radio broadcasting technologies, such as the digital audio broadcasting system, also known as Eureka 147. In these systems, the analog audio signal is digitized into zeros and ones, compressed using formats such as...
, using the HD Radio
HD Radio
HD Radio, which originally stood for "Hybrid Digital", is the trademark for iBiquity's in-band on-channel digital radio technology used by AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and data via a digital signal in conjunction with their analog signals...
system from iBiquity
IBiquity
iBiquity Digital Corporation is a company formed by the merger of USA Digital Radio and Lucent Digital Radio, with the goal of creating an in-band on-channel digital radio system for the United States and around the world...
.
History
96.3 FM began back in the 1940s as Rockville Md. based WINX, as an FM simulcast of WINX 1600AM. It had the slogan, "Sounds like Washington", to reflect the station's local ownership. WINX was originally owned by the Washington Post during the 1940s and early 1950s. United Broadcasting Corporation bought the station in the 1950s and moved the station from Washington to RockvilleRockville, Maryland
Rockville is the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a major incorporated city in the central part of Montgomery County and forms part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The 2010 U.S...
. During the 1950s the station played a wide variety of music and was known as the "Rockville Music Library". In the early 1960s, with the popularity of the FM band still fifteen years in the future, the AM station switched to top 40 format and took the FM along in the simulcast was one of Washington's most popular stations. Station owners The Washington Post Company later moved WINX-FM to Washington DC and paired it with their established WTOP-AM and the calls were changed to WTOP-FM. For a while the station broadcast CBS Radio's early seventies "Young Sound" programming.
The Washington Post Company
Washington Post Company
The Washington Post Company is an American education and media company, best known for owning the newspaper for which it is named, The Washington Post. The Company also owns Kaplan, Inc., a leading international provider of educational and career services for individuals, schools and businesses...
later donated radio station WTOP-FM to Howard University "to stimulate the intellectual and cultural life of the whole community and to train more people for the communications industry." On December 6, 1971, the station changed its call letters to WHUR-FM. WHUR became a jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
-formatted radio station which it remained until the 1990s when it switched to an Urban Adult Contemporary
Urban Adult Contemporary
Urban adult contemporary is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have rap music on their playlists. The format was designed by Barry Mayo when he, Lee S. Simonson and Bill Pearson organized Broadcast...
format.
By 1995, WHUR became one of the highest rated radio stations in the market, right behind WPGC-FM
WPGC-FM
WPGC-FM is one of the most popular among Washington, D.C.'s urban format radio station's, and has been ranked as one of its top rated radio stations for over 20 years, according to the Arbitron ratings. It has a city of license of Morningside at the 95.5 MHz frequency on the FM dial...
. Also that year, WHUR became the Washington radio and flagship affiliate of the syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show
Tom Joyner
Thomas "Tom" Joyner is an American radio host, host of the nationally syndicated The Tom Joyner Morning Show, and also founder of REACH Media Inc., the Tom Joyner Foundation, and BlackAmericaWeb.com.-Early life:...
(TJMS). However, in 1999,ABC Radio networks did not renew its contract with WHUR and moved the show to WMMJ, thus ending its four year relationship with the station. WHUR was forced to produce its own locally-based morning drive show. This initially somewhat affected the station's dominance over rival WMMJ
WMMJ
WMMJ is a top rated station Urban Adult Contemporary radio station owned by Radio One in the Washington, D.C. market. It is licensed to Bethesda, but its transmitter is located in Tenleytown...
. WHUR in 2002 acquired The Michael Baisden Show and later in 2005, The Steve Harvey Morning Show. The station regained its top two spots in the market to date pacing #2 in the 12+ demographic and #1 in the 25–54 age group demographic and clearly the number one urban formatted station in D.C.
The Quiet Storm
Quiet storm
Quiet storm is a late-night radio format, featuring soulful slow jams, pioneered in the mid-1970s by then-station-intern Melvin Lindsey at WHUR-FM, in Washington, D.C. Smokey Robinson's like-titled hit single, released in 1975 as the title track to his third solo album, lent its name to the format...
format of mellow, rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
/soul music
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
, smooth jazz and love songs often played at night on many radio stations started at WHUR. The format originated when then intern Melvin Lindsey played a soothing string of songs during a particularly bad storm in the mid-1970s, even as power was cut to most of the other radio stations in the Washington, DC area. Today, the station owns the rights to the name "Quiet Storm", and any radio station wishing to use the term must pay WHUR a royalty.
External links
- WHUR Website
- March 28, 2005 Michael Baisden replaced Doug Gilmore & Lorna Micheals on WHUR weekday afternoons Scroll down to 'radio' section
- March 2006 DC Listeners Upset Over Switch To National Morning Radio Show