WRTI

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WRTI

City	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Broadcast area	Delaware Valley
Frequency	90.1 MHz (HD Radio)
Programming
Language(s)	English
Format	Classical/Jazz
Subchannels	HD2: Jazz/Classical
Ownership
Owner	Temple University
History
First air date	1953 (originally carrier current 1948-53)
Call sign meaning	WRTI: Radio Training Institute[1]
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	65190
Class	B
ERP	7,700 watts
HAAT	371 meters (1,217 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	40°02′30″N 75°14′10.1″W / 40.04167°N 75.236139°W / 40.04167; -75.236139 (WRTI)
Translator(s)	See § Translators
Repeater(s)	See § Simulcasts
Links
Public license information	Profile LMS
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	www.wrti.org

WRTI (90.1 FM) is a non-commercial, public FM radio station licensed to serve Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is a service of Temple University. The Temple University Board of Trustees holds the station's license. The broadcast tower used by the station is located in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia at (

 WikiMiniAtlas

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 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. In late 1997, after Philadelphia's commercial classical music station, WFLN, changed formats, WRTI switched to a dual-format service, providing classical music from 6 AM to 6 PM, and jazz from 6 PM to 6 AM.^[1]

Programming[]

WRTI is a music-intensive public radio service, broadcasting classical music during the day, and jazz at night.

The station features hosts Kevin Gordon, John T.K. Scherch, Bob Perkins, Melinda Whiting, Bob Craig, Maureen Malloy, Joe Patti, I. Robin "Bobbie" Booker, Courtney Blue, Rich Gunning, Mark Pinto, and Mike Bolton. Long-time jazz host Jeff Duperon died on June 17, 2019. He was 66. Mid-day classical music host Bliss Michelson died on March 14, 2021 due to complications from COVID-19 at the age of 71. Debra Lew Harder left the station on September 21, 2021, to become the host of the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts.^[3]

After a long hiatus, WRTI, in 2013, resumed broadcasting full-length concerts by the Philadelphia Orchestra Sunday afternoon at 1 PM. Recorded each week at the Kimmel Center's Verizon Hall in Center City, this series brings the distinctive sound of the "Fabulous Philadelphians" in performance back to the Delaware Valley airwaves.

WRTI presents in-concert performances of South Jersey's Symphony In C Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, The Crossing and others, as well as opera performances from the Academy of Vocal Arts, OperaDelaware and the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

WRTI also presents jazz-based special programming. Philly-market radio veteran Bob Craig hosts Voices in Jazz, Voices in Big Band Jazz and Big Band Jazz every Sunday afternoon from 3 PM until 7 PM, spread across both WRTI's digital HD2 and analog FM services. Sunday Jazz Brunch with Bob Perkins airs from 9 AM until 1 PM. Friday evenings at 10 PM, veteran WRTI jazz host J. Michael Harrison presents The Bridge, exploring the merging platforms of popular music and jazz. Each Friday at 6 PM, there's Nouveau Jazz Showcase, with host Courtney Blue. The program features all current and upcoming music in the jazz genre and beyond. Saturday night at 7 PM, Jukebox Jazz features jazz cover pieces of popular music and songs that made the Top-40 charts. El Viaje hosted by David Ortiz, airs Saturday night at 9 PM and focuses on Latin Jazz, Mambo and Salsa.

WRTI is a 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 on both the analog FM service and the digital HD2 service.

WRTI is also an affiliate of the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera Radio Network, airing the Met's Saturday Matinee performances at 1 PM live 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. WRTI's Mark Pinto hosts Overture, an opera "pre-game" of sorts, playing opera-based music, Saturday at 12-noon, just before the Saturday Opera Broadcast.

WRTI was known for several popular arts and culture based shows over the years. The multi-award-winning CrossOver, hosted by former classical host Jill Pasternak, explored music as "the universal language." The show, which presented music and conversation with some of the world's greatest artists and personalities, focused 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 show was produced from 1998 until Ms. Pasternak's retirement in 2015. Dr. Jack Buerkle, a member of the Temple University faculty and jazz expert, was co-host until his retirement in 2003.

The award-winning Creatively Speaking general-arts segments featured contributors Jim Cotter, David Patrick Stearns and Susan Lewis among others. Mr. Cotter formerly headed 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. The features ended in 2018.

Discoveries From the Fleisher Collection, first aired in 2001, was 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 former WRTI classical host and program director, Jack Moore. The program featured recordings of orchestral scores and music housed at the Fleisher Collection. The program, a co-production of the Fleisher Collection and WRTI, was cancelled in 2018.

The Wanamaker Organ Hour, first aired in 2005, featured recordings of performances by Macy's Grand Court Organist Peter Richard 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. The program was co-produced by the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ and WRTI, and was an outgrowth of a segment, and later a live remote broadcast, on the CrossOver program. The Friends organization is responsible for the restoration and upkeep of this grand instrument. The show ended in 2017 when funding to the Friends was cut.

Along with its regular analog FM signal, WRTI also broadcasts using HD Radio.^[4] Two WRTI network stations (WRTI and WRTJ) broadcast HD2 programming as well.^[5] Known as "WRTI-HD2," this auxiliary service broadcasts Jazz in the daytime and Classical music at night, opposite the station's analog/HD1 signal, thus providing a full 24 hours of classical and jazz programming for those with HD Radio receivers. The programming of both WRTI and WRTI-HD2 also comprises two separate web audio streams. The "All-Classical" stream presents WRTI's daytime programming, switching to WRTI-HD2's programming at night. The "All-Jazz" stream broadcasts WRTI-HD2's daytime programming, switching to WRTI's analog/HD1 signal at night. The web streams have proven popular with those who do not have an HD Radio receiver or are not within the coverage area of WRTI and WRTJ.

Simulcasts[]

WRTI fronts a network of six full-powered repeater stations. Combined with the main WRTI signal and numerous low-powered translators, their footprint covers much of eastern Pennsylvania, as well as most of Delaware and the southern half of New Jersey.

Call sign	Frequency	City of license	State	Facility ID	Class	ERP (W)	Height (m (ft))	Transmitter coordinates	Call sign assigned	Notes
WRTX	91.7 FM[a]	Dover	Delaware	65181	A	580	96 m (315 ft)	39°12′3.4″N 75°33′53.7″W / 39.200944°N 75.564917°W / 39.200944; -75.564917 (WRTX)	July 12, 1991[6]	—
WRTQ	91.3 FM[a]	Ocean City	New Jersey	65176	B1	13,500 vert 1,360 horiz	120 m (390 ft)	39°19′14.4″N 74°46′16.6″W / 39.320667°N 74.771278°W / 39.320667; -74.771278 (WRTQ)	May 5, 1993[7]	Serves Atlantic City
WRTJ	89.3 FM[a]	Coatesville	Pennsylvania	90653	A	460 vert 1 horiz	87.5 m (287 ft)	40°01′26.4″N 75°48′46.8″W / 40.024000°N 75.813000°W / 40.024000; -75.813000 (WRTJ)	July 11, 2007[8]	Serves Chester County
WRTL	90.7 FM[a]	Ephrata	Pennsylvania	65177	A	650 vert 1 horiz	265 m (869 ft)	40°19′22.3″N 76°11′50.8″W / 40.322861°N 76.197444°W / 40.322861; -76.197444 (WRTL)	March 15, 1999[9]	Serves Lancaster and Lebanon
WRTY	91.1 FM[a]	Jackson Township	Pennsylvania	65178	B1	3,500	264 m (866 ft)	41°02′40.3″N 75°22′43.6″W / 41.044528°N 75.378778°W / 41.044528; -75.378778 (WRTY)	August 20, 1990[10]	Serves Mount Pocono
WJAZ[b]	91.7 FM[a]	Summerdale	Pennsylvania	65184	A	1,000 (analog) 100 (digital)[12]	214 m (702 ft)	40°18′20.3″N 77°0′25.9″W / 40.305639°N 77.007194°W / 40.305639; -77.007194 (WJAZ)	July 27, 1990[13]	Serves Harrisburg

Notes:

Translators[]

Three full-power stations have translators that are licensed to simulcast the programming of their respective stations.

See also[]

• List of jazz radio stations in the United States

References[]

External links[]

• WRTI official website
• WRTI Old Gang website
• The Beginning of WRTI-FM
• WRTI in the FCC FM station database
• WRTI on Radio-Locator
• WRTI in Nielsen Audio's FM station database