WPCE

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WPCE
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Broadcast area
Hampton Roads
[[Frequency|FrequencTemplate:Pluralize from text]]1400 kHz
Branding"Peace 1400"
Programming
FormatTraditional Urban Gospel
Ownership
OwnerFriendship Cathederal Family Worship Center, Inc.
WGPL
History
First air date
1946; 80 years ago (1946) (as WLOW 1590 AM)
Former call signs
WCKA (1946, CP)
WLOW (1946–1961)
WHIH (1961–1971)
WWOC (1971–1975)[1]
Former frequencies
1590 kHz (1946–1949), 1410 kHz (1949–1950)
Call sign meaning
"Peace"
Technical information[2]
Licensing authority
FCC
72813
ClassC
Power1,000 watts day and night
Transmitter coordinates
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[[Broadcast relay station|TranslatorTemplate:Pluralize from text]]Template:Radio Relay
Links
Public license information
Template:FCC Licensing and Management System facility
WebsiteWPCE Online

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WPCE (1400 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Portsmouth, Virginia, and serving Hampton Roads. WPCE is owned and operated by Friendship Cathederal Family Worship Center, Inc.[3] It airs a traditional urban gospel radio format, with some Christian talk and teaching shows. The radio studios are on Church Street in Norfolk, Virginia.

WPCE is powered at 1,000 watts non-directional. The transmitter is off Barnes Road in Chesapeake, Virginia, near Interstate 464.[4] Programming is also heard on 99-watt FM translator W237FM at 95.3 MHz.[5]

History

WLOW

The Commonwealth Broadcasting Corporation obtained a construction permit for a new daytime-only radio station on 1590 kHz in Portsmouth on July 25, 1946. The construction permit was given the call sign WCKA. The call letters were changed to WLOW before signing on the air.[1]Template:R/superscript The station made several attempts to change frequency and gain nighttime authorization.

It finally succeeded when the FCC allowed the station to move to 1410 kHz in 1949 and was granted approval to broadcast at night. Another move, this time to 1400 kHz, was made the next year.[1]Template:R/superscript Mark Scott, a sportscaster for the station, went on to broadcast Hollywood Stars Pacific Coast League games.[6] The station also owned the short-lived Norfolk UHF television station WTOV-TV (channel 27).[7]

TV station

In 1955, after its first WTOV-TV experience, WLOW wanted to make a second go-around at television, this time on the VHF band. It asked the FCC to move channel 13 from New Bern, North Carolina, to Princess Anne.[8] (The commission denied the appeal in January 1956.[9]) That same year, it was sold to a group that had also been burned by UHF television, the Winston-Salem Broadcasting Company, owner of WTOB radio and television in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for $212,500.[10] Winston-Salem sold the station to the James Broadcasting Company two years later,[11] Tim Elliot, the owner of station WICE at Providence, Rhode Island, acquired WLOW for the same price four years later[12] and changed the call letters to WHIH on July 1.[1]Template:R/superscript Daytime power was increased to 1,000 watts the next year.[1]Template:R/superscript

WHIH went bankrupt in 1964 and was assigned to trustees; Speidel Broadcasting Company of Virginia purchased the station out of bankruptcy. Speidel specialized in radio stations for the Black community, and the new acquisition adopted the same R&B format that characterized the chain.[13] The station ran one promotion that attracted unexpected results. In 1967, WHIH ran a competition to determine which local school had the most spirit by receiving slips of paper with the schools' names written on them. It expected 15,000 total entries, but in the end, competition among the 20 participating schools was so high that the station rented an empty warehouse to store the nearly 180 million total votes and asked students to count their own submissions. The winner was George Washington Carver High with 54,272,025 votes.[14][15]

Baron Broadcasting acquired WHIH in 1971.[16] Effective June 11,[1]Template:R/superscript the call letters were changed to WWOC—representing "We Will Overcome"—with the station maintaining a soul format.[17] However, a year later, Baron flipped WWOC to a primarily contemporary music format.[18] That did not last long, either, as WWOC changed to country on April 15, 1973.[19]

WPCE

In October 1974, Metro Communications Corporation (later Willis Broadcasting Corporation), owned by Levi Willis, struck separate deals to acquire WWOC and WOWI (102.9 FM); the AM station fetched $365,000.[20] The deal was a watershed moment for radio ownership in Hampton Roads, as WWOC and WOWI became the first two Black-owned stations in the market,[21] competing against white-owned but African American-oriented WRAP.[22] The call letters of WWOC were changed to WPCE on July 1, 1975,[1]Template:R/superscript and the station initially converted to an R&B format before flipping to gospel by 1977.[1]Template:R/superscript

The late 1970s brought legal peril to the Willis operation. In 1977, after a months-long investigation, the FCC moved to designate both stations' license renewals for hearing. Key in the case were three allegations: one that the station's sales manager in 1975 and 1976 used coercion and threats of boycotts to secure advertising from Coca-Cola, Sears and a Norfolk tire shop; another about the airing of misleading advertising and information about illegal lotteries; and another alleging Willis had taken over station WBLU at Salem.[23] The case was ended in 1982 when an administrative law judge recommended a $10,000 fine to Willis and the renewal of its licenses.[24]

Willis sold WOWI in 1989;[25] by this time, what had started with the two Hampton Roads stations had grown into a major radio chain owning 22 stations from Arkansas to Pennsylvania.[26] Many of the stations, including WPCE, carried a satellite-fed gospel format that originated at Willis's WWCA in Gary, Indiana, and included Willis's long-running Crusade for Christ program.[27]

The Willis group had grown to 40 outlets by the early 2000s, but Levi Willis's failing health and a series of unpaid debts to the Internal Revenue Service caused financial problems for the chain. In 1997, the company paid more than $700,000 to settle claims of unpaid royalties for songs played on its stations.[28]Template:R/superscript In 2003, the city of Norfolk seized the Willis Broadcasting Corporation headquarters after the company failed to pay $150,000 of property taxes over a five-year period.[29] Willis died in 2009.[28]

Changes in ownership

WPCE, WGPL (1350 AM), and WBXB (100.1 FM) in Edenton, North Carolina, were the last stations owned by the former Willis group, which restructured in 2018 and became known as the Christian Broadcasting Corporation (no relation to the Virginia Beach-based Christian Broadcasting Network).[30] The general manager and program director of the group, Chester Benton, had previously worked at WHIH in the 1960s and then at WOWI after Willis bought it.[30]Template:R/superscript

In August 2020, the Friendship Cathedral Family Worship Center, Inc., controlled by Katrina Chase, the executrix of Willis's estate, filed to acquire the three Christian Broadcasting Corporation stations in exchange for the cancellation of $90,591 in debt.[31] The transaction was consummated on November 10, 2020.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."History Cards for WPCE". Federal Communications Commission. (Guide to reading History Cards)
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Facility Technical Data for WPCE". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."WPCE Facility Record". Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  4. ^ Radio-Locator.com/WPCE
  5. ^ Radio-Locator.com/W237FM
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Karmosky, Charles (September 4, 1952). "Mark Scott..." Daily Press. p. 8. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Sale Of Norfolk TV Station Asked". Daily Press. Associated Press. February 5, 1955. p. 11. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."WLOW Seeks TV Channel 13 For Princess Anne". Daily Press. Associated Press. October 6, 1955. p. 3. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."TV Petition Denied". Daily Press. Associated Press. January 13, 1956. p. 24. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  10. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."For the Record" (PDF). Broadcasting. November 28, 1955. p. 104. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Bob Hope Group Pays $3 Million For WREX-TV" (PDF). Broadcasting. June 17, 1957. pp. 90–91. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Changing Hands" (PDF). Broadcasting. March 20, 1961. p. 58. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Stations identify with their audience" (PDF). Broadcasting. November 7, 1966. pp. 84–89. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Platter Spinner Patter" (PDF). Cash Box. June 17, 1967. p. 41. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  15. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Radio Station Hit With Paper Blizzard". The Progress-Index. Associated Press. May 6, 1967. p. 3. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  16. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."For the Record" (PDF). Broadcasting. February 1, 1971. p. 74. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  17. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."WWOC: New Sound in Black & White". Daily Press. June 13, 1971. p. E3. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  18. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Changing formats" (PDF). Broadcasting. June 26, 1972. p. 31. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Changing formats" (PDF). Broadcasting. May 21, 1973. p. 46.
  20. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Changing Hands" (PDF). Broadcasting. October 28, 1974. p. 30. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  21. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."FCC Hearing To Question Radio Ownership". Daily Press. Associated Press. July 29, 1977. p. 42. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  22. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Black Group Buys Two Radio Stations". Daily Press. UPI. October 24, 1974. p. 9. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  23. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Owner Of Black-Oriented Stations May Lose License; Abuses Alleged". Danville Register. Associated Press. June 10, 1977. p. 5-B. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  24. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Fines Urged For Radio Stations". Daily Press. Associated Press. February 6, 1982. p. 3. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  25. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Transactions: Ragan Henry Buys Norfolk FM For $8.3 Million" (PDF). Radio & Records. May 19, 1989. p. 8. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  26. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Willis Broadcasting Corp" (PDF). Broadcasting Yearbook. 1989. p. A-55, A-56 (73–74). Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  27. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Nicholson, David (February 6, 1993). "More markets get bishop's gospel program". Daily Press. p. D1. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  28. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Vegh, Steven (February 20, 2009). "Influential Hampton Roads Bishop Levi E. Willis Sr. dies". The Virginian-Pilot. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  29. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."City moves to capture radio chain's back taxes". Daily Press. Associated Press. April 24, 2003. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  30. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Colvin, Leonard E. (January 4, 2019). "Christian Radio Company Keeps Focus On Serving Community". The New Journal and Guide. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  31. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Venta, Lance (August 14, 2020). "Station Sales Week of 8/14". RadioInsight. Retrieved August 14, 2020.

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