WETS-FM (89.5 FM) is the National Public Radio member station for the Tri-Cities region of northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia. It is a public radio station owned by East Tennessee State University. WETS receives a little over half of its funding from listener contributions. It also receives public funding from federal (Corporation for Public Broadcasting) and government-funded university sources. It is licensed to Johnson City, Tennessee, with studios on the ETSU campus.

WETS-FM is a Class C station. It has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 66,000 watts. The transmitter is on Panhandle Road in Hunter, Tennessee, amid the towers for other Tri-Cities FM and TV stations.

Programming

On weekdays, WETS has a news, talk and information format. It carries national programs from NPR and other public radio networks, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Fresh Air, 1A and Here and Now. The airing of the liberal news show, Democracy Now!, has proven to be controversial, since the Tri-Cities is largely a politically and culturally conservative region. As such, the station lost a number of members who objected to the program. However, the show has attracted a base of local supporters, who have formed a "Democracy Now Tri-Cities" group dedicated to keeping the program on the air. The BBC World Service is heard in late nights.

On weekends, the station carries entertainment programming, including Americana music, featuring local bands from southern Appalachia. It also carries music shows from public radio networks including The Thistle and Shamrock, American Routes, Mountain Stage and Hearts of Space. Talk shows heard evenings and weekends include Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, It's Been A Minute, The Splendid Table, Big Picture Science, Travel with Rick Steves, A Way with Words, This American Life, New Dimensions, The Moth Radio Hour and The TED Radio Hour. The station also has a SHOUTcast webcast available on its web site.

History

WETS signed on the air on February 24, 1974; 50 years ago (February 24, 1974). The station has transmitted from a tower on Holston Mountain since 1981. It broadcasts from studios in Richard F. Ellis Hall. The hall was opened in 1988, dedicated to the station's first director in 1993. The studios are on the south side of ETSU's campus. Before 1988, it operated from a two-story frame house.

When WETS-FM began broadcasting, it mostly played music. But as with other public radio stations affiliated with NPR, it has gradually reduced music and increased news and informational programming. On February 1, 2010, WETS changed its weekday format to all news and talk shows. In its first decade, the station aired classical music on weekday mornings and evenings, with Americana music in the afternoons, and a weekly blues program known as Blue Monday. Most weekend programming, which still includes music, was not affected by this change.

In the fall of 2011, WETS began broadcasting using HD Radio technology. In addition to the main analog transmission, it has several HD digital subchannels. The first is a simulcast of the analog signal, the second is an all-Americana music channel, the third is an all-classical music channel. WETS was the first station in the Tri-Cities radio market to offer HD broadcasts. A fourth subchannel was added later, airing album adult alternative music. Most programming streams are also available on the website.

As an annual fundraiser, the station presents the Little Chicago Blues Festival at the Down Home Festival each spring. WETS had been the home station of Your Weekly Constitutional, a constitutional law show distributed by the Public Radio Exchange and produced in collaboration with Montpelier.