WFAE

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WFAE is the flagship National Public Radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina broadcasting at 100,000 watts on 90.7 mHz FM.

The station went on the air on June 29, 1981 as a service of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, taking over from a student radio station that had begun operation in the late 1970s. It operated from the basement of the Cone University Center. In addition to NPR programs, it aired jazz during the day and classical music at night.

The station grew rapidly, and within five years moved to much larger studios in the One University Place building near the UNCC campus where it still is today. In 1987, it began broadcasting 24 hours a day and began airing more contemporary jazz during the day.

This growth occurred amid financial uncertainty. UNCC was eventually forced to end support for the station due to a budget crunch. In 1994, UNCC handed over control to a nonprofit community board, the University Radio Foundation.

WFAE continued to grow through the next decade. It added a satellite station in Hickory, WFHE, at 90.3 mHz, in 1995. WFAE's signal is spotty at best in some parts of the North Carolina foothills. WFHE largely simulcasts WFAE, with inserts specific to the Foothills area airing during hourly news breaks. The next year, it largely dropped music in favor of a news/talk format as part of an agreement with WNSC in Rock Hill to provide non-conflicting programming. It was one of the first NPR stations to air NPR's midday news/talk block (The Diane Rehm Show, Fresh Air and Talk of the Nation). However, it had been committed to news long before then. At one point, its three reporters were doing as much work as far larger news staffs.

While its weekday lineup consists entirely of news/talk programs provided mostly by NPR, PRI, or the BBC, music provides the basis for some of its weekend programming. Specifically, it carries NPR's World Cafe, PRI's Echoes, and Nightscapes, a locally produced program of New Age music. WFAE is also the home station for the The Thistle & Shamrock, a popular Celtic music show from NPR that originated on WFAE when it was licensed to UNCC and its host, Fiona Ritchie, was a visiting professor at the university. It began as a local program soon after WFAE signed on, and was picked up nationally in 1983.

In recent years, the station has become one of the most technologically advanced NPR stations in the country. In 2004, it converted to digital technology, with a far clearer signal than before. It also became the first station in Charlotte and the first public radio station in North Carolina to convert to HD Radio digital broadcast technology.