WRAL (101.5 FM, "Mix 101.5") is a commercial radio station licensed to Raleigh, North Carolina, and serving the Research Triangle.
WRAL has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 98,000 watts, close to the current maximum for U.S. radio stations.
It became the precursor to today's North Carolina News Network, originally based at the WRAL studios (and sold to Curtis Media Group in 2009).
From 1960 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 1972, the station offered the audio portion of commentaries by Helms which aired as the "Viewpoint" segment on WRAL-TV.
[9] The station increased its ERP to 250,000 watts in 1963, which was grandfathered one year later after the FCC imposed new tower height and power restrictions.
It provides at least secondary coverage as far west as Asheboro, as far east as Greenville, as far south as Elizabethtown and as far north as the Virginia-North Carolina border.
[14][15] The weekly coaches' shows with Dave Doeren and Kevin Keatts air separately on sister station WCMC-FM.
WRAL-FM was the second station in Raleigh to air the nationally syndicated Delilah nighttime radio show, which it carried from November 2007 until October 2009.
Both Dees and Tesh are veterans to Triangle radio, having worked at WKIX in the early 1970s,[17] along with former WRAL-TV morning and noon anchor Bill Leslie.
[18] On April 2, 2013, WRAL-HD2 changed formats to Contemporary Christian music, an expansion of the "Cornerstone" program normally heard on Sunday mornings on the main channel from 7 to noon.
When the main channel switches to all-Christmas music after Thanksgiving, HD2 airs the adult contemporary format heard during the rest of the year.
The hosts were Kyle Smelser and Bryan Lord, who came from WNOW-FM in Indianapolis, along with Raleigh native Sarah King, who worked at WKNC while a student at N.C.
[24] On August 2, 2022, WRAL-HD3, W243DK, and W257CS flipped from sports "The Buzz" (which moved to WDNC and WCLY while remaining on WCMC-FM HD2) to all-news as "WRAL News+", airing newscasts from WRAL-TV.