WWVT-FM

WWVT-FM (89.9 FM) is a Public radio formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Ferrum, Virginia, serving Roanoke, Rocky Mount, and Martinsville. WWVT-FM is owned and operated by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. It is the flagship station of WVTF Music, a music-focused companion service to WVTF, southwestern Virginia's flagship NPR member station. It is operated out of WVTF's facility in Roanoke.

History

WWVT-FM was originally WFFC, the student station of Ferrum College. In 2003, the Virginia Tech Foundation launched a secondary all-news and talk service, Radio IQ, on WWVT (1260 AM in Christiansburg). This schedule contrasted with WVTF's full-service schedule of music and news. As WWVT was only licensed to broadcast during the day at the time, WFFC joined Radio IQ in order to give it a 24-hour signal. The Virginia Tech Foundation also intended to have WFFC feed Radio IQ to extra FM translators that it owned. Since FCC rules prevent a station from feeding translators via microwave that are not co-owned, Ferrum sold WFFC to the foundation in November of that year.

This arrangement lasted until July 10, 2017, when Radio IQ became the Virginia Tech Foundation's primary service and moved to WVTF's more powerful signal and repeater network. As WVTF covers WFFC's entire broadcast area, it dropped Radio IQ to become the flagship of WVTF Music. The station changed callsigns to the current WWVT-FM in the same month. Due to the relatively modest coverage areas of the WWVT stations and their translators, WVTF Music is simulcast on the second HD Radio channels of all full-power Radio IQ stations except WRIQ in Richmond.

WWVT

WBCR signed on in 1954 on 1260 AM from Christiansburg. Later known as "Triple J" WJJJ, it competed in the 1960s and 1970s with Virginia Tech's student radio station, WUVT, for the local rock music market.

The station became WNNI in 1995. Bocephus Broadcasting purchased eight stations in the Blacksburg-Christiansburg market in 1997, after which it donated WNNI to the Virginia Tech Foundation.

In 2003, Virginia Tech launched the original incarnation of Radio IQ on the rechristened WWVT. WWVT was originally a daytimer that was required to go off the air at sunset to prevent interference to WCHV and WKXR on the same channel. After more than 50 years of daytime-only operation, WWVT added 25 watts of night power in 2005.

WWVT left Radio IQ and joined the WVTF Music network in 2017, in order to take advantage of its Blacksburg-based FM translator W238BN (95.5 FM).

Programming

WWVT-FM is the FM flagship station of ''WVTF Music''. Much of the network's weekday programming is classical music, with 20 hours Monday through Thursday and 18 hours on Fridays. Weekends include blocks of bluegrass, Americana, and jazz. National and regional shows include the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts, ''Across the Blue Ridge'', ''The Thistle and Shamrock'' and ''Live From Here'' (formerly ''A Prairie Home Companion'').

Network stations

Full-powered stations

Notes:

Low-powered translators

References

External links

WWVT-FM Online

{{NPR Virginia

1989 establishments in Virginia
Public radio stations in the United States
NPR member stations
Radio stations established in 1989
WVT-FM