The Wheeling Jamboree is the second oldest country music radio broadcast in the United States after the Grand Ole Opry.[1] The Jamboree originated in 1933 in Wheeling, West Virginia on WWVA, the first radio station in West Virginia and a 50,000-watt clear-channel station AM station until about 2007.[2] Numerous acts and stars performed on the Jamboree, some of whom would later go on to mainstream commercial success.
In 1946, the show (then performing at the Virginia Theatre demolished in 1962) was syndicated on the CBS radio network as "CBS Radio Saturday Night Country Style", becoming the first national radio broadcast from West Virginia. In 1997, WWVA dropped its country music format, although Saturday night broadcasts continued, from various theaters and managed by various entities, the final commercial one being Live Nation, initially a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, which had come to own WWVA. By the end of 2008, Clear Channel had restructured and became an iHeart media entity and the owners of the program (Wheeling Jamboree, Inc.) moved the broadcast to WKKX, a talk radio station with smaller coverage than WWVA, so supporters (including Brad Paisley whose career had launched on the Jamboree) created a non-profit entity to continue the Jamboree. When Clear Channel morphed into iHeart Media in 2008, certain divestitures occurred and the jamboree ceased weekly shows. Since 2014 the Wheeling Jamboree has broadcast from noncommercial low-power station WWOV-LP at 101.1 FM. Since 2015 the Jamboree has aired quarterly live episodes (including an anniversary show, a Christmas show and a summer show), and expects to resume weekly broadcasts upon completion of the Capitol Theatre renovation.[3]