Membership, Sponsor Drive Falls Short; WHAV Buys Time with All-Christmas Format

Happy Thanksgiving!

The management and staff of WHAV give thanks today to those listeners who have joined or renewed their memberships and sponsors that have begun or strengthened their commitments to local service.

Their support has helped move 97.9 WHAV FM toward long-term sustainability, but more help was needed to continue a high level of original journalism and comprehensive local news coverage.

WHAV will remain on the air for now, but will begin an all Christmas music format during the holiday season. With #GivingTuesday ahead and hopes for generous year-end donations and support, WHAV will do its best to restore local news. Management will also use this time to evaluate some promising partnership opportunities, possible programming cuts and other actions to continue meeting local needs. Please bear with us during this transition.

Data shows more than 200,000 people a month rely on WHAV News—on-air, online, over cable television and in social media.

The challenge of paying for original, local news reporting—especially on a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week schedule—is not unique to Greater Haverhill. Most radio stations no longer provide hyperlocal coverage, newspapers are closing and remaining newsrooms are shrinking across the country. The consensus is that individuals must compensate for the dearth of local retailers. So far, though, a recent survey found only 14% of adults nationally pay for local news.

As the only Haverhill-based news source, WHAV has been proud to provide daily newscasts, twice-an-hour weekdays; breaking news whenever it happens; around-the-clock weather; Community Spotlight every hour; a live morning show with local guests, traffic reports and compelling features; live play-by-play coverage of all Haverhill Hillies football games—home and away; and much more.

Thank you for your support and happy holidays.

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