WYQS (90.5 FM) is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

licensed to

Mars Hill, North Carolina Mars Hill is a town in Madison County, North Carolina, Madison County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 1,869 at the 2010 U.S. Census, and was estimated at 2,032 in 2018 by the U.S. Census. It is the home of Mars Hill University, t ...

, United States. The station is owned by Western North Carolina Public Radio, Inc. (styled as "Blue Ridge Public Radio"), owner of the area's flagship public radio station,

WCQS WCQS (88.1 FM) is the flagship National Public Radio member station for Asheville, North Carolina and Western North Carolina. The station is owned by Western North Carolina Public Radio, Inc. and broadcasts a mix of NPR and BBC World Service ...

. The format is a mixture of

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

and

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

programs, plus some locally sourced programming. As well as being available via a number of low-power

translators Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

as far apart as Brevard, Bryson City, Hendersonville, and Waynesville, BPR News is carried on the second

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...

channel for WCQS Asheville (WCQS HD2). It is also streamed live via the Blue Ridge Public Radio mobile app and on the station's website, making it available over a much wider area than its FM reach alone would allow.

History

The station went on the air as WVMH-FM in 1975; it was originally owned by

Mars Hill College Mars Hill University is a private Christian university in Mars Hill, North Carolina. The university offers 35 undergraduate majors and includes a school of nursing and graduate schools in education, criminal justice, and management. From 1859 to ...

. On April 12, 2005, after being purchased by Blue Ridge Public Radio, the station changed its call sign to the current WYQS and became a full repeater of WCQS. In 2008, the station broke off and began airing programming from the

24 hours a day. This 24-hour relay of BBC programming continued, uninterrupted, for almost a decade. This station's transmitter was relocated to Big Knob after the

Madison County, North Carolina Madison County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,193. Its county seat is Marshall. Madison County is part of the Asheville, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. History The co ...

Board of Commissioners voted to allow space to be leased on the tower there.

Relaunch as BPR News

In the spring of 2017, WCQS and its associated stations rebranded under the name "Blue Ridge Public Radio", with WCQS (and its repeaters and translators) continuing to air the established format of NPR programming and classical music. At this point WYQS became the home for a new channel, BPR News, with the aim of providing listeners with the choice of an all-speech format station in addition to the established NPR/classical format on WCQS. The reception areas of WCQS and BPR News overlap significantly in some areas due to the topography, giving listeners a choice of FM listening from Blue Ridge Public Radio. The station also makes efforts to push uptake of its mobile app and streaming services. On October 11, 2022, it was announced the Blue Ridge Public Radio will swap its formats for WCQS and WYQS on October 31.

Programming

Much of BPR News is a straight

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

of the speech-based programming on WCQS, but in time slots where WQCS airs music, BPR News carries news and talk programming, providing listeners who dislike the classical format with a choice of listening. On weekdays, following an overnight relay of the BBC World Service, NPR's ''

Morning Edition ''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 AM ...

'' airs from 5 to 9am, followed by the BBC's ''

Newshour ''Newshour'' is BBC World Service's flagship international news and current affairs radio programme, which is broadcast twice daily: weekdays at 1400, weekends at 1300 and nightly at 2100 (UK time). Each edition lasts one hour. It consists of ...

'' from 9 to 10am, and '' 1A'' with Joshua Johnson from 10am until noon. Between noon and 1pm the station carries ''The State of Things'' with

Frank Stasio Frank Stasio is an American talk radio host. He hosted '' The State of Things'' on North Carolina Public Radio for many years, retiring at the end of December, 2020. Prior to ''The State of Things'', Stasio worked for National Public Radio on ''A ...

, a live show produced daily by

North Carolina Public Radio WUNC (91.5 MHz) is a listener-supported public radio station, serving the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. It is licensed to Chapel Hill and is operated by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. On weekdays, WUNC carries Nat ...

with help from Blue Ridge Public Radio. The program concentrates on topics of interest in North Carolina and is broadcast from WUNC, with regular contributions from BPR helping to provide perspective and input from the northwest corner of the state. In the afternoons '' Here and Now'' goes out between 1 and 3pm, before BPR News rejoins WCQS from 3 to 7pm for ''

Fresh Air ''Fresh Air'' is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States since 1985. It is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show's host is Terry Gross. , the show was syndicated to 6 ...

'' with

Terri Gross Terry Gross (born February 14, 1951) is an American journalist who is the host and co-executive producer of ''Fresh Air'', an interview-based radio show produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and distributed nationally by NPR. Since joining NPR in ...

, ''

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

'', and ''

Marketplace A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a '' souk'' (from the Arabic), ' ...

''. At 7pm the station reverts to its own schedule, with some daytime shows receiving a repeat broadcast in the evenings on BPR News before the station joins the BBC World Service at 9pm. Weekend programs include NPR's ''

Weekend Edition ''Weekend Edition'' is a set of American radio news magazine programs produced and distributed by National Public Radio (NPR). It is the weekend counterpart to the NPR radio program ''Morning Edition''. It consists of ''Weekend Edition Saturday'' ...

'' and ''Weekend All Things Considered'', along with a selection of NPR and locally produced programs such as '' Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, Ask Me Another,

A Prairie Home Companion ''A Prairie Home Companion'' is a weekly radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor that aired live from 1974 to 2016. In 2016, musician Chris Thile took over as host, and the successor show was eventually renamed ''Live from He ...

This American Life ''This American Life'' (''TAL'') is an American monthly hour-long radio program produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media and hosted by Ira Glass. It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in the United States and internation ...

'' and ''

The Splendid Table ''The Splendid Table'' is a weekly radio program about food hosted by Francis Lam. The program began in 1997 on Minnesota Public Radio, and was originally hosted by Lynne Rossetto Kasper until her retirement in 2017. It is produced and distrib ...

''. Some weekend NPR programs are not simulcast, with WCQS and BPR News having individual programming at certain points across the weekend.

Translators

In addition to the main 90.5 signal and WCQS HD2, BPR News is heard over five translators in western North Carolina: On October 31, 2022, W268CL will swap places with W213BX, which was simulcasting

. Notes:

References

External links

* {{NPR North Carolina YQS NPR member stations 1975 establishments in North Carolina Radio stations established in 1975