WQOK-FM 97.5 History
WQOK signed on December 23rd, 1966, as WHLF-FM in South Boston, Virginia as the FM sister station of the Cole family's WHLF, 1400 AM. WHLF-FM was later known as WPHR and finally WJLC before the Cole's sold the FM station to Philadelphia's American Radio in 1987. American upgraded the station's power to 100,000 watts from a taller antenna across the border in the Berea community of Granville County. The station's studios were moved to Raleigh, where WQOK "97-OK" signed on with an urban contemporary format. Also known as "K-Power" before settling on "K 97.5" as their handle, the powerful WQOK signal quickly overpowered their then-competitor in the urban format, Durham-based WFXC "Foxy 107". The station was sidelined for several months in 1989, following a lightning strike at their transmitter site, but came back strong and has been at or near the top of the Arbitron ratings since 1991. That same year, WFXC dropped their urban contemporary for an R&B format targeted at older listeners. In 1995, Clear Channel bought WQOK along with Fuquay-Varina's WNND (now WNNL) 103.9 FM. Former competitor WFXC, now also heard on WFXK and sister AM station WDUR, 1490 AM joined Clear Channel in 1997. In 2000, when Clear Channel bought Capstar, the owner of WDCG, WRSN, WRDU and WTRG, the radio giant divested WQOK along with WFXC, WFXK and WNNL to urban broadcaster Radio One. In 2007, Radio One won approval from the Federal Communications Commission to change WQOK's city of license from South Boston to Carrboro, NC, thus allowing the station to better penetrate the market's core. To move to Carrboro, WQOK had to drop its class to a "C-2" and its power to 50,000 watts from an antenna on the tower of sister station WFXC near eastern Durham's Grove Park subdivision. The station completed the move in September of 2009, concurrently activating their HD Radio signal.