WRVQ

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WRVQ

City of license	Richmond, Virginia
Broadcast area	Richmond, Virginia
Branding	Q94
Slogan	All the Hits! - Q94
First air date	August 4, 1948
Frequency	94.5 MHz
Format	Top 40
ERP	200.000 watts
Class	B
Owner	Clear Channel Communications
Website	www.q94radio.com

WRVQ is a Top 40 radio station in Richmond, Virginia owned and operated by Clear Channel Communications. It is the second-oldest station in Richmond, signing on in August 1948. Originally the station was owned by Laurus Brothers Tobacco as were sister stations WRVA-AM and WRVA-TV. In 1968 the radio stations were sold to Southern Broadcasting and moved from the former Richmond Hotel into a new building in Church Hill that overlooked the city skyline, ( The TV station was sold to Jefferson Pilot and is now WWBT ). From its sign on to 1968 , the station shared the Southside Richmond tower with WRVA-TV.When the stations were sold , the tower location had to be moved off the TV tower. WRVQ's broadcast tower is now next to WRVA's, adjacent to the James River in Eastern Henrico County, about 10 miles east of Richmond. Along with WTVR-FM, WRVQ has a grandfathered signal, being allowed to transmit 200 kW compared to other stations in Richmond which can only transmit up to 50 kW.

Contents 1 History 2 Current on-air personalities 3 Notable previous on-air personalities 4 Syndicated broadcasts 5 Management 6 Annual & Memorable events 7 External links

[edit] History

WRVQ has been some variant of Top 40 since June 30, 1972. Before this, it simulcasted its sister station, the legendary 1140 WRVA. At the time, WRVA played mostly news, sports, adult contemporary music and talk shows. In the late 1960's, 94.5 would stop simulcasting WRVA-AM at about 6pm and play automated country music until it signed off at midnight. On the weekends, 94.5 would broadcast the automated country format from 6am until 2am (in mono).

(Clear Channel changed the calls of their WTRG-FM in Raleigh NC to WRVA-FM to go with their logo "The River." Clear Channel currently owns WRVA-AM & WRVQ).

WRVQ was the first FM radio station in Richmond to broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, beginning in July of 1972. The first song played on WRVQ was "I Just Want To Celebrate" by Rare Earth. The first song talked over by a WRVQ deejay was "I'll Take You There" by the Staples Singers, by deejay Doug Riddell. A Q-94 deejay-to-be, Mike Rivers, taped over an hour of the initial programming of WRVQ, which included songs as varied as "Layla" by Derek and the Dominos, and, "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast" by Wayne Newton. Public service announcements aired initially included Hal Holbrook's notable "if you're busted for drugs over there, you're in for the hassle of your life" PSA. The original 1972 airstaff was Bob McNeill in mornings , Jim Edwards (aka the late Jim Campanna ) in mid mornings, (Program Director ) Bill Garcia in middays, Dave Collins in afternoon drive, Lee Grant in evenings, Chuck Woodson in late nights, Doug Riddell in overnights.

At first the station billed itself as "WRVQ Stereo Rock" and "Fun Lovin' Super Q ", but in 1974 began billing themselves as "Q94" which has continued into the present. The station maintained a standard Top 40 format thru the seventies which brought them high ratings.

Popular personalities from the 70s included Randy Reeves, Bob Somers, Steve Hendrix, Dr.Rock( aka Ralph Wimmer ) , Jeff Jackson, Steve Kelly (coming from sister station WRBQ in Tampa),"Cosmic" John Barry, Ron Bates, Kevin Connors, Tim Watts, Tom Ogburn "BTO", Rick Shaw, and Bruce Kelly.

When Q94 signed on in 1972 they had two Top 40 competitors, both on AM, WLEE and WTVR-AM. By the end of the seventies, both stations had bailed out of the format and WRVQ was the lone Top 40 station in the market. In late 1978 and early 1979 disco music became a dominant part of the playlist until mid 1979. From 1977 to 1980, the station ran a locally produced Oldies show called "Rock & Roll Roots" hosted by WRVQ Sales Manager (and former air personality ) Jack Alix and produced by Alix and veteran station air personality Bob Somers.( Jack Alix passed away on November 15th , 2006 of long term medical problems ) In 1978 the station was purchased by Harte-Hanks Communications, a division of Harte-Hanks Publishing.

In the Summer of 1976 the station scored a small victory when , after years of haggling, it finally scored the local broadcast rights to the then-hot syndicated "American Top 40" Program, then hosted by Casey Casem. Up until that time, a small AM daytimer called WGOE , which had been a Top station, but by the mid seventies was a " counterculture progressive album rock " station , had been carrying the Program ( which they added in their last dying days as a Top 40 in early 1970 ) to "frustrate" their "mainstream" competitors.The story is that then-Program Director Bob McNeill told syndicator Watermark Inc , " Do you want to run the show in stereo on 200,000 watts , or on a 5000 AM daytimer that's not even a Top 40 station anymore ? ". Q94 still carries the show , now hosted by Ryan Seacrest , to this day.

Q94 has only had a handful of female air personalities. The first was Karen Fredricks in 1979. Others included Joy Van Der Lyck , Q-ZOO voice characterizationist Rita "Betty Bodine" Bentley, Robyn Bentley (Rita's actual sister, who later left radio & later became world famous for her knowledge of Feng Shui) , Shannon, Lisa McKay, Su-Anna, Dee Stevens, Gia, Becca Scott , and Melissa Chase. Currently , Chase holds down Morning Drive at the station with partner Sid. Q94 has also had two female news anchors, Treeda Smith and Shelia Belle.

Also, Q94 has only had a few African American announcers during its history. Those announcers were : Chuck Woodson, Tim Watts, Kirby Carmichael ( A local radio legend, who's tenure at the station lasted 20 years, and who's termination caused some local listener outrage and several newspaper stories, to which the station responded with a quick "No Comment" ),Carter G (Garrett), and Brian Rock.

An interesting event took place on the station in the overnight hours of December 9th 1980. Just hours after the murder of former Beatle John Lennon was announced, DJs Kevin Connors and Norman "Bob-A-Lou" Freedlander, on their own, "suspended" the normal Top 40 format and went into a marathon of Lennon, Beatles and other British rock music and interspersed conversations about Lennon and the Beatles as a " tribute " to Lennon's memory, which lasted until almost sunrise.

In February of 1981, on the day urban WPLZ-FM signed on as Richmond's first FM Urban station, WRVQ, under then-Program Director Bill Thomas, in what many market observers have called a "knee-jerk" reaction, dumped all the soul and R&B product from its playlist and became a Rock leaning Top 40 station ( it has been said that Thomas burst into the Q94 air studio at 6am, in a panic, the morning after the WPLZ sign on and literally started removing all the soul and R&B music carts from the studio with the comment " Gotta get all these black songs out of here " ). The Rock 40 approach caused ratings to slide. In 1982 , in what some have said was under management pressure, Thomas left to program WMJJ in Birmingham, Ala., and morning man Jeff Morgan became Program Director and the station began a gradual move back into a mainstream Top 40 format, and also started the first "Q-Morning Zoo" morning show in Richmond, taking a cue from the originators of the "Zoo" concept ( Scott Shannon & Cleveland Wheeler ) at their sister station, WRBQ in Tampa, FL. The first hosts on the "Q Morning Zoo " were Corey Deitz and Jeff Morgan. Morgan later left to do mornings for Steve Kelly who had left earlier to sign on as PD a new station in nearby Norfolk-Virginia Beach, Z104, under another Q94 legend, Jack Alix, who had become group program director for Z104's parent company. WNVZ...Z104... continues as big CHR ( although the station has been more dance leaning in the last decade ) to this day.

In Sept. 1983 Bob McNeill, who programmed Q94 in its 70s glory days was named Program Director. He teamed up with Deitz and transitioned the station back to a mainstream Top 40 (by then called CHR for "Contemporary Hit Radio") format was complete and brought the ratings back up to previous dominance, and the mainstream approach has been maintained ever since. Around this same time, WRVQ and WRVA-AM were sold to Edens Broadcasting, headed by Gary Edens. In the fall of 1983, Q-94's ratings zoomed from a ten share to an incredible fifteen plus share, and air personalities were bonused accordingly.

During the eighties, WRVQ had two direct format competitors. From 1982 to 1985, Williamsburg based WQKS "Kiss 96 " tried to compete with a Dance leaning Top 40 format, but a weak signal and new owners in 1985 caused that station to switch to a Beautiful Music format. In late 1985 the 92.7 format signed on as a CHR as WZZR, "93 Lazer" which lasted until February of 1987. Also in July of 1987, a two day reunion of many former Q94 announcers to celebrate the station's 15th Anniversary was held creating some listener buzz and local press. Popular personalities in the eighties included Music Director Steve Kelly, News Director Treeda Smith, Corey Deitz, Garret Chester, Jay Hamilton, John King, Q-ZOO voice characterizationist Mike "Music Michael Flowin'" Rivers, David Lee Michaels, Norman "Bob-A-Lou" Freedlander, Steve Davis, Tom Ogburn "BTO", Shotgun John Staton, Bill "Slam" Duncan, Jim Payne, Jon Barry, Lisa McKay and Roger St.John.

In 1993 WRVQ and sister station WRVA were purchased by Clear Channel Communications. Clear Channel's purchase of the station signaled the end of an era at Q94, with the departure of Longtime General Manager Phil Goldman, who had been with the station since its beginning in 1972 and is widely credited with the success of Q94 in its first 20 years. About a year later WRVQ moved out of their longtime home in Richmond's Church Hill section to their present location on Basie Rd ( co-located with former longtime rival , album rock WRXL, which caused some tension between the two staffs for awhile ) in Richmond's West End.

In the early nineties the station began " Flashback Fridays " interspersing vintage 80's songs in with the regular playlist. In February of 1994 the station was hit with tragedy when shocking news reached the station that 14 year station veteran Roger St. John (aka Roger Luebs ) died of an unexpected heart attack at 47. Several years earlier, perhaps as harbinger of things to come, Roger collapsed in the Q studio into the arms of afternoon drive jock Steve Kelly, who was pulling his music for his show. The rescue squad showed up and Roger was revived...stress, they said. After Roger's untimely passing, for the next few days the station broadcast tributes to the popular announcer, who was one of the most requested personalities when the station staged remote broadcasts and Nightclub events. St. John's memorial service drew approx. 600 people.Another well known local personality , Scott Stevens (Clint Smith), who had worked as a jock at both WRVQ and WRVA and several other Richmond stations, and later resurfaced as the Chief Traffic Reporter for the Richmond Clear Channel Group , died of an unexpected heart attack in 2002 while on vacation in Vail Colorado celebrating his 7th wedding anniversary. In January of 2002, the station lost another veteran when former Program Director and Legendary air personality Norman "Bob-A-Lou" Freedlander died from long term health problems. He was 52. Another former Q94 air personality, Jeff Jackson ( John Rountree ), who had left the station in the early eighties to form AudioImage Productions with fellow Q94 jock Bob Somers, died in 1985 of meningitis as a result of a spider bite. Jim Edwards ( Jim Campana ), who was one of the original Q94 airstaff as , died in 2004 of cancer.

Popular personalities during the 90s included Lisa McKay, Billy Surf, Paul Anthony, Carlson & McKenzie, Jeff Wicker, Rita "Betty Bodine" Bentley, Su-Anna, and Jason Paige. Steve Kelly returned for a short interim stint between other gigs.

A very popular feature was "Paws Pause" during McKay's show, where homeless animals were placed.

The following people have programmed WRVQ: Bill Garcia ,Bob McNeill (twice), Ralph " Doctor Rock " Wimmer, Bill Thomas, Jeff Morgan, The late Norman "Bob-A-Lou " Freedlander, Jim Payne, Steve Davis, Lisa McKay, Billy Surf, Wayne Coy,and current Program Director, Boomer.

In the mid-90s, in a move that some market observers termed another "knee-jerk" reaction, the station, in responding to a new sign on competitor, Modern Rock formatted "The Buzz/WBZU" and the then hot Modern Rock Format, started calling itself "Channel Q" at night, doing a Modern Rock leaning format, causing popular night jock Billy Surf to shorten his name to "Surf" and tone down his high energy delivery. The "Channel Q" idea proved to be a disaster and was ended after just a few rating periods During the nineties, WRVQ's overall ratings have slid, and the station has been hovering in the bottom five of the Top Ten Arbitron rated stations in the last several rating periods.

The station recently added an additional HD channel which programs all 80s music.

Many in the market have blamed the more recent,less innovative and inexperienced crop of programs directors and interfearence from overly cautious and conservative Corporate Programmers and Consultants for the slump. Some blame a heavy turnover in morning shows (the station had went thru three morning teams in the nineties ) the loss of highly rated morning personality Jeff Wicker ( who left due to a contract dispute ) and popular midday personality Roger St.John ( due to his previously mentioned unexpected passing ) for the decline. Others blame money problems that started with former debt laden owners Edens Broadcasting and later cutbacks and a lack of attention by current owners Clear Channel, and still others blame the departure of former Longtime GM Phil Goldman, who is considered by many the real driving force behind the station's first 20 years of success.

Others say that in the last several years the station has not been able to recruit on-air personalities that were comparable to the strong on air personalities of the stations' most successful years of the 70s and 80s, a national problem as well. But other factors out of the station's control may have been to blame. Many market observers have blamed WRVQ's decline on "fragmenting of the core audience." That the reason for the decline was the slow development of the FM band in Richmond and that the success of the first 20 years was a "default" success, owing to the many years WRVQ pretty much had the Richmond FM band "all to itself" and the eventual decline in listeners has been due to the Richmond FM band's development "catching up" with Q94 in the early 90s, and the huge ratings success of the past has been an " albatross " hanging over the head of current station, giving way to unrealistic comparisons to station's most successful years, and accusations that Q94 should be "living up to its legend." Many media experts have said the youth based audience that is the core of the CHR format have found other outlets from music including "non-traditional non radio" avenues as the internet, music downloading, satellite radio, and Ipods, and that many listeners in that age bracket have been divided between the two "Modern Alternative" Rock stations ( Including WRVQ's sister station WRXL ," The X ") three Urban / R&B based stations (including WRVQ's sister station WBTJ "106.5 The Beat " ) two "Adult Pop" stations (including WRVQ's sister station, consistent market leader WTVR-FM, "Lite 98" ) and recently signed on "Adult Hits" station WWLB ( 98.9 Liberty ). Others blame the high African American population in the area, which tends to lean toward the more traditional R&B outlets, as well as a growing hispanic population which tends to listen to Spanish programmed media outlets. More recently, as part of a massive overall downsizing of the overall Clear Channel chain , the station let go 20 year veteran overnighter Kirby Carmichael and now runs automation on overnights. In the Spring 2006 Arbitron ratings, WRVQ was tied for 9th place overall with Classic Rock WKLR. There have been persistent rumours that if the ratings don't improve, the station may switch formats, possibly to Country. Highly unlikely, however. It seems there is room in the market for a top 40 that is able to grow and evolve with the music and the listeners.

[edit] Current on-air personalities

Current DJs include:

• Melissa Chase (Weekdays 6:00am - 10:00am)
• Sid (Weekdays 6:00am - 10:00am)
• David (Weekdays 10:00am - 12:00pm, Weekends)
• Jay Stevens (Weekdays 12:00pm - 3:00pm, Weekends)
• Boomer (Weekdays 3:00pm - 7:00pm)
• T-Bag (Weeknights 7:00pm - 12:00am)
• Bob Somers (Weekends)
• Shotgun John (Weekends)

[edit] Notable previous on-air personalities

• Billy Surf, Betty Bodine, Skip the Prize Guy (the morning show until April, 2004)
• Jeff Wicker (morning show host)
• Wayne Coy (Q Morning Zoo co-host, April 2004 - February 2006)
• Darrin Stone (Q Morning Zoo co-host, April 2004 - June 2006)
• Corey Deitz and Jay Hamilton (Q Morning Zoo hosts, September, 1990 - July, 1995)
• Corey Deitz and Garret Chester (Q Morning Zoo hosts, 1984 - 1985)
• Corey Deitz and Bob McNeill (Q Morning Zoo hosts, 1983 - 1984)
• Corey Deitz and Jeff Morgan (Q Morning Zoo hosts, 1983)
• Bob McNeill - PD who formed '83 version of Q MORNING ZOO with News Director Treeda Smith, Deitz, and voice characterizationists Rita Bentley (five daily characters) and Mike Rivers (five daily characters).

[edit] Syndicated broadcasts

WRVQ broadcasts the following nationally-syndicated shows:

• Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 Countdown hosted by Rick Dees (Saturdays 6AM - 10AM)
• American Top 40 hosted by Ryan Seacrest (Sundays 8AM - 12PM)
• Backtraxx USA 90's hosted by Kid Kelley (Sundays 6AM - 8AM)

[edit] Management

• Regional Vice President – Ruth Stoutermire
• Program Director – Boomer
• Director of Sales - Carrie Todd
• Sales Manager - Tracy Driskill
• Operations Manager - Bill Cahill

[edit] Annual & Memorable events

The station holds an annual Christmas concert featuring Top 40 acts, with proceeds benefiting the Make-a-Wish Foundation. In 2006, they included Jason Mraz, Natasha Bedingfield, Collective Soul, and Bowling for Soup. A few of the more memorable past events include, a day long "imaginary" concert called "The Concert at Fantasy Park",( which prompted a story by staffer Bob Somers saying that while driving down the road on the day the station broadcast the "fake" concert, he saw a hitchhiker with a sign that said "Fantasy Park" and always wondered did the guy ever make it to his "destination" ) racing a Portable Toilet at the local Richmond Dragway race track , calling it the "Port-A-John", also the yearly Charity Raft Race that took place from 1974 to 1978 ( The race was discontinued due to mounting security costs ) and a Hot Air Balloon that listeners could ride in ( The station ceased using the balloon for rides due to insurance and liability problems ). In the late 70s , the station caused a minor problem with local phone service when , during a cash giveaway contest , an overload of callers to the station's request line blew out and disabled a whole phone exchange. In the late eighties the station hosted an exclusive concert by then-hot rising 80s star Richard Marx. In 1984 the station did on on-air telephone interview then Red Hot rock act Duran Duran.

[edit] External links

• Official Website