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WRAL (FM)
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WRAL (FM)
WRAL (101.5 FM, "Mix 101.5") is a commercial radio station licensed to Raleigh, North Carolina, and serving the Research Triangle. It is owned by the Capitol Broadcasting Company and broadcasts an adult contemporary radio format, switching to Christmas music for part of November and December. Capitol Broadcasting also owns NBC network affiliate WRAL-TV, Fox affiliate WRAZ-TV, and the Durham Bulls minor-league baseball team, along with several other radio stations. WRAL carries the audio of the Six O'Clock News broadcast from sister station WRAL-TV. During tornado warnings, WRAL-FM also simulcasts WRAL-TV's audio of their tornado coverage.
WRAL has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 98,000 watts, close to the current maximum for U.S. radio stations. Its broadcast tower is southeast of Raleigh in Auburn at (35°40′35.1″N 78°32′7.2″W / 35.676417°N 78.535333°W). WRAL broadcasts using HD Radio technology. An adult album alternative format branded as "That Station" is on its HD2 digital subchannel. The HD3 subchannel carries an all-news format known as "WRAL News+".
A construction permit authorizing the station was initially given the call sign WCOY. It changed to WRAL-FM before it signed on for the first time on September 6, 1946, on 95.3 with an ERP of 1,000 watts. It was the second FM station to operate in North Carolina after Christian radio station WMIT, and the first to operate on the new 88–108 MHz FM band (FM stations had previously used the 42–50 MHz band.). WRAL-FM was a sister station to WRAL 1240 AM (now WPJL). WRAL-AM-FM were owned by A.J. Fletcher's Capitol Broadcasting, which added a TV station in 1956, WRAL-TV channel 5. The studios were located at 130 Salisbury Street, with the transmitter on Davie Street Extension.
Beginning in the 1960s, WRAL-FM offered its own programming, ending the simulcast with its AM sister station. It played easy listening music and provided extensive agricultural reports. Together with WCEC in Rocky Mount and WGBR in Goldsboro, WRAL-FM helped establish a statewide radio network named the Tobacco Radio Network, which connected communities throughout North Carolina. It became the precursor to today's North Carolina News Network, originally based at the WRAL studios (and sold to Curtis Media Group in 2009). WRAL-FM moved to 101.5 MHz in 1947. It concurrently increased its ERP to 54,000 watts.
Jesse Helms became the news director of the radio stations in 1948, adding TV duties when channel 5 signed on. From 1960 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 1972, the station offered the audio portion of commentaries by Helms which aired as the "Viewpoint" segment on WRAL-TV. The station increased its ERP to 250,000 watts in 1963, which was grandfathered one year later after the FCC imposed new tower height and power restrictions. That made WRAL-FM an FM "superpower station." Only a handful of stations in the U.S. had power of a quarter-million watts or more.
WRAL-FM switched its format to adult contemporary music in the early 1970s, branding itself as "WRAL-Stereo 101" and later "WRAL-FM 101.5." The format continues to this day, though at one point the station leaned toward Hot AC. The "-FM" suffix was dropped from the call sign on October 1, 1974. Famous Bob Inskeep (FBI) started as morning host in 1975. The show included news and information as well as the puppet Zoot, mailman Mr. Snailspace and tax consultant H.R. Blockhead.
A new, taller tower was built in 1977 near Auburn, with an ERP of 100,000 Watts. On December 10, 1989, an early morning winter ice storm caused the tower it shared with WRAL-TV near Auburn, North Carolina, to collapse, along with a separate tower for WPTF-TV (now WRDC). The station moved its transmission signal to WPTF's former tower near Apex until a new tower was built at the same site the following year. With the new tower, the station had an effective radiated power of 96,000 watts to conform to FCC standards, since its antenna was situated farther up the tower than before. Even with the power reduction, the station still has one of the largest coverage areas of any station in North Carolina. It provides at least secondary coverage as far west as Asheboro, as far east as Greenville, as far south as Elizabethtown and as far north as the Virginia-North Carolina border.
On December 20, 2002, the station became the first licensed commercial radio station on the East Coast to broadcast using HD Radio technology. WRAL-HD1 simulcast the analog signal, while WRAL-HD2 offered a more modern-leaning playlist. On Monday, June 27, 2005, WRAL became the first commercial station in North Carolina and only the second commercial station in the nation (WUSN in Chicago was the first) to utilize the "multicasting" capabilities of HD Radio technology to broadcast multiple digital channels.
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WRAL (FM)
WRAL (101.5 FM, "Mix 101.5") is a commercial radio station licensed to Raleigh, North Carolina, and serving the Research Triangle. It is owned by the Capitol Broadcasting Company and broadcasts an adult contemporary radio format, switching to Christmas music for part of November and December. Capitol Broadcasting also owns NBC network affiliate WRAL-TV, Fox affiliate WRAZ-TV, and the Durham Bulls minor-league baseball team, along with several other radio stations. WRAL carries the audio of the Six O'Clock News broadcast from sister station WRAL-TV. During tornado warnings, WRAL-FM also simulcasts WRAL-TV's audio of their tornado coverage.
WRAL has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 98,000 watts, close to the current maximum for U.S. radio stations. Its broadcast tower is southeast of Raleigh in Auburn at (35°40′35.1″N 78°32′7.2″W / 35.676417°N 78.535333°W). WRAL broadcasts using HD Radio technology. An adult album alternative format branded as "That Station" is on its HD2 digital subchannel. The HD3 subchannel carries an all-news format known as "WRAL News+".
A construction permit authorizing the station was initially given the call sign WCOY. It changed to WRAL-FM before it signed on for the first time on September 6, 1946, on 95.3 with an ERP of 1,000 watts. It was the second FM station to operate in North Carolina after Christian radio station WMIT, and the first to operate on the new 88–108 MHz FM band (FM stations had previously used the 42–50 MHz band.). WRAL-FM was a sister station to WRAL 1240 AM (now WPJL). WRAL-AM-FM were owned by A.J. Fletcher's Capitol Broadcasting, which added a TV station in 1956, WRAL-TV channel 5. The studios were located at 130 Salisbury Street, with the transmitter on Davie Street Extension.
Beginning in the 1960s, WRAL-FM offered its own programming, ending the simulcast with its AM sister station. It played easy listening music and provided extensive agricultural reports. Together with WCEC in Rocky Mount and WGBR in Goldsboro, WRAL-FM helped establish a statewide radio network named the Tobacco Radio Network, which connected communities throughout North Carolina. It became the precursor to today's North Carolina News Network, originally based at the WRAL studios (and sold to Curtis Media Group in 2009). WRAL-FM moved to 101.5 MHz in 1947. It concurrently increased its ERP to 54,000 watts.
Jesse Helms became the news director of the radio stations in 1948, adding TV duties when channel 5 signed on. From 1960 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 1972, the station offered the audio portion of commentaries by Helms which aired as the "Viewpoint" segment on WRAL-TV. The station increased its ERP to 250,000 watts in 1963, which was grandfathered one year later after the FCC imposed new tower height and power restrictions. That made WRAL-FM an FM "superpower station." Only a handful of stations in the U.S. had power of a quarter-million watts or more.
WRAL-FM switched its format to adult contemporary music in the early 1970s, branding itself as "WRAL-Stereo 101" and later "WRAL-FM 101.5." The format continues to this day, though at one point the station leaned toward Hot AC. The "-FM" suffix was dropped from the call sign on October 1, 1974. Famous Bob Inskeep (FBI) started as morning host in 1975. The show included news and information as well as the puppet Zoot, mailman Mr. Snailspace and tax consultant H.R. Blockhead.
A new, taller tower was built in 1977 near Auburn, with an ERP of 100,000 Watts. On December 10, 1989, an early morning winter ice storm caused the tower it shared with WRAL-TV near Auburn, North Carolina, to collapse, along with a separate tower for WPTF-TV (now WRDC). The station moved its transmission signal to WPTF's former tower near Apex until a new tower was built at the same site the following year. With the new tower, the station had an effective radiated power of 96,000 watts to conform to FCC standards, since its antenna was situated farther up the tower than before. Even with the power reduction, the station still has one of the largest coverage areas of any station in North Carolina. It provides at least secondary coverage as far west as Asheboro, as far east as Greenville, as far south as Elizabethtown and as far north as the Virginia-North Carolina border.
On December 20, 2002, the station became the first licensed commercial radio station on the East Coast to broadcast using HD Radio technology. WRAL-HD1 simulcast the analog signal, while WRAL-HD2 offered a more modern-leaning playlist. On Monday, June 27, 2005, WRAL became the first commercial station in North Carolina and only the second commercial station in the nation (WUSN in Chicago was the first) to utilize the "multicasting" capabilities of HD Radio technology to broadcast multiple digital channels.