WLRH

WLRH (89.3 FM, "89.3 FM Public Radio") is a National Public Radio-affiliated radio station in Huntsville, Alabama. It primarily features news and classical music programming on weekdays and news, humor, and other musical genres on weekends. WLRH serves the northern counties of Alabama and several counties in southern middle Tennessee. WLRH is the state's oldest public radio station.

The station maintains studios on the campus of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, although UAH is not its licensee; the Alabama Educational Television Commission rents a building from the university for that purpose. WLRH's signal, which is transmitted from a tower on Monte Sano Mountain (on the WHIQ-TV tower) travels in about a 60-mile radius.

History

Although Huntsville is only the state's third-largest city, it has boasted for many years a large population of highly educated, affluent professionals such as technicians, engineers, and entrepreneurs, mostly associated with the U.S. Army's Redstone Arsenal installation, NASA's George C. Marshall Space Flight Center and contractors. Many of these individuals were responsible for organizing an unusually high-quality performing arts scene for such a small city in the 1960s. These were among factors that led to Huntsville receiving Alabama's first public radio license, and broadcasts began on October 13, 1976 from the Times Building on Holmes Avenue. The state's largest city, Birmingham, followed suit two months later when WBHM-FM started in December.