WWWV (97.5 FM) is a

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, prima ...

formatted broadcast

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 radi ...

licensed to Charlottesville, Virginia, and serves

Central Virginia 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. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines the area as the Richmo ...

and the Central Shenandoah Valley. WWWV is owned and operated by the Charlottesville Radio Group subsidiary of Saga Communications.

History

WCCV-FM signed on March 5, 1960, with a middle-of-the-road format of post-war pop and light classical music. WCCV-FM was co-owned with WCHV (1260 kHz) by Roger and Louise Neuhoff's Eastern Broadcasting Corporation. In December 1968, WCCV-FM and WCHV were sold to Charlottesville resident Edward S. Evans, Jr. Two years later, the station flipped to

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

during the day and a simulcast of WCHV's

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 between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. On May 1, 1971, WCCV-FM switched again to

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 mu ...

. In 1973, Evans sold the two stations to Lyell B. Clay's Clay Broadcasting, owner of several newspapers and television stations, most notably

WWAY WWAY (channel 3) is a television station in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States, affiliated with ABC, CBS, and The CW Plus. Owned by Morris Multimedia, the station has studios on Magnolia Village Way in Leland, and its transmitter is l ...

of Wilmington, but no other radio stations. On January 10, 1977, the station adopted its current identity –

album-oriented rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the 1970s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock. Album-orien ...

music, the branding "3WV", and the callsign WWWV. Clay sold all of his broadcasting interests in 1987-88; WWWV and WCHV went to Eure Communications, then-owners of WXEZ Yorktown. In 1998, Eure combined WWWV with Charlottesville Broadcasting Corporation's

WINA WINA (1070 AM broadcasting, AM) is a News radio, news/Talk radio, talk/Sports Radio, sports formatted Broadcasting, broadcast radio station licensed to Charlottesville, Virginia, serving Charlottesville, Virginia, Charlottesville and Albemarle Co ...

(1070 kHz) and

WQMZ WQMZ (95.1 FM) is an adult contemporary formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Charlottesville, Virginia, serving Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia. WQMZ is owned and operated by the Charlottesville Radio Group subsidiary ...

(95.1 MHz) in a merger deal. Eure was ordered by the

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

to spin off the merger's two remaining stations – WCHV and WKAV (1400 kHz) – to Clear Channel, as FCC regulators took issue with Eure's potential ownership of five stations in the small market. (The FCC under a different leadership permitted Clear Channel to own six stations just five years later.) Saga Communications bought Eure's three-station cluster in 2004. WWWV took over as the FM home of Virginia Cavaliers football and men's basketball at the beginning of the 2003-04 football season, complementing longtime state network flagship WINA. It simulcasts all games, but does not air the coaches' shows. Since flipping to a broadly rock format in 1977, the station's music has aged with its audience; it remained a

modern rock Modern rock is an umbrella term used to describe rock music that is found on college rock radio stations. Some radio stations use this term to distinguish themselves from classic rock, which is based in 1960s–1980s rock music. Radio format Mod ...

reporter through the 1990s before adding recurrents and moving to active rock. WWWV dropped all new music in 2017 to become strictly

, coinciding with a slogan change from the longtime "Everything That Rocks" to "Iconic Rock".

References

External links

97.5 3WV Online
* Album-oriented rock radio stations in the United States WWV Radio stations established in 1960 1960 establishments in Virginia Mass media in Charlottesville, Virginia {{Virginia-radio-station-stub