PBS39 parent to launch news radio station
Public broadcaster teaming with Lehigh University in effort
This just in: Lehigh Valley Public Media will grow its lineup of offerings with a fullservice news radio station.
In a news release Monday morning, Lehigh Valley Public Media, home to PBS39/WLVT, announced a collaboration with Lehigh University that will boost programming offered through WLVR-FM, broadcasting on 91.3 FM.
In the partnership, Lehigh Valley Public Media will broadcast its radio program on the HD-1 channel, while studentdriven content will go to Lehigh’s HD-2 radio channel. The radio program is scheduled to launch Nov. 1, with a testing phase planned this month.
“The Lehigh Valley is the third-largest region in the state of Pennsylvania, and there is no dedicated full-service news radio station,” Christine Dempsey, senior vice president of radio for Lehigh Valley Public Media, told The Morning Call on Monday. “This is a big change, and it’s an important change — a long time coming — and it’s meant to complement the other news services that we have in the Lehigh Valley.”
The radio station, which could compete with existing public radio source, WDIY, fits into WLVT 3.0, a strategic plan released in 2017 that calls on Lehigh Valley Public Media to become the “preeminent source of objective analysis and coverage of important community issues.”
Those efforts got a boost in 2017 through the Federal Communications Commission’s first broadcast spectrum “incentive auction,” in which PBS39 — and more than 100 other broadcasters, including WFMZ-TV Channel 69 — sold their airwaves for mobile wireless use. The Bethlehem station received $121.7 million from the auction, which went down to $82 million after PBS39 secured channel-sharing partners to keep its programming on the air.
On the TV side, PBS39 boosted its offerings in September 2018, when it debuted a nightly newscast featuring journalists in 10 counties in and around the Lehigh Valley. Dempsey said that team of journalists, dubbed the “Reporter Corps,” also will contribute content to the radio station’s on-air and digital properties.
At the radio station, Dempsey expects to have a staff consisting of an operations director, news director, someone handling traffic, along with two anchor/ reporters for the morning and evening drive. She added that the radio station, which will have a website and opportunities every hour to do news updates, also will do local feature stories on top of the national pieces it gathers from the likes of National Public Radio, American Public Media and Public Radio Exchange.
“It will be a well-rounded news source,” Dempsey said.
Dempsey, a New York City native with more than three decades of experience in public broadcasting, previously worked in the Lehigh Valley 25 years ago at WDIY, a community public radio station. Throughout her career, Dempsey said she has worked in other markets home to more than one NPR affiliate.
“I don’t see us as competition with WDIY, since their format is primarily music based, and our format will be primarily news-talk based,” she added.
WDIY Executive Director Greg Capogna said that while he believes the Lehigh Valley is a small market for two NPR stations, another station popping up is not surprising in today’s media environment.
At WDIY, a Bethlehem nonprofit that breaks even and is staffed by more than 200 local volunteers, the station in January will mark 25 years as an NPR member station. Capogna said WDIY, which can be heard at 88.1, 93.9 and 93.7 FM, is supported by its listeners and boasts 17 hours of local programming every day.
“We’ve been doing it for 25 years,” said Capogna, noting WDIY will continue to strive to be the area’s premier public radio source. “We’re going to do it another 25 years.”
From Lehigh University’s perspective, its channel, which will be transmitted through HD radio and online streaming, will remain a college radio station programmed by students and community members under WLVR Chief Operator and Station Manager Al Fritzinger Jr.
“The enhanced collaboration with Lehigh Valley Public Media will enable internships, training programs, site visits, guest speakers and more, offering huge educational benefits to students from across the university,” Jack Lule, chairman of Lehigh’s journalism and communication department, said in the release.
Morning Call reporter Jon Harris can be reached at 610-820-6779 or at jon.harris@mcall.com.