Editing WWVA (AM)

{{more citations needed|date=February 2011}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Infobox radio station
| name                = WWVA
| city                = [[Wheeling, West Virginia]]
| country             = US
| logo                = WWVA newsradio1170 logo.png
| logo_upright        = .8 
| area                = [[Wheeling, West Virginia metropolitan area]]
| frequency           = {{frequency|1170|[[kHz]]}}
| branding            = ''NewsRadio 1170 WWVA''
| language            = [[American English|English]]
| format              = [[News/talk]]
| affiliations        = {{ubl|[[Fox News Radio]]|[[Premiere Networks]]|[[Compass Media Networks]]<br>[[Excellence in Broadcasting|EIB]]}}
| owner               = [[iHeartMedia, Inc.]]
| licensee            = iHM Licenses, LLC
| sister_stations     = {{hlist|[[WBBD]]|[[WEGW]]|[[WKWK-FM]]|[[WOVK]]|[[WVKF]]}}
| airdate             = {{start date and age|1926|12|13}}
| former_frequencies  = 860 kHz (1926–1941)
| callsign_meaning    = Wheeling, West Virginia
| licensing_authority = [[FCC]]
| facility_id         = 44046
| class               = A
| power               = {{val|50000|u=watts|fmt=commas}}
| coordinates         = {{coord|40|06|07|N|80|52|02|W|type:landmark_region:US-WV}}
| webcast             = {{iHeartRadio|news-radio-1170-wwva-4848}}
| website             = {{URL|https://newsradio1170.iheart.com}}
}}
'''WWVA''' (1170 [[kHz]], ''NewsRadio 1170'') is an American [[AM broadcasting|AM]] radio station in [[Wheeling, West Virginia]]. The station is owned by [[iHeartMedia, Inc.]] and uses the moniker "The Big One".

It is West Virginia's only class A 50,000–watt [[clear-channel station]], sharing the frequency's [[List of North American broadcast station classes|Class A]] status with [[KOTV (AM)|KOTV]] in [[Tulsa, Oklahoma]], and [[KJNP (AM)|KJNP]] in North Pole, Alaska. Its transmitter site is located at a three-tower facility in [[St. Clairsville, Ohio]]. 

During the day, a single non-directional tower beams its full power to northern West Virginia, southwestern [[Pennsylvania]] (including [[Pittsburgh]]), and eastern [[Ohio]] (as far as [[Akron, Ohio|Akron]]). At night, power is fed to all three towers in a directional pattern to protect KOTV. Even with this restriction, it can still be heard in most of the eastern two-thirds of the United States, as well as most of Canada, with a good radio.

WWVA is one of the Local Primary 1 Emergency Alert System stations in the Wheeling area.

==Programming==
The BloomDaddy Experience hosts the AM-Drive portion of WWVA.  [[Glenn Beck Radio Program|''The Glenn Beck Program'']], ''[[The Sean Hannity Show]]'' and ''[[The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show]]'' air in late-mornings, middays, afternoons and early evenings, respectively. WWVA airs paid religious programming in the late evenings and ''[[Coast to Coast AM]]'' in the overnight hours. ''[[This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal]]'' is also carried in the early morning hours.

WWVA produces ''Extension Calling'', a local agricultural education program recorded by [[Ohio State University]] and [[West Virginia University]] [[Agricultural extension|extension]] agents, aired Sunday mornings for over 40 years.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

==History==
[[File:W. W. VA. Transmitter Plant, St, Clairsville, Ohio (79083).jpg|thumb|Transmitter c.1940s]]
WWVA began broadcasting at 2&nbsp;a.m. on December 13, 1926, when John Stroebel threw the switch that sent power to a home-built 50-watt transmitter in the basement of his home. One week earlier, the Commerce Department granted a broadcast license on 860&nbsp;kHz to the radio station WWVA. In its first year of operation, it broadcast to listeners with home-made [[crystal sets]], principally from Stroebel's own home. The call letters are derived from the words Wheeling, West Virginia (WWVA), as U.S. postal codes were once written out with three letters such as WVA for West Virginia, hence Wheeling, WVA became "WWVA".

Through the years, WWVA has been granted several power increases. In May 1941, the FCC moved WWVA to 1170, and in August of that same year, granted it the highest power for AM stations: 50,000 watts. With the increase, WWVA became the most powerful AM station in the entire state of [[West Virginia]].

WWVA has changed hands many times over the years. Past owners include [[Fidelity Investments]], West Virginia Broadcasting Corporation, [[Storer Broadcasting]], Basic Communications, [[Screen Gems]] Radio - a division of [[Columbia Pictures]], [[Coca-Cola]], Price Broadcasting, Osborn Communications, Atlantic Star Communications, AMFM Inc., and Clear Channel Communications.

WWVA's broadcast history includes the airing of such notable live broadcasts as President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]'s 1952 visit to the Wheeling area.

In the 1980s, WWVA briefly enjoyed a reputation as one of the leading radio news operations in the country, and won several national news reporting awards under the leadership of prominent broadcast journalists such as Jim Forsyth and Colleen Marshall, but that reputation faded in the 1990s. Harvey, however, remained on the station's schedule, as did the legendary ''Jamboree USA'' and ''[[Jamboree in the Hills]]'' broadcasts. The ''[[WWVA Jamboree]]'' broadcasts started on January 7, 1933, and were even transmitted to troops abroad during [[World War II]].

Under Basic Communications ownership, the ''Jamboree'' became the centerpiece of an all-contemporary [[country western]] format starting on November 8, 1965, a format that saw ratings skyrocket weeks after it debuted. "This is WWVA, the big country" was their signature. In 1970, the studios and the Jamboree moved to the [[Capitol Music Hall]], a civic center that is the largest in [[West Virginia]].

This [[country music]] format lasted until November 1997, when WWVA abandoned it in favor of news/talk. Assumption of ownership by Clear Channel Communications resulted in the addition of such hosts as [[Rush Limbaugh]] and [[Glenn Beck]]. A series of cost-cutting moves in January 2004, resulted in the elimination of both local talk hosts (George Kellas and Jim Harrington) and most of the news department. Coinciding with this was an attempt to relocate the station to [[Stow, Ohio]], under an FCC major [[construction permit]] four weeks later. This application was withdrawn in August 2004.

[[Image:WVVA-AM.png|thumb|former logo]]
Since then, much of WWVA's programming emulates regional sister station [[WHLO]] in [[Akron, Ohio]]. One local link to the station's past was the afternoon drive show hosted by former sportscaster Steve Novotney, but he was also fired from WWVA in November 2006. At the time, the only local talk show remaining on WWVA was ''Saturday Sports Day'' with John Simonson, but WWVA, then in negotiations with new ownership, made a bold move when they paid more money to David Bloomquist to export his ''Bloomdaddy Experience'' from rival local station, [[WKKX]] in late May/early June 2007. The move was controversial (even though the reason given by WKKX to let Bloomquist go was in connection with the [[Don Imus#Rutgers women.27s basketball controversy|Don Imus Rutgers controversy]] that transpired on [[MSNBC]] around that same time), as WKKX members appeared bitter about the exit. Clear Channel began to syndicate ''Bloomdaddy'' through the northeast and midwest after the cancellation of ''[[The War Room with Quinn and Rose]]'' in November 2013.

''The Original Wheeling Radio Jamboree'' (formerly ''Jamboree USA'') is the second-longest running program in radio history (''[[The Grand Ole Opry]]'' on [[WSM (AM)|WSM]] [[Nashville]] is the oldest, having first aired in 1925). However, the ''Jamboree'' was dropped from WWVA's schedule in December 2008, and went to WKKX for a time. In 2015, it was picked up by community station [[WWOV-LP]]/101.1.

On August 4, 2010, a severe thunderstorm, classified as a "down burst" by the National Weather Service,<ref name="Towers3"/> pushed through the Wheeling area knocking the 3–tower array, located in nearby [[St. Clairsville, Ohio]], to the ground. The station was  taken completely off the air and took its programming to sister station [[WBBD]] on August 5.<ref name="Towers3">{{cite web |url=http://www.wtrf.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=83934 |title=WWVA Radio Towers Destroyed by High Winds |date=August 4, 2010 |access-date=August 4, 2010 |publisher=[[WTRF-TV]]}}</ref><ref name="Towers">{{cite web |url=http://www.wwva.com/cc-common/mainheadlines2.html?feed=119921&article=7439986 |title=WWVA Towers Knocked Down |date=August 4, 2010 |access-date=August 4, 2010 |publisher=WWVA}}</ref><ref name="Towers2">{{cite web |url=http://www.wtov9.com/weather/24515056/detail.html |title=Storms Cause Serious Damage, More On The Way |date=August 4, 2010 |access-date=August 4, 2010 |publisher=[[WTOV-TV]]}}</ref> On August 5, 2010, at 10:30&nbsp;pm, transmissions on 1170 AM were restored using temporary equipment.<ref name="Towers4">{{cite web |url=http://www.wwva.com/cc-common/mainheadlines2.html?feed=119921&article=7439986 |title=Update: Back on the air |date=August 5, 2010 |access-date = August 5, 2010 |publisher= WWVA}}</ref>

On November 16, 2006, WWVA, [[WOVK]], [[WVKF]], [[WKWK]], [[WEGW]] and [[WBBD]] were announced for sale as part of Clear Channel's divestiture of almost 450 small and middle-market radio properties in the U.S. The Clear Channel Wheeling stations were initially slated to be sold to Florida-based [[GoodRadio.TV LLC]] in May 2007, but the deal soon collapsed prior to FCC approval.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Official website|https://newsradio1170.iheart.com}}
{{AM station data|44046|WWVA}}
* {{Cite web|url= https://cdbs.recnet.com/corres/?doc=68906 |title= History Cards for WWVA|publisher=[[Federal Communications Commission]]}} ([[Wikipedia:WikiProject Radio Stations/History Cards|Guide to reading History Cards]])<!--Converted from {{FCC letter}}-->

==Further reading==
* {{URL|https://tenwatts.blogspot.com/2006/06/blind-twins-of-wwva_14.html|Arcane Radio Trivia - The Newcomer twins of WWVA}}
* {{URL|https://jeff560.tripod.com/wwva.html|In-house history of WWVA published on the station's 50th anniversary}}

{{Wheeling Radio}}
{{News/Talk Radio Stations in West Virginia}}
{{Clear Channel AM}}
{{IHeartMedia}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1926 establishments in West Virginia]]
[[Category:Clear-channel radio stations]]
[[Category:IHeartMedia radio stations]]
[[Category:News and talk radio stations in the United States]]
[[Category:Radio stations established in 1926]]
[[Category:Radio stations in West Virginia|WVA (AM)]]