In 1973, public radio first came to the Roanoke area of Virginia with the sign-on of 4,100-watt WVWR at Virginia Western Community College. The station served as a laboratory for broadcast students and a forum for on-air college courses. By 1975, WVWR had increased their power to 100,000 watts from Poor Mountain, near Roanoke. In 1980, the Virginia Tech Foundation assumed control of the station, changing their call letters to WVTF. Today, WVTF is known for having one of the largest coverage areas of any public radio station with a signal covering not only the mountains of Virginia, but parts of West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina (including the northwestern Triangle area). In May of 2006, WVTF began broadcasting in digital radio, with three separate programming streams available to listeners with new HD Radios.