Branding WDIY-FM | Frequency 88.1 MHz | |
City Allentown, Pennsylvania Broadcast area Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania Slogan "Lehigh Valley's Community NPR Station" Translator(s) W229AO (93.7, Fogelsville)
W230AG (93.9, Easton) | ||
WDIY (88.1 FM) is a community public radio station licensed to Allentown, Pennsylvania, with studios in Bethlehem. The station serves the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania and western Warren County in New Jersey.
Contents
WDIY has an air staff of over 100 volunteers and a paid management staff. It has been broadcasting since January 8, 1995. The station is licensed to Lehigh Valley Community Broadcasters Association, Inc., a nonprofit organization. The station's mission "is to engage the Lehigh Valley community through a wide-ranging exchange of music, arts, news and culturally diverse information."
While WHYY-FM in Philadelphia puts a grade B signal into Allentown and WVIA-FM in Scranton has long operated translators in Allentown and Bethlehem, the Lehigh Valley lacked an NPR station that specifically served it until WDIY's arrival.
In 2015, the station tripled the broadcast power of its main frequency at 88.1 FM from 100 watts to 300 watts.
Programming
WDIY's program schedule includes NPR's Morning Edition, Fresh Air with Terry Gross and All Things Considered weekdays, with classical music and adult album alternative music between the news shows. Weekday evenings feature a mixture of locally produced public affairs programs as well as NPR's TED Radio Hour and On the Media. Weeknights and weekends, the station features a variety of music, including folk music, blues, electronic music, jazz, world music, alternative rock, classical music, avant-garde music and Indian music, as well as NPR's Weekend Edition and Ask Me Another.
Translators
WDIY began broadcasting on 88.1 FM at 100 watts, which was fairly modest for a full NPR member station. Even with its antenna on South Mountain at 843 feet above the average local terrain, the station's signal was for the most part limited to Lehigh and Northampton counties before its power increase in 2015. Easton, the area's third-largest city, was only receiving a grade B signal. For this reason, WDIY employed two translators. One, located at 93.9, serves the area around Easton, as well as western Warren County. The station's other translator at 93.7 serves the Trexlertown and Fogelsville areas in western Lehigh County.