WCCV-FM signed on March 5, 1960, with a middle-of-the-road format of post-war pop and light classical music. WCCV-FM was co-owned with WCHV (1260 kHz) by Roger and Louise Neuhoff's Eastern Broadcasting Corporation.[4] In December 1968, WCCV-FM and WCHV were sold to Charlottesville resident Edward S. Evans, Jr.[5] Two years later, the station flipped to country music during the day and a simulcast of WCHV's adult contemporary format between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. On May 1, 1971, WCCV-FM switched again to beautiful music.[6] In 1973, Evans sold the two stations to Lyell B. Clay's Clay Broadcasting, owner of several newspapers and television stations, most notably WWAY of Wilmington, but no other radio stations.[7]
On January 10, 1977, the station adopted its current identity – album-oriented rock music, the branding "3WV", and the callsign WWWV.[8]
Clay sold all of his broadcasting interests in 1987-88; WWWV and WCHV went to Eure Communications, then-owners of WXEZYorktown.[9] In 1998, Eure combined WWWV with Charlottesville Broadcasting Corporation's WINA (1070 kHz) and WQMZ (95.1 MHz) in a merger deal. Eure was ordered by the Department of Justice to spin off the merger's two remaining stations – WCHV and WKAV (1400 kHz) – to Clear Channel, as FCC regulators took issue with Eure's potential ownership of five stations in the small market. (The FCC under a different leadership permitted Clear Channel to own six stations just five years later.) [10][11]
Saga Communications bought Eure's three-station cluster in 2004.[12]
WWWV took over as the FM home of Virginia Cavaliers football and men's basketball at the beginning of the 2003-04 football season, complementing longtime state network flagship WINA.[13] It simulcasts all games, but does not air the coaches' shows.
Since flipping to a broadly rock format in 1977, the station's music has aged with its audience; it remained a modern rock reporter through the 1990s before adding recurrents and moving to active rock. WWWV dropped all new music in 2017 to become strictly classic rock.[citation needed]
