WQDR

Infobox Radio Station
name = WQDR


city = Raleigh, North Carolina
area = Raleigh, North Carolina
branding = 94.7 QDR
slogan = "Today's Best and Most Continuous Country"
airdate =
frequency = 94.7 (MHz)
format = Country
power = 100,000 watts
class = C
HAAT = 512 meters
facility_id = 9076
coordinates = coord|35|40|35|N|78|32|9|W|type:landmark
callsign_meaning = QuaDraphonic Rock
owner = Curtis Media Group
sister_stations = WBBB, WYMY, WWMY, WDOX, WPTF, WCLY
website = [http://www.947qdr.com www.947qdr.com]

WQDR-FM is a country music station located at 94.7 on the FM frequency and based in Raleigh, North Carolina. It is owned and operated by Curtis Media Group, which is also based in the same city.

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, before making radio history. WQDR was the first station to be consulted by Lee Abrams, who later bvecame one of the top program consultants in the country. David Sousa was hired as program director. Sousa had worked with Abrams at WMYQ, Miami, Fla. Abrams, Sousa and Robert W. Walker,who worked with Abrams, crearted the music list and formatics that was later knows as the "Superstars" format.

WQDR went on the air Christmas night, at midnight. The last song on WPTF-FM was "Jingle Bell Rock", while the first on WQDR was "Bitch" by the Rolling Stones. The call letters stand for QuaDraphonic Rock. Abrams, a young programmer who was answering top-40 radio request lines in Detroit at an exceptionally early age and then working in music at WQAM and then WMYQ... and then at the age of 17 was program director of WRIF FM in Detroit. There he picked up some of the ABC FM formatics and methods and that was the basis of the WQDR format.David Sousa was given a free hand in programing the station, and within a year, had the station in double digit ratings. After that first year, the format now named "Superstars", took off and soon was in over 30 markets around the country. Abrams big break came when he teamed up with veteran consultant Kent Burkhart. That partnership gave him credibility among station owners. WQDR was his his first success. Abrams is now in programming for XM Satellite Radio.

In its rock days, WQDR garnered some highly impressive listener ratings. Among the many memorable air-personalities during the WQDR rock era were Mike Koste, Bill Hard, David Sousa, Frank Laseter, Roger Nelson, Bob Heymann, Steve Mitchell, 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 Ferris, Daniel Brunty, Tom Gongaware, Bob Walton, Rockin' Ron Phillips, Tom Guild, Steve Kahn, Brian McFadden, Cabell Smith, Bob Robinson, and even Pat Patterson, who was hired in 1978 after years at crosstown top-40 WKIX to do mornings. In 1981, WQDR's News Department won a Peabody Award for a series produced by Joan Siefert on Vietnam Vets, an accomplishment almost unheard of at the time for a rock-music oriented radio station.

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 tower that stood off Penny Road in Apex.

Despite continued success into the 1980s, rock music on WQDR was not part of Durham Life Broadcasting's plan for WQDR. In the summer of 1984, they 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 reappeared on a new station across town, WRDU-FM. The running joke at the time was that WQDR stood for "We Quit Doing Rock".

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 the mid-1980s, where they were joined by WPTF-TV, which moved from studios on NC Highway 54 in Durham. On December 10th, 1989, WPTF-TV, broadcasting from a 2,000-foot 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 rebuilt a common tower at the Garner site, both radio stations soon moved to the new site. Now broadcasting from a much higher antenna level, WQDR's power was cut to 96,000 watts to keep it within the legal parameters of a class "C" FM station. In 1991, Durham Life divested its broadcast properties, with WQDR and sister AM station WPTF going to what is now Curtis Media Group.

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 beautiful and talented budding country singer Heather Green. [ [http://www.heathergreenmusic.com index ] ] 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. WQDR also airs MRN and PRN radio broadcasts of the NASCAR Nextel Cup series races.

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

References

External links

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