WCHS (AM)

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WCHS-AM

City of license	Charleston, West Virginia
Broadcast area	Charleston, West Virginia
Branding	58 WCHS
Slogan	The Voice of Charleston
First air date	1927 September 15
Frequency	580 kHz
Format	News / Talk & Sports
ERP	5,000 watts (day & night)
Class	B
Callsign meaning	CHarleSton
Owner	West Virginia Radio Corporation
Website	58WCHS.com

WCHS-AM is the primary AM radio station in Charleston, West Virginia. It is owned by the West Virginia Radio Corporation. WCHS was the third station in West Virginia to go on the air. It operates on 580 AM.

Its programming is not untypical of AM talk stations, consisting of local political and sports shows, Rush Limbaugh, The Jim Bohannon Show, and sports coverages of football and basketball games of West Virginia University and baseball games of the Cincinnati Reds. WCHS is also the home of West Virginia Power baseball.

The station is no longer related to WCHS-TV located in the same market.

Contents 1 Station History 2 Monday-Friday Lineup 3 Saturday Programming 4 Sunday Programming 5 External links

[edit] Station History

• From: 58WCHS.com

WCHS-AM Radio went on the air Sept. 15, 1927 at 580 khz. The station was the third station in West Virginia to go on the air. Its first call letters were actually WOBU, with the first location being in the Ruffner Hotel on Kanawha Boulevard. It was founded by Walter Fredericks who had an electric shop, but couldn't sell radios with no local stations. So he built one, later calling it WCHS (acronym for Charleston). Fredericks was a contractor who built homes in the Charleston area for many years. The station moved into Middleburg Auditorium, then named it 'WCHS Auditorium'. Offices were on a U-shaped balcony. The auditorium was used for various events. On Friday nights, the "Old Farm Hour", pulling as many as 2,000 people with its hill talent was broadcast successfully.

It was also the location for dances, rented out for such big bands as Bunny Berrigan, Artie Shaw and Stan Kenton. One of the early shows broadcast was the "Miss 580 Club", and from 1938 to 1948 it was hosted by Mrs. Melva Chernoff, wife of Howard Chernoff, one of the earliest managers of station.

It was a 'phone in' show, with Melva giving advice to the lovelorn, recipes, other information and was highly successful. Once a year there was an annual party for all club members, held in the auditorium, broadcast, naturally and this was a big event.

The founder and first president of the West Virginia Broadcasters Association was at the time general manager of WCHS. Howard Chernoff sent letters to all West Virginia stations, getting about twelve members of the informal group together in 1946. In a recent conversation with Executive Director Fletcher, Chernoff recalled some stories from those early years. He said that WCHS had the first full-time news director named Harold Miller, who was drafted into the marines in 1940, then became News Director at WCHS after World War II. An outstanding reporter, Miller is now a Washington, DC lobbyist with his company, Miller Associates. When Senator Harley Kilgore was campaigning in 1946, Miller was hired as Kilgore's Administrative Assistant. Following Miller in the news slot was Ross Edwards. According to Harry Brawley, Edwards was a brilliant newsman who ended his career at WCHS by committing suicide.

Other air personalities included Sam Poland and Tom Murphy, who made up the popular early morning team of "Sam 'N Denzil." Murphy was also active directing local theater and musical groups. With a real love of opera and knowledge of foreign languages, Murphy was a total opposite with his 'hillbilly' character on the air at WCHS. Murphy died in 1986. He had left the radio business some years prior to that, working with the WV Department of Natural Resources, where he did a weekly television program for cable broadcast.

Sports broadcasting attained local prominence with Ernie Saunders joining the station. His brother was program director Bert Sonis back in 1945. Ernie was sports director plus being Sales and General Manager at one time, too, for many years, with the longest continuous sportscast in the state, "The Sports Page of the Air". In retirement he continues to appear on WCHS sports program with John Dickensheets. Other personalities at the station through the years include Elton "Butch" McClung, John Kristof, Bill Richards, Ned Skaff and Joe Farris, to name but a few.

Howard Chernoff thinks that WCHS may be the only station in West Virginia to have won a Peabody Award. In 1942, Harold Miller wrote "The Home Front", with Bert Sonis narrating the program. Wives of servicemen who were having problems getting their military allotment checks were encouraged to send or phone in their problem to the station. Then the station assisted in solving those situations. That program won a Peabody Award. Chernoff went to Europe to serve as a reporter during World War II, interviewed military personnel, claiming that he was the first broadcaster from an independent network (The West Virginia Network) to be a correspondent in the war. He sought out West Virginians, interviewed and taped segments, sent them to CBS in New York, where they were put on 'platters', then broadcast. On occasion, Chernoff also broadcast live from Europe, a very expensive operation, sponsored by Cohen Drug Company. (In 1981, Chernoff gave his collection of war platters to the West Virginia Historical Society, stored at the Cultural Center, Charleston, WV.)

In 1945 Chernoff had many of those interviews published in book form, called Anybody Here From West Virginia? The introduction was written by Edward R. Murrow, then European Director for CBS. (A copy of the book is in WCHS Radio's files.) In 1981, Mr. and Mrs. Chernoff were brought back to West Virginia by then Governor Rockefeller, and were made Honorary West Virginians. Service personnel whom Howard had interviewed during World War II were also brought in from all over the country for that special occasion. (Other papers from his private collection of papers and speeches have been given to the Archives of Contemporary History, University of Wyoming.)

Chernoff tried to retire in 1948, he says, but went to work for the founder of the WV Network, John A. Kennedy in California with KFMB. He later retired from broadcasting, went to the U. S. Information Agency, became U. S. Ambassador to Expo'70 in Japan, then with the U. S. State Department on a mission to Mongolia.

John A. Kennedy, founder of the West Virginia Network in 1936 died in 1987 in California. He was 88 years old.

In 1945, Chernoff hired Harry Brawley to be Director of Public Affairs and Education at WCHS and for the West Virginia Network. In that job Harry fed programs from Charleston for coverage in the Huntington, Clarksburg and Parkersburg markets. Harry began what was the forerunner of public broadcasting's educational programs when he started in-school listening programming in many subjects. More comprehensive reviews of his broadcasting career may be found in his book, titled Twenty Years On An Oasis in the "Vast Wasteland," published in 1981.

WCHS was recognized by CBS in 1947 for having done the best job in the nation in promoting their "School of the Air." In 1954 Harry began TV Classroom in addition to the radio programs, which he continued as associate professor at Morris Harvey College (now the University of Charleston) until 1978. Brawley left the stations in 1965 to become Executive Secretary of the West Virginia Educational Broadcast Authority. (He is now retired.)

WBES-FM, sister station of WCHS went on the air September 16, 1969 at 96.1 mhz, 50 kw stereo. Located in the same building, 1111 Virginia St., E. in Charleston, it went on the air with a Beautiful Music format, until it was changed to "Warm 96" in 1988, with call letters changed to WVNS (West Virginia Ninety-Six).

Morgantown based West Virginia Radio Corporation purchased WCHS and WBES-FM in 1991. The WBES call letters switched to WKWS and the station’s format to country music. WVAF-FM/WCAW AM 680 were added to the corporation’s growing radio family in the capitol city in 1993. WVAF is today known as V100 playing adult contemporary music. WCAW is an all gospel format. The Charleston radio group was completed in 1995 with the addition of WKAZ-FM and WSWW 1490.

The WCHS evolution continued in 2000 when West Virginia Radio Corporation moved the news division of its Morgantown based MetroNews Radio Network from Morgantown to Charleston. The network’s sports base remains in Morgantown, but network newscasts, broadcast via satellite across West Virginia, originate from the studios of WCHS. The WCHS newsroom provides news coverage of the state of West Virginia and local news in the Kanawha Valley.

[edit] Monday-Friday Lineup

Time (ET)	Show
5 AM	America In the Morning
6 AM	The Morning News with Chris Lawerence and Jennifer Smith
9 AM	Ask the Expert
10 AM	Statewide Talkline
12 PM	The Rush Limbaugh Show with Rush Limbaugh
3 PM	58 Live-Local Talk
6 PM	MetroNews Sportsline
7 PM	Sportspage of the Air
9 PM	Club 58

[edit] Saturday Programming

Time (ET)	Show
5 AM	ESPN Overnight
6 AM	ESPN Outdoors
7 AM	West Virginia Outdoors
8 AM	On the Gardenline
9 AM	On the House
11 AM	Kim Kommando Computer Show
1 PM	Ron Insana Show
5 PM	Club 58

[edit] Sunday Programming

Time (ET)	Show
5 AM	ESPN Overnight
6 AM	Daybreak Sunday Morning
12 PM	Meet the Press
1 PM	Dave Ramsey Show
6:00 PM	Sunday Night Sports Talk
8:00 PM	Club 58

[edit] External links

• Official station website
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WCHS
• WCHS on Radio-locator.com