Mission and Values

Learn more about The Hub, WBHM’s home for music, arts, culture, and community. Explore our mission, vision, core values, programming, and what makes The Hub a new kind of public radio experience for Greater Birmingham.

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The Hub is Greater Birmingham’s public station for music, arts, culture, and community. As an extension of WBHM, The Hub offers a space for curiosity, creativity, and connection through a mix of local programming and public media shows from across the country. The station is committed to amplifying local voices, artists, organizations, and stories while creating new opportunities to experiment with audio and storytelling. Through thoughtful programming and community collaboration, The Hub aims to celebrate the people, ideas, and creative energy that make Greater Birmingham unique.

Now Playing on The Hub

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Analog Masters

Discover the breathtaking beauty of Analog Masters, with pre-digital classical music recordings on this weekly series. Hear the greatest recordings of the past restored to pristine clarity and sonic splendor. Familiar artists like Arturo Toscanini and Jascha Heifetz are featured alongside nearly forgotten women and people of color, all of whom made indelible contributions to the diverse and fascinating world of classical music. Hosted by 50-year veteran broadcaster, Tom Godell.Facebook: Serge Koussevitzky

Baroque Down Palace

This program explores the rich musical landscape of the 1960s and 1970s, blending well-known hits with deep cuts across genres. With a focus on songs that incorporate symphonic touches or classical influences, Sansone provides context and stories behind each track, spotlighting artists like Roberta Flack, The Who, The Left Banke, Jose Feliciano, Dusty Springfield, Tim Buckley, and Isaac Hayes.

Box of Visions

Box of Visions is a “A Radio Program of New, Unusual, and Imaginative Music.”

Classic Hip Hop Show

The Classic Hip Hop Show, DJ Supreme brings the best of classic hop to the airwaves each week.

Classical Music

Listen to Classical music overnight every weekday starting at 10 p.m on 106.1 The Hub. You’ll hear hosts who are lively, engaging, and knowledgeable as they introduce your old favorites pieces and introduce you to new favorites.The depth and breadth of the classical music repertoire is vast, and hosts often illuminate the music they present with well-researched insightful information. Every hour is is accessible and stimulating for classical music novices and aficionados alike.

Dr. Dax Davis

Solid Gold Oldies with Dr. Dax Davis, otherwiseknown as AHRS/ARCA Member, Skip Leslie. Always spinning the best in Top 40 radio hits from the 50s, 60s and 70s, including local bands. Radio like it was in the good old days of WSGN, WVOK and many others. Using turntables and cart machines for music and liners and vintage microphones to duplicate that distinct sound of the 60s.

Echoes

Echoes is a three-hour music soundscape. With host John Diliberto, a writer for Billboard, Pulse, and other magazines, Echoes brings together a wide array of styles, from acoustic to electronic, jazz to space music, the avant-garde to rock. Echoes is a sound that is cross-cultural and trans-millennial, merging cultures and forms, technology and tradition, the ancient past and the possible future.In addition to the many recordings, hear interview features with popular modern music figures such as Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, and Enya, as well as less well-known known composers such as Dead Can Dance, Steve Roach, and The Orb. Echoes also produces Living Room Concerts, live performances recorded in musician’s homes or studios and broadcast on Echoes.

Global Village

With a fresh, inventive mix of global sounds and styles and a welcoming presentation, this award-winning show speaks to the joys of musical discovery and smart entertainment with diverse and engaging world music that appeals to a broad audience. The program is FREE and available five days a week or for weekend use. A monthly world music concert series, monthly new releases show, stand-alone holiday programs, and a wide variety of regular specials are also available free to all.

Good Time Gold

Two hours of the world’s greatest music every weekend.

Hearts of Space

Hearts of Space grew out of former architect Stephen Hill’s fascination with space-creating, ambient and contemplative music. Beginning in 1973, Hill hosted a weekly late-night radio program on KPFA-FM in the San Francisco Bay area. What began purely as a labor of love eventually became the most popular contemporary music program on public radio. The program evolved into multifaceted music and broadcast producer encompassing radio syndication, a record company, and an Internet music service.

Mountain Stage

Mountain Stage is the home of live music on public radio.Recorded in front of a live audience for more than 30 years, Mountain Stage features performances from seasoned legends and emerging stars in genres ranging from folk, blues, and country; to indie rock, synth-pop, world music, alternative, and beyond. Produced in West Virginia and distributed by NPR, each two-hour episode can be heard every week on more than 150 stations across America and around the world via NPR Music and mountainstage.org.

Planet Money

Planet Money explains the economy with playful storytelling and Peabody award-winning deep dive, roll up your sleeves journalism. The team includes Mary Childs, Amanda Aronczyk, Jeff Guo, Nick Fountain, Erika Beras, Sarah Gonzalez, and Kenny Malone. Guy Raz hosts How I Built This, where innovators, entrepreneurs, and idealists take us through the often challenging journeys they took to build their now iconic companies. Featured guests include the founders of Lyft, Patagonia, Zappos, Spanx, Samuel Adams, Instagram, and more.

PRX Remix

Shure Shot Jazz

Shure Shot Jazz is a weekly show airing every Saturday at 12 p.m., offering a unique blend of jazz curated from a hip-hop perspective. Hosted by Suaze and DJ Rahdu, the show explores the deep connections between jazz and hip-hop, presenting the genre through the lens of two seasoned vinyl DJs. Suaze and DJ Rahdu bring their extensive knowledge and love for music to the forefront, weaving stories, beats, interviews and tracks that bridge the past and present.

Sleep In Cinema

Sleep in Cinema is a weekly film show. Each week, Craig and Gareth are joined by a guest discussing a different film.

Snap Judgement

Snap Judgment is a program and podcast mix of real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Hosted by Glynn Washington, the program’s raw, musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling … with a BEAT!

Stagecoach

The Stagecoach Ride for the best of classic country hits of the 50s thru the 70s.

The Lost Child

The Lost Child joined WBHM’s weekend program lineup on October 19, 2024. The show is now being distributed through PRX by WBHM.The Lost Child is a downhome roots music radio hour broadcast weekly from the Southern Music Research Center in Birmingham, Alabama. Join host Burgin Mathews for a wide-ranging mix of rhythm and blues, honky-tonk country, old-time fiddle and banjo, boogie-woogie piano, rockabilly, gospel, swing, soul, and more.About the name: In a nod to the show’s regional roots, The Lost Child takes its name from an old west Alabama fiddle tune, first recorded in 1928 by brothers Charlie and Ira Stripling in a makeshift studio in Birmingham’s Bankhead Hotel.About the host: Burgin Mathews is a writer, radio host, and founding director of the Southern Music Research Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit devoted to the documentation and preservation of the many musical expressions and experiences of the American South (www.southernmusicresearch.org). He is the author of Magic City: How the Birmingham Jazz Tradition Shaped the Sound of America (2023) and co-author, with Frank “Doc” Adams, of Doc: The Story of a Birmingham Jazz Man (2012).Get in touch at [email protected].

The New Yorker Radio Hour

The New Yorker’s editor, David Remnick, presents interviews, profiles, and humor, in a co-production with WNYC Studios.

Travel with Rick Steves

A weekly one-hour conversation with guest experts and callers about travel, cultures, people, and the things we find around the world that give life its extra sparkle.

Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!

For a wacky and whip-smart approach to the week’s news and newsmakers, listen no further than Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, the oddly informative news quiz from NPR.During each fast-paced, irreverent show, host Peter Sagal leads what might be characterized as the news Olympics. Callers, panelists, and guests compete by answering questions about the week’s events, identifying impersonations, filling in the blanks at lightning speed, sniffing out fake news items, and deciphering limericks.

Who What When

Who What When is a weekly hour-long interactive gameshow from South Carolina Public Radio that takes listeners on a journey through history and pop culture. On each episode, hosts Daniel Thompson and Brandon Gray quiz listeners about important people and moments throughout the ages, share little-known trivia, and generally try to have fun with our collective past. Part trivia night, part history lesson, part pop culture celebration, Who What When brings together curious minds for an hour of fun, friendly competition, and laughter. Who What When will be available on Saturday mornings at 9 a.m. on The Hub.

With Heart and Voice

With Heart and Voice presents sacred music that spans the full range of Western classical music, from the Gothic period through the 21st century, with occasional surprises from the non-western tradition. The program, hosted by Peter DuBois, celebrates the seasons of the liturgical year and focuses on the richness and beauty of sacred music. With Heart and Voice began as a local Sunday morning program on WXXI in Rochester, NY in 1975, and has been broadcast nationally since 1989.

World Cafe

World Cafe is hosted and produced by Raina Douris in Philadelphia at WXPN presents interviews and performances with today’s essential and emerging artists.

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The Hub FAQs

About

What is “The Hub”?

This new station is named: The Hub 106.1 FM and HD2: Arts, Culture, & Community. This station is not for traditional news. In fact, it is intentionally the opposite. While we’ll have new and exciting public radio programming from elsewhere, this is also an opportunity for WBHM to experiment with creating new local programming made for and by your neighbors, in the Heart of Alabama.

How can WBHM afford to do this?

WBHM made two critical investments to make The Hub possible.

In 2016, WBHM acquired the 106.1 FM signal when it became available. For many years, it simulcast the same schedule as heard on 90.3 FM.

Following the transmitter upgrade in 2023, plus additional technical improvements, WBHM can broadcast on HD Radio and provide separate programming on 106.1 instead of simulcasting.

Outside of these technical investments, the biggest cost is WBHM team time and energy spent planning and preparing the station. The majority of the schedule is made up of programming that is free or accessible through partnerships and programming purchases already available to WBHM.

This allows WBHM to make better use of existing programming resources while serving the community in new ways. The additional signal also gives local businesses more sponsorship opportunities and may attract listeners who do not currently support WBHM.

Listening & Tech

How can I listen to “The Hub”?

Locally, you can listen at 106.1 FM within the station’s coverage area or through WBHM HD2.

You can also listen worldwide through the free WBHM mobile app. Download the latest version of the app, select Listen, and choose either WBHM or The Hub. The Hub is also available to stream through the WBHM website.

What is HD Radio?

HD Radio is a digital broadcasting technology that can provide improved sound quality, including deeper bass, higher treble, greater stereo separation, and greater dynamic range than traditional FM and AM broadcasts.

What is an HD2 radio station?

HD Radio allows a station to broadcast additional programming on a separate digital channel. An HD2 station is a second stream of programming that is available through an HD Radio receiver.

For The Hub, HD2 provides another way to listen to our arts, culture, and community programming alongside the traditional FM signal.

How can I get HD2 on my car radio?

Many newer vehicles are compatible with HD Radio, while older vehicles may require aftermarket equipment.

If your vehicle has HD Radio, tune to the station and allow the receiver to connect to the digital signal. Depending on your vehicle, you may see HD1 and HD2 options on the display.

Because instructions vary by vehicle, searching online for your vehicle’s specific HD Radio instructions may be helpful.

What are the coverage areas of 106.1?

The 106.1 FM signal covers communities throughout the Greater Birmingham area. HD2 reaches a little farther than the FM signal.

If you are outside the signal area, you can listen to The Hub through the WBHM app or online.

What are your current programs?

The Hub’s schedule will change over time as we continue to experiment with new programming and increase opportunities for local content.

The Hub launched in November 2025 with a mix of local shows and public radio network partners. Some programs have migrated from other stations or from WBHM, while local producers include Substrate Radio in Avondale and WZAL’s “The Country Road” in Pelham.

We will share additional programs and schedule changes in advance through WBHM and The Hub.

How can I become a sponsor for 106.1?

Contact [email protected] to learn more about sponsorship opportunities and rates.

Who can I contact if I have questions?

If you have questions about The Hub, email [email protected].

The Hub Coverage Map

See where you can listen to The Hub on 106.1 FM. HD2 reaches a little farther than the FM signal, and you can listen anywhere through the WBHM app or online.

View Full Map

How to Listen

You can The Hub 106.1 FM with you wherever you go!

Here’s How