The transmitter is located at the Madison Community Tower, located adjacent to South Pleasant View Road on Madison's southwest side in the Junction Ridge neighborhood. WERN broadcasts using HD Radio technology;[2] its HD-2 digital subchannel carries the WPR Music network and feeds FM translators W213CE (90.5FM) and W300BM (107.9FM).
History
The station signed on the air on March 30, 1947.[3] It was the first FM station in the network that would become Wisconsin Public Radio. The call sign was WHA-FM, co-owned with its sister station, WHA (970 AM). At first, the two stations simulcast their programming, a mix of classical music, news, university lectures and public affairs shows. Originally WHA 970 was a daytimer station. When it had to go off the air at night, 88.7 WHA-FM continued its programming.
By the late 1960s, WHA-FM began airing some programming that was separate from 970 AM. Eventually, simulcasting was reduced and the FM station sought its own identity. The call letters became WERN in 1974.[4]
Because WHA-FM/WERN began broadcasting before current maximum levels were set by the Federal Communications Commission, the station's signal is grandfathered. It runs at a higher power for its height above average terrain (HAAT) than would be permitted today. It covers a large area which affords WPR News a strong signal across Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois including the Rockford area and Metro Milwaukee.
As part of a major realignment of WPR's offerings which took effect on May 20, 2024; WHA and WERN became the flagships of the WPR News Network, successor to the Ideas Network. Two low-powered translators that served to improve WHA's coverage when that station dramatically reduces its power at sunset aired the all-classical WPR Music network after this realignment occurred.[5] The change substantially improved coverage of NPR news programming in Madison, since WERN penetrates further into south-central Wisconsin, and into buildings, than the two translators.
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