WPVC-LP was a

progressive talk radio Progressive talk radio is a talk radio format devoted to expressing Left-wing politics, left-leaning viewpoints of news and issues as opposed to conservative talk radio. In the United States, the format has included radio syndication, syndicated ...

and

electronic dance music Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...

formatted low-power

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

licensed to

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia, United States. It is the county seat, seat of government of Albemarle County, Virginia, Albemarle County, which surrounds the ...

, serving

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in Virginia, United States. It is the seat of government of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Quee ...

and

Albemarle County Albemarle County is a United States county located in the Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its county seat is Charlottesville, which is an independent city entirely surrounded by the county. Albemarle County is part of the Ch ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. WPVC-LP was owned and operated by Promise Land Communications.

History

On September 20, 2015, WPVC-LP first signed on the air for the first time. In September 2019, Saga Communications, which operates the Charlottesville Radio Group under the Tidewater Communications licensee, filed a petition with the FCC requesting that WXRK-LP's license not be renewed. Saga claimed the station, along with other Charlottesville-based low-power FMs, were operating as "a de facto cluster". WXRK-LP station's founder Mike Friend called the petition to deny "'legal junk' and a deliberate 'misinterpretation' of FCC rules". F riend pointed to other attempts by Saga to shutter low-power FM stations within Saga markets. Saga, in 2004, claimed that KFLO-LP in Jonesboro, Arkansas, was airing announcements that "sound suspiciously like commercials". Saga also petitioned the FCC to revoke the license of

WLCQ-LP WLCQ-LP (99.7 FM, "The Q 99.7") is a radio station licensed to serve Feeding Hills, Massachusetts, United States. The station is owned by Lighthouse Christian Center. It airs a Christian Contemporary music format. The station was assigned the WL ...

, a Christian station in the Springfield, Massachusetts, market, "for equipment violations" in 2015. In both cases, the FCC "admonished the station" but denied Saga's complaints. Jeff Lenert, co-founder of WPVC-LP, said that "though he stationsshare a building" all of "the stations all operate separately, having only limited and largely incidental contact with each other". Lenert turned in the license for WPVC-LP on June 16, 2020, "As a result of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic and recent increased costs of station ownership and operation, it has become impossible to operate station WPVC-LP in the manner that I wish." Lenert largely blamed the "legal action by Saga Communications combined with a loss of sponsors during the pandemic" for the signing off of that station. The station's license was deleted and its pending renewal dismissed on July 7 of the same year. The FCC effectively denied the petition from Saga regarding WPVC, in a ruling for the license of WREN-LP, housed in the same building, filed on September 30, 2024.

References

{{Charlottesville Radio Defunct radio stations in the United States 2015 establishments in Virginia Talk radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 2015 PVC-LP PVC-LP Radio stations disestablished in 2020 2020 disestablishments in Virginia PVC-LP