WQFS

WQFS
City Greensboro, North Carolina
Broadcast area Triad
Branding Your Only Alternative
Frequency 90.9 MHz
Format Variety
ERP 1,900 watts
HAAT 61.0 meters
Class A
Facility ID 68233
Transmitter coordinates 36°5′39.00″N 79°53′21.00″W / 36.0941667°N 79.8891667°W / 36.0941667; -79.8891667
Owner Guilford College

WQFS (90.9 FM) is Guilford College's student-run radio station, with both students and members of the community serving as disk jockeys.[1] Broadcasting in a variety format, it serves Greensboro, North Carolina and the greater Piedmont Triad area. It is also broadcast on the internet via streaming audio at TuneIn. WQFS is currently ranked number six in the Princeton Review's "The Best 378 Colleges."[2] The station has maintained a spot in the contest's top ten for seven consecutive years.[3] In October 2008, Greensboro News & Record's Go Triad also named WQFS as the Triad's Best College Radio Station.[4]

History

The station started as a student club, The Fine Music Broadcasting Society, in 1965. Guilford obtained a license from the FCC on October 26, 1966 and, once it had the necessary equipment and funds, WQFS began a daily broadcast schedule on January 6, 1970, broadcasting in an adult contemporary or middle of the road format.[5] By its second year of operation, some disk jockeys began to play what a decade later would become known as college rock. Others would play hybrid programming, which could feature avant-garde jazz, contemporary classical, bluegrass, blues, and Musique concrète, sometimes all within the same program.

One early experiment involved celebrating the second anniversary of the Paul is dead hoax by playing not only Beatles, but other rock, and even classical records backwards, or using the station's two turntables to play a Beatles song forwards and backwards at the same time.

Like many college stations, WQFS currently features a wide variety of genres, all with a strong focus on independent music labels. The main format is indie rock. About one hundred DJs, half of them students, work at the station at any given time. Students also hold the management positions, which change frequently.

WQFS plays many local artists such as Low Sky, Resister, Decoration Ghost, and Workday/Schoolnight.

Long-running shows include David Butler's "The Sunday Morning Rehab Show"; Wesley Elam’s "Flava Lab" (hip-hop) on Thursday evenings; Josh Neas' "J's Indie Rock Mayhem" on Friday mornings; DJ Midnightt's "Garden of Good and Evil" on Tuesday evenings; Chris Roulhac’s "North Carolina Show" on Wednesday afternoons; and Sherrill “Mad Dog” Ward’s "Friday Night Rock Party."

WQFS is currently ranked as the sixth best college radio station in the country by the Princeton Review. In the past the station has held spots as high as number 4.[6]

Currently, Eli Phillips serves as General Manager, Kate Nunke as Programming Manager, Nathan Grannan as Music Manager, Lesly Vazquez as Promotions Director, and Andrew Denoff and Anna Rider as Production and News Managers.

Programming

Alphabetical listing of programs airing on WQFS as of February 2016, all independently produced and hosted by volunteer disc jockeys unless otherwise noted:

References

  1. ↑ "WQFS Facility Record". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  2. ↑ "Princeton Review's The Best 378 Colleges". 2014 edition. Archived from the original on August 20, 2013.
  3. ↑ "WQFS Named Triad's Best College Radio Station". Archived from the original on October 23, 2008.
  4. ↑ "Readers pick their favorites".
  5. ↑ "WQFS About Us". Archived from the original on August 22, 2008.
  6. ↑ Puterbaugh, Parke (2010-12-16). "College radio stations are a hit". News & Record. Archived from the original on December 19, 2010. Retrieved 2010-12-16.
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