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WPCE
Broadcast areaHampton Roads
Frequency1400 kHz
Branding"Peace 1400"
Programming
FormatTraditional Urban Gospel
Ownership
OwnerFriendship Cathederal Family Worship Center, Inc.
WGPL
History
First air date
1946; 78 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
W PeaCE
Technical information[2]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID72813
ClassC
Power1,000 watts day and night
Transmitter coordinates
36°48′10″N 76°16′58″W / 36.80278°N 76.28278°W / 36.80278; -76.28278
Translator(s)95.3 MHz W237FM (Portsmouth)
Links
Public license information
WebsiteWPCE Online

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

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WLOW

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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] 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] 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

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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] Daytime power was increased to 1,000 watts the next year.[1]

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] 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

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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] and the station initially converted to an R&B format before flipping to gospel by 1977.[1]

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] 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

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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]

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

    FCC History Cards for WPCE

  2. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WPCE". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  3. ^ "WPCE Facility Record". Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  4. ^ Radio-Locator.com/WPCE
  5. ^ Radio-Locator.com/W237FM
  6. ^ Karmosky, Charles (September 4, 1952). "Mark Scott..." Daily Press. p. 8. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  7. ^ "Sale Of Norfolk TV Station Asked". Daily Press. Associated Press. February 5, 1955. p. 11. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  8. ^ "WLOW Seeks TV Channel 13 For Princess Anne". Daily Press. Associated Press. October 6, 1955. p. 3. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  9. ^ "TV Petition Denied". Daily Press. Associated Press. January 13, 1956. p. 24. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  10. ^ "For the Record" (PDF). Broadcasting. November 28, 1955. p. 104. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  11. ^ "Bob Hope Group Pays $3 Million For WREX-TV" (PDF). Broadcasting. June 17, 1957. pp. 90–91. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  12. ^ "Changing Hands" (PDF). Broadcasting. March 20, 1961. p. 58. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  13. ^ "Stations identify with their audience" (PDF). Broadcasting. November 7, 1966. pp. 84–89. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  14. ^ "Platter Spinner Patter" (PDF). Cash Box. June 17, 1967. p. 41. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  15. ^ "Radio Station Hit With Paper Blizzard". The Progress-Index. Associated Press. May 6, 1967. p. 3. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  16. ^ "For the Record" (PDF). Broadcasting. February 1, 1971. p. 74. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  17. ^ "WWOC: New Sound in Black & White". Daily Press. June 13, 1971. p. E3. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  18. ^ "Changing formats" (PDF). Broadcasting. June 26, 1972. p. 31. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  19. ^ "Changing formats" (PDF). Broadcasting. May 21, 1973. p. 46.
  20. ^ "Changing Hands" (PDF). Broadcasting. October 28, 1974. p. 30. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  21. ^ "FCC Hearing To Question Radio Ownership". Daily Press. Associated Press. July 29, 1977. p. 42. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  22. ^ "Black Group Buys Two Radio Stations". Daily Press. UPI. October 24, 1974. p. 9. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  23. ^ "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. ^ "Fines Urged For Radio Stations". Daily Press. Associated Press. February 6, 1982. p. 3. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  25. ^ "Transactions: Ragan Henry Buys Norfolk FM For $8.3 Million" (PDF). Radio & Records. May 19, 1989. p. 8. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  26. ^ "Willis Broadcasting Corp" (PDF). Broadcasting Yearbook. 1989. p. A-55, A-56 (73–74). Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  27. ^ Nicholson, David (February 6, 1993). "More markets get bishop's gospel program". Daily Press. p. D1. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  28. ^ a b Vegh, Steven (February 20, 2009). "Influential Hampton Roads Bishop Levi E. Willis Sr. dies". The Virginian-Pilot. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  29. ^ "City moves to capture radio chain's back taxes". Daily Press. Associated Press. April 24, 2003. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  30. ^ a b Colvin, Leonard E. (January 4, 2019). "Christian Radio Company Keeps Focus On Serving Community". The New Journal and Guide. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  31. ^ Venta, Lance (August 14, 2020). "Station Sales Week of 8/14". RadioInsight. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
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