WHJY

Updated on Dec 07, 2023

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Branding 94HJY ERP 50,000 watts Class B City of license Providence Owner iHeartMedia Inc Sister stations WSNE-FM, WHJJ, WWBB		First air date March 14, 1966 HAAT 139 meters (456 feet) Frequency 94.1 MHz Format Mainstream rock Slogan The Home of Rock & Roll

Broadcast area Providence metropolitan area Area Providence metropolitan area

WHJY (94.1 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station in Providence, Rhode Island owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The station broadcasts a mainstream rock format. WHJY has been a rock station since September 4, 1981.

Its broadcast center, also used by its sister stations, is at 75 Oxford Street, just west of Interstate 95 in Providence, and its transmitter is located at 115 Eastern Avenue in East Providence. (The station's studios are located on the northeast corner of the building, facing I-95, and are sometimes referred to by DJs as "the Ghetto Penthouse.")

Current Disc Jockeys

Paul & Al: Paul Fuller and Al Matthews are currently the longest-tenured DJs on the station, hosting mornings. They've been with WHJY since the late 1980s. Regular contributions come from Kevin Mulhern, with news by Jenn Dower and Jim Shorts on Sports (real name Steve McDonald, who also serves as radio announcer for URI basketball on sister station WHJJ).

Jenn Dower: Midday broadcaster since late 2003, and host of "Hair in Your Lunch," featuring 3 glam metal songs.

Doug & Scarpetti: Afternoons. Doug Palmieri returned to WHJY in 2013, after being laid off in 2006. Palmieri replaced Matt Battle who left WHJY to work in Philadelphia. Doug hosts the afternoon shift with Steve Scarpetti who also hosts The Metal Zone - a dedicated metal show and Sound Check - a local music show.

Geoff Charles: Geoff Charles has been with the station since the 1990s (first as the evening host, then as the afternoon drive DJ).

Pete Silva: A weekend staple on 94HJY. Pete Silva has been with the station for over 25 years.

Ryan Cunningham: Weekend Jock since the late-1990s

Kelsey Maxon: Overnights.

The station also plays several weekly shows, including The House of Hair with Dee Snider, & Nikki Sixx.

History

WHJY signed on March 14, 1966 as WHIM-FM, simulcasting 1110/WHIM, a country music station. The WHIM simulcast lasted through the 1970s until the FM station broke with the AM and became WHJY, "Joy 94", a beautiful music/easy listening station. At Midnight on September 4, 1981, the station flipped to album rock (the first station of its kind in the market), branded as "94 HJY". The first song on "94 HJY" was "Fire Down Below" by Bob Seger.

WHJY and The Station Night Club Fire

WHJY was not the sponsor of the Great White concert at the Station Night Club in West Warwick, Rhode Island on February 20, 2003, but they promoted the event with DJ Michael "Doctor Metal" Gonsalves as emcee. A pyrotechnics display triggered a massive fire, killing Gonsalves and 99 other people and destroying the club. In Gonsalves' memory, the radio station has set up "The Doc Fund," a scholarship with Rhode Island College (his alma mater) to support the victims and families of those affected who attend the school.

Technical

WHJY transmits a 50,000-watt signal from a 550-foot tower (456 feet height above average terrain) at the end of Eastern Avenue in East Providence, Rhode Island. WHJY and WBRU are combined into an Electronics Research Inc. (ERI) SHPX-4BC, 4 bay FM antenna at the top of the tower. The tower is also used as part of the WPMZ AM array, which has a skirt on the tall FM tower, and a shorter, second tower, at the same location. WHJY had been transmitting an HD Radio digital signal from this transmitter site as well, from between 2006 through the early 2010s, before ultimately ceasing HD digital transmissions. WHJY no longer transmits in HD digital. Their HD digital signal has been shut off and now the station transmits exclusively in analog stereo FM once again.

WHJY-HD2

Previously, WHJY-HD2 had aired iHeartMedia's "The Alternative Project" (from between 2006 through the early 2010s).

References

WHJY Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA