WTVR-FM

WTVR-FM
City Richmond, Virginia
Broadcast area Central Virginia
Branding Mix 98.1
Slogan Today's Variety
Frequency 98.1 MHz (also on HD Radio)
First air date 1946
Format Adult Contemporary
Christmas music (Nov.-Dec.)
HD2: News/Talk (WRVA (AM) simulcast)
Power 50,000 Watts
HAAT 256 Meters
Class B
Facility ID 54387
Transmitter coordinates 37°34′0.0″N 77°28′36.0″W / 37.566667°N 77.476667°W / 37.566667; -77.476667
Callsign meaning W TeleVision Richmond (from when it was co-owned with Channel 6 WTVR-TV)
Former callsigns WCOD
Owner iHeartMedia
(CC Licenses, LLC)
Sister stations W241AP, W253BI, WBTJ, WRNL, WRVA, WRVQ, WRXL
Webcast WTVR-FM Webstream
Website WTVR-FM Online

WTVR-FM (98.1 MHz) is an FM radio station licensed to Richmond, Virginia. WTVR-FM serves Central Virginia with an Adult contemporary music format. The station is owned and operated by iHeartMedia with studios and offices on Basie Road, off West Broad Street in Richmond.[1] It shares a nearby broadcasting tower with its formerly co-owned TV station, WTVR-TV Channel 6.

History

WTVR-FM began broadcasting in February 1946 as WCOD and was owned by the Richmond Broadcasting Company.[2] It was the sister station of AM 1380, which is today WBTK. For many years, it was also co-owned with Channel 6 WTVR-TV. The call letters for all three stations, AM 1380, FM 98.1 and Channel 6 were WTVR-AM-FM-TV, signifying (W) TeleVision Richmond. Even though Channel 6 (Digital Channel 25) is today owned by Tribune Broadcasting, the FM and TV stations still share the WTVR call letters and the 843 foot tower off West Broad Street, a landmark on the Richmond skyline. WTVR-FM operates at 50,000 watts, standard for most FM stations in the Richmond market. But it enjoys a larger coverage area because its broadcasting tower is taller than the standard, which should be approximately 500 feet.

For much of its early history, WTVR-FM aired Beautiful music, although by the 1980s, that mostly instrumental format was falling out of favor with younger listeners. It gradually added more soft vocals to its sound, transitioning to the adult contemporary format heard today.

On November 13, 2015, WTVR-FM switched to Christmas music, and began calling itself "The All-New Christmas 98.1." In recent years, along with many other Adult Contemporary radio stations, WTVR-FM switches to all holiday music from mid-November to Christmas Day. As the holidays ended, iHeartMedia rebranded the station as "Mix 98.1" on December 28th.[3] Despite the new branding, the format remains Adult Contemporary, although a bit more uptempo.

WTVR-HD2

WTVR-FM broadcasts a simulcast of news/talk-formatted WRVA 1140 AM on its HD2 sub channel. On May 5, 2014 FM translator W253BI 98.5 FM Glen Allen, Virginia began simulcasting WRVA via WTVR-HD2.[4] The simulcast on W253BI ended on July 23, 2015. WRVA's signal is still relayed via WTVR-HD2.[5]

(WTVR-FM's logo under previous "Lite 98" branding)

References

  1. ↑ "WTVR Facility Record". Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  2. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1977
  3. ↑ Did the Lite Go Out in Richmond?
  4. ↑ WRVA Adds FM Signal
  5. ↑ http://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?id=56 HD Radio Guide for Richmond, Virginia
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.