Winston-Salem State University
1892 - 1993
March 1993
WSNC-FM 90.5 Increases Wattage To 10,000
WSNC Staff Member sending tunes out over the airwaves.
Staff Report
WSNC-FM 90.5, Winston-
Salem State University’s campus
radio station is now 10,000 watts
strong. As of March 6, the station
received a power boost that has the
staff buzzing with excitement.
Previously the station’s wattage
was 125. The additional 9,875
watts has helped the station
increase its listening audience, its
format and its signal pattern.
Before the increase, the station’s
signal pattern was omni-directional -
flowed in a circular motion with no
direct path. Now it has a directional
pattern - targeting certain areas.
According to listeners, WSNC-FM
can be heard from as far as
Charlotte and Martinsville, Va.
The increase also brought about
changes within the station’s
organization. A radio staff meeting
held on March 10, sought to help
WSNC-FM continue to be a more
uniform station. Listeners can now
expect to hear a weather report at
five minutes after the hour, a public
service announcement (PSA) at 10
minutes after the hour and Sheridan
Broadcasting Network News at 10
minutes to the hour. There will be
no vast differences in the station’s
sound; just the addition of more
information through public affair
programming like “Date Line
Winston-Salem” with Mayor Martha
Wood, “Inside Winston-Salem,”
“Urban Beat,” and “World in
Review” and more jazz music.
The station is also striving to
improve listener’s quality of life.
WSNC is not trying to compete
with the area’s bigger stations or the
stations at Wake Forest or A&T
State Universities. Students not
professionals run the station. These
students are aspiring to become
future radio station owners and
managers not just on-air-
personalities or dee-jays.
According to Dr. Brian Blount,
interim chairman of the Department
of Mass Communications, “the
increased power will enable the
station to provide the informational
and educational programming that is
expected of a college radio station.”
“I am excited about the
increase,” said Steven “Stu”
Robinson, the station’s assistant
program director. “We are
programming for listeners between
the ages of 15 - 60 and have been
receiving positive feedback from
listeners.”
Since WSNC is not a
commercial station (it can not sell
radio advertising time), the
members of the station’s promotion
staff will continue to be very busy.
“Music Pack and Ticket Give-
Aways, underwriting of programs
and coporate support will be some of
the promotional activities the station
will undertake,” explained Joe
Watson, WSNC’s station manager.
With all of these good things
happening at the station, many
listeners have some complaints. One
such listener is Monica Jenkins.
Jenkins, a junior Business
Administration major lives in
Pegram Hall. “The station does
sound much better and the deejays
are talking better. My complaint is
the station’s interference with the
television watching and telephone
calls.”
Mignon Smith, another junior
agrees with Jenkins. “The wattage
increase is messing up television
watching in Dillard Hall,” she
explained. “Personally, I wish they
would now have a wattage
decrease.”
Conversely, many other listeners
are enjoying the station’s wattage
increase. “I feel that the increase
gives the station an opportunity to be
heard by more people that weren’t
able to hear it before,” commented
Chandra Young, a junior Business
Administration major.
Brian Bowles, a junior Mass
Communications major said, “since
V/SNC has increased its wattage to
10,000 watts, it enables listeners to
hear the talent that is here at
WSSU.”
Raymond Harvey, who delivers
Pepsi says he, “can pick up the
station as I deliver from store to
store. It comes through clearer now
and I also enjoy the fewer number of
interuptions between songs.”
“I can now pick up the station
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