Be sure to check out WDDE 91.1 FM – Delaware’s National Public Radio
In your car at, 91.1 FM or online at WDDE.org. It has been live since August, but they are doing a ribbon cutting. So, if you didn’t know about it – now you do.
WDDE Dedication to be held Monday, Dec. 3
Ribbon-cutting and open house will celebrate Delaware’s first public radio news station
Governor Jack Markell, Attorney General Beau Biden, DSU President Harry Williams, Dover Mayor Carleton Carey, Sr., NPR VP Joyce MacDonald, and other guests will be on hand Monday, Dec. 3, for WDDE Dedication Day, a ceremony marking this year’s launch of WDDE 91.1 FM, Delaware’s first-ever public radio news station.
Dedication Day features an open house with studio tours from 12-6 p.m. and a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 4:30 p.m. All activities are open to the public and press.
WDDE 91.1 FM went live on August 17, 2012, serving Delaware on air at 91.1 FM, online at WDDE.org, and on social media.
In its first three months on a ir, WDDE News produced Delaware’s premier statewide candidate debates, provided round-the-clock statewide coverage of Hurricane Sandy, and presented live Election Night coverage from Delaware’s Democratic and Republican headquarters.
WDDE presents daily 24/7 coverage of Delaware news, and high-quality national and international programming from NPR, the BBC, and other popular sources. WDDE-FM is the first Delaware-based NPR News station, and is designated NPR as both a minority-service and rural-service station.
WDDE News is a service of Delaware First Media Corporation, a statewide, nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization.
91.1 never comes through in my car here in NCCo, so I never get a chance to listen to it. If it’s a DE station, why won’t it reach the upper county?
Thanks for the heads up!
To the first question:
Two major factors govern the coverage area of an F.M. radio station: Power output and transmitting tower height.
At a licensed 2,100 watts, WDDE isn’t particularly strong. And the tower height, at 236 feet, is not that high. (Many non-commercial frequencies – cluttered with high school, college, religious, and other public stations – constrain higher-powered operations.)
Once in a while, temperature inversions in the atmosphere – typically in the morning – will carry F.M. signals farther, particularly in the spring.
Allan Loudell
1150 A.M. WDEL Radio / http://www.wdel.com & Delaware 105.9 F.M. (WXDE)
I guess I’ll be sticking with 90.9 WHYY and 1150 WDEL. Thanks for the insight Allan!
I understand that WDDE plans to increase coverage as it matures. It is quite an awesome addition to the radio choices available in the middle of the state, for now, and hopefully soon for the entire state. I have heard World Cafe and Mountain Stage on some evenings. That is a great blessing for those of us who live below the canal.
I’ve been listening to it. Already feel guilty for not sending them a check yet.
I definitely can’t get WDDE in my office just over the border in PA and got it once at home in Wilmington with no luck since. But that temperature inversion thing replaces WHYY at my house with WETA (from DC) more often than I like in the spring and fall.
It’s great to be in Dover, because it communicates our mission to cover and serve the whole state. We hope that those outside our current range will help support us so we can grow, and meantime, listen to WDDE on computers, smart phones, tablets, etc. You can hear us streaming live at WDDE.org (just one click to listen — easy!) or there are great apps like TuneIn. Some even let you rewind, which is pretty cool!
Just so we’re clear: serving the state means investigative reporting, not reprints of state issued press releases or cheerleading state initiatives without confirmation of results.
Just to be clear: To John Young, investigative reporting means parroting his nearly unintelligible anti-Markell blog posts and portraying Young as some kind of crusader.
not true at all SW. Just an honest accounting of policy and practice is just fine. Mr. Markell’s policies and their lack of evidence for efficacy stand just fine on their own, except the fourth estate often looks the other way.