WRVC (AM)

WRVC
City Huntington, West Virginia
Broadcast area Huntington, West Virginia
Ashland, Kentucky
Ironton, Ohio
Branding ESPN Huntington 94.1 FM and AM 930
Frequency 930 kHz
Translator(s) 94.1 W231BS (Huntington)
First air date 1923
Format Sports
Power 5,000 watts (daytime)
1,000 watts (nighttime)
Class B
Facility ID 21435
Callsign meaning W RiVer Cities
Affiliations Cincinnati Bengals Radio Network
Cleveland Cavaliers Radio Network
Pittsburgh Pirates Radio Network
ESPN Radio
Owner Fifth Avenue Broadcasting Company, Inc. (dba Kindred Communications)

WRVC is the oldest operating radio station in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It was originally called WSAZ Radio (see WSAZ), the same call letters used for Channel 3 TV when it came into being in the late 1940s, and the television station still uses that long-time call. WRVC AM & FM is located in Huntington, West Virginia and is West Virginia's oldest continually licensed station. It began operations on October 16, 1923 as WSAZ in Pomeroy, Ohio at the Chase Electric Shop. The station was moved to Huntington, W.V. in 1927, moved to 930 AM in 1941 and has been there ever since, changing to WGNT in the 1970s and to WRVC in the 1990s. Currently it markets itself as "ESPN 94.1/93.3 FMs and AMs 930/1340" since March 2016 and before that, the addition of an FM translator and change of the format to talk/sports (as "Supertalk 94.1 FM and AM 930" was first made in May 2009.

WRVC is currently owned by Kindred Communications, and was the primary AM station in the market for many years. Nationally owned competitor Clear Channel moved Rush Limbaugh and the Cincinnati Reds to WVHU, whereupon WRVC 930 AM joined Air America Radio network in 2004. The result was a disastrous decline to a 0.6 local rating. In November 2006, WRVC became an almost 24/7 sports station for about three years, but also carried local music and church on weekends and daily local talk. "Supertalk" was a mix of news, talk and sports on May 18, 2009, the approximate of lineup mix the station had prior to 2006.

In 2014, the station once again went back to ESPN as its main programming, with MetroNews providing state talk, the Statewide Sportsline and other sports programming from ESPN, Westwood One, the Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Cavaliers and Pittsburgh Pirates. Eventually, 94.1 FM and AM 930 may stand alone as ESPN Huntington and WCMI AM 1340 and its 93.3 FM (translator) will become ESPN Ashland. Programming also includes the "First Sentry Bank Sportsline" a daily local sports talk show that has run on the station continuously since April 1997, with Woody Woodrum and Paul Swann (since 2013) hosting.

WRVC also carries many local sports including Marshall football, men's basketball and baseball, as well as high school sports from Huntington High School, since 2013. It also carries nationally syndicated games from Major League Baseball, the National Football League and playoffs up to and including the Super Bowl and the National Basketball League, as well as NCAA Basketball and "March Madness" Championships along with many college bowl games, including the BCS Championship and other BCS Bowls.

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Coordinates: 38°24′03″N 82°29′42″W / 38.40083°N 82.49500°W / 38.40083; -82.49500

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, April 18, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.