WKYV (100.3

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

) is a commercial FM

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 A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

Petersburg, Virginia Petersburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 33,458. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines Petersburg (along with the city of Colonial Heights) with Din ...

and serving the

Greater Richmond Region The Greater Richmond Region, the Richmond metropolitan area or Central Virginia, is a region and metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Virginia, centered on Richmond, Virginia, Richmond. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines the ...

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 ...

. The station is branded as " K-Love" and features a

Contemporary Christian Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...

format. The station is owned by Educational Media Foundation (EMF). WKYV's

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 ...

is located off Johnson Road in Petersburg.

History

WKYV signed on November 27, 1992, as WSVV, and carried an

Urban AC Urban adult contemporary, often abbreviated as urban AC or UAC, (also known as adult R&B,) is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have hip hop music on ...

format that was targeted towards its city of license, Petersburg. In August 1994, it would change call letters to WSOJ, but continued with the Urban AC format. On February 10, 1998, WSOJ began simulcasting on newly acquired sister

WVGO WHFE-LP and WVGO-LP were low-power television stations in Sullivan, Indiana, broadcasting locally as affiliates of America One on channels 18 and 54 (respectively). The stations were owned by low-power magnate KM Communications, and served differe ...

, which dropped its oldies format. Radio One would buy the station in March 1999. In October 1999, the WVGO/WSOJ simulcast ended, and Radio One began simulcasting their then-country station, WJRV ("105.7 The River") on WSOJ with new calls WARV. In March 2001, Radio One sold the station to Honolulu Broadcasting, who would then lease it to

Cox Radio CMG Media Corporation (doing business as Cox Media Group) is an American media conglomerate principally owned by Apollo Global Management in conjunction with Cox Enterprises, which maintains a 29% minority stake in the company. The company pri ...

via a

local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...

, and would split the simulcast by flipping WARV to a current-heavy country format as "Cat Country" to complement long-time powerhouse

WKHK WKHK (95.3 FM) is a country music formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Colonial Heights, Virginia, serving Richmond and Petersburg in Virginia. WKHK is owned and operated by SummitMedia. The station's studios and offices are located ...

. In December 2002, Honolulu would terminate the LMA with Cox and sell the station to MainQuad Broadcasting, owners of

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 class ...

, and flipped it to

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN". ...

on April 1, 2003, after months of stunting. On January 21, 2004, WARV dropped ESPN programming and flipped to a simulcast of WBBT, which would also adopt an

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as we ...

format on the same date. In December 2005, WBBT and WARV, along with sister 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 ...

and

WLFV WLFV (98.9 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station, licensed to Midlothian, Virginia and serving the Greater Richmond Region. The station is branded as " K-Love" and features a Contemporary Christian format. The station is owned by Educational ...

, were purchased by Philadelphia-based Main Line Broadcasting. On July 1, 2014,

Main Line Broadcasting Main Line Broadcasting was an American media company, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its peak, Main Line Broadcasting owned 19 radio stations in four markets in the United States. The company was founded by Dan Savadove, and was most rece ...

sold its Richmond stations to L&L Broadcasting, with the combined entity taking the name

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 ...

. On October 20, 2014, WARV switched from simulcasting WBBT to sister

, which aired a country format as "The Wolf". On December 5, 2016, EMF filed an application with the FCC to purchase both WARV-FM and WLFV for $2 million. On March 22, 2017, following the consummation of EMF's purchase, the station began stunting, directing listeners to sister station WWLB (the classic country-formatted "

Hank FM Hank FM is the on-air brand name of several radio stations in the United States and Canada. Stations using the Hank FM brand name typically air a country format, in configurations of classic country, contemporary country, or a less tightly-formatt ...

"). On March 23, 2017, EMF re-launched the station as "K-Love". On April 24, 2017, WARV-FM became WKYV as part of a call letter exchange with its sister station on 90.1 FM in Colonial Heights (the WARV-FM calls were a better match for that station's new identity as part of EMF's

Air1 Air1 is an American Christian radio network. Owned by the Educational Media Foundation (EMF), it primarily broadcasts contemporary worship music, and is a sister to the EMF's K-Love network. History In 1986, KLRD began broadcasting Christia ...

network).

Previous logo

References

External links

WKYV Online
{{K-LOVE 1993 establishments in Virginia Radio stations established in 1993 KYV Educational Media Foundation radio stations K-Love radio stations KYV