WVTF is the
National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...
affiliate serving most of southwestern
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...
. The station is licensed to
Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke ( ) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 100,011, making it the 8th most populous city in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the largest city in Virginia west of Richmond. It is ...
, and owned by
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six regi ...
(Virginia Tech) through its fundraising arm, the
Virginia Tech Foundation. It airs a format of news and talk programming from
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
,
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the British Government through the Foreign Secretary's office. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception a ...
,
Public Radio International
Public Radio International (PRI) was an American public radio organization. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, PRI provided programming to over 850 public radio stations in the United States.
PRI was one of the main providers of programmi ...
and other outlets.
WVTF broadcasts in
HD.
History
WVTF began broadcasting in August 1973 as WVWR-FM (Virginia Western Radio) and was licensed to
Virginia Western Community College
Virginia Western Community College (VWCC) is a public community college in Roanoke, Virginia. It is part of the Virginia Community College System.
Students
As of 2013, Virginia Western has over 12,000 students enrolled in the college and over h ...
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
Poor Mountain is a ridge of high peaks located in Roanoke County, Virginia and Montgomery County, Virginia. At 3,928 feet, Poor Mountain is the tallest mountain in the immediate area.
Poor Mountain has the largest known population, by far, of ...
, 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
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...
and northern
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...
.
In 1979, WVWR-FM began th
Radio Reading Serviceon its subcarrier frequency.
In 1981, state officials decided that no state agency should directly 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 Roanoke. The foundation formally took control in 1982 and initially applied for the
call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally ass ...
WRVT before settling on WVTF. 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
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" al ...
during the day and overnight, and various special music and talk programming on nights and weekends.
Rebranding as Radio IQ
In 2003, WVTF launched ''Radio IQ'' in order to provide a secondary schedule consisting only of news/talk programming, including retransmission of the
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the British Government through the Foreign Secretary's office. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception a ...
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
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, Californi ...
which receive a music and news schedule from another NPR member station. Radio IQ began with
WWVT (1260 AM,
Christiansburg). The service quickly expanded to
WFFC (89.9 FM,
Ferrum), the former
Ferrum College
, mottoeng = Not Self, But Others
, established =
, type = Private college
, president = David L. Johns
, city = Ferrum, Virginia
, country = U.S.
, c ...
student radio station, and WVTW (88.5 FM), an extra station in
Charlottesville
Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen ...
. Radio IQ signed on WRIQ in
Lexington
Lexington may refer to:
Places England
* Laxton, Nottinghamshire, formerly Lexington
Canada
* Lexington, a district in Waterloo, Ontario
United States
* Lexington, Kentucky, the largest city with this name
* Lexington, Massachusetts, the oldes ...
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
''Live from Here'', formerly known as ''A Prairie Home Companion with Chris Thile'', is an American variety radio show known for its musical guests, tongue-in-cheek radio drama, and relaxed humor. Hosted by Chris Thile, it aired live on Saturd ...
''.
Richmond (and competition with WCVE)
Radio IQ's programming has been heard in portions of the
Greater Richmond Region on low-powered translator W223AZ (92.5 FM) since 2009. In October 2019, WVTF purchased
WNVU (89.7 FM) in nearby Charles City, Virginia. That station began simulcasting Radio IQ programming in January 2020 (under the new call letters WRIQ), bringing a full-powered Radio IQ signal to Richmond for the first time, providing direct competition for Richmond-based NPR member
WCVE-FM
WCVE-FM ("VPM News", 88.9 MHz) is a public radio station licensed to Richmond, Virginia, serving the Richmond/ Petersburg area. WCVE-FM is owned and operated by Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation. CPBC also owns Channel 23 WCVE-TV, the ...
and its VPM News service.
Stations
Full power stations
All stations broadcast in
HD, with WVTF Music on HD2.
Notes:
The following stations broadcast Radio IQ on a part-time basis:
Translators
In addition to the main stations, Radio IQ is relayed by an additional 6 translators to widen its broadcast area. It can also be heard on
WURV-HD3 in Richmond (which also feeds translator W223AZ).
References
External links
WVTF Public Radio OnlineRadio IQ*
{{Authority control
Classical music radio stations in the United States
Jazz radio stations in the United States
NPR member stations
American radio networks
Radio stations established in 1973
VTF
VTF
NPR member networks
Public radio stations in the United States
1973 establishments in Virginia
Virginia Tech