City Marion, Virginia Branding "102.5 WOLD" Frequency 102.5 FM MHz | Broadcast area Southwest Virginia Slogan The Greatest Hits" First air date March 14, 1968 | |
WOLD-FM (102.5 FM) is an American radio station licensed to serve the community of Marion, Virginia. The station broadcasts a classic rock music format to Southwest Virginia. WOLD-FM is owned and operated by CDM Broadcasting, Inc.
Contents
Programming
WOLD-FM broadcasts a classic rock music format to the greater Marion/Saltville/Tazewell, Virginia, area. Weekday programming includes The John Boy and Billy Big Show (from Premiere Radio Networks) in the mornings, The Rick and Bubba Show afternoons and Nights with Alice Cooper (from United Stations Radio Networks) in late night. Weekend programming includes The Tim White Bluegrass Show and Virginia Tech Hokies sports broadcasts.
History
WOLD-FM signed on in 1968 as a sister station to WOLD (1330 AM). The AM station is now licensed as WITM and owned by Praise and Glory Ministries based in Knoxville, Tennessee.
In November 2007, longtime license holder Emerald Sound, Inc., reached an agreement with TECO Broadcasting, Inc., to transfer the broadcast license for WOLD-FM plus all of the station's assets for a published sale price of $400,000. In addition, TECO Broadcasting agreed to pay Emerald Sound owners Robert S. Dix and Patricia A. Dix $100,000 as "non-compete" compensation. TECO Broadcasting is wholly owned by Tom Copenhaver, licensee for WZVA. The deal was accepted for filing by the FCC on January 30, 2008, approved on April 10, 2008, and the transaction consummated on May 1, 2008.
In September 2010, the station's format shifted from pure classic rock to classic rock plus some country music, branded as "The Renegade, rock with a twang".
In 2016 the station was purchased by CDM Broadcasting, Inc.
In popular culture
For his 1973 album Short Stories, singer Harry Chapin wrote a song about an aging disc jockey who begins and ends his career at (fictional) FM radio station "WOLD" after stops as a late night talk show host at an unnamed station in Tulsa, Oklahoma and another stop at another unnamed station in Boise, Idaho. The fictional W*O*L*D may not be located in Boise because the call letters of most US stations west of the Mississippi begin with "K" rather than "W." Radio Station WBAP (Dallas), WHO (Des Moines), WOAI (San Antonio), and other broadcasters licensed before the FCC rule change in 1923 kept their original call letters. The song, "W*O*L*D", would prove more popular with disc jockeys who could identify with the song than the general public, although it did reach #36 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1974, almost exactly six years after the real WOLD-FM signed on in Virginia. Chapin joked in interviews that it was "a hit for fifteen minutes".