In a wireless communication system, a base station adaptively schedule CQI reports form mobile stations. By adaptively prioritizing the CQI report from the mobile station against the uplink traffic and control data, the CQI reporting rate avoids unnecessary overhead in the uplink while maintaining good performance. The CQI reports are requested in response to a calculated weighting factor which is based on channel coherence time that can be estimated by the base station. The adaptivity in the CQI reporting allows achieving an optimal tradeoff between uplink traffic data and downlink control feedback signaling.