Radio WVTF-FM

WVTF is the flagship National Public Radio station for most of western Virginia. Owned and operated by Virginia Tech through its fundraising arm, the Virginia Tech Foundation, the station is licensed to Roanoke and operates a large satellite and translator network covering much of the western part of the state.

WVTF began broadcasting in August 1973 as WVWR and was licensed to Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke. It was used primarily to air college telecourses and give broadcasting students a chance to hone their skills. In 1975, WVWR's transmitter was moved from Fishburn Hall on the VWCC campus to Poor Mountain, where most of Roanoke's major radio and television stations have their transmitters. The power also was increased to 100,000 watts. The power boost tripled its coverage area, giving it at least secondary coverage of much of central and southwest Virginia, southern West Virginia and northern North Carolina.

In 1979, WVWR began the Radio Reading Service on its subcarrier frequency.

WVWR had carried a few NPR programs from its inception. However, when NPR insisted it hire more professional staff as a condition of full membership, Virginia Western realized it would be in over its head operating a full-service public radio station. It found a buyer in the Virginia Tech Foundation, which formally took control in 1980 and changed the call letters to WVTF. Over the next decade, WVTF built translator after translator to better serve its mostly mountainous coverage area, one of the largest in the NPR system.

WVTF has recently expanded its role in the community beyond radio broadcasting in sponsoring juried art shows at its studios in Roanoke.