City Roanoke, Virginia Frequency 94.9 MHz | Branding "94.9 Star Country" First air date July 11, 1948 | |
Broadcast area Roanoke, Virginia
Lynchburg, Virginia
New River Valley Slogan "Your Big Giveaway Station" | ||
WSLC-FM (94.9 FM) is a Country formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Roanoke, Virginia, serving the New River Valley. WSLC-FM is owned and operated by Mel Wheeler, Inc.
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The station can be heard as far away as Smyth County, Virginia to the South. To the North, it can be heard up to Lexington. WSLC-FM can also be heard as far east as Nelson County.
WDBJ-FM
The station was launched on July 11, 1948 with the callsign WDBJ-FM with a Beautiful music format for many years, and its own orchestra. During its time at WDBJ-FM, the station was owned by the Times World Corporation.
WPVR
Jim Gibbons Radio, Inc. bought the station and on November 1, 1969, the callsign was changed to WPVR. The station would continue to carry its Beautiful music format. By 1995, WPVR had evolved into Light Adult Contemporary, branded as "Lite 95", and later in 1997, switched to "Arrow 94.9" with a Classic rock format.
94.9 Star Country
Mel Wheeler, Inc. bought the station, along with WSLQ-FM and WFIR and at noon on May 25, 2000, the callsign was switched to WSLC-FM and the format was changed to Country, branded as "The New 94.9 Star Country". After April 1, 2004, the station discontinued the reference of WSLC-FM being new, thus using the branding "94.9 Star Country; Your Big Giveaway Station". The Country format was adopted of its sister station, WSLC-AM at 610 AM, which had been a Country station for over 50 years. WSLC-AM was a sister station of WSLC-FM and remained on 610 AM until March 13, 2002 when the Country format was dropped and the callsign was changed to WVBE. On January 20, 2016, that station flipped to sports as WPLY.