WCVE-FM ("VPM News", 88.9

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) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

licensed to

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

, serving the

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

/ Petersburg area. WCVE-FM is owned and operated by

Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation The VPM Media Corporation, formerly known as the Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation and Central Virginia Educational Television Corporation, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that is the group owner of Public Broadcasting Service ( ...

. CPBC also owns Channel 23

WCVE-TV WCVE-TV, virtual channel 23 (Ultra high frequency, UHF Digital terrestrial television, digital channel 22), is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) network affiliate#Member stations, member television station city of license, licensed to Richmon ...

, the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

member station in Richmond, as well as other TV and FM stations in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. WCVE-FM broadcasts two channels in the

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...

format. Two additional stations,

WWLB WWLB (93.1 FM) is a non-commercial broadcast radio station licensed to Ettrick, Virginia, serving the Petersburg/Richmond area. WWLB is owned and operated by VPM Media Corporation. Along with sister station WBBT-FM in Powhatan, the station is b ...

(93.1 FM) and

WBBT-FM WBBT-FM (107.3 MHz) is a non-commercial public FM radio station licensed to Powhatan, Virginia, and serving the Greater Richmond Region. WBBT-FM is owned and operated by VPM Media Corporation. It airs an eclectic music format, focusing on ...

(107.3 FM), broadcast classical and specialty music programming to Richmond under the brand "VPM Music". WWLB serves the southern portion of the market, while WBBT serves the northern portion. On August 5, 2019, WCVE-FM was rebranded as "VPM News."

History

WRFK

In May 1957, the Union Theological Seminary of Richmond (now known as the

Union Presbyterian Seminary Union Presbyterian Seminary is a Presbyterian seminary in Richmond, Virginia. It also has a non-residential campus in Charlotte, North Carolina and an online blended learning program. History As a result of efforts undertaken together by the S ...

)

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on do ...

an FM radio station at 90.1, WRFK. Its non-commercial schedule of classical music, religion and talk programs proved to be popular. The station relocated to 106.5 in the 1960s and boosted its power, first to 16,000 watts, and later 50,000 watts, covering all of Richmond and its suburbs. When

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

debuted in the 1970s, WRFK became the organization's member for Richmond, airing programs such as ''

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

.'' It operated as a noncommercial broadcaster despite being on a commercial frequency. In the late 1980s, the seminary discovered that its charter did not allow it to operate a radio station and put WRFK on the market. It initially reached a deal to sell the station to the Federated Arts Council. However, it opted to take a larger offer from a commercial broadcaster. Meanwhile, Richmond's PBS member, WCVE-TV, which signed on in 1964, expressed an interest in operating a public radio station as a companion to Channel 23. With the help of interested businessmen and lawmakers who wanted to see the NPR/fine arts format preserved in Richmond, Commonwealth Public Broadcasting won a radio license."Silent void possible with WRFK", ''The Richmond Times-Dispatch'', January 2, 1988."Music lovers awash in February's stormy seas", ''The Richmond Times-Dispatch'', February 27, 1988.

WCVE-FM

In 1988, WRFK was sold to The Daytona Group of Virginia, Inc. The station switched to a commercial

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

format as WVMX (now

urban contemporary Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contem ...

station

WBTJ WBTJ (106.5 FM) – branded as 106.5 The Beat – is a commercial urban contemporary radio station licensed to serve Richmond, Virginia. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station services the Greater Richmond Region and the Petersburg area. The WBTJ s ...

). WRFK signed off for the last time on May 6, 1988. Soon afterward, WCVE-FM signed on from 101.1 FM as Richmond's new NPR member station. Most of WRFK's staff transferred to WCVE-FM, along with nearly all of WRFK's programming and music library. By 1990, the station had moved to its current home at 88.9 FM. Its

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would hav ...

was 8,300 watts, with its

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...

at the WCVE-TV tower, at 840 feet in

height above average terrain Height above average terrain (HAAT), or (less popularly) effective height above average terrain (EHAAT), is the vertical position of an antenna site is above the surrounding landscape. HAAT is used extensively in FM radio and television, as it is ...

. It originally aired classical music much of the day, with some NPR programs, jazz and local news. With the expansion of NPR's schedule in the 1990s, more NPR shows were added, to the point where the station became all news and information on weekdays, with music heard at night and on weekends. In the early 2000s, WCVE-FM nearly doubled its power, to 17,500 watts, from the same 840-foot tower. In the 2010s, the station reduced its power to 10,000 watts, coupled with an increase in antenna height, now at .FCC.gov/WCVE-FM
/ref> That gives WCVE-FM the same coverage but at less power due to the use of a taller tower.

News and music split

On December 20, 2017, Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation announced that they would acquire stations

(107.3 FM) and

(93.1 FM) from

Alpha Media Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , which ...

. As part of the purchase, the station would move its music programming to the new acquisitions. WCVE-FM began simulcasting the two new stations on February 15, 2018, and lasted until June 1, 2018, which at that point WCVE-FM and its repeaters rebranded as "WCVE News", while the two new stations became "WCVE Music". On August 5, 2019, WCVE-FM was rebranded as "VPM News" while both WBBT-FM and WWLB were rebranded as "VPM Music."

Network

WCVE-FM built two full-powered repeaters in 2007 to serve outlying parts of its coverage area.

References

External links

VPM News
* {{NPR Virginia 1988 establishments in Virginia Public radio stations in the United States NPR member stations Radio stations established in 1988 CVE-FM CVE-FM News and talk radio stations in the United States