WCPE (89.7 FM) in

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats, seat of Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County in the United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most ...

, is a listener supported non-commercial, non-profit radio station, and the program contributor for The Classical Station, a

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

network. The station went on the air July 17, 1978, and switched to a 24-hour classical music format in 1984. Both are owned by the Educational Information Corporation, a nonprofit community organization. WCPE's studios are located just outside

Wake Forest, North Carolina Wake Forest is a town in Franklin, Granville and Wake counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina; located almost entirely in Wake County, it lies just north of the state capital, Raleigh. At the 2020 census, the population was 47,601. That is ...

. Its main signal extends from the South Carolina state line to the suburbs of

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

, and some parts of

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

, as well.

Overview

WCPE's call letters do not stand for anything in particular; the station simply did not have the money to petition the

FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

for a specific set of call letters, but was happy with the result. WCPE operates three full-power satellite stations in the

Outer Banks The Outer Banks (frequently abbreviated OBX) are a string of barrier islands and spits off the coast of North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, on the east coast of the United States. They line most of the North Carolina coastline, separating ...

of eastern North Carolina, as well as a network of low-powered translators across the state. It can also be heard on

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

systems, on free-to-air (open format) "small dish" home satellite systems via the AMC-1

satellites A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotop ...

, and around the world via six

streaming audio Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

formats on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

, including

mp3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

Ogg Vorbis Vorbis is a free and open-source software project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The project produces an audio coding format and software reference encoder/decoder (codec) for lossy audio compression. Vorbis is most commonly used in conjun ...

QuickTime QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Created in 1991, the latest Mac version, QuickTime X, is avai ...

RealAudio RealAudio, or also spelled as Real Audio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks and first released in April 1995. It uses a variety of audio codecs, ranging from low-bitrate formats that can be used over dialup modems, to high-fid ...

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

, and WMA. The station also streams via

IPv6 Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communication protocol, communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic ...

. It also distributes its classical music format to affiliate stations in ten states as a service entitled ''Great Classical Music.'' As of December 2007, WCPE has lost access to its C-Band (Big dish) transponder

Helms-Leahy Small Webcaster Settlement Act of 2002

In November 2002 WCPE and its founder and General Manager, Deborah Proctor was recognized by Senator Jesse Helms for her contribution in the Helms-Leahy Small Webcaster Settlement Act of 2002. This act helped settle a dispute regarding the amount of royalties webcasters must pay in order to perform sound recordings over the Internet bringing stability to the then-emerging webcasting industry.

The North Carolina Award

On Saturday, November 6, 2019, founder and General Manager, Deborah Proctor was recognized by Governor Roy Cooper with North Carolina's highest civilian honor, the North Carolina Award. Proctor was recognized for her efforts to promote and help small, independent and public broadcasters remain viable in the era of online broadcasting.

Simulcasts and translators

WZPE is owned by the Educational Information Corporation, while WURI is owned by the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

and leased to WCPE. In 2016, WCPE's programming in Buxton moved from high-power WBUX (90.5 FM) to W216BE. Both facilities are owned by WUNC, which WBUX now retransmits.

References

External links

WCPE websiteRebroadcast consent letter, retrieved July 2, 2021.
{{Authority control Classical music radio stations in the United States CPE Wake Forest, North Carolina NPR member stations Radio stations established in 1978 1978 establishments in North Carolina