WDDE is an NPR-member radio station based out of Dover, Delaware. It is owned and operated by DelawareFirst Media Corporation, and is the first and only full-fledged public radio station based in Delaware. WDDE broadcasts a variety of national and international programming from NPR, BBC World Service, and Public Radio International as well as local news created by WDDE's staff. WDDE's website features multimedia coverage of Delaware, including 24/7 live streaming audio coverage, archived stories from WDDE and its online predecessor, DFM News, and timely special events coverage from political debates to concerts. WMPH 91.7 and WMHS 88.1 in Wilmington simulcasts WDDE's programming on weekday mornings and afternoons. The station is working to build additional repeaters in the rest of the state. Although WDDE has a collaborative partnership with both Delaware State University and the University of Delaware, it is run independently from both institutions.
History
WDDE traces its roots to 2010, when several longtime Delaware journalists founded Delaware First Media and launched DFM News, an online news site focused on Delaware news. Many of them had worked at WHYY-FM-TV in Philadelphia, and had been laid off when the stations scaled back coverage of Delaware events. The move particularly rankled Delaware residents and elected officials, since WHYY-TV is licensed to Wilmington. Indeed, Wilmington city officials went as far as to challenge the renewal of WHYY-TV's license in 2009. A year later, they learned that a construction permit for a noncommercial station in Dover was on the verge of expiring. Maryland's Salisbury University, owner of WSCL, the NPR member for the Delmarva Peninsula, had won the permit in 2007, but opted not to use it. With the support of former Weekend Edition Sunday host Liane Hansen, who now lives in Bethany Beach, Delaware First Media secured the backing needed for a full-fledged NPR member station. In 2011, Delaware First Media briefly brought the station online in 2011 as a repeater of WSCL's sister station, WSDL in Ocean City, before taking it offline pending its full launch. WDDE began broadcasting on August 17, 2012 from its studio on the Delaware StateUniversity campus in Dover. Philadelphia's two full NPR members, WHYY-FM and WRTI, have long claimed much of Delaware as part of their primary coverage areas; the latter has long operated repeaters in Wilmington and Dover. However, until WDDE's launch, Delaware had been the only state without a full-fledged NPR station within its borders. The station's first president, Micheline Boudreau was formerly headed WHYY's Dover bureau and reported for Delaware Tonight, the long-running news program that was canceled in the 2009 cutback. Another WHYY alumnus, Tom Byrne is the station's news director. Jane Vincent is the current president of the station.
