The first radio station in eastern North Carolina and second to belicensed in the entire state was WLAC at North Carolina State College.WLAC was founded by students and faculty of the communications departmentwith a studio in Winston Hall. WLAC's first broadcast was on October 16,1922. Guest speaker for the evening was Josephus Daniels, formersecretary of the US Navy and owner of the Raleigh News & Observer.Daniels made the ironic prediction: "Nobody now fears that a Japanesefleet could deal an unexpected blow on our Pacific possessions...radiomakes surprises impossible." Financial difficulty forced WLAC off the airone year later.
Twenty one years after WLAC fell silent, a couple of aerospace andelectrical engineering students brought radio back to the university withexperimental station WOLF in 1944. WOLF was entirely financed by thesetwo students and only reached a few of the student dormitories as acarrier-current station.
In 1945 WOLF's call letters were changed to WNCS and the station wasadmitted into the Student Publication Authority. The university alsobegan to take an interest in WNCS and helped it by giving financialsupport and a more permanent location with studios in the 1911 Building.
The next change occurred in 1947 as WNCS became WVWP, "VOICE of theWOLFPACK", and made it's first attempt at out-of-town sports coveragewith a broadcast of the State-Davidson football game. In 1948 WVWPcarried all home Wolfpack basketball games. In 1952 the FCC shut downWVWP for over radiation of it's signal, but WVWP returned in 1954 tobroadcast the first ACC basketball tournament at Reynolds Coliseum.
1958 brought yet another change in call letters, this time to WKNC 580AM. The following year WKNC became the first college radio station in thesoutheast to cover two independent campuses when they began broadcastingto Peace College.
Feeling the need to expand their coverage of NCSU and beyond, WKNC madeplans to go FM in the mid-1960's. As a carrier-current AM station, WKNCcould only be heard in Lee, Sullivan, and Bragaw residence halls (ACARRIER-CURRENT STATION CAN ONLY BE HEARD ON RADIOS PLUGGED INTO A WALLOUTLET IN A BUILDING EQUIPPED WITH A SPECIAL RECEIVER).
In October, 1966 WKNC 88.1 FM was born. With a 10 watt transmitter,WKNC-FM could reach most of Raleigh. But after only a few years as an FMstation, the staff discovered that there were still many students who hadAM radios in their dorms but no FM. To reach these students, WPAK 600 AMwas established along with WKNC-FM to serve those students still withoutFM radios. WPAK also featured a more mainstream top-40 format as acontrast to WKNC's mix of folk, jazz, and classical music. WPAK was onthe air until 1971.
The 1970's saw some major developments for WKNC. In 1972 the stationmoved into new studios in the University Student Center. The studios,built almost entirely by student volunteers, included some unique designfeatures to better accommodate the air staff. A 30 foot antenna tower wasalso built on top of D.H. Hill Library. WKNC increased it's power from 10to 1,000 watts in 1974 and began to tailor it's format towards aprogressive rock sound while continuing to feature jazz, top-40, andsoul.
Another jump in power came in the early 1980's from 1,000 to 3,000 watts,good for about 40 miles outside of Raleigh. With a growing staff,audience, and power output as well as improvements in format, WKNC becamerecognized as one of the top college radio stations in the country.
Entering 1991 and to celebrate it's 25th Anniversary as an FM station,WKNC moved into new state of the art studios in the Student Center Annex.On Saturday, March 9th, 1991 WKNC 88.1 FM signed on the air from it's newfacilities, opening yet another chapter in the history of radio at NorthCarolina State University.
Written by Mark Teel,
Staff Historian
WKNC is the student run radio station of NC State University. All content is a copyright © of NC State University
