WVKL (95.7 FM) – branded ''95-7 R&B'' – is a commercial

urban adult contemporary 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 ...

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 serve

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...

. Owned by

Audacy, Inc. Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corporation, it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning 235 radio stations across 48 media ...

, the station services the

Hampton Roads Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James River, James, Nansemond River, Nansemond and Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's ...

region, and is the market affiliate for '' The Steve Harvey Morning Show''. The WVKL studios are located in

Virginia Beach Virginia Beach is an independent city located on the southeastern coast of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The population was 459,470 at the 2020 census. Although mostly suburban in character, it is the most populous city ...

, while the station transmitter resides in nearby

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WVKL broadcasts over three

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 ...

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

s, and is available online via .

History

This station began operations as WTAR-FM on September 21, 1961, owned by Norfolk Newspapers, publisher of ''

The Virginian-Pilot ''The Virginian-Pilot'' is the daily newspaper for Norfolk, Virginia. Commonly known as ''The Pilot'', it is Virginia's largest daily. It serves the five cities of South Hampton Roads as well as several smaller towns across southeast Virginia ...

'' and ''The Ledger-Star''. Norfolk Newspapers also owned Virginia's first radio station, WTAR (790 AM), and the market's CBS network affiliate, WTAR-TV. There had been a previous WTAR-FM on 97.3 MHz that began broadcasting in 1948, but had ceased operations a couple of years later. From its sign-on, WTAR-FM has had an

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 ...

of 40,000 watts, broadcasting from a tower built for WTAR-TV, giving WTAR-FM a height above average terrain of 879 feet (268 meters), which makes the station overpowered by current standards. On that tower, a Class B station should be limited to around 16,000 watts, but WVKL continues to enjoy a larger coverage area thanks to its grandfathered power. By the early 1970s, WTAR-FM was separately programmed, airing a

beautiful music Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator musi ...

format; by 1977, WTAR-FM switched its

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

to WKEZ, with the "EZ" in the call letters referring to

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...

music. As Norfolk Newspapers began acquiring newspapers and broadcast properties in other states, it was renamed Landmark Communications, and later

Landmark Media Enterprises Landmark Media Enterprises, LLC (a spinoff of Landmark Communications, Inc.) is a privately held media company headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia specializing in newspaper publishing, Internet publishing and software. History Norfolk Newspape ...

. In the 1970s, the FCC began discouraging one company from owning a newspaper, TV station and radio stations, all in the same

media market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...

. Landmark was exempt because it owned the properties before the FCC rules went into effect, but decided to sell WTAR-TV to

Knight-Ridder Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. Until it was bought by McClatchy on June 27, 2006, it was the second largest newspaper publisher in the United States, with 32 daily newspaper brand ...

in 1981. WKEZ was concurrently moved to a soft adult contemporary format as WLTY, branded ''The New Y96''. The "LT" stood for both "Lite Music" and the slogan "We Listen To You". WLTY shifted to

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 ...

as ''The New Oldies 96'' in May 1989, and then later as ''Oldies 95.7''. In 1993, Benchmark Communications spent $4.5 million to buy both WLTY and WTAR. In 1997, Benchmark sold WLTY to Heritage Broadcasting, which changed WLTY's call letters to WVCL and re-branded as "Cool 95." The following year, the call sign was modified to WVKL, so instead of "Cool" it became "Kool 95.7." In February 1998, the Sinclair Broadcast Group acquired WVKL. In December 1999, the station was bought by Entercom. On January 9, 2001, WVKL switched to its current Urban AC format. Entercom has guided WVKL to becoming one of the top stations in the Norfolk-

- Newport News radio market. On February 23, 2022, WVKL added The Bet to its HD3 subchannel.

References

External links

* {{Entercom VKL Urban adult contemporary radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1961 Audacy, Inc. radio stations