KNHC - Wikipedia

This article is about the Seattle radio station. For the NWS facility that uses the code KNHC, see National Hurricane Center. Radio station in Seattle, WashingtonKNHC

Seattle, Washington
Broadcast area	Seattle, Washington and surrounding area
Frequency	89.5 MHz (HD Radio)
Branding	C89.5
Programming
Format	Dance hits
Subchannels	HD2: New wave "C89.5 Save The Wave"HD3: Downtempo "Café Chill"
Ownership
Owner	Seattle Public Schools
History
First air date	December 1969
Former frequencies	1210 kHz (1969–1971)
Call sign meaning	Nathan Hale Communications
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	59526
Class	C1
ERP	8,500 watts
HAAT	372 metres (1,220 ft 6 in)
Transmitter coordinates	47°32′35″N 122°6′25″W / 47.54306°N 122.10694°W / 47.54306; -122.10694 (KNHC-FM tower)
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Webcast	Listen Live128 kbit/s MP3
Website	c895.org

KNHC (89.5 FM) is a Class C1 high school radio station based in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's oldest, still remaining, dance music station.

C89.5 offers a hybrid of current-based EDM product and Rhythmic Top 40 remixes, as well as new dance songs that are potential future hits – all of which are presented in a Top 40-like direction.

It is one of six stations monitored by Nielsen BDS for inclusion in Billboard magazine's weekly Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart. Its best coverage is in the Seattle metro area.[2]

The C in C89.5 stands for Communications.

KNHC broadcasts in the HD Radio format.[3]

Operations and funding

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KNHC is owned by Seattle Public Schools and is operated by professional staff who provide training to students of Nathan Hale High School in north Seattle, as an electronic media course. Staff supervise students as they perform production, programming, music selection, copy writing, and on-air hosting. Some regular programs are hosted by alumni or non-student volunteers.

The station usually plays general electronic dance music during the day, with a number of specialty, genre-specific shows playing anything from house to industrial and trance after 6 pm. Its in-house live programming includes a four-hour weekday breakfast show, the 15-minute lunchtime mini-mix 8-Bit Work Break, the drive show Drive @ 5, and the new music show Test Spin.

Since around 2002, Seattle Public Schools has excluded funding for the station from its annual budget, except for a portion of the salaries and benefits for two staff. In 2019, that amounted to about 12% of the annual operating budget.

In 2015, the station became qualified to receive a Community Service Grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The remaining operational budget of the station is raised via fund raising efforts, primarily from bi-annual pledge drives and corporate support announcements known as underwriting. As a non-commercial educational station, they cannot air traditional commercial advertisements.

Broadcast coverage and online content

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The station has one of the widest over-the-air coverage areas for what can be considered a high school radio station. Its signal is broadcast from Entercom's backup tower on Cougar Mountain, and covers an area from north of Seattle to roughly halfway into Tacoma, Washington and across the Puget Sound. The signal can be received as far east as Snoqualmie Pass and as far north as Victoria, British Columbia. It is licensed to Seattle. C89.5 attracts as many as 200,000 broadcast listeners per week.[4]

The station also provides multiple live streams from its website, currently operating 32 kbit/s and 128 kbit/s MP3 streams as well as an Ogg stream, which can be received throughout the world via the Internet. C89.5 unveiled a major redesign of its website in March 25, 2018. Other upgrades include a real-time playlist and searchable database of the music that is heard on C89.5.

History

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KNHC went on the air as a very low power AM station, broadcasting with 100 milliwatts on 1210 kHz, in December 1969. Fairly quickly, however, the high school moved to build an FM station. In September 1970, KNHC received its FM construction permit and went on the air in January 1971. The transmitter was located at Wedgwood Elementary School, and the station broadcast with 10 watts, covering about a 5-mile circle in the north end of Seattle.

In September 1972, the station increased its power to 320 watts, and three months later, stereo broadcasts began. A second power increase, in November 1974, increased the ERP to 1,500 watts directional.

In December 1977, a HEW/NTIA grant created a sister studio at Cleveland High School on Beacon Hill. At the same time, the Mass Communications magnet school program at Hale begins, including courses in radio, television, journalism, photography, and graphic arts. Hence the station's call letters K - (U.S. broadcast stations west of the Mississippi), NH - (Nathan Hale H.S.) and C - (Cleveland H.S.).

KNHC's format entering the 1980s featured light rock and pop music, with specialty shows in the evenings and on weekends, including jazz and classical. After yet another power increase to 3 kW, this time non-directional, in October 1981, the station overhauled its format the next year to R&B and urban, prompting an increase in listenership. The "C89" name entered use in 1983. New technologies were also deployed; in 1984, a satellite dish was added to receive the urban-oriented Sheridan Broadcasting Networks (an antecedent to today's American Urban Radio Networks), and in 1987, a microwave studio-transmitter link was brought into use along with a new and more efficient antenna.

One of the primary challenges in the 1980s was an application filed in December 1983 by the Jack Straw Memorial Foundation and its station, KRAB (now KNDD), to share time with KNHC. The commercial station, which had been facing financial difficulties, set up a noncommercial foundation with the goal of broadcasting in the reserved band between 88 and 92 MHz; Seattle Public Schools saw the filing as a takeover attempt. The case was designated for hearing in 1986, and the courts found in Nathan Hale High School's favor in May 1988 and again after Jack Straw appealed. Ultimately, the foundation built a noncommercial station in Everett, KSER 90.7.

In 1988, KNHC filed to increase its power to 30 kW, an increase that was put to use for the first time in 1991. The early 1990s also brought a magnet grant to bolster the high school's mass communications program and a renovation to the radio facility that added a second production studio, engineering room, and offices.

In 1995, the station began converting to a digital workflow (a process completed in 2000 with the use of MiniDisc-based equipment), and in 1997, KNHC began streaming on the Internet. The mid-1990s also saw the formation of an articulation agreement with Boise State University to give KNHC students opportunities to further their education.

KNHC's transmitter was moved to Cougar Mountain in 2002 after receiving FCC approval the year before. While the effective radiated power dropped, the coverage area was vastly improved with the move to the mountaintop site, primarily to the north of Seattle. The expanded reach of the station and its online stream prompted several distinctions in the decade: across the country, The Village Voice named KNHC best high school radio station in its "Best of New York" list in 2003, and in 2004, the station became the first non-commercial station in the United States to be a monitored reporter when they joined the Billboard Magazine Dance Radio Airplay panel. Additional technical and facilities improvements, came in 2008, when KNHC installed a new transmitter on Cougar Mountain and began broadcasting in HD Radio, and in November 2009, when it moved into brand-new digital studios and classrooms at Nathan Hale.

References

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1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for KNHC". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
2. ^ Radio-Locator Predicted Coverage Area
3. ^ "HD Radio station guide for Seattle–Tacoma, WA". Archived from the original on 2015-07-22. Retrieved 2015-05-31. HD Radio Guide for Seattle-Tacoma
4. ^ "About | C89.5". About. C89.5. Retrieved 13 January 2012.

External links

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• C89.5's official website
• Facility details for Facility ID 59526 (KNHC) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• KNHC in Nielsen Audio's FM station database

v t e Radio stations in the Seattle, Washington, metropolitan area, including Tacoma and Bellevue
By AM frequency	5301 570 630 710 770 820 850 880 950 1000 1050 1090 1150 1180 1210 1230 1250 1300 1330 1360 1380 1400 1420 1450 1460 1480 1490 1520 1540 1560 1590 1620 1680
By FM frequency	88.5 88.9 89.5 89.7 89.9 KASB KGHP KGRG-FM KXIR 90.1 90.3 90.7 90.9 91.3 91.5 91.7 92.5 93.3 93.7 94.1 94.9 95.7 96.1 96.5 97.3 98.1 98.9 99.3 99.9 100.7 101.5 102.5 102.9 103.7 104.1 104.5 104.9 105.3 106.1 106.9 107.7 LPFM 95.3 96.9 100.3 101.1 101.9 KCSC-LP KQES-LP KTAH-LP KVSH-LP 102.1 104.9 KAPY-LP KHUH-LP 105.7 106.5 107.3 KBFG-LP KWJZ-LP Translators 88.1 88.9 89.1 K206CJ K206DM 89.3 K207AP K207AZ 89.7 K209FO K209FQ 90.1 90.3 92.1 K221FJ K221FR 94.5 95.3 97.7 98.5 100.3 101.1 102.1 103.3 104.1 K281CI K281CQ 105.7 K289AK K289BZ 106.5 107.3
NOAA Weather Radiofrequency	162.425 162.475 162.55
Digital radioby frequency & subchannel	88.5-1 88.5-2 89.5-1 89.5-2 89.5-3 89.9-1 89.9-2 90.3-1 91.3-1 91.3-2 92.5-1 93.3-1 93.3-2 94.1-1 94.1-2 94.9-1 95.7-1 95.7-2 96.5-1 96.5-2 96.5-3 97.3-1 97.3-2 97.3-3 98.1-1 98.1-2 98.1-3 98.9-1 98.9-2 98.9-3 99.9-1 100.7-1 101.5-1 101.5-2 101.5-3 102.5-1 102.9-1 102.9-2 103.7-1 103.7-2 104.1-1 104.9-1 105.3-1 105.3-2 105.3-3 106.1-1 106.1-2 106.9-1 106.9-2 106.9-3 107.7-1 107.7-2
By call sign	K201EN K205DF K206CJ K206DM K207AP K207AZ K209FO K209FQ K211FH K212GL K221FJ K221FR K233BU K237GN K249DX K253CG K262CX K266CJ K271BS K277AE K281CI K281CQ K289AK K289BZ K293AY K297BD KAPY-LP KARR KASB KBCS KBFG-LP KBKS-FM HD2 KBLE KBRO KCIS KCMS HD2 HD3 KCSC-LP KDDS-FM KEXP-FM KGHP KGNW KGRG KGRG-FM HD2 KHB60 KHHO KHTP HD2 KHUH-LP KING-FM HD2 HD3 KIRO KIRO-FM HD2 HD3 KISW HD2 KITZ KIXI KJAQ HD2 HD3 KJEB HD2 HD3 KJR KJR-FM HD2 KKDZ KKMO KKNW KKOL KKWF HD2 KKXA KLAY KLFE KLSW KLSY KMGP-LP KMIA KMIH KNCL518 KNDD HD2 KNHC KNKX HD2 HD3 KNTB KNTS KNWN KODX-LP KPLZ-FM KPNW-FM HD2 KPTR KQES-LP KQMV KQWZ-LP KQXI KRIZ KRKO KRWM HD2 HD3 KSER KSUH KSWD HD2 KTAH-LP KTDD KTQA-LP KTTH KUCP-LP KUOW-FM KUPS KVI KVRU-LP KVSH-LP KVTI KWJZ-LP KWYZ KXIR KXPA KXSU-LP KXXO KYFQ KYIZ KZIZ KZOK-FM HD2 KZTM WWG24 WXM62
Defunct	KDP KDXB-LP KDZT KFC KFFD KKZU KNLI-LP
Nearby regions Longview-Kelso Northwest Washington Olympia-Centralia Portland Wenatchee Yakima See also List of radio stations in Washington Notes 1. Travelers' information station for WSDOT.

v t e Rhythmic Contemporary radio stations in the State of Washington
By frequency	89.5 93.3-2 96.9 99.7 103.7
By callsign	KEZE KHHK KHTP KNHC KJR-FM-HD2
By city	Seattle Seattle Spokane Tacoma Yakima
Note: KNHC programs a Dance format
See also adult contemporary classic hits college country news/talk NPR oldies religious rock sports top 40 urban other radio stations in Washington See also Contemporary Hit Radio Rhythmic KISS-FM MOVin