WRVA's first transmitting plant and studio were located at the Edgeworth Smoking Tobacco Company, Main and 21st Streets. Over the years, the station increased its broadcasting capabilities with larger and more powerful transmitters and towers. In 1968 WRVA moved into its new Church Hill studios designed by renowned architect Philip Johnson. The Church Hill studios are now being developed for other uses.

First Transmitting Plant. 1920s. Photograph.

Publicity was crucial to building a radio audience. In 1928, Roscoe Turner, a racing pilot and barnstormer, advertised WRVA and its owner, Edgeworth Tobacco, and his own flying service.

Roscoe Turner and his plane. 1928. Photograph.

Remote broadcast.  1940s.  Photograph

Remote broadcast.  1940s.  Photograph

In May 1933, WRVA opened new broadcasting studios in the Hotel Richmond, at 9th and Grace Streets. The new space included four broadcasting studios, an announcer's booth, a control room, and office space. Two years later, WRVA built a new 5,000-watt transmitter in Mechanicsville. The tower was the first all-wood self-supporting radio tower in North America. The station built a 50,000-watt transmitter near Varina, in eastern Henrico County, in 1939 that dwarfed the power of other radio stations in Virginia and allowed WRVA to increase the number of its listeners, reaching audiences as far away as the west coast, Canada, and even South Africa. In 1961, with much celebration, the station installed a new 50,000-watt transmitter for WRVA-AM and a 200,000-watt transmitter for WRVA-FM.

In 1968, WRVA moved to a new studio designed by renowned architect Philip Johnson. Overlooking downtown Richmond, the new location on Church Hill symbolically represented WRVA's status as the Voice of Virginia. The studio remained the home of WRVA until 2000 when the station moved to the West End of Richmond.

The WRVA Radio Collection at the Library of Virginia (pdf)
 

Throughout WRVA's broadcast history, there was considerable emphasis on the state's regional culture, on sporting events, and on special local programming. Special-interest programs included Virginia congressman Vaughan Gary reporting directly to listeners on events in the nation's capital in the 1950s. Closer to home, the Capitol Squirrel editorialized on matters of local concern. And Calling All Cooks featured a live cooking program. The Radio Scholarship Quiz offered competing area high school seniors, while the Quiz of Two Cities pitted Richmond against Norfolk in a popular quiz show. Walter R. Bishop, the station's public relations manager, hosted Bishop's Cracker Barrel, a program largely devoted to stories about Virginia's politicians.
 

Two of the more unusual personalities on WRVA were Millard the Mallard and the Capitol Squirrel. Millard joined Alden Aaroe's morning show in 1972. The Capitol Squirrel reported on events in downtown Richmond.
 

Associated with WRVA from 1946 to 1993, Alden Aaroe is best remembered for his morning show and for helping to establish an annual shoe fund to provide shoes for children in need.

Brochures soliciting donations to WRVA/Salvation Army Shoe Fund. 1970s.

Alden Aaroe's shoes.
 

Bertha Hewlett began working for WRVA in 1925 as the station's music librarian and hostess. She also played piano and organ on the Sunshine Hour and the Edgeworth Glee Club Hour. She retired in 1973 as the station's office manager. The traffic board detailed the schedule of programs.

Bertha Hewlett at traffic board. Photograph

At first supported by Larus & Brother, owners of Edgeworth Tobacco, as a non-commercial station, WRVA had a fully operational sales department and national representative by 1928.  Although the station used local talent, in 1929 the station affiliated with NBC, which offered programs at a fraction of the cost the station paid for local performers.