WRVA

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WBT
Broadcast area	Richmond, Virginia
Branding	Newsradio 1140
Slogan	Richmond's News, Weather, and Traffic Station
First air date	November 1925
Frequency	1140 kHz
Format	News/Talk
ERP	50,000 watts
Class	Class A AM Station
Owner	Clear Channel Communications
Website	1140wrva.com

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.

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 Featured are historical documents, sound files, print artifacts, and such local interest items as the shoes of the late announcer Alden Aaroe, who founded an annual program which has raised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 periods.

Contents 1 Programming Schedule 2 History 3 WRVA-FM and WRVA-TV 4 2006 Restructuring 5 Historic role in Richmond and community 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Programming Schedule

• Richmond's Morning News with Jimmy Barrett (5:00am - 9:00am)
• Glenn Beck (9:00am - noon)
• Rush Limbaugh (noon - 3:00pm)
• Mac Watson (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)

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 AM-FM and WBTV in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the call signs were changed to WWBT.

In November of 2004, a station using the call sign WRVA-FM began serving the Raleigh-Durham market of North Carolina at 100.7 MHz.

[edit] 2006 Restructuring

On November 8, 2006, it was mentioned in a Style Weekly article that WRVA had laid off several staff members and was in the process of completely restructuring its Newsroom environment. The new environment will eliminate all local news reporters and instead rely on reports filed from affiliates and news stories from newspapers and internet news sites.

The article quoted former WRVA reporter and news anchor Tom Callan as saying "the new strategy virtually eliminates the idea of a traditional newsroom, where reporters take tips, pursue leads and hit the street. There’s nobody energized by that; all you’re doing is rewriting someone else’s news and putting your voice on it."

[edit] 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 80's, the Western Electric transmitter was removed and replaced with a 50,000W Continental. The Ampliphase was then made the back-up. In the 90's, the Ampliphase was then replaced by a newer transmitter and the Continental was made as the back-up. During the 70's, 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 90's , 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.

[edit] See also

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

[edit] External links

• WRVA online official website
• Library of Virginia online exhibit "WRVA - The Voice of Virginia"