WQDR-FM

WQDR-FM

File:WQDR-FM logo.png
City of license	Raleigh, North Carolina
Broadcast area	Raleigh/Durham Research Triangle
Branding	94.7 QDR
Slogan	Today's Best and Most Continuous Country
Frequency	94.7 MHz (also on HD Radio) 94.7 HD-1: simulcast of WQDR 94.7 HD-2: simulcast of WPTK 94.7 HD-3: simulcast of WPTF
First air date	1949 (as WPTF-FM at 94.9)
Format	Country
Audience share	7.8 (Fa'08, R&R)
ERP	95,000 watts
HAAT	512 meters
Class	C
Facility ID	9076
Transmitter coordinates
Callsign meaning	QuaDraphonic Rock
Former callsigns	WPTF-FM (1949-1972)
Former frequencies	94.9 MHz (1949-1950s)
Owner	Curtis Media Group
Sister stations	WKIX-FM, WBBB, WWPL, WFNL, WPTF, WPTK
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	947qdr.com

WQDR-FM (94.7 FM) is a radio station in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, broadcasting to the state's central and eastern regions, including the cities of Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Fayetteville, Rocky Mount, Wilson, and Goldsboro. "QDR" presents a country music format and is currently owned by Curtis Media Group.

History

Durham Life Insurance Company signed on WPTF-FM, then at 94.5 MHz, in 1949. The station, which would later move to 94.7 MHz, transmitted from an antenna atop one of sister station WPTF 680 AM's three towers in what is now eastern Cary, near Interstate 40 East. Both stations were based in downtown Raleigh at 410 Salisbury Street.

WPTF-FM aired a classical music format in the late 1960s and early 70s. WQDR was the brain child of Durham Life Broadcasting"s President and General Manager, Carl Venters who succeeded Richard Mason in June 1972, saw quad stereo rock as the wave of the future. (QDR stands for quadraphonic).Venters had heard of Lee Abrams, a 19-year-old broadcaster who worked for ABC radio's WRIF in Detroit. Venters convinced Abrams to come to Raleigh and create the Album Rock format he had developed but never put on the air. David Sousa was hired as program director. Sousa had worked with Lee Abrams at WPOW|WMYQ, Miami, Fla. Abrams, Sousa and Robert W. Walker, who worked with Abrams, created the Album Rock music list and program structure that was later known as the "Superstars" format, the first commercial FM formatted rock station in the nation. Venters appointed David Berry as station manager and a sales team that included Doug Parsons, Pam Skidmore, Winslow Stillman, Rob Hankin, Laurel Smith, Tom Tucker Don Fowler (also a WPTF rep) among others, was trained and ready.

WQDR went on the air December 26, 1972 at midnight. The last song on WPTF-FM was "Jingle Bell Rock", while the first on WQDR was "Bitch" by the Rolling Stones.

Within a year, the station had double-digit ratings. After that first year, the format (by then named "Superstars") took off, and soon was in over 30 markets around the country. Abrams's big break came when he teamed up with veteran consultant Kent Burkhart, giving him credibility among station owners. WQDR became his first success. Abrams later developed the music formats for XM Satellite Radio.

In its rock days, WQDR garnered some highly impressive listener ratings. Among the many memorable on-air personalities during the WQDR rock era were David Sousa, Frank Laseter, Mike Koste, Bill Hard, Jason Janulis, Roger Nelson, Bob Heymann, Steve Mitchell, Mark Silver, John Scott(John Chrystal), Chris Miller, Keith Wilson, Jim Huste, Sean Sizemore (Sean Scott), and Rad Messick. In later years, the airstaff included Greg Wells, Jo Leigh Ferriss, Daniel Brunty, Tom Gongaware, Bob Walton, Rockin' Ron Phillips, Tom Guild, John Lisle, Steve Kahn, Tom Evans, Brian McFadden, Cabell Smith (who was previously WDBS's morning classical DJ), Bob Robinson, and even Pat Patterson, who was hired in 1978 after years at crosstown Top-40 station WKIX to host mornings. In 1981, WQDR's News Department won a Peabody Award for a series produced by News Director Gayle Rancer and Joan Siefert on Vietnam Vets, entitled "Our Forgotten Warriors", an accomplishment almost unheard of at the time for a rock-music oriented radio station and a first for a North Carolina radio station. This extensive and comprehensive investigative news series also reeled in an Ohio State Award and numerous other honors regionally and nationally.

In 1977, the Durham Life group added a television station, Durham-based WRDU-TV channel 28. WQDR would soon join the newly rechristened WPTF-TV from a 1,200-foot (370 m) tower that stood off Penny Road in Apex.

Despite continued success into the 1980s, rock music on WQDR was not part of Durham Life Insurance Company's plan for WQDR. Venters left to form Voyager Communications group in 1982. In the summer of 1984, Durham Life Broadcasting under Don Curtis' management announced plans to switch WQDR's format to country in September. This predictably set off a howl of protest from listeners, and added media coverage for the station and its staffers. When Durham Life flipped WQDR to country music in early September 1984, several former announcers and a number of off-air personnel re-appeared on a new station across town, WRDU-FM which was put on the air on the same date by Voyager Communications. WQDR ended its Rock format run exactly how it began it 12 years earlier, closing out with "Bitch" by the Rolling Stones. The running joke at the time was that WQDR stood for "We Quit Doing Rock". WRDU picked up the format and rock continued in the Raleigh -Durham market. Both stations enjoyed great success in the following years.

WQDR's switch to country brought a format formerly found on a smattering of local AM signals under one high-fidelity commercial FM umbrella. Durham Life moved WQDR and WPTF radio from Salisbury Street to new studios at 3012 Highwoods Boulevard in North Raleigh in 1987, where they were joined by WPTF-TV, which moved from studios on NC Highway 54 in Durham. On December 10, 1989, WPTF-TV, broadcasting from a 2,000-foot (610 m) antenna near Garner, lost its tower when it collapsed due to uneven ice thawing. WPTF-TV returned to their former Apex site with WQDR, to be joined by WRAL-FM, whose site on the WRAL-TV tower was also destroyed that same day. When WRAL-TV and WPTF-TV re-built a common tower at the Garner site, both radio stations soon moved there. Since that tower placement substantially increased WQDR's antenna height, their broadcast power was reduced to 95 kilowatts in order to conform to the FCC's Class "C" FM station parameters. In 1991, Durham Life divested its broadcast properties, with WQDR and sister AM station WPTF going to what is now the Curtis Media Group.

After three nominations in previous years, WQDR won Country Music Association large-market station of the year in 2011.

Programming

WQDR's morning radio team, dubbed "The Q Morning Crew," features Mike Wheless and Mike Raley. From 2004 to 2006 The Q Morning Crew also included the country singer Heather Green. After Green's exit, the show added broadcasting newbie Janie Carothers and Marty "The One Man Party" Young to the lineup. It is one of the most popular morning radio shows in the Research Triangle.

Until the end of 2010, WQDR also aired MRN and PRN radio broadcasts of the NASCAR Sprint Cup series races.

As of the mid-2000s, WQDR is consistently one of the top-rated radio stations in the Raleigh-Durham market.

Some of the notable radio announcers that used to work at the radio station included long-time employee and morning man Jay Butler, Donna Reed and Dan Robins.

WQDR-FM is a Primary Entry Point (PEP) station for the Emergency Alert System.

During the mid 1990s Jerry Carrol hosted a show called Wild Man Wednesday. The show aired from 7 am to 9 am every week on Wednesday.

External links

• Query the FCC's FM station database for WQDR
• Radio-Locator information on WQDR
• Query Nielsen Audio's FM station database for WQDR