WVTF is the National Public Radio affiliate serving most of southwestern Virginia. The station is licensed to Roanoke, Virginia and owned by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) through its fundraising arm, the Virginia Tech Foundation. It airs a format of news and talk programming from NPR, BBC World Service, Public Radio International and other outlets.
WVTF broadcasts in HD.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
History
WVTF began broadcasting in August 1973 as WVWR-FM (Virginia Western Radio) and was licensed to Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke. It was used primarily to air college telecourses and give broadcasting students a chance to hone their skills. In 1975, WVWR-FM's transmitter was moved from Fishburn Hall on the VWCC campus to Poor Mountain, where most of Roanoke's major radio and television stations have their transmitters. The power also was increased from 4,100 watts to 100,000 watts. The power boost tripled its coverage area, giving it at least secondary coverage of much of central and southwest Virginia, southern West Virginia and northern North Carolina.
In 1979, WVWR-FM began the Radio Reading Service on its subcarrier frequency.
WVWR-FM had carried a few NPR programs from its inception. However, when NPR insisted it hire more professional staff as a condition of full membership, Virginia Western realized it would be in over its head operating a full-service public radio station. It found a buyer in the Virginia Tech Foundation, which formally took control in 1982 and changed the call letters to WVTF. Over the next decade, WVTF built translator after translator to better serve its mostly mountainous coverage area, one of the largest in the NPR system.
WVTF has recently expanded its role in the community beyond radio broadcasting in sponsoring juried art shows at its studios in Roanoke.
For most of the time from 1980 to 2017, it maintained a schedule typical of full-service public radio stations, with NPR news in drive times, classical music during the day and overnight, and various special music and talk programming on nights and weekends.
WVTF launched a secondary service, branded Radio IQ, in January 2003 in order to provide an additional schedule consisting only of news/talk programming, including retransmission of the BBC World Service overnight. Radio IQ broadcast over extra signals that were overlapped by WVTF's main network, as well as in areas such as Richmond that receive a music/news schedule from another NPR station. Radio IQ began with WWVT (AM), based in Christiansburg at 1260 AM. The service quickly expanded to WFFC, the former Ferrum College student radio station, and two extra signals in Charlottesville. Radio IQ signed on WRIQ in Lexington in 2011 and purchased WQIQ near Fredericksburg in 2013.
On July 10, 2017, Radio IQ became WVTF's main service. Three of Radio IQ's five existing full-powered stations (WVTW, WQIQ, and WRIQ) merged with WVTF and its network (WVTR, WVTU, and WISE-FM) to place the service on as many full-powered signals as possible. A new companion service, WVTF Music, launched on Radio IQ's remaining full-powered stations (WWVT and WWVT-FM), HD2 subchannels of the new combined network, and several translators of the former separate WVTF and Radio IQ networks. WVTF Music took over all music programming, including daily blocks of classical music, specialty local programs, and A Prairie Home Companion.
Iq Radio Video
Stations
Full power stations
All stations broadcast in HD, with WVTF Music on HD2.
The following stations broadcast Radio IQ on a part-time basis:
Low power translators
In addition to the main stations, WVTF is relayed by an additional 6 translators to widen its broadcast area. It leases the third HD channel of WURV in Richmond to feed its Richmond translator.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
EmoticonEmoticon