WYCS

On March 15, 1965, the York County School Board applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for permission to build a new, 21,000-watt FM station to broadcast from York High School; the FCC approved the application on July 16.{{cite web|url=https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/api/download/attachment/cc376e20-d51e-63ad-6f07-16448e7aa35e|title=History Cards for WYCS|publisher=Federal Communications Commission}} WYCS began broadcasting March 15, 1966, using a transmitter purchased from Old Dominion College. It was heavily supported by the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg and primarily rebroadcast its programming, a combination promoted as the "Colonial Educational Network".{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-virginias-only-high-school/167618784/|date=March 13, 1966|page=5D|first=Peyton|last=Powell|title=Virginia's Only High School FM Station: WYCS Goes On The Air Tuesday At York|newspaper=Daily Press|location=Newport News, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}} As WCWM was a 10-watt station only receivable near the campus and WYCS operated at much higher power, this arrangement extended the reception area of WCWM's existing evening programming.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-college-and-york-schools-to/167618911/|date=March 1, 1966|page=21|title=College And York Schools To Operate Radio Station|newspaper=Daily Press|location=Newport News, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}} WYCS retained the ability to occasionally originate programs{{r|Dail660313}} and did so to air York High School basketball.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-old-radio-show-by-orson-well/167618965/|date=January 16, 1968|page=16|title=Old Radio Show By Orson Wells To Be Broadcast|newspaper=Daily Press|location=Newport News, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}}

In its third school year, 1967–1968, York High School began to put together a more comprehensive student staff and studio facilities, primarily using aged Army surplus equipment.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-york-station-enters-3rd-year/167619057/|date=December 26, 1967|page=34|title=York Station Enters 3rd Year|newspaper=Daily Press|location=Newport News, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}} In one case, a transmitter dating to 1939 blew out-of-production vacuum tubes and needed to be refitted to accept more modern parts.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-school-board-hears-call-from/167619106/|date=May 13, 1968|page=17|title=School Board Hears Call From 'Old' Radio Station|newspaper=Daily Press|location=Newport News, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}} An audio console that was surplus equipment was later identified as having been used in the production of president Franklin D. Roosevelt's fireside chats.{{r|Dail960308}} A second studio was built in 1971, allowing for increased broadcast activity.{{r|Virg790221}} By 1974, the station was on the air seven days a week, mostly during afternoons but also airing Sunday church services; high school classes had made improvements to the studio, including stringing new cables and wires and building cinder block walls.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-school-radio-station-has-two/167619209/|date=June 30, 1974|page=F6|first=Katharine|last=Kinnier|title=School Radio Station Has Two Purposes|newspaper=Daily Press|location=Newport News, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}} York County board meetings also aired on the station; in one case, a board meeting extended into the night because 99 pages of back minutes had to be read by state law. The Daily Press called it "the most boring and sleep-inducing meeting in county history".{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-york-minutes-duly-read/167619282/|date=September 30, 1977|page=54|title=York Minutes Duly Read|newspaper=Daily Press|location=Newport News, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}} In 1978, the station extended its broadcast day to 14 hours; with the expansion of the York County school system, the WYCS program included students at Bruton and Tabb high schools.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-virginia-gazette-yorks-student-disc/167618661/|date=February 21, 1979|page=10|first=Carolyn|last=Click|title=York's student disc jockeys spinning with professionalism|newspaper=The Virginia Gazette|location=Williamsburg, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}} Several alumni went on to jobs in television and radio across the United States.{{r|Dail840307}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-bruce-cunningham-former-wyc/167619672/|date=August 15, 1984|page=P/YC 11|first=Alan|last=Hirsch|title=Bruce Cunningham: Former WYCS news announcer makes it as TV sports commentator|newspaper=Daily Press|location=Newport News, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}}

Beginning in 1979, WYCS became the home for radio reading service programming, originally from Virginia Voice, based in Richmond. Of four Virginia stations providing radio reading service programming as of 1980, WYCS was the only one to offer it in the clear instead of as a subcarrier.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-station-to-bring-more-inform/167619330/|date=November 3, 1980|page=12|first=David|last=Gaddis Smith|title=Station To Bring More Information To Blind People|newspaper=Daily Press|location=Newport News, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}} A local service, Voice of the Peninsula, began in 1983.{{r|Dail870701}} In 1984, Landmark Communications sold a new transmitter to WYCS in part to enable it to begin subcarrier service,{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-yorks-wycs-fm-radio-statio/167619470/|date=March 7, 1984|page=P/YC 10|first=Kathy|last=Williamson|title=York's WYCS-FM: Radio station strengthens its community service work|newspaper=Daily Press|location=Newport News, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}} though it did not do so until 1986.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-radio-readers-spreading-the/167619756/|date=July 1, 1987|page=P/YC 3|first=Theresa|last=Beale|title=Radio readers spreading the news|newspaper=Daily Press|location=Newport News, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}} By 1993, Voice of the Peninsula had more than 100 volunteers.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-volunteers-read-the-newspape/167620047/|date=January 20, 1993|page=W3|first=Rodney L.|last=Snelling|title=Volunteers read the newspaper inside out: Voice of Peninsula is aimed at the visually impaired|newspaper=Daily Press|location=Newport News, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}}

In February 1996, York County school superintendent Steven R. Staples proposed shuttering WYCS and selling its license as part of a draft budget. He believed that the station's sale could pay for 10 buses needed to service the new Grafton High School, then under construction. At the time, only 18 students participated in the radio station program, five of them from outside the county.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-york-schools-chief-drafts-bu/167620079/|date=February 27, 1996|page=B2|first=Leroy Jr.|last=Williams|title=York schools chief drafts budget: Proposal would add 30 teachers|newspaper=Daily Press|location=Newport News, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}} The station cost $120,000 a year to run and needed technical upgrades, including an antenna replacement after a lightning strike and equipment for the new Emergency Alert System.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-student-station-may-soon-be/167620326/|date=March 8, 1996|pages=C1, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-station/167620283/ C2]|first=Leroy Jr.|last=Williams|title=Student station may soon be over, out: Budget cuts target York schools' WYCS|newspaper=Daily Press|location=Newport News, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}} Supporters of WYCS mounted an effort to save the station from sale, including a petition delivered to the school board;{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-virginia-gazette-backers-broadcast-s/167620194/|date=March 23, 1996|page=7B|first=Tracy|last=Blevins|title=Backers broadcast support for station|newspaper=The Virginia Gazette|location=Williamsburg, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}} this was successful in giving WYCS funding for the 1996–97 school year. However, contracts to air William & Mary and Christopher Newport University athletics, as well as religious programming, only generated a third of the revenue the station needed. Further, news of the impending closure prompted enrollment in the radio program to fall further.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-schools-radio-station-wycs/167620238/|date=November 11, 1996|pages=B1, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-update/167620369/ B3]|first=Judi|last=Tull|title=Schools' radio station WYCS works to stay on air|newspaper=Daily Press|location=Newport News, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}} Of 11 students enrolled in 1996–97, only two were from York County.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-virginia-gazette-york-may-tune-out-r/167620411/|date=January 25, 1997|page=10A|first=Tracy|last=Blevins|title=York may tune out radio station WYCS|newspaper=The Virginia Gazette|location=Williamsburg, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}}

The York County school board voted to accept bids for the WYCS license in January 1997.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-york-to-sell-radio-station/167620441/|date=January 29, 1997|page=C1|first=Judi|last=Tull|title=York to sell radio station|newspaper=Daily Press|location=Newport News, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}} An external programmer offered to lease the station to continue his religious programming,{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-virginia-gazette-schools-vote-to-tur/167620487/|date=January 29, 1997|page=5B|first=Tracy|last=Blevins|title=Schools vote to turn off station|newspaper=The Virginia Gazette|location=Williamsburg, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}} and the process brought forth seven potential buyers.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-virginia-gazette-budget-ax-heads-out/167620520/|date=April 23, 1997|page=5B|first=Tracy|last=Blevins|title=Budget ax heads outside classroom|newspaper=The Virginia Gazette|location=Williamsburg, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}}

In July 1997, the school board tentatively approved the $449,000 sale of WYCS to the highest bidder: David Ingles, whose Oasis Network broadcast from Oklahoma.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-religious-broadcaster-buys-w/167620565/|date=July 5, 1997|page=D1|first=David|last=Nicholson|title=Religious broadcaster buys WYCS|newspaper=Daily Press|location=Newport News, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}} Ingles had heard about WYCS being up from a sale from a local friend.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-wavy-promotes-charles-pugh-t/133145186/|date=December 6, 1997|page=D1|first=David|last=Nicholson|title=WAVY promotes Charles Pugh to 5 p.m. show|newspaper=Daily Press|location=Newport News, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}} Voice of the Peninsula closed at the end of October 1997 as a result of the sale,{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-the-handicapped-heard-penins/167620735/|date=January 8, 1998|page=D2|first=Tom|last=Perry|title=The handicapped heard Peninsula's 'Voice'|newspaper=Daily Press|location=Newport News, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}} which received final approval from the school board in December 1997.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-york-schools-ok-radio-statio/167620632/|date=December 2, 1997|page=C5|title=York schools OK radio station sale|newspaper=Daily Press|location=Newport News, Virginia|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=March 10, 2025}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://oasisnetwork.org/ 91.5 FM the Oasis Network Online]
• {{FM station data|66672|WYCS}}

{{Clear}}

{{Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News Radio}}

{{Religious Radio Stations in Virginia}}

Category:Radio stations established in 1966

Category:1966 establishments in Virginia

YCS

Category:York County, Virginia

Category:Southern Gospel radio stations in the United States