Philly Radio: Radio Delaware Valley Expands Footprint

Listeners in the Lansdale, Pa. and Berlin, N.J. areas can now hear an eclectic mix of 20th-century nostalgia with recent additions of 105.7 FM and WTHA-FM 88.1 to the Radio Delaware Valley non-commercial public radio station family.

According to The Reporter, the expansion brings the unique format, which features the old standards of the 20s, 30s, big band, the early days of blues, rock ‘n’ roll, country, soul, polka and more beyond the greater Philadelphia core currently served by WRDV-FM 89.3 in Hatboro, eastern Montgomery County; 107.3 in Philadelphia; 97.1 in Bensalem, lower Bucks County; and 91.7 in Bristol and Levittown, lower Bucks County.

“We considered it part of the Delaware Valley,” said Charles Loughery, who serves as president of Bux-Mont Educational Radio Association, the nonprofit organization formed to operate the radio station. “We felt it fit in.”

WRDV 89/3 FM (820 watts)

Loughery was a 20-year-old communications student in 1979 when Centennial School District in Bucks County shut down the previously dubbed WCSD 89.3 radio station. By 1980, Loughery had established a nonprofit organization which allowed for the station’s transfer from school district ownership. For a time, he and other volunteers operated from the basement of Warminster Township’s municipal building, eventually relocating to its current home on York Road in Hatboro in 2000.

“We’re still here today,” Loughery said.

Under his leadership, the station transformed from a membership organization to being managed by a Board of Trustees. In the late 80s, the station’s call letters morphed from WCSD to WRDV. Soon after, the station “dramatically changed” the music format from acid rock and heavy metal to the standards in regular rotation today.

“We’re trying to target stuff that people remember that’s good stuff,” he said.

Radio Delaware Valley is a non-commercial, educational, public radio station operated by the Bux-Mont Educational Radio Association, a nonprofit organization. Programs are heard on WRDV 89.3 FM in Warminster Pa., 107.3 FM Philadelphia Pa., 97.1 FM Bensalem Pa., 105.7 FM in Lansdale Pa., WLBS 91.7 FM Bristol-Levittown Pa., and on WTHA 88.1 FM in Berlin, N.J. The station can be streamed from its website, https://www.wrdv.org/index.html.