WLVA

WLVA is a broadcast radio station licensed to Lynchburg, Virginia, serving Lynchburg, Roanoke and Bedford. WLVA is owned and operated by Brent Epperson.

History

WLVA was Lynchburg's first radio station, signing on for the first time at 7:00 PM on April 21, 1930 on 1230kHz (W Lynchburg, VirginiA). By 1934, WLVA was broadcasting at a power of 100 watts. At a time when many local radio stations were owned by or affiliated with newspapers, WLVA was not; consequently, the station frequently found itself in direct competition with Lynchburg's papers. In 1934, WLVA allied itself with the Washington Herald which was attempting to increase circulation in the Lynchburg area. The Herald's Lynchburg correspondent, Nowlin Puckett, furnished local news on WLVA from August until December 1934. In late 1934, WLVA experimented with rebroadcasting selected programs from station WLW (Cincinnati, Ohio). Most listeners in Lynchburg could not ordinarily receive WLW, but WLVA installed a special high-powered receiver on the outskirts of Lynchburg which it used to tune in WLW and re-broadcast the signal to Lynchburg listeners.