WARQ signed on the air as WXRY on February 6, 1971 in mono with a Beautiful/Easy Listening music format. Later, the station converted to FM stereo, still with a Beautiful/Easy Listening music format supplied on reel to reel tape by Schulke. In 1983, the station adopted the call letters WCEZ and maintained the Beautiful/Easy Listening format, with the slogan "The Beautiful Place to Be" and "Easy 93 WCEZ." Shortly after the sale of then WCEZ to Ridgley Communications, the station abandoned the automated reel-to-reel Beautiful/Easy Listening format to a light rock format that incorporated more vocals and fewer traditional instrumentals. WCEZ then adopted the moniker "Lite 93.5" and began broadcasting a satellite-delivered light rock format supplied by Westwood One networks known internally as "Format 41." Ridgley Communications later filed for bankruptcy protection and a private ownership group in the Fall of 1989 purchased WCEZ/WVOC out of bankruptcy. The group of owners, which included Olympia Networks Steve Bunyard and broadcast veteran Rick Dames, organized and operated the stations under the Clayton Radio name. In January 1990, Clayton Radio replaced Format 41 with a Gold-based WARM AC format developed by McVay Media. The station adopted the moniker Star 93.5 and the call letters WAAS. As unfortunate as the transpositions were, the call letters were designed to put the station at the top of the Arbitron rating service list of stations and stood for "We Are Always Shining." The jingles used by WAAS were customized versions of JAM's "Q-Cuts" package. By 1992, WAAS was at a crossroads. The station was experiencing financial difficulties as well as a ratings battle with 2 other ACs in the market, WTCB and WSCQ. That August the station, in a rather bold move, dropped AC for Active Rock under the "Rock 93.5" handle. The new call letters became WARQ and the station set out to battle established AOR/Classic rock hybrid WMFX for the rock audience. In early 1995, WARQ was sold to new owners and the studios were moved with new sister station WWDM. When the move was completed, a brief stunt was done on April Fools' Day when WARQ dropped Album Rock for Hip hop as "93 Jamz" for about an hour. After the stunting was done, Rock 93-5 was relaunched with a new on-air slogan "Real Rock". At that point, the station segued toward a more Active/Alternative Rock hybrid, but would eventually become a full Alternative station by early 1996 dropping the "Real Rock" slogan in the process for "Columbia's Rock Alternative". In 1999, a new handle known as "Channel 93-5" was adopted by Clear Channel. This lasted until 2004, when the "Rock 93-5" moniker was reclaimed after Inner City Broadcasting bought it. From 2000-2003 WARQ hosted the Fallout concerts at Finlay Park, featuring popular bands of the time like Incubus and Our Lady Peace. WARQ hosted Fallout again from 2009-2012 outside of the now abandoned Jillian's bar in the Vista, and hosted Springout from 2010-'13 there also. Their lineup for Fallout '09 was Atlanta's Collective Soul. In 2010, WARQ's Springout had California's Papa Roach and Florida's Nonpoint. In 2011, Springout had Kentucky's Cage the Elephant and Atlanta's Manchester Orchestra. In 2012, Springout had Awolnation and Neon Trees. In 2013, Springout had Jacksonville's Shinedown. The station was owned for a bit by YMF Media LLC through licensee YMF Media South Carolina Licensee LLC. It is now owned by Alpha Media as of late 2013, which also bought Urban ContemporaryWHXT, Urban AC WWDM, Modern rock WMFX, and SportsWOIC in the Columbia radio market at the time of purchase. On March 21, 2014, after playing "Say Goodbye" by Theory of a Deadman, WARQ began stunting with a loop directing listeners to sister station WMFX. On March 24, at Midnight, WARQ ended stunting and changed their format to hot AC, branded as "Q93.5".. However, the station gradually morphed into a Mainstream Top 40 by 2017 WARQ's new HD2 station Rock 99.7 The Panda plays active rock and modern rock, with only 2 minutes of commercials. They play 90s, 00s, 10s, and new alternative rock, like Rock 93.5 did.
