WSMC-FM
| City | Collegedale, Tennessee |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Chattanooga, Tennessee |
| Frequency | 90.5 (MHz) |
| First air date | 1961 |
| Format | Classical music/Public |
| ERP | 100,000 watts |
| HAAT | 314 meters (1,030 ft) |
| Class | C Non-Commercial |
| Facility ID | 61269 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 35°15′20″N 85°13′34″W / 35.25556°N 85.22611°W |
| Callsign meaning | Southern Missionary College (former name of SAU) |
| Affiliations | National Public Radio (secondary); Public Radio International; American Public Media |
| Owner | Southern Adventist University |
| Webcast |
Listen Live Listen Live player |
| Website | wsmc.org |
WSMC-FM (90.5 FM), is the Chattanooga, Tennessee, area's only radio station featuring classical music programming. It is licensed to Southern Adventist University (SAU), a four-year institution located in nearby Collegedale. Its signal reaches parts of the states of Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina. Its programming can be heard on low-powered repeater W217AW-FM 91.3 in Dalton, Georgia.
Founded in 1961, the station programs classical music (including opera and similar genres) during most of the broadcast day Sundays through Fridays. WSMC has only three full-time employees: the general manager, corporate sales manager, and operations manager. The announcers and production staff consist entirely of SAU students. Originally airing on 88.1 FM, it moved to 90.7 in 1967 and to 90.3 in 1990. For years, its signal was spotty at best in downtown Chattanooga. However, in 1990, it moved from its original tower on White Oak Mountain to a new tower on Mowbray Mountain in Soddy-Daisy, allowing it better coverage of Chattanooga.
The call sign, WSMC, stands for Southern Missionary College, SAU's name at the time the station signed on.
WSMC had been one of the charter members of NPR in 1971. However, because of the religious doctrine of the licensee's church body, the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, WSMC cannot air live news programming from sunset on Friday evening until sunset on Saturday evening. This frequently resulted in NPR's flagship newscast, All Things Considered, being interrupted in progress—a situation that did not sit well with NPR during the 1990s.
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