Complex sentence: WABE has always been operated by the city school system; it started in 1948 and may well have been the first-ever noncommercial radio station in the Southern U.S., at least on the FM band.
Split into simpler sentences: WABE has always been operated by the city school system. It started in 1948 and may well have been the first-ever noncommercial radio station in the Southern U.S., at least on the FM band.