WRVC (AM)

Infobox Radio Station


name = WRVC
airdate = 1923
frequency = 930 kHz
city = Huntington, West Virginia
area = Huntington, West Virginia
Ashland, Kentucky
Ironton, Ohio
format = Sports Radio
owner = Kindred Communications
erp = 5,000 watts (daytime)
1,000 watts (nighttime) | branding = ESPN Radio 930
slogan = "Your New Home For ESPN Radio," AM 930, WRVC
class = B
website = [http://www.wrvc.am WRVC.am]
callsign_meaning = RiVer Cities

WRVC is the first radio station in West Virginia, originally called WSAZ (see WSAZ). It 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. The station was moved to Huntington, W.Va. in 1927 and has been there ever since, changing to WGNT in the 1970s and to WRVC in the 1990s.

Currently, it carries almost all programming from ESPN Radio. West Virginia Radio Corporation's, "MetroNews Talkline," is carried 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Mon-Fri, as is the local affairs program, "Viewpoint with Jean Dean," from 12 p.m. until 1 p.m. Daily local sportstalk can be heard on the "Insider Sportsline" from 4-5 p.m. and on the "Insider Statewide on the ISP Sports Network" from 5-6 p.m., with Woody Woodrum and Luke Beach, and distributed by ISP Sports Properties of Winston-Salem, N.C., the company that promotes the Thundering Herd/ISP Sports Radio Network of Marshall University and other major colleges.

WRVC, owned locally in the Huntington area by Kindred Communications, was the primary AM station in the market for many years. Nationally-owned competitor Clear Channel moved Rush Limbaugh and Cincinnati Reds to one of their ten stations in the Tri-State, WVHU-AM, whereupon WRVC 930 AM joined the progressive Air America Radio network in 2004. Following a disastrous decline to a 0.6 local rating, the station, in September 2006 dropped its Air America content to a mid-daytime only and began carrying ESPN Radio at night as a prelude to a move to an all-sports format. In November, WRVC became an almost 24-7 sports station and moved Air America, Ed Shultz and other progressive programming to sister station WCMI-AM 1340 AM in Catlettsburg/Ashland, Kentucky, which also carries local high school sports, NCAA basketball, NHL hockey, NFL games and other sports programming.

WRVC's current format is a mix of mostly ESPN, including Major League Baseball from opening day until the World Series as well as other offerings from the nation's sports leader. There are also manu local sports, including Marshall football, men's and women's basketball and baseball, as well as high school sports featuring nearby Spring Valley and Cabell Midland High Schools. State championships in football, boys basketball and baseball are carried through MetroNews. National Football League games, including the Super Bowl, and NCAA Football games, including over two dozen bowl games, are fed from Sports USA Radio and Westwood One, who also provides the National Hockey League all the way to the Stanley Cup and NCAA College World Series and "March Madness," the NCAA Tournament in men's and women's collegiate basketball.

The station will also begin its third year of coverage of the West Virginia Power, the state's Class A minor league baseball team located in Charleston, W.Va., and the third year of Craftsman Truck races from NASCAR. The Kentucky Derby and Triple Crown, as well as the Indy 500 and other IRL races, are also part of the broad range of sports offered by WRVC AM. The station is still moving towards all-sports, but will most likely still feature "Big Bands and More with Alan Sturm" on Saturday mornings from 7-9 a.m. and Sunday morning 7:30-9:30 a.m., as well as religious programming 9:30-10:30 a.m. on Sundays, regardless of the expected eventual move of all political programming to WCMI.

Kindred Communications (d.b.a. Fifth Avenue Broadcasting) is also home to WDGG, 93.7 FM, "The Dawg," the Tri-State's top country and NASCAR station; WRVC 92.7 FM, "The Planet," the REAL rock station; and the Herd Insider magazine, covering MU sports with 40 issues per year since 1997, in addition to WRVC 930 AM and WCMI 1340 AM.

External links

* [http://www.wrvc.am WRVC official website]
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