Terry Neal, program director for WPTP-FM 100.1 FM radio, hangs historical photos inside the studios of the Alton Park Development Corp.'s new radio station.If you go
› What: WPTP-FM 100.1 Out-of-School Progressive Jam.› When: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday, May 26.› Where: Chattanooga Civic Center at Mountainside ball field, 701 Hooker Road.
A new radio station operating in Alton Park will be more than a source of music.
Dr. Elenora Woods, director of the Alton Park Development Corp., sees the station as a tool in an arsenal of weaponry intended to help end gang violence, illiteracy, hunger and poverty in Chattanooga and Hamilton County.
WPTP-FM 100.1 broadcasts 24/7 out of the former Piney Woods Elementary School building, now called the Chattanooga Civic Center at Mountainside.
For now, the low-frequency broadcast reaches residents in the Villages at Alton Park and Emma Wheeler Homes. By the end of May, a larger antenna will enable the station to "cover the city like a blanket" and into North Georgia, says program director Terry Neal.
The Alton Park Development Corp. launched the station as a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit. Neal says management's goal is to train youth in radio broadcasting and work to empower the community.
The Civic Center plans to offer related services to better the Alton Park community, including mentoring for youth, training in radio broadcasting, training in construction, music classes, a computer lab and job-readiness programs.
The development corporation also plans to be the site for a day care for children up to age 4, food giveaways, computer workshops and a dental ministry.
"The radio station will be the link that ties it all together," says Neal, who has more than 30 years' broadcasting experience at stations including WNOO-AM in the late 1980s and WMPZ-FM.
He says God orchestrated his return to Chattanooga after he retired and left the city in 2005.
He moved to Arkansas and then to Alabama and started doing internet radio as a hobby before hearing about the Alton Park Development Corp.'s dilemma.
The nonprofit has held a radio broadcasting license from the Federal Communications Commission since 2015. If it didn't go on the air by March of this year, the license would expire.
"God sent me here on a cloud one night," says Neal. "Yes. It's true. Because they've had the license to sign on since 2015. If we had not signed on with the FCC by March 8, 5 p.m., your license and all your stuff just vanish. You can't apply again."
Neal returned to Chattanooga in 2017, called in engineers to help him and Calvin Jones, his former broadcasting instructor, to do the administration, and just 10 minutes before the March 8, 5 p.m., deadline, WPTP went on the air.
The music is different because the community needs a break from the boom-boom-boom, says Neal.
"We're trying to calm that out. Let it go in easy, so it will come out not so rough," he says.
The station plays jazz and inspirational music, and it offers a gospel music show during the noon lunch hour.
It's hosting a launch party May 26 in the playground near the Alton Park Development Corp. site. The Out-of-School Progressive Jam will include a health fair, food, drinks, basketball and softball tournaments and arts and crafts. All activities will be free.
Contact Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.