WPAQ-AM
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| City | Mount Airy, North Carolina |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Piedmont of North Carolina Southwestern Virginia Southside Virginia |
| Branding | "WPAQ AM740" |
| Slogan | "The Voice of the Blue Ridge" |
| Frequency | 740 kHz |
| First air date | February 2, 1948 |
| Format |
Country Americana Bluegrass |
| Power | 10,000 watts daytime 1,000 watts critical hours 7 watts night |
| Class | D |
| Owner | WPAQ Radio, Inc. |
| Webcast | WPAQ Webstream |
| Website | WPAQ Online |
WPAQ is an Americana, and Bluegrass-formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Mount Airy, North Carolina, serving the Piedmont of North Carolina and the Southside and Southwestern sections of Virginia. WPAQ is owned and operated by WPAQ Radio, Inc.
One listener said the letters should stand for "We Piddle Around Quietly."
Ralph Epperson observed in 1948 that the popularity of old-time music was falling off, and one area radio station needed to take on the job of preserving it. As a child he enjoyed listening to distant AM radio stations, and in college he changed his major to radio technology. He worked for the United States Naval Research Laboratory before going into broadcasting, and he never dreamed he would own a radio station. But Epperson, his father, and cousin, literally built the new radio station, including the 305-foot tower still used over 65 years later. So much cursing took place that, according to Epperson, one minister said it would take a six-month revival meeting to make up for it. Fiddle player Benton Flippen helped dedicate the new studio February 1, 1948, the night before actual broadcasts began.
Epperson's "Merry Go-Round," which began airing on WPAQ in 1948, was the third-longest live-music show on radio in 1998 (The Grand Ole Opry was the longest-running). In the mid-1990s, the show moved to the Downtown Cinema. At one time, Epperson made recordings of the live performances to air later, and he continued to play these recordings in the 1990s on another show he hosted.
Epperson did pretty much everything, working as a DJ during the day, selling air time, repairing equipment, sometimes sleeping on a cot at the station before he got married.
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Wikipedia