WSNC 90.5 FM began its first broadcast on May 2, 1983 with Faculty and Students that included Station Manager Clarence Thomas; Student Station Manager Dwight Jones; Production Manager Percy Johnson; Office/Traffic Manager Tracy Hicks; Public Affairs Director Von Corbett; Promotions Director Angela Jackson; News Director Gail Bohannon; Music Director Maurice Rouse; Music Librarian Yvonne Lewis; and Student Support Calvin Easter. 2018 marked WSNC’s 35th year of broadcasting in the Forsyth County community. We currently broadcast 24 hours-a- day, 7 days-a-week from a 10,000-watt tower, located on the campus of Winston-Salem State University with a coverage area that includes Forsyth, Stokes, Davie, Davidson, Randolph, and Guilford Counties.
Our format is Jazz “In All Its Colors” and our goal is to provide a blend of various categories of ‘society defined’ jazz in an effort to showcase the depth of this great artform as well as preserve jazz as a viable radio format option. To enhance that effort, we are an NPR Affiliate and also offer information to assist strengthen awareness of a multitude of cultural and community-based activity and initiates intended to enrich the lives of its citizens…….National Public Radio (NPR) news hourly throughout the week and Award-Winning Public Affairs programming, Public Radio International (PRI) programming, and of course, locally-originated Public Affairs programming. Specialty programming on the weekend that provides music formats that are from the roots of Jazz…….Latin Jazz Fusion, Blues, R&B Classic Oldies, Gospel, Reggae and World Music.
Why Jazz as a major portion of WSNC’s presentation? One of our locally-originated public affairs programs, “Empowering You” hosted by veteran Calvin Patterson, interviewed new General Manager Brian Anthony where he addresses that and the future direction of WSNC. The podcast of that interview is available on our Media page. Another local public affairs host, Byron Williams of Public Morality is also a columnist with the Winston-Salem Journal and addresses the subject of Jazz in a column dated May 19, 2018……..
“Jazz, arguably the quintessential American musical art form, has 57 terrestrial radio stations nationwide dedicated to its format, with the vast majority being public radio. Given those statistics it is easy to wonder whether WSNC-FM, whose mantra is “jazz in all its colors,” either didn’t get the memo that the market is in a steady decline, is too stubborn simply to comprehend the dire nature of that information or is determined to fulfill its mandate.
