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"It's a great day to be alive in the Commonwealth": WVTF's first broadcast

WVTF's first broadcast happened in August of 1973, when the station was still operated by Virginia Western Community College. It was originally located on the second floor of Fishburn Hall on the VWCC campus.  In 1975, that transmitter was moved from Fishburn Hall to the top of Poor Mountain.

WVTF has been affiliated with NPR since its inception. Its announcer "Frosty" Landon, now retired and still living in Roanoke has worked in radio and television for WDBJ and as the executive editor of the Roanoke Times as well as assisted in establishing the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. On its first live broadcast Landon stated "It's a great day to be alive in the commonwealth." As the first and only public radio station in Roanoke WVTF would provide listeners with a radio experience outside of the commercial sector, what was stated by NPR representative Part Blanton as the "true feeling of Roanoke". In 1980 WVWR was sold by VWCC to the Virginia Tech Foundation and the call letters were officially changed to WVTF.