Featured Image: WDIY Billboard on Route 22 in Allentown
 

(Lehigh Valley, PA) – WDIY 88.1 FM Lehigh Valley Public Radio kicked off its 25th anniversary celebration last week, marking a quarter century of broadcasting NPR news, local public affairs, and diverse music. The station is planning special events and programming features throughout the year to mark the occasion.

WDIY has announced that Lehigh Valley blues rock favorite, the Craig Thatcher Band, will be performing at a 25th anniversary celebration being held at the Charles A. Brown Ice House in Bethlehem on Saturday, March 7th. The band will feature a special line-up where Thatcher will be joined by Don Plowman, Wayde Leonard, Nyke Van Wyk, and Cliff Starkey.

WDIY’s 25th anniversary party will also feature food catered by Bethlehem’s Café the Lodge, craft-brewed beer courtesy of Fegley’s Brew Works and 14th Fret Brewing Company, a silent auction, raffles, free parking, and more. Tickets will go on sale on Friday, January 17th at wdiy.org. Proceeds from the event will support the programming on WDIY.

WDIY’s 25th Anniversary Party Tickets:
– Early Bird tickets for WDIY members – $30 (deadline: Feb. 25th)
– Non-member tickets – $40
– Designated Driver tickets – $25

WDIY has also begun collecting and airing excerpts from early station broadcasts. Well-wishes from the station’s first hour on the air were played on Wednesday morning, marking the morning of the official 25th anniversary. Included were messages from NPR reporter Cokie Roberts, then-Bethlehem mayor Ken Smith, and then-Allentown mayor Bill Heydt, among others. These and other excerpts from WDIY’s first day of broadcasting are available at wdiy.org. More broadcast material from the station’s early history will be aired and made available online throughout the year.

WDIY: History and Info
Before WDIY began broadcasting, the Lehigh Valley had no locally-based public radio station and no locally-based station carrying programming from NPR, National Public Radio. A dedicated group of radio enthusiasts formed the Lehigh Valley Community Broadcasters Association in 1984 and realized their goal of bringing public radio to the area 11 years later in 1995.

WDIY’s broadcast power has tripled since the early days of the station thanks to an FCC-approved power increase in December, 2015. The station’s signal now stretches from areas immediately outside of Reading to the west; Jim Thorpe to the north; Quakertown to the south; and Clinton, New Jersey to the east. WDIY also has transmitters serving Easton-Phillipsburg at 93.9 and Fogelsville-Trexlertown at 93.7. WDIY streams on the web at wdiy.org.

WDIY now operates with the support of over 120 volunteers each year to bring the station’s programming to listeners, with over 90 volunteers hosting on-air programming.

 

Information provided to TVL by:
Shamus McGroggan
WDIY 88.1 FM
Development Director

 

 

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