WWVA (AM)
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| City | Wheeling, West Virginia |
|---|---|
| Branding | NewsRadio 1170 WWVA |
| Slogan | Wheeling's News/Talk Station |
| Frequency | 1170 kHz |
| First air date | December 13, 1926 |
| Format | News/Talk |
| Language(s) | English |
| Power | 50,000 watts (day) 50,000 watts (night) |
| Class | A |
| Facility ID | 44046 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 40°06′07″N 80°52′02″W / 40.10194°N 80.86722°W |
| Callsign meaning | Wheeling West VirginiA |
| Former frequencies | 860 kHz (1926-1941) |
| Affiliations | Fox News Radio, Premiere Radio Networks, Talk Radio Network |
| Owner |
iHeartMedia, Inc. (Capstar TX LLC) |
| Sister stations | WBBD, WEGW, WKWK, WOVK, WVKF |
| Webcast | WWVA Webstream |
| Website | WWVA Online |
WWVA (1170 AM, "NewsRadio 1170") is an American radio station that broadcasts on a frequency of 1170 kHz with studios in Wheeling, West Virginia. Its towers were located in St. Clairsville, Ohio. It is West Virginia's only class A 50,000 watt clear-channel station, sharing the frequency's Class A status with KFAQ (formerly KVOO) in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and KJNP in North Pole, Alaska. WWVA can be heard in most of the eastern two-thirds of the United States at night, as well as most of Canada. The station is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. and uses the on-air nickname "The Big One" (borrowed from sister stations WLW and WTAM).
WWVA was one of the first stations in the US to have an in-studio Citizens' Band Radio to talk to listeners at night, in between songs and other on-air items, during the 1970s when it produced and ran an in-house nightly truckers' show hosted by the popular radio personality, Buddy Ray. Ray left the station in the early 1980s.
In two instances has WWVA been threatened with relocation, neither being successful: first in 1930 to Charleston by then-owner West Virginia Broadcasting Corporation, and again in 2004 to Stow, Ohio (a suburb of Akron) by then-Clear Channel Communications.
WWVA began broadcasting at 2 a.m. on December 13, 1926. 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 Federal Radio Commission had granted a broadcast license on 860 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.
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