WQDR-FM
Encyclopedia
WQDR is a radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...

 in Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...

, 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
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 format and is currently owned by Curtis Media Group
Curtis Media Group
Curtis Media Group is a broadcast media company based in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. The company owns and operates several North Carolina radio stations and four radio networks.-AM:*WPTF 680 AM *WQDR 570 AM...

.

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
WPTF
WPTF, NewsRadio 680, is a talk radio station serving the Triangle area of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The station is owned by Curtis Media Group...

 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
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

 format in the late 1960s and early 70s. WQDR was the brain child of WPTF's Don Fowler, who saw quad stereo as the wave of the future. (QDR stands for quadraphonic
Quadraphonic
Quadraphonic sound – the most widely used early term for what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of the listening space, reproducing signals that are independent of one another...

). David Sousa was hired as program director. Sousa had worked with Lee Abrams at WMYQ, Miami, Fla. Abrams, Sousa and Robert W. Walker, who worked with Abrams, crearted the music list and program structure that was later known as the "Superstars" format.

WQDR went on the air Christmas night at midnight. The last song on WPTF-FM was "Jingle Bell Rock
Jingle Bell Rock
"Jingle Bell Rock" is the name of a popular Christmas song first released by Bobby Helms in 1957. It has received frequent airplay in the United States during every Christmas time since then. "Jingle Bell Rock" was composed by Joseph Carleton Beal , and James Ross Boothe...

", while the first on WQDR was "Bitch" by the Rolling Stones. Abrams was a young programmer who began his radio career by answering Top-40 request lines in Detroit. Later, he worked at WQAM, then WMYQ, and at the age of 17 became program director of WRIF
WRIF
WRIF — branded 101 WRIF: The RIFF — is a commercial active rock radio station licensed by the FCC to operate in Detroit, Michigan serving surrounding Metro Detroit. The station is currently owned by Greater Boston Radio, Inc. WRIF is a grandfathered Class B station with a signal equivalent to...

 FM in Detroit. There, he picked up some of ABC network's approach to FM radio, which was the basis of WQDR's format.

David Sousa was given a free hand in programming the station, and within a year, had the station in 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 is now in programming for XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...

.

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, 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
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...

 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
WRDC-TV
WRDC, channel 28, is an affiliate station of MyNetworkTV in the Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville, North Carolina television market. The station is licensed to Durham, but its studios are in the Highwoods office park just outside downtown Raleigh...

 channel 28. WQDR would soon join the newly-rechristened WPTF-TV from a 1200 feet (365.8 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 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 re-appeared on a new station across town, WRDU-FM
WRDU-FM
WRDU , known as "Rush Radio 106.1", is a talk radio formatted radio station that serves the Raleigh-Durham market of North Carolina. It is owned and operated by Clear Channel Worldwide. Sister stations include G105, 93.9 KISS-FM, and 100.7 the River...

. 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 10, 1989, WPTF-TV, broadcasting from a 2000 feet (609.6 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
WRAL-FM
WRAL is an Adult Contemporary music formatted radio station based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Its studios are located on Highwoods Boulevard in Raleigh, along with WCMC-FM, a sports talk station that signed on in October 2005...

, 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
Country Music Association
The Country Music Association was founded in 1958 in Nashville, Tennessee. It originally consisted of only 233 members and was the first trade organization formed to promote a music genre...

 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 beautiful and talented budding 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
The Triangle (North Carolina)
The Research Triangle, also known as Raleigh-Durham and commonly referred to as simply "The Triangle", is a region in the Piedmont of North Carolina in the United States, anchored by North Carolina State University, Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and cities of...

.

Until the end of 2010, WQDR also aired MRN
Motor Racing Network
The Motor Racing Network is the principal radio broadcasting operation of NASCAR, promoting themselves as "The Voice of NASCAR." It broadcasts coverage of most major NASCAR races at the top three levels of NASCAR at tracks owned by International Speedway Corporation as well as Dover International...

 and PRN
Performance Racing Network
The Performance Racing Network is a radio network controlled by Speedway Motorsports, Inc..Performance Racing Network broadcasts all NASCAR-sanctioned Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series events held at Speedway Motorsports-controlled tracks which include Atlanta, Bristol, Infineon, Las Vegas,...

 radio broadcasts of the NASCAR
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...

 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.

External links


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