WSVH

WSVH

Savannah, Georgia
Broadcast area	Savannah metropolitan area - Coastal Georgia
Frequency	91.1 MHz (HD Radio)
Branding	Georgia Public Radio
Programming
Format	Public Radio - News - Talk - Classical Music
Subchannels	HD2: Classical music "GPB Classical"
Affiliations	National Public Radio Public Radio Exchange American Public Media Classical 24
Ownership
Owner	Georgia Public Broadcasting (Georgia Public Telecommunications Commission)
History
First air date	April 20, 1981 (1981-04-20)
Call sign meaning	SaVannaH
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	23926
Class	C0
ERP	96,000 watts
HAAT	430.9 meters (1,413.7 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	32°8′48.7″N 81°37′4.4″W
Repeater(s)	88.9 WWIO-FM (Brunswick)
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Webcast	Stream
Website	gpb.org

WSVH (91.1 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported, public radio station licensed to Savannah, Georgia. It is owned by Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) and it airs a mix of news, information and music from the statewide GPB network. The studios and offices are on 14th Street NW in Atlanta.

WSVH is a Class C0 station with an effective radiated power (ERP) of 96,000 watts. (The maximum for most FM stations is 100,000 watts.) Its transmitter is on Vandiver Street in Pembroke, Georgia, north of Fort Stewart. It shares a tower with sister station WVAN-TV 9, part of GPB-TV. It covers part of the coast of Georgia as well as the southern tip of South Carolina. Programming is simulcast on GPB-owned WWIO-FM 88.9 in Brunswick, Georgia. Together, the two stations serve the Georgia coastline. Their signals can be heard from Beaufort, South Carolina, to Fernandina Beach, Florida.

Programming

WSVH has a format of news and information during the day with classical music on weekday evenings and other genres including jazz and soul music on weekend evenings. WSVH is a member of National Public Radio. Weekday programs from NPR and other public radio networks include Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Fresh Air, 1A, Think, On Point, Here and Now and Marketplace. After 8 p.m., WSVH switches to classical music, including Performance Today and broadcasts of the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra. Classical 24 runs all night.

On weekends during the day, WSVH offers one-hour specialty programs from NPR and other public radio networks. They include The New Yorker Radio Hour, Freakonomics Radio, Planet Money, This American Life, Snap Judgment, Science Friday, Travel with Rick Steves, The Moth Radio Hour, The Splendid Table, Milk Street Radio, Reveal, On The Media, Code Switch, It's Been A Minute, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me and from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, WSVH carries Q. On weekend evenings, WSVH features Jazz on GPB, Upfront Soul, The Savanah Music Festival and American Routes. WSVH broadcasts using HD Radio technology. Its HD2 subchannel is all classical music, known as "GPB Classical."

History

WSVH signed on the air on April 20, 1981 (1981-04-20). It has always had the WSVH call sign and was originally owned by Georgia Public Radio, Inc. (not related to today's Georgia Public Broadcasting). The organization was formed by local residents wanting to build a public radio station for Savannah. Some listeners were able to received public radio from Charleston, South Carolina, and some from Jacksonville, Florida, but with unreliable signals due to distance.

The first piece played on the station at 6 a.m. on April 20th was Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man. In its early years, WSVH mostly played classical music and jazz, with some news and information from NPR.

One of the first unsolicited letters to the station came from the captain of a ship that sailed up and down the coast. He said, 'At last the void has been filled between Jacksonville and Charleston.'

Aaron Buchsbaum, president of WSVH in 1987

The trailer on the Skidaway Marine Science Campus, Skidaway Island, Georgia, USA, from which WSVH operated until 2011.

In 1988, after consulting with its financial supporters, WSVH merged with Peach State Public Radio. That was the new state-owned radio service that had begun in 1985 to provide public radio to much of the state outside Atlanta. In the early 1990s, the listening area was greatly improved with the addition of 88.9 WWIO-FM as a simulcast in southeast Georgia. An overnight classical music show was also added. (Previously, the station signed off overnight.)

In 1997, the station moved its studios from downtown Savannah to the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography on Skidaway Island, just south of Savannah. In August 2011, the WSVH/WWIO studios moved again, this time to space at the Armstrong Center of Armstrong State University.

In past years, WSVH was one of two member stations of the GPB Radio network to have local announcers and underwriting during the day. WSVH produced four radio programs for the GPB network: Celtic music program The Green Island Radio Show with Harry O'Donoghue, folk music show Music Americana with Russell Wells, Classical Tonight, also hosted by Russell Wells, and the overnight classical block Coastal Nocturne. But currently, WSVH programming is supplied from Atlanta along with other regional stations owned by Georgia Public Broadcasting.

See also

• List of radio stations in Georgia (U.S. state)

External links

• Georgia Public Broadcasting
• WSVH webpage

• Facility details for Facility ID 23926 (WSVH) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• WSVH in Nielsen Audio's FM station database
• WWIO webpage

• Facility details for Facility ID 23944 (WWIO-FM) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• WWIO-FM in Nielsen Audio's FM station database