WRVA (AM)

Infobox Radio Station
name = WRVA


area = Richmond, Virginia
branding = Newsradio 1140
slogan = "Richmond's News, Weather, and Traffic Station";
"Depend on It"
airdate = November 1925
frequency = 1140 kHz HD Radio
format = News/Talk
power = 50,000 watts
erp =
class = Class A AM Station
owner = Clear Channel Communications
sister_stations = WBTJ, WRNL, WRVQ, WRXL, WTVR-FM
website = [http://1140wrva.com 1140wrva.com]
callsign_meaning = Richmond, VirginiA
affiliations = FOX News|

Newsradio 1140 WRVA is an AM radio station in Richmond, Virginia in the United States. The station has been widely known as the "50,000 Watt Voice of Virginia" for many years. The station's signal reaches most of the eastern US at night, including parts of Eastern Canada.

One of Virginia's first broadcast radio stations, and maintaining studios only a short distance from the Virginia State Capitol for many years, the station became part of Virginia's 20th century history. It was especially well-known for news reporting, traffic helicopters, community service work, and fictional characters such as the WRVA Capitol Squirrel.

WRVA is the subject of a major exhibit at the Library of Virginia in Richmond. Featured are historical documents, sound files, print artifacts, and such local interest items as the shoes of the late announcer Alden Aaroe, who founded an annual program which has raised over $5.6 million dollar to provide shoes for needy children over a 36-year period.

Programming Schedule

* "Richmond's Morning News" with Jimmy Barrett (5:00am - 9:00am)
* Glenn Beck (9:00am - noon)
* Rush Limbaugh (noon - 3:00pm)
* Doc Thompson (3:00pm - 6:00pm)
* Sean Hannity (6:00pm - 9:00pm)
* Michael Savage (9:00pm - midnight)
* "Coast to Coast AM" with George Noory (midnight - 5:00am)

History

Although three letter call signs were still available when the station was started, "WRVA" was chosen since RVA was short for Richmond, VA. WRVA AM 1140 kHz was launched at 9:00 p.m. on November 2, 1925. Known initially as "Edgeworth Radio", it was owned by Larus and Brother , a tobacco company known as the House of Edgeworth, and was originally operated as a public service 2 nights per week.

The early WRVA facilities were a small studio in a corner of a warehouse on Richmond's Tobacco Row and a tower mounted on the roof of the building. It soon became a vital and profitable business enterprise, and by 1930, was on-the-air 7 days a week, 24 hours daily, with broadcasting power increased to 50,000 watts.

WRVA-FM and WRVA-TV

The owners later added WRVA-FM at 94.5 MHz and WRVA-TV, broadcasting on television channel 12 beginning in 1956. After simulcasting with WRVA during the early years of FM radio, In the 1970s, WRVA-FM became WRVQ, and was one of Richmond's first FM stations to switch to a top-40 rock music format.

In 1968, the television station was sold to Jefferson Pilot Broadcasting, owner of WBT, WBT-FM, and WBTV in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the call signs were changed to WWBT. (Raycom Media has since purchased the television station [ [http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6500245.html Raycom Grabs Lincoln Financial Stations] by Michael Malone, "Broadcasting & Cable", November 12, 2007] .)

The radio stations went through several owners after Larus and Brother , including Harte-Hanks, Edens Broadcasting and Force II Communications, LP, before they were purchased by Clear Channel in 1992.

In November 2004, a station using the call sign WRVA-FM began serving the Raleigh-Durham market of North Carolina at 100.7 MHz. It was able to have those call letters without complaint because that station is also owned by Clear Channel.

2006 Restructuring

On November 8, 2006, it was mentioned in a Style Weekly article [ [http://www.styleweekly.com/article.asp?idarticle=13348 WRVA News Pares to Hub, “Rewriting”] by Jason Roop, "Style Weekly", November 8, 2006] that WRVA had laid off several staff members and was in the process of completely restructuring its Newsroom environment. However, the newsroom has since returned to its pre-November size.

Historic role in Richmond and community

WRVA's 1939 era transmitter building in Varina east of Richmond is listed as a National Historic Site. It is a two-story colonial style brick building which was a kit-building. It originally contained a 1929 Western Electric transmitter, which was a "walk-through" model. It was replaced with a RCA BTA-50H Ampliphase in 1961 after serving for more than 30 years but was kept as a back-up transmitter. In the early 1980s, the Western Electric transmitter was removed and replaced with a 50,000W Continental. The Ampliphase was then made the back-up. In the 1990s, the Ampliphase was then replaced by a newer transmitter and the Continental was made as the back-up. During the 1970s, WRVQ (WRVA's FM) installed its transmitters in the building.

WRVA was especially well known for its 24 hour broadcasts on a clear channel frequency with 50,000 watts of signal strength, intended to reach rural areas. At night (when the AM signals travel further), WRVA had regular listeners in Chicago, and was known to reach audiences as far away as the west coast, Canada, and even South Africa.

Two of the more popular personalities were fictional characters. In the 1950s and 1960s, when the studio was located across Capitol Square from the Virginia State Capitol, WRVA's Capitol Squirrel imparted wisdom and tossed an occasional snowball at lawmakers and local government using a voice created by speeding up the recording in manner later made famous by David Seville and his "Alvin and the Chipmunks" characters. In the 1970s, the Millard the Mallard character carried on dialogue with announcers during the morning rush hour traffic periods.

In 1974, the WRVA traffic helicopter lost a tail rotor at a low altitude and crashed into a house on West 31st street in South Richmond, killing WRVA reporter Howard Bloom, the pilot, and a small child eating dinner with his family. In the early 1990s, WRVA turned over its traffic reporting functions to Metro Traffic but in 2002 began doing its own reports again when the Clear Channel Richmond formed its "Total Traffic" division with local personality Scott Stevens in charge. Not only did Total Traffic do reports for WRVA, it also does reports for the other stations in the Clear Channel Richmond Group, and just recently started feeding traffic reports to other cities outside Richmond as well. Sadly, Stevens died of a heart attack in September, 2003.

One of WRVA's better known real-life personalities was announcer Alden Aaroe. His Christmas "WRVA Salvation Army Shoe Fund" provided thousands of shoes annually for needy children, and although Aaroe died of cancer in 1993, the program he headed has continued. In 2004, it celebrated its 36th year, having raised over $5.6 million in its history. Virginia Commonwealth University and Aaroe's family honor the memory of Alden Aaroe with a scholarship in his name for broadcast journalism students.

See also

*Alden Aaroe
*Millard the Mallard
*Capitol Squirrel
*John Harding

Notes and references

External links

*AMQ|WRVA
*AML|WRVA
* [http://www.wrva.com/main.html WRVA online official website]
* [http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whoweare/exhibits/radio/voice.htm Library of Virginia online exhibit "WRVA - The Voice of Virginia"]