WLVA (AM)
| City | Lynchburg, Virginia |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area |
Lynchburg, Virginia Roanoke, Virginia Bedford, Virginia |
| Frequency | 580 kHz |
| First air date | 1930 |
| Format | Talk |
| Power | 250 Watts daytime 14 Watts nighttime |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 39579 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 37°25′39.0″N 79°13′23.0″W / 37.427500°N 79.223056°W |
| Callsign meaning | W Lynchburg VirginiA |
| Affiliations | Carolina Panthers Radio Network |
| Owner | Brent Epperson |
WLVA is a broadcast radio station licensed to Lynchburg, Virginia, serving Lynchburg, Roanoke and Bedford. WLVA is owned and operated by Brent Epperson.
WLVA was Lynchburg's first radio station, signing on for the first time at 7:00 PM on April 21, 1930 on 1230kHz (W Lynchburg, VirginiA). By 1934, WLVA was broadcasting at a power of 100 watts. At a time when many local radio stations were owned by or affiliated with newspapers, WLVA was not; consequently, the station frequently found itself in direct competition with Lynchburg's papers. In 1934, WLVA allied itself with the Washington Herald which was attempting to increase circulation in the Lynchburg area. The Herald's Lynchburg correspondent, Nowlin Puckett, furnished local news on WLVA from August until December 1934. In late 1934, WLVA experimented with rebroadcasting selected programs from station WLW (Cincinnati, Ohio). Most listeners in Lynchburg could not ordinarily receive WLW, but WLVA installed a special high-powered receiver on the outskirts of Lynchburg which it used to tune in WLW and re-broadcast the signal to Lynchburg listeners.
In December 1935, WLVA moved to a new building in Lynchburg and boasted a "selling staff" of 12, headed by Glenn E. Jackson. At that time, Jimmy Moore was director of programs; Al Heiser was chief engineer, and Jim Howe was head of continuity. In late 1939, under president Edward A. Allen, WLVA acquired station WBTM (Danville, Virginia). On January 1, 1940, the two joined together to form the fledgling Piedmont Broadcasting System. Each station took turns originating programs that were heard over both simultaneously. The network expanded in late 1940 to include station WSLS (Roanoke, Virginia). When Glenn Jackson, after 13 years at WLVA, killed himself at age 33 on April 9, 1942, the news was reported in Variety
Beginning in 1935 and continuing well into the 1950s, WLVA hosted an annual "Christmas Party" to raise money and clothing for needy children in the area. The all-day broadcast (usually the Sunday before Christmas) featured local performers who stopped by to entertain the listening audience. In between performances, announcers read the names of contributors. In 1942, WLVA's "Christmas Party" made national news when Byron Price, war censorship chief in Washington, D.C., forbade the station to read the names of donors on-air, fearing that doing so might "tipoff, accidentally...enemy agents."
...
Wikipedia