WRTI

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WRTI
File:WRTI logo.png
City of license WRTI: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Broadcast area Delaware Valley
Slogan Your Classical and Jazz Station
Frequency See table below
Translator(s) See tables below
First air date 1953 (originally carrier current 1948-53)
Format Classical/Jazz
Language(s) English
Callsign meaning WRTI: Radio Training Institute[1]
Owner Temple University
Webcast Listen Live
Website www.wrti.org

WRTI (90.1 FM) is a public radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is a service of Temple University.

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'd 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. It added classical music in 1997 after Philadelphia's commercial classical music station, WFLN, changed formats.[1]

Programming

WRTI is a music-intensive Public Radio service, broadcasting classical music during the day (6am-6pm), and jazz at night (6pm-6am).

The station features hosts Dave Conant, Jack Moore, Jill Pasternak, Gregg Whiteside, Bob Perkins, Bob Craig, Maureen Malloy, Mark Quinlan, Jeff Duperon, Zivit Shlank, Courtney Blue Tim Johnstone and Frank McCloy. WRTI also has special programs on Friday and Saturday evenings. Each Friday 10pm-2am there's "The Bridge," with host J. Michael Harrison. This program explores the merging platforms of popular music and jazz. Saturday from 9pm-12am "El Viaje" airs, hosted by David Ortiz, focusing on Latin Jazz and Salsa.

WRTI also presents Arts and Culture programming. The multi-award winning CrossOver (Saturday 1130am WRTI/Friday 7pm WRTI-HD2), hosted by Jill Pasternak, 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. Discoveries from the Fleisher Collection uncovers the unknown, rediscovers the little-known, and takes a fresh look at some of the remarkable treasures housed in the collection.

The Wanamaker Organ Hour, hosted by WRTI's Jill Pasternak and Macy's Grand Court Organist Peter Richard Conte, 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. Macy's and the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ make the broadcasts possible.

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 for all to hear and enjoy. Broadcasts are made possible by Bryn Mawr Trust Wealth Management.

WRTI is also pleased to present 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 an 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 pleased to be an affiliate of the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera Radio Network, airing LIVE the Met's Saturday Matinee performances 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 52-weeks-a-year.

WRTI's main transmitter is located in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia. The station also serves much of Eastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey and Northern and Central Delaware with six other full-power transmitters and seven translators.

WRTI also broadcasts in HD Radio. Two of its signals (WRTI and WRTJ) broadcast HD2 signals as well. Known as "WRTI-HD2," this auxiliary service transmits Jazz in the daytime and Classical music at night, opposite the station's main signal, thus providing a full 24 hours of Classical and Jazz programming for those with HD-capable radios. Also, the programming of both WRTI-FM and WRTI-HD2 comprise 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-FM's signal at night. The web streams have proven popular with those who do not have an HD-capable radio or are not within the coverage area of WRTI and WRTJ.

The Temple University Board of Trustees holds the FCC license of the station.

Stations

Six full-power stations are licensed to relay the programming of WRTI.

Call sign Frequency City of license Facility ID ERP/Power
W
Height
m (ft)
Class Transmitter coordinates Notes
WJAZ 91.7 FM (HD) Summerdale, PA 65184 1,000 214 m (702 ft) A Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Near Harrisburg, assigned calls July 27, 1990[2]
WRTI 90.1[3] FM (HD) Philadelphia, PA 65190 7,700 371 m (1,217 ft) B Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
WRTJ 89.3 FM (HD) Coatesville, PA 90653 460 87.5 m (287 ft) A Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Assigned calls July 11, 2007[4]
WRTL 90.7 FM (HD) Ephrata, PA 65177 650 265 m (869 ft) A Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Near Lancaster, assigned calls March 15, 1999[5]
WRTQ 91.3[6] FM (HD) Ocean City, NJ 65176 13,500 120 m (390 ft) B1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Near Atlantic City, assigned calls May 5, 1993[7]
WRTX 91.7 FM (HD) Dover, DE 65181 580 96 m (315 ft) A Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Assigned calls July 12, 1991[8]
WRTY 91.1 FM (HD) Jackson Township, PA 65178 3,500 264 m (866 ft) B1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Near Mount Pocono, assigned calls August 20, 1990[9]

Translators

Three full-power stations have translators that are licensed to relay their respective stations.

Broadcast translators of WRTI
Call sign Frequency
(MHz)
City of license ERP
W
Height
m (ft)
Class FCC info
W214AL 90.7 Denver, Pennsylvania 5 261 m (856 ft) D FCC
W246AA 97.1 Allentown, Pennsylvania 10 166.1 m (545 ft) D FCC
W249AT 97.7 Reading, Pennsylvania 10 215.3 m (706 ft) D FCC
W299BH 107.7 Marshallton, Delaware 250 49.5 m (162 ft) D FCC
Broadcast translators of WJAZ
Call sign Frequency
(MHz)
City of license ERP
W
Height
m (ft)
Class FCC info
W214AC 99.7 York, Pennsylvania 19 67 m (220 ft) D FCC
Broadcast translators of WRTY
Call sign Frequency
(MHz)
City of license ERP
W
Height
m (ft)
Class FCC info
W235AA 94.9 Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania 10 286.8 m (941 ft) D FCC
W256AB 99.1 Pottsville, Pennsylvania 100 107 m (351 ft) D FCC
W291AP 106.1 Scranton, Pennsylvania 10 371.1 m (1,218 ft) D FCC

A radio station with the call sign WJAZ is mentioned in the song "The Nightfly" on Donald Fagen's 1982 album The Nightfly.[10]

Listening Range

With the wide coverage area of its towers, WRTI can be heard across significant range of over 200 miles north to south and east to west in portions of six states. Extreme points of the signal reach west to the east portal of the Blue Mountain Tunnel on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Maryland's northern tier and much of the Eastern Shore, portions of the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, the higher elevations of Orange County, New York, and nearly the entire states of Delaware and New Jersey. WRTI used to broadcast seasonally on WQSU in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, putting it's range nearly to State College and into the Williamsport area (WVIA from Scranton later took over the seasonal operation).

See also

References

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External links

Other station data

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