Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

WRKC

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Broadcast area
  
Wilkes-Barre, PA

Frequency
  
88.5 (MHz)

ERP
  
1500 watts

Branding
  
"Radio King's College"

First air date
  
September 18, 1968

Format
  
Freeform owner = King's College

WRKC (88.5 FM) is a 1500 watt student-operated college radio station in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in northeastern Pennsylvania. The station's signal is best heard within inner Luzerne County (Wilkes-Barre, Kingston, Swoyersville), but can also be listened-to in outer Luzerne County (Pittston, Nanticoke, Dallas).

Contents

Format

Like many college radio stations, WRKC is run completely by students at King's College, except for the general manager. The station's radio format has a fair mixture of contemporary rock, indie rock, punk rock and other assorted genres. Students must play at least 40% of their music from rotation, but sometimes this rule is voided if the genre of a show is unique (i.e., a reggae show would not require rotation to be played since there is very little reggae in rotation). In 2010, a completely student written and performed radio noir show began broadcasting on the station, making it one of the only non-music programs available on the station. WRKC was formerly a mixed news, talk and music station but in the last fifteen years went to a complete radio format, save for the aforementioned radio noir show and the station's anchor program, the Radio Home Visitor, a news program that has read the day's local newspapers to the blind since 1974. While a mixed radio format, the station aired some infamous segments such as a student interview with the Ku Klux Klan. The station is webcast. The station airs 24-hours a day on a 1500 watt signal, playing a jukebox of CDs when student DJs do not do shows. Earlier in its history, King's students hosted shows on the air 24 hours a day.

Bands

The general practice of WRKC, like many other college radio stations, is to play non-mainstream and underground bands. In recent years, bands like Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday and My Chemical Romance were played heavily on WRKC before they achieved mainstream attention. Many popular bands in previous decades have been played on WRKC before they reached mainstream popularity.

Sports

The station also airs broadcasts of football and basketball games for King's College, and is planning to resume airing baseball in the future.

References

WRKC Wikipedia