WHJY


WHJY is a commercial mainstream rock station in Providence, Rhode Island, owned by iHeartMedia. WHJY has been a rock station since September 4, 1981.
Its broadcast center, also used by its sister stations, is on Oxford Street, just west of Interstate 95 in Providence, and its transmitter is located on Eastern Avenue in East Providence.

History

WHJY signed on March 14, 1966, as WHIM-FM, a simulcast of country music station WHIM. 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. On September 4, 1981, the station flipped to album rock, branded as "94 HJY". David Place, the actual radio DJ on the air when the format switched, began with Bob Seger's "The Fire Down Below".

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 "The Doctor" 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 to support the victims and families of those affected who attend the school.

Technical

WHJY transmits a 50,000-watt signal from a tower at the end of Eastern Avenue in East Providence, Rhode Island. WHJY and WLVO are combined into an Electronics Research Inc. 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-HD2

Previously, WHJY-HD2 had aired iHeartMedia's "The Alternative Project".