Frequency 1550 kHz Format Silent | First air date 1954 | |
City Virginia Beach, Virginia Broadcast area Southside of Hampton Roads Power 5,000 Watts daytime
9 Watts nighttime | ||
WVAB is a broadcast radio station licensed to Virginia Beach, Virginia, though currently silent. When broadcasting, WVAB serves the Southside of Hampton Roads. WVAB is owned and operated by Birach Broadcasting Corporation.
History
WVAB has had a long history in Virginia Beach, moving from a popular music station to strictly news and finally gospel programming. The late Sidney Kellam, a scion of political and economic power in Princess Anne County and Virginia Beach during mid 20th century, and members of the Kellam family, were the original owner and founders of WVAB. The studio or offices were long-located over the Jewish Mother Restaurant on Pacific Avenue, its headquarters for the first 34 years of its existence. WVAB had been a pop and rock music station, relying on a series of itinerant disc jockeys to purvey their various musical tastes to a limited local audience. Don Beckstrom was a constant figure on WVAB both on the air and as Program Director during this period.
Eventually, advertising revenues trickled to a halt at the end of the 1980s. A succession of new owners followed beginning in the early 1990s.
Since March 19, 2008, the station has been off the air, following financial problems and an apparent vandalism incident of March 16.
The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot newspaper reported that the stations, WVAB (1550), which had carried local gospel programming, and WBVA (1450), both were off the air and there was no word on when or if they will return.
According to Virginia Beach police, on March 16, 2008, someone felled the stations' 200-foot tower. Margie Long with the Virginia Beach Police Department was quoted in local media as saying "The tower, approximately 200 ft. of it, collapsed to the ground. It appears there were numerous lines, support lines that were cut. We are investigating this as a destruction of property. There are no suspects, he said, but the investigation is ongoing." The tower stood in the 500 block of de Laura Lane, just off North Witchduck Road and north of Virginia Beach Boulevard.
WVAB was in bankruptcy and the station was sold to Birach Broadcasting Corporation on April 1, 2008 according to FCC records.