WFSS (91.9 FM) is a

public radio Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive ...

station in

Fayetteville, North Carolina Fayetteville ( , ) is a city in and the county seat of Cumberland County, North Carolina, United States. It is best known as the home of Fort Bragg, a major U.S. Army installation northwest of the city. Fayetteville has received the All-Ameri ...

, broadcasting

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

programming originating from WUNC. It was owned by Fayetteville State University until May 2015, when it was purchased by the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

and turned into a WUNC satellite. In its final years as a separately programmed station, WFSS programmed

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

as well as an eclectic mix of formats on the weekend, including bluegrass,

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

, African and

Latin music Latin music (Portuguese language, Portuguese and ) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America, which encompasses Music of Latin America, Latin America, Music of Spain, Spain, Mu ...

. It serves Fayetteville and twelve surrounding counties.

History

In 1977, WFSS began broadcasting at 10 watts, and was operated by students using the station to prepare them for broadcasting careers. Its coverage area was limited to a two-mile radius of campus. In February 1983, power was increased to 100,000 watts, and the station joined NPR. From the beginning the station played jazz but went on to offer a wide variety of programming including

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

and

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...

. Joseph Ross, who came from

Monrovia, Liberia Monrovia () is the administrative capital and largest city of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic coast and as of the 2022 census had 1,761,032 residents, home to 33.5% of Liberia’s total population. It ...

, was the station manager from 1977 until the 1980s and again starting in 1995. In March 1993, in order to switch from 89.1 to 91.9 and reduce interference to

WECT WECT (channel 6) is a television station in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Gray Media alongside Telemundo affiliate WTWL-LD (channel 31); Gray provides certain services to Fox affiliate WSFX- ...

in Wilmington (whose transmitter was located in Bladen County), WFSS signed off for five days and then came back at 30,000 watts before finally returning to full power at 100,000 watts. On January 20, 2000, a winter storm caused significant damage to broadcasting equipment, and WFSS came back days later at 60 watts. The return to full power happened May 5 after $45,000 in repairs. Funding reductions to Fayetteville State from 2009 onward caused WFSS to lose money. Even with the presence of

Fort Bragg Fort Bragg (formerly Fort Liberty from 2023–2025) is a United States Army, U.S. Army Military base, military installation located in North Carolina. It ranks among the largest military bases in the world by population, with more than 52,000 m ...

, the Fayetteville area was just barely large enough to support a standalone NPR member station. By 2014, all efforts to increase community support had come up short of the levels needed for the station to stay independent. On May 13, 2015, Fayetteville State trustees unanimously voted to sell WFSS to UNC Chapel Hill for $1.35 million. The deal was intended to preserve public radio in the region. Though the sale still required

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

approval, WUNC's licensee, WUNC Public Radio, LLC, took over WFSS' operations under a local management agreement. This allowed WFSS to begin simulcasting WUNC at 10 a.m. on May 13, hours after the trustee vote. Until the FCC approved the deal, Fayetteville State was required to keep an FCC-minimum skeleton crew of two employees (one manager and engineer) on site. The sale was consummated on November 24, 2015.

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References

External links

official websiteLast version
of WFSS Website before sale to WUNC * * * {{NPR North Carolina FSS NPR member stations University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Radio stations established in 1977 1977 establishments in North Carolina