WQDR-FM 94.7 History
Durham Life Insurance Company signed on WPTF-FM, then at 94.5, in 1949. The station, which would later move to 94.7, 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 format before becoming one of America's premier album rock stations as WQDR in 1973. In its rock days, WQDR reportedly garnered some highly impressive ratings. In 1977, the Durham Life family 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. In 1984, Durham Life flipped the now-100,000 watt WQDR to country, bringing a format formerly found on a smattering of local AM signals under one high fidelity 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 54 in Durham. On December 10th, 1989, WPTF-TV, now broadcasting from a 2,000-foot antenna near Garner, lost its tower when it collapsed with 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 the station within the legal parameters of a class "C" FM. In 1991, Durham Life divested its broadcast properties, with WQDR and sister AM station WPTF going to what is now Curtis Media Group.
WQDR-FM 94.7 Gallery
- In 2003, Scott Fybush's, "Tower Site of the Week" visited the Triangle and snapped this photo of the WPTF transmitter site. From its 1949 sign-on until moving to a taller tower in Apex in the late 1970s, WQDR transmitted from the pole atop the tower at right. This pole is now used by WWMY, 102.9 FM.
- WPTF-FM began broadcasting from atop the tower on the right, which is the daytime tower for 50,000-watt WPTF 680 AM. WWMY 102.9 now utilizes the pole.
- An advertisement from a 1968 Raleigh News and Observer promoting a NASCAR race on WPTF-FM.
- WQDR was one of the nation's first album rock stations, airing the format from 1973-1984. This is the logo used during that era.
- A 1982 clip from WQDR's East Coast Live with Allen Handelman, which made its commercial debut on the album rock WQDR.
- A bumper sticker of the logo WQDR used in its days as a rock outlet.
- This 1,300-foot tower, which now stands near Rolesville as the antenna for WCPE 89.7 FM, once stood in Apex and supported WQDR, as well as the former WPTF-TV.
- WQDR now broadcasts from the new 2,000-foot WRAL tower (center), located on TV Tower Road in Garner. This photograph appeared on fybush.com during their 2003 visit to the area. This tower also supports WRAL-TV, WRAL-FM, WRDC-TV (the former WPTF-TV), WRAZ-TV, low power TV station W64CN and FM translator W237BZ, which rebroadcasts WRTP-FM.
- A 1996 clip of WQDR from Bostonradio.org, 0:11.
