WRVQ
WRVQ logo | |
Broadcast area | Richmond, Virginia |
---|---|
Frequency | 94.5 MHz |
Branding | Q94 |
Programming | |
Format | Top 40 |
Ownership | |
Owner | Clear Channel Communications |
History | |
First air date | August 4, 1948 |
Technical information | |
Class | B |
ERP | 200.000 watts |
Links | |
Website | www.q94radio.com |
WRVQ is a longtime Top 40 radio station in Richmond, Virginia owned and operated by Clear Channel Communications. It is the second-oldest station in Richmond, signing on in August 1948. Originally the station was owned by Laurus Brothers Tobacco as were sister stations WRVA-AM and WRVA-TV.In 1968 the radio ststions were sold to Southern Broadcasting and moved from the former Richmond Hotel into a new building in Church Hill that overlooked the city skyline, ( The TV station was sold to Jefferson Pilot and is now WWBT ).From it's sign on to 1968 , the station shared the Southside Richmond tower with WRVA-TV.When the stations were sold , the tower location had to be moved off the TV tower. WRVQ's broadcast tower is now next to WRVA's, adjacent to the James River in Eastern Henrico County, about 10 miles east of Richmond. Along with WTVR-FM, WRVQ has a grandfathered signal, being allowed to transmit 200 kW compared to other stations in Richmond which can only transmit up to 50 kW.
History
WRVQ has been some variant of Top 40 since July, 1972. Before this, it simulcasted its sister station, the legendary 1140 WRVA. At the time, WRVA played mostly news,sports adult contemporary music and talk shows. In the late 1960's, 94.5 would stop simulcasting WRVA-AM at about 6pm and play automated country music until it signed off at midnight. And on the weekends would broadcast the automated country format from 6am until 2am ( in mono ). (Recently, Clear Channel changed the calls of their WTRG-FM in Raleigh NC to WRVA-FM to go with their new Logo "The River." Clear Channel currently owns WRVA-AM & WRVQ.)
WRVQ was the first FM radio station in Richmond to broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week beginning in July of 1972. The first song played on WRVQ was "I Just Want To Celebrate" by Rare Earth. The original 1972 airstaff was Bob McNeill in mornings , Jim Edwards (aka the late Jim Campanna ) in mid mornings, (Program Director ) Bill Garcia in middays , Dave Collins in afternoon drive , Lee Grant in evenings, Chuck Woodson in late nights, Doug Riddell in overnights. At first the station billed itself as "WRVQ Stereo Rock" and "Fun Lovin' Super Q ", but in 1974 began billing themselves as " Q94 " which has continued into the present. The station maintained a standard Top 40 format thru the seventies which brought them high ratings. Popular personalities from the 70s included Randy Reeves, Bob Somers, Steve Hendrix, Dr.Rock, Jeff Jackson, "Cosmic" John Barry, Ron Bates, Kevin Connors,Tim Watts, and Bruce Kelly. When Q94 signed on in 1972 they had two Top 40 competitors, both on AM , WLEE and WTVR-AM.By the end of the seventies, both stations had bailed out of the format and WRVQ was the lone Top 40 station in the market. In late 1978 and early 1979 disco music became a dominant part of the playlist until mid 1979.From 1977 to 1980, the station ran a locally produced Oldies show called "Rock & Roll Roots" hosted by WRVQ Sales Manager (and former air personality ) Jack Alix and produced by Alix and veteran station air personality Bob Somers. In 1978 the station was purchased by Harte-Hanks Communications, a divsion of Harte-Hanks Publishing. An intresting event took place on the station in the overnight hours of December 9th 1980. Just hours after the murder of former Beatle John Lennon was announced, DJs Kevin Connors and Norman "Bob-A-Lou" Freedlander, on their own, "suspended" the normal Top 40 format and went into a marathon of Lennon, Beatles and other British rock music and interspered conversations about Lennon and the Beatles as a " tribute " to Lennon's memory, which lasted until almost sunrise. In February of 1981, on the day urban WPLZ-FM signed on as Richmond's first FM Urban station, WRVQ, under then-Program Director Bill Thomas, in what many market observers have called a "knee-jerk" reaction, dumped all the soul and R&B product from its playlist and became a Rock leaning Top 40 station ( it has been said that Thomas burst into the Q94 air studio at 6am, in a panic, the morning after the WPLZ sign on and literally started removing all the soul and R&B music carts from the studio with the comment "Gotta get all these black songs out of here" ). The Rock 40 approach caused ratings to slide. In 1983 Thomas was fired, and Morning Man Jeff Morgan became Program Director and the station began a gradual move back into a mainstream Top 40 format, and also started the first "Q-Morning Zoo" morning show in Richmond, taking a cue from the originators of the " Zoo " concept (Scott Shannon & Cleveland Wheeler ) at their sister station, WRBQ in Tampa, Fla. The first hosts on the "Q Morning Zoo " were Corey Dietz and Jeff Morgan. In late 1984 Bob McNeill, who programmed Q94 in it's 70s glory days was named Program Director. With the return of McNeill the transition back to a mainsteam Top 40 ( by then called CHR for "Contemporary Hit Radio " )format was complete and brought the ratings back up to previous dominance, and the mainstream approach has been maintained ever since. Around this same time, WRVQ and WRVA-AM were sold to Edens Broadcasting, headed by Gary Edens. During the eighties, WRVQ had two direct format competitors, from 1982 to 1985, Williamsburg based WQKS "Kiss 96 " tried to compete with a Dance leaning Top 40 format, but a weak signal and new owners in 1985 caused that station to switch to a Beautiful Music format. In late 1985 the 92.7 format signed on as a CHR as WZZR, "93 Lazer" which lasted until February of 1987. Also in July of 1987, a two day reunion of many former Q94 announcers to celebrate the station's 15th Anniversary was held creating some listener buzz and local press. Popular personalities in the eighties included Corey Dietz, Garret Chester, Jay Hamilton, Mike Rivers, Bill "Slam" Duncan, David Lee Micheals, Norman "Bob-A-Lou" Freedlander, and Roger St.John. In 1993 WRVQ and sister station WRVA were purchased by Clear Channel Communications. Clear Channel's purchase of the station signaled the end of an era at Q94, with the departure of Longtime General Manager Phil Goldman, who had been with the station since it's beginning in 1972 and is widely credited with the success of Q94 in it's first 20 years. About a year later WRVQ moved out of their longtime home in Richmond's Church Hill section to their present location on Basie Rd in Richmond's West End. In the early nineties the station began " Flashback Fridays " interspersing vintage 80's songs in with the regular playtlist. In February of 1994 the station was hit with tragedy when shocking news reached the station that 14 year station veteran Roger St. John (aka Roger Luebs ) died of an unexpected heart attack at 47. For the next few days the station broadcast tributes to the popular announcer, who was the most requested personality when the station staged remote broadcasts and Nightclub events. St. John's memorial service drew approx. 600 people. In January of 2002, the station lost another veteran when former Program Director and Legendary air personality Norman "Bob-A-Lou" Freedlander passed away from long term health problems. He was 52. Another former Q94 air personality, Jeff Jackson, who had left the station in the early eighties, passed away in 1985 of meningitis. Jim Campana, who was one of the original Q94 airstaff as "Jim Edwards", passed away in 2004 of cancer. Popular personalities during the 90s included Billy Surf, Paul Anthony, Carlson & McKenzie, Jeff Wicker, Rita "Betty Bodine" Bentley, Su-Anna Bareford, and Jason Paige. The following people have programmed WRVQ: Bill Garcia ,Bob McNeill ( twice ), Ralph " Doctor Rock " Wimmer, Bill Thomas, Jeff Morgan, The late Norman "Bob-A-Lou " Freedlander, Jim Payne, Steve Davis, Lisa Mckay, Billy Surf, Wayne Coy,and current Program Director, Boomer.I n the mid-90s, in a move that some market observers termed another "knee-jerk" reaction, the station, in responding to a new sign on competitor, Modern Rock formatted "The Buzz/WBZU" and the then hot Modern Rock Format, started calling itself "Channel Q" at night, doing a Modern Rock leaning format, causing popular night jock Billy Surf to shorten his name to "Surf" and tone down his high energy delivery. The "Channel Q" idea proved to be a disaster and was ended after just a few rating periods During the nineties, WRVQ's overall ratings have slid, and the station has been hovering in the bottom five of the Top Ten Arbitron rated stations in the last several rating periods. Many in the market have blamed former program directors Lisa McKay ( who programmed Q94 in from 1993 to 2000 ) and Billy Surf (who was Program Director from 2000 to 2004 ) for the slump. Some blame a heavy turnover in morning shows (the station had went thru three morning teams in the nineties) the loss of highly rated morning personality Jeff Wicker (who left due to a contract dispute ) and popular midday personality Roger St.John ( due to his previously mentioned unexpected passing ) for the decline. Others blame money problems that started with with former debt laden owners Edens Broadcasting and later cutbacks and a lack of attention by current owners Clear Channel, and still others blame the departure of former Longtime GM Phil Goldman, who is considered by many the real driving force behind the station's first 20 years of success. And others say that in the last several years the station has not been able to recruit on-air personalities that were comperable to the strong on air personalities of the stations's most succesful years of the 70s and 80s. But other factors out of the station's control may have been to blame. Many market observers have blamed WRVQ's decline on "fragmenting of the core audience." That the reason for the decline was the slow development of the FM band in Richmond and that the success of the first 20 years was a "default" success, owing to the many years WRVQ pretty much had the Richmond FM band "all to itself" and the eventual decline in listeners has been due to the Richmond FM band's development "catching up" with Q94 in the early 90s, and the the huge ratings success of the past has been an " albatross " hanging over the head of current station, giving way to unrealistic comparisons to station's most successful years, and accusations that Q94 should be "living up to it's legend." Many media experts have said the youth based audience that is the core of the CHR format have found other outlets from music including "non-traditional non radio" avenues as the internet, music downloading, sattelite radio, and Ipods, and that many listeners in that age bracket have been divided between the two "Modern Alternative" Rock stations ( Including WRVQ's sister station WRXL ," The X ") three Urban / R&B based stations (including WRVQ's sister station WBTJ "106.5 The Beat " ) two "Adult Pop" stations (including WRVQ's sister station, consistant market leader WTVR-FM, "Lite 98" ) and recently signed on "Adult Hits" station WWLB ( 98.9 Liberty ). Others blame the high African American population in the area, which tends to lean toward the more traditional R&B outlets, as well as a growing hispanic population which tends to listen to Spanish programmed media outlets. More recently, as part of a massive overall downsizing of the overall Richmond Clear Channel group, the station let go 20 year veteran overnighter Kirby Carmichael and now runs automation on overnights. In the Spring 2006 Arbitron ratings, WRVQ was tied for 9th place overall with Classic Rock WKLR. There have been persistant rumours that if the ratings don't improve, the station may switch formats, possibly to Country.
Current on-air personalities
Current DJs include:
- Melissa Chase (Weekdays 6:00am - 10:00am)
- Sid (Weekdays 6:00am - 10:00am)
- Jason Paige (Weekdays 10:00am - 12:00pm)
- JR (Weekdays 12:00pm - 3:00pm)
- Boomer (Weekdays 3:00pm - 7:00pm)
- T-Bag (Weeknights 7:00pm - 12:00am)
- Bob Somers (Weekends)
- Jay Stevens (Weekends)
- Shotgun John (Weekends)
Notable previous on-air personalities
- Billy Surf, Betty Bodine, Skip the Prize Guy (the morning show until April, 2004)
- Jeff Wicker (morning show host)
- Wayne Coy (Q Morning Zoo co-host, April 2004 - February 2006)
- Darrin Stone (Q Morning Zoo co-host, April 2004 - June 2006)
Syndicated broadcasts
WRVQ broadcasts the following nationally-syndicated shows:
- Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 Countdown hosted by Rick Dees (Saturdays 6AM - 10AM)
- American Top 40 hosted by Ryan Seacrest (Sundays 8AM - 12PM)
- Backtraxx USA 90's hosted by Kid Kelley (Sundays 6AM - 8AM)
Management
- Regional Vice President – Ruth Stoutermire
- Program Director – Boomer
- Director of Sales - Carrie Todd
- Sales Manager - Tracy Driskill
- Operations Manager - Bill Cahill
Annual & Memorable events
The station holds an annual Christmas concert featuring Top 40 acts, with proceeds benefiting the Make-a-Wish Foundation. In 2006, they included Jason Mraz, Natasha Bedingfield, Collective Soul, and Bowling for Soup.A few of the more memorable past events include,a day long "imaginary" concert called "The Concert at Fantasy Park",( which prompted a story by staffer Bob Somers saying that while driving down the road on the day the station broadcast the "fake" concert, he saw a hitchiker with a sign that said "Fantasy Park" and always wondered did the guy ever make it to his "destination" )racing a Portable Toilet at the local Richmond Dragway race track , calling it the "Port-A-John", also the yearly Charity Raft Race that took place from 1974 to 1978 ( The race was discontinued due to mounting security costs ) and a Hot Air Balloon that listeners could ride in ( The station ceased using the balloon for rides due to insurance and liabilty problems ). In the late 70s , the station caused a minor problem with local phone service when , during a cash givaway contest , an overload of callers to the station's request line blew out and disbabled a whole phone exchange.In the late eighties the station hosted an exclusive concert by then-hot rising 80s star Richard Marx.In 1984 the station did on on air telephone interview then Red Hot rock act Duran Duran.