NPR member station for Florida's Treasure Coast, licensed to Indian River State College in Fort Pierce. WQCS 88.9 FM broadcasts news, public affairs and classical music at 100,000 watts and leads IRSC Public Media's group of stations.
WQCS 88.9 FM is the NPR member station for Florida's Treasure Coast, broadcasting from studios on the Fort Pierce campus of Indian River State College, which holds its license. The station signed on in 1982 at 3,000 watts and has operated at 100,000 watts since 1986, reaching listeners from northern Palm Beach County to Melbourne across St. Lucie, Martin, Indian River and Okeechobee counties.
WQCS carries NPR news and talk programming alongside local news, weather and public affairs, including the interview programs In Focus with IRSC Public Media and RiverTalk. Its HD Radio channels add classical music, opera and jazz on WQCS-HD2 and Lake O's Rock Variety on HD3. The station is the state-designated Emergency Alert System station for its region and runs the WQCS Radio Reading Service, which brings local newspapers read by volunteers to about 500 blind and visually and physically impaired listeners.
WQCS is the flagship of IRSC Public Media, the college's group of stations, which also operates WFLM 91.1 FM (Q 91 The Flame, an R&B station), WQCP 88.5 FM in Clewiston and WQCO 90.5 FM in Okeechobee, the last two carrying Lake O's Rock Variety around Lake Okeechobee. Most of the group's budget comes from local listeners, businesses and nonprofit organizations.
Station staff are employees of Indian River State College, and openings are posted on the college's job site. The station hires for news and public affairs, programming and traffic, operations and engineering, membership and underwriting, and on-air hosting.
