WABE is unique in the Atlanta Market as the area’s only 24 hour, stereo FM broadcast outlet for fine arts programming and NPR News.
90.1 FM WABE, Georgia’s first Public Radio Station, signed on-the-air September 13, 1948. The Atlanta Board of Education and the Fulton County Board of Education funded the station, which was housed atop Atlanta’s old City Hall. The Atlanta Board of Education (ABE) holds the license for the station, hence the station’s call letters - WABE. Initially, the Atlanta and Fulton County Boards of Education used WABE exclusively for instructional support for Atlanta and Fulton County children (the role of most public radio stations at the time and broadcast only during school hours. Back then, there were only two rooms required to hold everything the station needed to stay on the air. That changed in 1958 when WETV (later WPBA) was licensed to become the companion television station to WABE. Both entities moved to their present location at 740 Bismark Road, near Cheshire Bridge Road in Atlanta, Georgia. WABE became a Charter Member of National Public Radio (NPR) in 1971. It then provided Atlanta listeners with programming eighteen hours per day, seven days a week. Three years later, the station increased the power of its signal to 30,000 watts and began broadcasting in stereo.
1982 saw more changes: the educational programming used in Atlanta and Fulton County public school classrooms started broadcasting on a separate sub-carrier portion of the FM 90 signal, and WABE began broadcasting NPR News and classical music programming twenty-four hours a day! The next year (1983), FM 90’s transmitter received another boost when it was moved to the top of Stone Mountain and its power was increased to 100,000 watts of effective radiated power. WABE FM serves as a news and cultural resource to approximately 400,000 listeners each week.
90.1 FM WABE is member-supported public radio. As your source for NPR News and the Classics, we invite you to join the WABE family. The network and local programming you rely on also requires your support.
