North Carolina Public Radio
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| North Carolina Public Radio | |
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| Broadcast area | Research Triangle and eastern North Carolina |
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| Slogan | Bringing the world home to you |
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| First air date | April 3, 1976 [1] |
| Format | News Talk Information |
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| Callsign meaning |
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| Owner | Trustees of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| Website | wunc.org |
North Carolina Public Radio is a public radio network based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It broadcasts NPR, American Public Media, Public Radio International, and BBC programming in an "all-news-and-information" format. On the weekends, the network broadcasts locally-produced folk music programming; the longest-running continuously-produced program offered by the station is Back Porch Music, a weekly folk and traditional music program.
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[edit] Transmitters and programming
The network consists of three stations: WUNC, broadcasting from Chapel Hill on 91.5 FM (sometimes called WUNC-FM to avoid confusion with WUNC-TV); WRQM, from Rocky Mount on 90.9; and WUND-FM, from Manteo on 88.9.
All three stations were referred to simply as "WUNC" until 2005. The stations are now called "North Carolina Public Radio - WUNC", ostensibly to allow transition time between the two names. The call letters of the other stations are identified only during required station IDs at the start of each hour. The transmitter for WUNC-FM is located on Terrell's Mountain in Chatham County.
WUNC is the flagship NPR station for the Triangle area (Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill). In addition, its 100,000-watt signal covers much of the eastern portion of the Piedmont Triad, including Greensboro and High Point. This is because its transmitter is located roughly halfway between Raleigh and Greensboro. WRQM serves the far eastern portion of the Triangle market, while WUND serves northeastern North Carolina and the Outer Banks. Combined, the three stations reach most of the eastern third of the state.
Aside from Back Porch Music, North Carolina Public Radio also produces The People's Pharmacy with Joe and Terry Graedon, a nationally-syndicated program first broadcast on WUNC in the early 1980s; and The State of Things, a regionally-syndicated local affairs show. The network began offering podcasts for The State of Things and other locally-produced news stories in September 2005.
North Carolina Public Radio's main studios are located in Chapel Hill near the Friday Center; in 2005, a second broadcast facility was opened in Durham's American Tobacco Historic District. On October 17, 2005, The State of Things began production at the new Durham location. Other programs continue production in the Chapel Hill studios.
Dick Gordon, former host of WBUR's The Connection, began hosting a new interview show called The Story with Dick Gordon on February 16, 2006. The News and Observer has reported that North Carolina Public Radio pays Gordon a salary of $210,000 a year, making him better paid than NPR luminary Terry Gross and many other national hosts in public radio.
[edit] History
North Carolina Public Radio is operated out of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; it should not be confused with WXYC, which is UNC's current student radio station.
WUNC signed on in its current incarnation on April 3, 1976. It immediately became the state's second NPR member. WUNC had originally been on the air for a brief time as an AM station in the 1940s, then returned to the air in 1952 as a student-run FM station. One of its earliest shows was Gary Shivers on Jazz, a jazz program produced by the station and syndicated regionally. (Shivers was the station's first program director and second General Manager.) WUNC had studios in Swain Hall on the UNC campus; new studios were completed in 1999, into which the station has since moved. Prior to its switch to its news and information format, the station was a multi-format station of NPR news, classical music and jazz music.
WUND signed on March 24, 1999, bringing NPR programming to one of the few areas of North Carolina without access to any NPR programming. WRQM began as a separate NPR station in the 1980s under the on-air name "Down East Public Radio." However, it found the going difficult, and in March 1999 began airing portions of WUNC's schedule. It became a full repeater of WUNC that October.
[edit] References
- ^ "WUNC FM, Your NPR Station Celebrates 25 Years of Public Radio", University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, March 23, 2001.
[edit] External links
- North Carolina Public Radio - WUNC home page
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WUNC
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WRQM
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WUND
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