WUVA

History

WUVA originated in the fall of 1947 as the University of Virginia's student-run carrier current station at 640 kHz, initially with a schedule of pop standards, news, and discussion. The station began playing newly popular rock and roll music in 1954. Even as a carrier current station, WUVA sold advertising, bolstering meager revenue by gaining a cable FM slot on Charlottesville's system in the 1970s and renting out the student announcers as party DJs.

As the station became popular through the 1960s, management quickly realized the ancient network of carrier current transmitters was not adequate. An opportunity for a citywide broadcast presented itself in 1966 when WINA moved from 1400 to 1070 AM, vacating a valuable channel that allowed for 24-hour operation at 1 kilowatt. WUVA was one of three competing applicants for this channel, but was denied when WELK (now WKAV) was the first to secure a transmitter site that satisfied FCC regulators. WUVA succeeded in launching a citywide signal on 92.7 FM on June 22, 1979, continuing the music programming (by then album-oriented rock) and news coverage.

In the unusual position of being under public ownership but still running as a commercial operation, WUVA switched from rock to top-40 to adult contemporary in a search for ratings success. In 1996, the station settled on a locally-originated urban contemporary format under the name "92.7 Kiss FM".

Throughout this time, WUVA has served as a training ground for those in the media studies program with an interest in commercial radio management or journalism. A student newsdesk evolved into the full-fledged online news operation WUVA News in 2011. Both the FM and digital operations were organized under the non-profit company WUVA, Inc., which is managed by students.

In the face of still-inadequate revenue, local programming came to an end on September 17, 2015, in favor of syndicated classic country from Nash Icon. This flip came as would-be competitor WVAI-LP was preparing to sign on in the same week; station management indicated they were aware of its launch, which made the decision to flip "easier."

WUVA, Inc. announced a sale of its FM license to Saga Communications of Charlottesville (owners of WWWV, WQMZ, WINA, WCNR, and WVAX) on January 17, 2017, in order to provide long-term funding for the digital operations of WUVA News. The station is operated by Saga under a time-brokerage agreement until the sale is completed.

Saga rebranded WUVA as "C-Ville Country 92.7" on March 1, 2017, keeping the 1990s-based country format. The station left Nash Icon in favor of a return to local programming.

As WUVA, Inc. continues as a digital news organization and retains the rights to use the "WUVA" trademark, Saga has reserved the new callsign of WCVL-FM for use once it takes legal ownership.

Ownership

WUVA, Inc. is a non-profit corporation created to hold the FM station's license and manage its digital operations. The corporation is owned and run by a board of eleven directors, six of which are University of Virginia alumnae and five of which are current students. Although professional management and DJs were present at the FM station under its ownership, students are in charge of day-to-day operations. While WUVA, Inc. is a non-profit organization, WUVA has always been a commercial station dating back to its days as a carrier-current operation. The station had no legal affiliation with the university and received no student-activity funding.

The university directly owns WTJU (91.1 FM) and WXTJ-LP (100.1 FM), which it continues to run as traditional college radio stations.