A Guide to the WRVA Radio Collection, 1925-2000
Accession Number 38210
A Collection in
the Library of Virginia



Contact Information:
The Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219-8000
USA
Phone: (804) 692-3888 (Archives Reference)
Fax: (804) 692-3556 (Archives Reference)
Email: archdesk@lva.lib.va.us (Archives)
URL: http://www.lva.lib.va.us/

Processed by: Jay Gaidmore
Funding: Web version of the finding aid funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

© 2002 By the Library of Virginia.

Conditions of Use

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

The original verbatim transcript of the dedication of the WRVA transmitter in Varina in 1939 can be viewed, but to read text, please use photocopies. Permission must be requested in writing from WRVA/Clear Channel Communications to reproduce any sound recordings.

Preferred Citation

WRVA Radio Collection, 1925-2000. Accession 38210, Business records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Clear Channel Communications, June 2001.

Descriptive Summary

Repository: Library of Virginia
Accession number: 38210
Title: Collection, 1925-2000
Physical Location: Business Records Collection, Acc. 38210
Physical Characteristics: ca. 48 cubic feet and 637 compact discs
Language: English
Creator: WRVA Radio

Scope and Content Information

The WRVA Radio Collection spans seventy-five years and contains applause letters, minutes, anniversary booklets, program scripts, program guides, newsletters, histories, interviews, employee questionnaires, sales manuals, audience and sales promotions, rate cards, listener surveys, posters, newspaper clippings, FCC applications and reports, drawings, photographs, and sound recordings. This material documents the history of WRVA, the role the station played in Virginia and Richmond for over half-a-century, and the development of radio in Virginia and the United States. The collection is also rich in material on the Larus & Brother Company, including histories, anniversary booklets, photographs of officials, employees, and factories, and promotions.

The sound recordings date from the 1930's to the 1990's and contain news broadcasts of significant local, state, national, and world events and personalities, programs of a local and regional interest, including the Capitol Squirrel, Calling All Cooks, the Radio Scholarship Quiz, and the Quiz of Two Cities, and musical programs, such as the Corn Cob Pipe Club, the Old Dominion Barn Dance, the Sunshine Hour, and the Silver Star Quartet. Selected sound recordings are now available for use on CD. Each CD has been cataloged individually. Search The Library of Virginia Archives and Manuscripts Catalog to find WRVA sound recordings of interest.

Biographical/Historical Information

WRVA was officially dedicated on 2 November 1925. Owned and operated by Larus & Brother Company, manufacturers of Edgeworth Smoking Tobacco and other tobacco products, the station initially operated as a community station without commercial revenue and broadcast only two evenings a week. The Corn Cob Pipe Club was one of the many regular programs begun in 1925. It proved so popular with listeners throughout the United States and Canada that by July 1935, almost nine hundred clubs were established in the United States and foreign countries. By January 1926, the station increased its schedule to three nights a week, and by 1929, WRVA was broadcasting day and night seven days a week. Also in 1929, the station increased its power from 1,000 watts to 5,000 watts and became affiliated with the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). In May 1933, WRVA opened new broadcasting studios in the Hotel Richmond, on 9th and Grace Streets. In April 1935, the station built and began using the first all-wood self-supporting radio tower in America. On 27 June 1937, WRVA joined Columbia Broadcasting Systems (CBS) as a full time affiliate. On 17 March 1939, the 50,000 watt transmitter, located in eastern Henrico County was officially dedicated. In March 1940, Sunshine Sue and Her Rangers first broadcast on WRVA. In September 1946, WRVA leased the old Lyric Theater on 9th and Broad Street and the Old Dominion Barn Dance began airing on WRVA. On 28 January 1959, WRVA rejoined NBC. On 29 May 1968, the new WRVA studio, located in historic Church Hill and overlooking Richmond, was dedicated.

In 1968, Larus & Brother Company reorganized and became the Larus Investing Company. In July 1968, WRVA AM and FM became WRVA Radio, Inc. and WRVA-FM Radio, Inc., respectively, subsidiary corporations of the Larus Investing Company. Larus Investing Company sold its entire WRVA stock to Southern Broadcasting Company of Winston, Salem, North Carolina in November 1969. In August 1977, Harte-Hanks Newspapers, Inc., purchased Southern Broadcasting Company, including WRVA-AM and WRVQ-FM. Harte-Hanks Communications, Inc., sold the radio stations to Edens Broadcasting Company, a company formed by the senior managers of Harte- Hanks Radio, Inc., a subsidiary of Harte-Hanks Communications, Inc., in December 1984. In September 1991, WRVA was sold to Force II Communication, L. P., of San Diego. In the Spring 1992, Clear Channel Communications bought WRVA and is the current owner.

Organization

Organized into the following series:
I. Correspondence, 1926-1991
II. Minutes, 1956-1978
III. Administrative Files
IV. Sales
V. WRVA Radio Dialog, 1938-1963
VI. New Building (1968), 1963-1969
VII. Subject Files
VIII. Publications
IX. Photographs, 1925-2000
X. Artifacts
XI. Sound Recordings
XII. Films and Videos

Contents List