WINC-FM is "92.5 WINC FM" (pronounced WINK), an Adult Contemporary formatted radio station serving the Shenandoah Valley and Northern Virginia, the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, parts of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the Washington D.C. metropolitan area broadcasting from Winchester, Virginia.

WINC-FM has an unusually strong signal for an FM station, due to its transmitter being atop a mountain and its power being grandfathered in. It can be easily heard in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington DC and can even be heard at times as far south as Richmond. It regularly contests for supremacy in the Winchester market with Q102 WUSQ-FM, a country music station.

History

WINC-FM is owned and operated Centennial Broadcasting.

Richard F. Lewis, Jr. began the operation in 1939 when he, as a California resident, answered an advertisement in "Broadcasting Magazine", in which the Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce requested a radio station operator for the community. He formed the Fredericksburg Broadcasting Corporation, and founded station WFVA.

Two years later, Mr. Lewis moved to Winchester and built station WINC-AM. WINC-AM went on the air on June 26, 1941. Lewis eventually built and acquired additional radio stations, including one of the nation's first FM Radio stations, WINC-FM. WINC-FM signed on as WRFL, in honor of its founder.

Mid-Atlantic sale

On April 13, 2007, media websites DCRTV in Washington DC and SVRTV in Winchester, VA reported that WINC-FM, along with sisters WINC-AM, WWRE-FM, and WWRT-FM in Winchester and WBQB-FM and WFVA-AM in Fredericksburg, VA, had been sold to Roanoke, VA-based Centennial Broadcasting No further information has been released.

On May 17, 2007, it was finally reported and confirmed that Centennial Broadcasting had bought the stations for $36 million. According to a Winchester Star article, no changes would be made at any of the stations in format or staff.

Five months later, WINC-FM afternoon DJ Dave Gunning, moved to the morning shift at Hagerstown area station WAFY. Gunning was replaced with Operations Manager Jeff Adams.

In September of 2008, WINC-FM began broadcasting over the internet. This isn't the first time the station has broadcast online, as it and WTRM were one of the first Winchester area stations to do so.

External links

• 92.5 WINC-FM Online
• WINC-FM's MySpace page
• List of "grandfathered" FM radio stations in the U.S.