Feud forces college to be radio active.

• Author: Martin, Edward
• Position: Tar Heel Tattler - WNCW format changes - Brief Article

If heaven had a radio station, singer Emmylou Harris once said, it would be WNCW. But the Spindale station with the eclectic playlist that ranges from Ella Fitzgerald to Ziggy Marley and Ricky Skaggs--has gotten itself into a hell of a mess. Some fear that the station as they know it, listened to by about 100,000 people each week in Piedmont and western North Carolina and parts of South Carolina and Tennessee, is doomed.

Founded in 1989, WNCW was licensed to Isothermal Community College after proponents argued that western North Carolina lacked news coverage. If public radio represents an alternative to commercial radio, then WNCW is an alternative to the alternative. Initially, it carried local and National Public Radio news. But in the '90s, it adopted a format that includes bluegrass, blues, folk, reggae and traditional country. That upset traditional NPR listeners.

Things came to a head when nonprofit WNCW helped sponsor a for-profit Hendersonville music festival in October 2000, prompting a former volunteer to complain to Isothermal President Bill Lewis and the college's trustees...