WVTF

WVTF
City Roanoke, Virginia
Broadcast area Southwest Virginia and Central Virginia
Branding Radio IQ
Slogan Virginia's Public Radio
Frequency 89.1 MHz
(also on HD Radio)
First air date 1973
Format News/talk
Power 100,000 watts
HAAT 600 Meters
Class C
Facility ID 70338
Transmitter coordinates 37°11′56.0″N 80°09′2.0″W / 37.198889°N 80.150556°W / 37.198889; -80.150556
Callsign meaning Virginia Tech Foundation
Former callsigns WVWR-FM (1973–1982)
Former frequencies 90.1 MHz (1973–1975)[1]
Affiliations BBC World Service
National Public Radio
Public Radio International
Owner Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
(Virginia Tech Foundation)
Sister stations WVTF Music
Webcast WVTF Webstream
Website WVTF Online

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.[2] It airs a format of news and talk programming from NPR, BBC World Service, Public Radio International and other outlets.

WVTF broadcasts in HD.[3]

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.

In 1981, state officials decided that no state agency should own a radio station, and Virginia Western was forced to sell. The Virginia Tech Foundation, financially independent of Virginia Tech but controlled by school leadership, expressed interest in buying the station. It not only wanted to preserve public radio in the region, but saw WVWR as a way to increase Virginia Tech's ties to the region.[4] The foundation formally took control in 1982 and initially applied for the callsign WRVT before settling on WVTF.[5] Over the next decade, WVTF built translator after translator to better serve its mostly mountainous coverage area.

From 1980 to 2017, WVTF and its repeaters 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.

Rebranding as Radio IQ

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 its own network of stations, consisting of extra signals that were overlapped by WVTF's network, as well as those in areas such as Richmond which receive a music and news schedule from another station. Radio IQ began with WWVT (1260 AM, Christiansburg). The service quickly expanded to WFFC (89.9 FM, Ferrum), the former Ferrum College student radio station, and WVTW (88.5 FM), an extra station in Charlottesville.[6] 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, and the station itself rebranded from "WVTF Public Radio" to "Radio IQ". Three of the five existing Radio IQ stations (WVTW, WQIQ, and WRIQ) merged with WVTF and its network (WVTR, WVTU, and WISE-FM) to place the news and talk schedule on as many full-powered signals as possible. A new companion service, WVTF Music, launched on the remaining stations (WWVT and WFFC, later renamed WWVT-FM) and HD2 subchannels of the new combined Radio IQ network. Low-powered translators of the previous WVTF and Radio IQ networks were divided between the two services. WVTF Music took over all music programming, including daily blocks of classical music, specialty local programs, and Live From Here.[7][8][9]

Stations

Full power stations

All stations broadcast in HD, with WVTF Music on HD2.[10][11][12]

Call sign Frequency
(MHz)		 City of license ERP
W		 Class FCC
WISE-FM90.5Wise, Virginia220AFCC
WQIQ88.3Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia3,500AFCC
WRIQ88.7Lexington, Virginia3,900AFCC
WVTF89.1Roanoke, Virginia100,000CFCC
WVTR91.9Marion, Virginia4,500C2FCC
WVTU89.3Charlottesville, Virginia (west)195B1FCC
WVTW88.5Charlottesville, Virginia (city)1,000B1FCC

The following stations broadcast Radio IQ on a part-time basis:

Call sign Frequency City of license ERP
W		 Class FCC Broadcast times
WEHC90.7Emory, Virginia8,700C3FCC12:00am – 1:00pm daily; 4:00pm – 6:00pm weekdays[13]
WLUR91.5Lexington, Virginia175AFCC12:00am – 1:00pm daily; various additional timeslots[14]

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.[15]

Broadcast translators of WISE-FM
Call signFrequency
(MHz)		City of licenseERP
W		ClassFCC info
W212BP90.3Clintwood, Virginia1DFCC
W217BF91.3Pound, Virginia1DFCC
W219CJ91.7Norton, Virginia50DFCC
Broadcast translators of WVTF
Call signFrequency
(MHz)		City of licenseERP
W		FCC info
W230BD93.9Lovingston, Virginia10FCC
Broadcast translators of WQIQ
Call signFrequency
(MHz)		City of licenseERP
W		FCC info
W235BT94.9Fredericksburg, Virginia80FCC
Broadcast translators of WURV
Call signFrequency
(MHz)		City of licenseERP
W		FCC info
W223AZ92.5Richmond, Virginia220FCC

References

  1. ↑  ‹Template:FCC history cards is deprecated.›FCC History Cards for WVTF
  2. ↑ "WVTF Facility Record". Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  3. ↑ https://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?realid=447
  4. ↑ "WVTF Public Radio Studio". Virginia Tech Foundation.
  5. ↑ "Call letters" (PDF). Broadcasting. February 8, 1982. p. 118.
  6. ↑ Corbin, Robert (March 14, 2003). "Radio IQ searches for home". VARTV.
  7. ↑ "Programming and frequency changes coming to WVTF and RADIO IQ". Virginia Tech.
  8. ↑ Venta, Lance (15 June 2017). "WVTF To Shuffle Frequencies Of Music & Radio IQ Outlets Across Virginia". RadioInsight.
  9. ↑ "WVTF Radio IQ: The Big Switch".
  10. ↑ Staff, FCC Internet Services. "Station Search Details". licensing.fcc.gov. Retrieved 2016-01-24.
  11. ↑ Staff, FCC Internet Services. "Station Search Details". licensing.fcc.gov. Retrieved 2016-01-24.
  12. ↑ "HD (Digital) Radio". wvtf.org. Retrieved 2016-01-24.
  13. ↑ https://www.ehc.edu/wehc/radio-iq/
  14. ↑ https://www.wlu.edu/wlur/weekly-schedule
  15. ↑ "WVTF/Radio IQ Post-Flip Schedule" (PDF).
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