WWVA (AM)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "WWVA" AM – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

WWVA

Wheeling, West Virginia
Broadcast area	Wheeling metro area
Frequency	1170 kHz
Branding	NewsRadio 1170 WWVA
Programming
Language(s)	English
Format	News/talk
Affiliations	Fox News Radio Premiere Networks Compass Media Networks
Ownership
Owner	iHeartMedia, Inc. (iHM Licenses, LLC)
Sister stations	WBBD WEGW WKWK-FM WOVK WVKF
History
First air date	December 13, 1926 (1926-12-13)
Former frequencies	860 kHz (1926–41)
Call sign meaning	Wheeling, West Virginia
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	44046
Class	A
Power	50,000 watts
Transmitter coordinates	40°06′07″N 80°52′02″W / 40.10194°N 80.86722°W / 40.10194; -80.86722
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Webcast	Listen live (via iHeartRadio)
Website	newsradio1170.iheart.com

WWVA (1170 kHz, NewsRadio 1170) is an American AM radio station that broadcasts with studios in Wheeling, West Virginia. The station is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. and uses the on-air nickname "The Big One" (borrowed from sister stations WLW and WTAM).

It is West Virginia's only class A 50,000–watt clear-channel station, sharing the frequency's Class A status with KOTV in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and KJNP in North Pole, Alaska. Its transmitter site is located at a three-tower facility in St. Clairsville, Ohio. During the day, a single non-directional tower beams its full power to northern West Virginia, southwestern Pennsylvania (including Pittsburgh), and eastern Ohio (as far as Akron). At night, power is fed to all three towers in a directional pattern to protect KOTV. Even with this restriction, it can still be heard in most of the eastern two-thirds of the United States, as well as most of Canada, with a good radio. Its signal can be picked up quite strongly as far away as Toronto, Ontario, Canada, giving Toronto the ability to hear programs which are not permitted to air locally due to Canadian content regulations.^{[citation needed]}

In two instances has WWVA been threatened with relocation, neither being successful: first in 1930 to Charleston by then-owner West Virginia Broadcasting Corporation, and again in 2004 to Stow, Ohio (a suburb of Akron) by then-Clear Channel Communications.^{[citation needed]}

WWVA is one of the Local Primary 1 Emergency Alert System stations in the Wheeling area.