WVVV Rock 105_Aircheck_1992_1

[ALL AUDIO FROM MY 30-YR OLD CASSETTE TAPES.]
It was a small commercial FM station, one of the first granted its FCC license in 1964 in the New River Valley in southwest Virginia. It was either dormant or simulcasted its more established sister station, WJJJ, which played "beautiful music" for years until new life was breathed into it in the late 1970's. At that time, the only rocker in Montgomery county was AM flamethrower WQBX, where area engineer JJ worked, as well as the legendary Animal, doing afternoon drives there in the 70's.

The first real programming on FM 104.9, WVVV (it went by "V105" from circa '79-83) in Christiansburg, Va, was provided by infamous radio consultants Bill Drake and Lester Chenault, Drake-Chenault Enterprises (who later became the equally infamous Jones Radio Networks). They provided individual stations lots of huge reels of quality tape filled with pre-recorded favorites of the day, all sanitized, tested, and played in the biggest markets across the USA, so of course who wouldn't like that?

If interested, you can read up on the history of Drake-Chenault here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake-Chenault

By 1986, Rock 105 had emerged, playing some choice mostly-unheard picks, sandwiched in with many chart favorites. The blend was modest, since "alternative" rock wasn't a genre yet. There were synth-rock groups, Euro-style sub genres of reggae, punk, metal, and similar budding pools of rock forming in those early days, and we played them.

These videos contain audio from my time there. I worked on the air at Rock 105 from Sept 1991 - July 1992, and I still cherish my memories there. All audio here was culled from my morning drive shifts. The sound was coming from a cheap boombox the station used as a "skimmer", to tape us jocks when we opened up the mic at the control board.

I still have memories of working in the basement there, the studio was busy, with albums, cd's stacked on the walls. Our library was voluminous, even for an FM station dedicated to album cuts. Great work to accumulate the library was done before I arrived in 1991. There was Lee, Howard, Butch, and a few others like Ellen, Dave, Paula, and Mark who really had a vision of the direction of Rock 105 back then. When I arrived, I just tried to keep the spirit alive and make sure I didn't stink the place up while I was there.

I respected that little oasis in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I saw it as a freshwater pearl in the New River Valley. Like a monk who takes great care in sweeping the walkways of the temple many times a day with utter devotion, I was honored to take my place in the long line of other devoted attendants to the Temple Of Rock 105.