Chapel Hill's oldest continuous broadcaster signed on January 25th, 1953 under the ownership of Sandy McClamroch, who went on to become the town's longest-serving mayor. Originally a 1,000 watt station, the station boosted its daytime power to 5,000 watts in 1978. WCHL served as the launching point for the Village Broadcasting Companies, which bought Burlington's WBAG-FM in 1983, moving it to Raleigh as WZZU (now WRSN "Sunny 93.9"). Over the years, the station developed a loyal following for being highly community-oriented. The WCHL news department brought home many Associated Press awards. WCHL played top 40 music, and later adult contemporary before going news/talk in the early 1990s. In 1997, The Village Companies (now Vilcom) sold WCHL to the Raleigh-based Curtis Media Group for $400,000. Curtis moved WCHL's studios to the WDNC studios in Durham and replaced the news and talk format with a middle-of-the-road/oldies format and a morning show simulcast on co-located WDNC. However, in late 2002, Vilcom again assumed control of their former property's sales and programming under a local marketing agreement, moved the station to Chapel Hill and returned the station's format to news and talk on November 25th, 2002, just two months before the station celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2003. In June of 2004, Vilcom bought the station back from Curtis Media Group for $775,000. In October of 2009, it was announced that a group of investors headed by Barry Lefler, the general manager of local NBC affiliate WNCN-TV, would buy a minority stake in WCHL, eventually buying out Jim Heavner's share of the station. WCHL's 5,000-watt non-directional daytime signal cuts back to 1,000 watts directional toward the southeast at sunset. Even with all the changes in recent years, the station has continuously broadcast from its two-tower array on Franklin Street, noticeable for being emblazoned with metal call letters on one and frequency on the other.
