WPTF (680 AM; "NewsRadio 680") is a news and talk radio station serving the Triangle area of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The station is owned by Curtis Media Group. Its call letters date back to the former longtime owner of the station, Durham Life Insurance Company, whose motto was "We Protect The Family."
Programs on WPTF include local news blocks in morning drive and afternoons, national talk show hosts Dave Ramsey, Clark Howard, and Dr. Joy Browne, and programs such as Red Eye Radio. In addition, the station also hosts a local talk show with Tom Kearney.
From 1977 to 1991, WPTF was sister station to WPTF-TV, the longtime NBC affiliate in the Triangle. That station is now WRDC, "MyRDC," an affiliate of MyNetworkTV.
WPTF is the second-most powerful station in North Carolina, as a 50,000-watt class B station. Its signal is non-directional during the day, providing at least grade B coverage as far west as Charlotte, as far east as Wilmington and as far north as the Roanoke suburbs. Its nighttime directional signal can be picked up well south into the Bahamas and other parts of the Caribbean and can supposedly be picked up in Venezuela. However, it is somewhat spotty in parts of Virginia, only 50 miles north.
Read more about WPTF: Early History, Recent Developments, Hurricane Coverage, WPTF On-air Staff