virginia giles county virginia branding am 990 the ridge slogan bluegrass radio frequency 990 khz first air date 1953 format bluegrass power 5 000 watts daytime 10 watts nighttime class d transmitter coordinates 37 20 39.0 n 80 46 36.0 w 37.344167 n 80.776667 w 37.344167 ; 80.776667 callsign meaning w new river valley w narrows virginia owner new river interactive media llc webcast wnrv webstream website wnrv online wnrv is a bluegrass formatted broadcast radio station licensed to narrows pearisburg virginia serving narrows and giles county virginia . wnrv is owned and operated by new river interactive media llc . 1 contents 1 history 2 station sold 3 62nd birthday 4 references 5 external links history edit in 1953 the federal communications commission fcc granted an am broadcast license to the narrows va businessman happy romanus . he began building the wnrv station on a section of land located between the new river and the highway that is now known as route 100 between narrows and pearisburg . since the station was located next to a railroad track the construction required special measures to prevent outside noises being heard on the air . in addition in order to absorb vibrations from passing trains the control room was elevated several feet higher than the normal station floor level . in 1960 the station was sold to e.d. mcwilliams . e.d. s wife megan took over ownership of the station after e.d s death . the arrival of bob whitehead was a critical event in wnrv s history . in 1959 bob moved his family from pennsylvania to the area and became known as the voice of the new river valley over the next thirty years . bob and megan both dedicated themselves during that period to make wnrv a community based station and a strong force in giles county . the station was active in lots of community events and was well known for leading multiple fund raising causes such as the red cross bloodmobiles . bob was one of southwest virginia s most respected broadcasters and greeted his listeners each morning with his signature sign on logo used by wnrv from 2007 to 2009 . good morning everyone this is wnrv narrows and pearisburg in virginia beginning broadcasting activities for another day . wnrv operates on a federally authorized frequency of nine hundred ninety kilocycles with a daytime power of five thousand watts . the station s daytime license only permitted wnrv to broadcast from sunrise to sunset . however there were numerous times the station was granted fcc permission to broadcast outside these time periods in order to provide the community with emergency information during severe weather events such as floods and winter storms . this type of community service established wnrv as a critical source of local information during emergencies . an increase in transmit power from 1 kilowatt kw to 5 kilowatts was approved by the fcc in 1968 . megan mcwilliams sold wnrv to a local partnership in 1990 and bob whitehead retired after the change in ownership . the new wnrv team consisted of general manager rebecca lolli program director tom crockett and sales marketing manager faye nicholson . giles county s first fm station wzfm 101.3 was launched by the new team in november 1991 with a classic hits format . in mid 1992 a large lightning strike destroyed wnrv s am transmitter and took the station off the air for twelve weeks this transmitter had been active since the late 1960s . the station installed a used replacement transmitter but it experienced problems . wnrv went off the air about a month later for a second time due to additional issues . on september 28 1992 an emotional goodbye message from faye nicholson marked wzfm going off the air . this combined with the wnrv am issues left giles county without any local radio stations . the next owner of wnrv was a christiansburg va based group travis media which operated the station until 1999 under the brand name 100.7 fm 990 am kool country ... kool 100 . perception media group inc acquired wnrv in 1999 . for the next eight years wnrv was used as a simulcast station for their roanoke va wwwr 3wr station with a southern gospel and religious programming format . in mid 2007 operation of wnrv was assumed under a lease management agreement with perception media group by gary jolicoeur and dennis welch . gary and dennis switched the format to bluegrass which ushered in the current era of wnrv . this history of wnrv was taken from the wnrv website and was based on an article written by james riffe jr a former wnrv announcer 1983 1988 and former wzfm wnrv announcer and account executive 1992 . james still periodically works with wnrv for a variety of production and promotion related tasks . in july 2007 wnrv changed its format to bluegrass and began broadcasting local programming back home out of its old studios between narrows and pearisburg . in july 2008 wnrv started full time 24 7 web streaming . in november 2009 wnrv launched a new website . station sold edit an fcc application to transfer the wnrv license from perception media group inc. to new river interactive media llc was submitted on october 6 2009 . the sale of wnrv to new river interactive media was completed in november 2009 . this sale puts the station back under a local ownership group . the current format is bluegrass and old time with some classic country mixed in . 62nd birthday edit wnrv celebrated its 62nd birthday in 2015 . the first wnrv broadcast license was approved by the fcc on august 24 1953 . the station still transmits out of the original building that was constructed in 1952 . references edit wnrv facility record . federal communications commission audio division . external links edit wnrv am 990 the ridge query the fcc s am station database for wnrv radio locator information on wnrv query nielsen audio s am station database for wnrv v t e radio stations in the southwest virginia market excluding the tri cities by am frequency 540 660 740 740 770 940 990 1010 1030 1050 1140 1220 1230 1280 1330 1350 1360 1380 1400 1430 1470 1570 1600 by fm frequency 88.1 88.1 90.1 90.1 90.3 90.3 90.5 90.7 90.9 91.3 91.7 92.1 92.5 93.5 93.9 94.3 95.3 95.9 97.7 98.1 98.9 99.1 99.7 99.7 100.1 100.5 100.5 100.7 100.9 101.1 101.3 101.9 102.3 102.5 103.5 104.7 105.5 105.5 106.3 106.3 107.3 107.7 by callsign w201ai w201aj w211be w211bf w212bp w215bj w217bf w219cj w223aa w255bt w270bo w270cb w284bb wabn waxm wbrf wcgx wcxz wdic wdic fm wdxc webi lp wehc wfog lp wfye wgat wgck fm wgfc wgth wgth fm whhv whkx whqx wise fm wifx fm witm wjnv wkoy fm wkqy wloy wlrv wlsd wmev fm wmjd wnbv wnrg wnrv wnva wnva fm wokg wold fm wpaq wric fm wswv wswv fm wtze wukz wvtr wxbx wxez lp wxjx lp wxlz wxlz fm wxmy wyrv wyve wzfm wzva defunct wbdy wduf virginia radio markets bristol fredericksburg harrisonburg norfolk newport news virginia beach richmond roanoke lynchburg winchester other virginia radio regions blacksburg christiansburg radford pulaski bluefield charlottesville eastern shore farmville northern neck roanoke rapids south hill southside southwest virginia virginia highlands see also list of radio stations in virginia retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wnrv & oldid 679487643 categories radio stations in virginiacountry radio stations in the united statesradio stations established in 1952 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 4 september 2015 at 21 09 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view